Arnold couldn't help but comfort him, "Don't say that. Rosa always claims she's here to study, but everyone knows she's here to see you. Who do you think clean your office? It's always so spotless. And I've seen her refill your regular meds all the time..."

My father sneered, "She's considerate? It's Chelsea's birthday today, and she didn't even call. Instead, she made more than twenty phone calls yesterday when transferring the house. She doesn't care about any family affection at all. She only cares about money. Why should I give a damn about such a heartless person?

"As for my meds, if it wasn't for her, how did I get sick from overwork?"

I couldn't help but smile bitterly. My body probably started to stink before Chelsea celebrated her birthday.

How was I supposed to call?

Besides, he shouldn't blame me for him falling sick. These days, I had been relying on myself.

He worked overtime and got sick all because of Chelsea, the apple of his eye.

The police officer who knew the inside story couldn't bear to see it and advised, "Let bygones be bygones. How do you know that Rosa is not in pain and regret?"

Hearing someone mention the past, my father instantly gritted his teeth.

"She's in pain? She regrets it? No way! If it weren't for her unreasonable behavior back then, how could Lisa have died? And Lisa died so miserably. It was all because of her!"

Everyone fell silent, knowing that Lisa Hart was my mother. Dad took Chelsea into the police station, and others followed slowly.

Only I stood still, trembling and recalling the past.

At that time, Chelsea's whole family was killed by some criminal.

My parents felt sorry for her, so they went through the adoption process and brought her here to live with us.

They were worried that she wouldn't adapt to the new family and wouldn't feel a sense of belonging, so Dad unconditionally asked me to give her all my toys and everything else I had.

I always did as he said even though the doll was my favorite.

It was also the only thing left to me by my grandma.

But Chelsea didn't cherish it. She shaved off all the doll's hair and tore its dress in front of me. I was very heartbroken and snatched my doll back.

She cried loudly, attracting Dad's attention, and said I'd rather destroy the doll before letting her have it.

Mom quickly said that she would go to the toy store and buy a new one for Chelsea.

But Mom had a car accident on the way. The car was deformed, and she was burned alive in the car.

In an instant, our family collapsed mostly.

When Dad came back after dealing with everything, he slapped me hard and even wanted to vent all his anger on me.

"Why are you so selfish? Couldn't you just let Chelsea have the toy? Are you happy now, causing Lisa to die? Mark my words. Remember clearly! It's you who killed your own mother!"

He blamed me for my mom's death. For a long time, I really thought I had killed my mom.

I regretted it and was in so much pain. I figured I should go kill myself.

Fortunately, my classmates and teachers kept an eye on me and prevented me from attempting suicide several times.

It was not until I thought it through that I suddenly realized that it was actually Chelsea who was wrong. What was more, she instigated me to die several times.

I told my father, but instead of believing me, he was furious with me.

He thought I was so wicked.

Later, he favored her more and more. Instead of taking care of them and being criticized by them, I chose to move out.

Before I left, I wondered if Dad would stop me and try to keep me.

But he opened the door himself and said if I had left earlier, the tragedy wouldn't have happened.

I remembered every bit of it clearly.

My father was at the police station.

"I didn't let her have her toy, and she was jealous of Chelsea. And Lisa ended up dead! She was burned alive! Her flesh was charred!

"At such a young age, Rosa is already so easily jealous. She always competes for favors. How could she be so vicious? I'm so unlucky to have a such daughter!"

He almost was roaring.

The people around fell silent.

Many people saw the tragic scene.

I looked at my father, whose eyes were filled with sorrow, and silently wept.

I know.

Dad, you loved Mom so much, and you were devastated when you lost her.

That's why you hate my guts. You think I caused her death. The more you hate me, the more it shows how much you miss her.

So, all these years, you've never let go.

You never forget Mom, and you refuse to remarry,

But Dad...

Do you know?

In these years, I have also regretted it so much.

Many times I woke up in the night with tears in my eyes, breaking down and crying hysterically, regretting not giving Chelsea the doll.

I understand that I will never be forgiven because of an irreparable mistake.

But... Was it all my fault?

Arnold couldn't help but say, correcting my father, "It's clearly Chelsea's fault. She insisted on taking Rosa's toy. How can you blame Rosa for this? It was her mother who died!"

My father frowned and defended Chelsea, "Chelsea was so young at that time. What did she know? Rosa is her elder sister, and Rosa should know better. But what did she do? She got jealous and couldn't tolerate Chelsea at all."

Arnold retorted again, "Rosa is only two days older than Chelsea, right?"

"What do you mean?"

My father's face darkened.

Suddenly, the sound of the lunch box falling from Chelsea's hand attracted everyone's attention, ending their conversation.

Chelsea looked at everyone with teary eyes and said in a soft voice, "I... I didn't mean to. I don't know how to defend myself. I can only..."

Tears streamed down her face as she spoke, and she ran towards the balcony.

"I am the sinner of all this. I might as well die to use my life to atone for Rosa..."

After saying that, she managed to climb up, faced everyone, and acted as if she was going to fall backward.

The people present reacted quickly and rushed forward to pull her back. I had to admire her. She was so scheming.

She threatened everyone with her life.

Even if the people around didn't react, she gave them enough time to do so. What was more, we were on the second floor, and there was a lawn below.

Her life wouldn't be at risk at all!

Dad held her in his arms, distressed. "Chelsea, you don't have to do anything. You're perfect. She doesn't deserve you to atone for her. You didn't do anything wrong."

Chelsea cried even more sadly, her voice softer, "But Dad, it's my fault. I should die. If it weren't for me, Rosa wouldn't have been angry with you."

Dad shook his head. "When I decided to bring you home, I made up my mind that I would take care of you. I will protect you from whoever wants to blame you. I will stand in front of you."

After speaking, he looked up at Arnold.

"I know you always like that damn girl. Did she ask you to speak for her? Is she trying to sow discord between me and Chelsea? I'm right about her! She is malicious and knows that Chelsea is simple-minded and can't withstand such criticism. Is she trying to force Chelsea to death?"

My father's questioning voice was deafening!

Arnold looked angry.

But Dad didn't give him a chance to speak. Dad looked around at everyone and said fiercely, "From now on, I don't wanna hear this again. Anyone who brings this up again will be forcing Chelsea to death."

I wasn't surprised to hear him say so.

After all, in his eyes, I was almost the most vicious person in the world.

But as I looked at Chelsea, who was such a phony, I couldn't help but feel a little nauseous.

Those who didn't know the truth would think she had suffered a great grievance.

But she tricked me into going down to the basement the other day, telling me that Dad had fainted in there, and asked me to bring him medicine. Back then, the look on her face was totally different.

She let him tie me up and torture me to death. She picked up the dagger with a smirk on her face.

She wasn't pitiful at all.

To be honest, I didn't want to stay here and see how much Dad and Chelsea cared about each other.

But there was an invisible force that tied my soul to my father, and my range of movement was even limited.

It seemed like I couldn't escape when I was alive, and now that I was dead, I still couldn't be liberated.

In the conference room, Dad and a group of police officers sat down under the leadership of the chief of police and began to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the case.

The case was very tragic, and the onlookers had already filmed videos, which had been spread to a small extent. Although the case was temporarily under control, given the existence of words like torture, massacre, and young girls, it was only a matter of time before it got out. The higher-ups attached great importance to this.

The sub-bureau was requested to cooperate with the special task force experts to get to the bottom of it as soon as possible.

They were asked to give the public an explanation.

Experts were still on their way, but thanks to the video conferencing, after hours of discussion, combined with the current situation, and looking at the past files, they had initially ruled out the possibility of serial homicide.

Due to the damage to the surveillance cameras on the section where the incident occurred, only blurry footage of me entering the basement was captured.

"The victim was attacked by surprise, and there was no sign of a struggle. And through the victim's back in the surveillance footage, we can determine that the victim went there defenselessly. We are thinking that she knew the murderer."

"Agreed. The most important thing now is to confirm the identity of the victim as soon as possible. Our colleagues in the forensic department are working overtime to conduct DNA testing, and once the results are obtained, we will immediately compare them with the records of the recently missing persons."

"Yes. As long as we know who the victim is, we can carry out a series of investigation methods. Otherwise, it's too difficult. After all, we don't have enough surveillance footage."

Dad could only work overtime with everyone else to discuss.

But for now, they could only wait for the DNA results and the police officers who went door-to-door at the crime scene to come back. Currently, the main discussion was still on how to minimize the impact.

Dad was worried that Chelsea would commit suicide or go extreme again, so he kept her by his side and took care of her carefully.

Chelsea was very well-behaved. She fell asleep on the sofa in the meeting room.

She looked sweet and obedient.

Arnold looked at his phone for a while, and then he looked at the silhouette in the surveillance on the screen and murmured.

"It looks like ... Rosa a bit..."

He finally couldn't hold back and tentatively asked my father, "Where's Rosa? She hasn't asked me about you for several days. She used to ask about your health and if you were tired from work every day."

Upon hearing his words, Dad pulled a long face.

But Arnold stared at him without flinching.

Maybe Dad felt a little embarrassed about today's events, or maybe he wanted to shut others up. Anyway, he reluctantly took out his phone.

He impatiently called me.

But my phone had been destroyed by the killer long ago.

He couldn't reach me at all.

"I don't know where she's been fooling around."

He disdainfully said.

"It's impossible. Rosa would never be like this."

Arnold frowned and pondered.

Meanwhile, the police officer responsible for the DNA testing of the body, who had been working overnight, walked over with a file and a grim expression. "There has been a major breakthrough in this case, and the identity of the deceased has been confirmed."

Dad was still immersed in my defiance, and he didn't react in time.

Everyone else surrounded the police officer to see the identity of the body, ready to start various investigations. Soon, the expressions of my father's colleagues who had been working with him for decades changed, and they turned to look at him, their faces sullen.

"Bob, when was the last time you saw Rosa?"

Arnold asked with a trembling voice.

Dad turned around impatiently and sat back in his office chair. "A few days ago. She said she wanted to visit Lisa's grave, but I said no. Lisa would never want to see her. She's so shameless!"

The person who asked quickly realized something. "A few days ago? Rosa is two days older than Chelsea. You didn't see Rosa on her birthday two days ago?"

Dad said impatiently, "What's the big deal? She didn't even inform me, and I was so busy at work those days. Do you think I should go and celebrate with her? I have better things to do."

As I listened to his words, I felt that my heart was broken. On my birthday, I bought myself a bouquet of flowers, which was what Dad did on Chelsea's birthday.

Like them, I went to the best restaurant and arranged a themed banquet, even though there was only one person attending the party.

In the end, I couldn't stand the loneliness anymore, so I decided to take out my phone and call Dad.

I just want to hear him wish me a happy birthday.

But when I clicked on my phone, I saw that he posted on Instagram.

He was driving to another city to buy snacks that Chelsea liked, and he was showing off that he had prepared a surprise for her and would give it to her on her birthday two days later.

Back to the police station.

Someone couldn't help but say in a deep voice, "You aren't worried at all to see Rosa living alone outside? She's a girl no matter what. How many times have you visited her during this long period of time?"

Dad instantly became furious. "There's a breakthrough in the case. We should focus on the case. Why do you keep bringing that damn girl up? Stop wasting time. If you don't wanna work, leave. Go back to sleep or something. Don't stay here and bug me."

The people around gradually fell silent. Some of them sighed, and some even packed their things and disdainfully bumped into Dad.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?"

Being targeted, he was furious.

At this point, Arnold couldn't bear it any longer. He squeezed through the crowd and angrily slapped the results on my father's face, roaring and rebuking.

"You're the wrong one. You dote on your stepdaughter. Do you know that your own daughter is dead? That stinking corpse covered by a white cloth on the bed is your own daughter! It was your own daughter who suffered!"