Before the crowd could even react, I was already in the police car, vanishing from everyone's sight.

To my surprise, Maureen came to see me at the detention center early the next morning.

"I watched the replay of that surgery's live stream 15 times last night but didn't find anything out of the ordinary throughout the entire procedure.

"I also interviewed the other doctors and nurses who participated in the surgery, and all the evidence points to you intentionally abandoning the operation, resulting in the patient's death."

Mid-sentence, she suddenly paused, then looked at me with a complex expression.

"Kathleen, do you need me to arrange a psychological evaluation for you?"

I smiled and replied, "I'm not crazy, Ms. Ingram."

She stared fixedly at my face, as if trying to find some answer there.

"Tell me, why did you flee in the middle of surgery?"

Instead of answering her question, I asked her one of my own, "Why do you think a couple who gave birth to a son with congenital heart disease would go and adopt a girl?"

Maureen was stumped by my question.

After a long silence, she suddenly rose to leave.

But before she did, she asked me seriously, "Can I trust you?"

"Ms. Ingram, you only need to trust the truth," I replied with a smirk.

After Maureen left the detention center, she drove straight to Mom and Dad's house.

But by the time she got there, several media outlets were already there. They'd all come to interview Mom and Dad. One media outlet was even running a live stream the entire time.

In the video, Mom and Dad clearly recognized Maureen as the journalist who'd handed me the microphone the day before, and they promptly put on devastated expressions.

Maureen directly asked them the very question I had posed to her before.

"Mr. and Mrs. Wilcox, may I ask why you adopted Kathleen? Does it have anything to do with Douglas having a heart condition?"

Mom and Dad exchanged a glance, and the former immediately replied with a troubled expression, "To be honest, we did adopt Kathleen for selfish reasons.

"Since Douglas had a heart condition, we were terrified of outliving our only child and just as afraid that if we died first, there'd be no one left to care for him. But we've always seen Kathleen as our own daughter and even treated her better than Douglas."

Mom and Dad opened the doors to my room and Douglas', respectively.

"Everyone, take a look. This big room here? That's Kathleen's. She's got the largest bed in the house all to herself, and because she loves dressing up, she even has two closets.

"Meanwhile, Douglas lives in the smallest room. Once you fit a single bed and a closet in there, there's barely room to turn around."

At that moment, Dad walked up to the camera holding a ledger.

"There are people online claiming we pushed Kathleen to study medicine just so she'd treat Douglas and look after him, but we never did that. Kathleen pursued medicine because it was her own passion."

He then held the ledger out for the reporters to see, turning each page one at a time.

"When her first SAT score wasn't high enough, we paid to send her to the best prep school to retake them. Treating Douglas' illness had already drained most of the family's savings, so in order to send her abroad to study, we had to sell the houses we both owned back in our hometowns.

"Her tuition and living expenses abroad cost us nearly 400 thousand dollars. We were so worried that she might feel insecure about being adopted that we even transferred this house, our only remaining home, into her name. What more does she want from us?"

Mom wiped the tears from the corner of her reddened eyes and added, "Even biological parents who've done this much would have a clear conscience! But I never imagined she'd repay us like this. She just stood there and watched Douglas die on the operating table."

The reporters couldn't help but tear up at Mom and Dad's words.

The video ended.

Maureen flipped her phone face down on the table, frowning deeply as she looked at me.

"Kathleen, Mr. and Mrs. Wilcox are right. They did everything they could possibly do for you, so why on earth did you kill Douglas?"

I lifted my glass and took a sip before replying calmly, "Are there really parents that perfect out there? Ms. Ingram, don't you think the fact that they were so good to me is precisely what makes it suspicious?"

Maureen's patience was wearing thin, and her voice took an edge of urgency.

"How are they treating you well somehow their fault? Kathleen, I didn't believe it when Mr. and Mrs. Wilcox said you suffered from paranoia. But now, I have no choice but to think you really need to see a psychiatrist."

I didn't get angry even under her skeptical gaze.

"I already told you that both the truth and evidence are all in that live stream. Ms. Ingram, you must've overlooked something."

A heavy silence settled over the room.

Then, the officer urged, "Ms. Ingram, visiting hours are over."

Maureen got up to leave. When she reached the door, she stopped and looked back at me, as if expecting me to say something more.

However, I just hung my head in silence.

Three days later was the day of Douglas' funeral.

Mom and Dad applied for my bail so I could attend it.

Many strangers came to the funeral—reporters, Douglas' fellow patients, hospital staff, and even netizens who wanted to see him off. They laid flowers beneath his tombstone and clasped Mom and Dad's hands, murmuring words of consolation.

The moment I appeared, every pair of eyes turned on me with pure hatred.

"How does a murderer like her have the nerve to show her face here?"

"Mr. and Mrs. Wilcox are just too kind-hearted. They even applied for her bail."

"I bet she's come to kneel before Douglas and beg for forgiveness."

"A life for a life. No matter how much she regrets it now, it can't bring Douglas back!"

A bouquet of lilies was thrust into my hands.

Under everyone's watch, I walked toward Douglas's tombstone.

Unfortunately, I didn't drop to my knees in a flood of tears and beg for forgiveness the way they'd hoped.

Instead, I violently smashed the bouquet onto the ground, then forcefully kicked the photo of Douglas on the tombstone.

"You deserve to die a thousand times over, you monster! Rot in hell, Douglas!"

Everyone stood frozen in shock at the scene unfolding before them. By the time they snapped out of it, the photo on the tombstone was already smeared with mud.

"She's completely lost her mind!"

"Arrest her now!"

"She really is the devil. She's causing trouble even at Douglas' funeral!"

Just as people were about to get physical with me, the police officers maintaining order swiftly pulled me away from the crowd.

Mom and Dad wiped their tears while beating their chests and wailing.

"Kathleen, Douglas is already dead, and yet you're not even willing to see him off one last time. You two grew up together… Why have you become like this?

"Do you know what Douglas' last words were? He told us not to hate you and that you'll always be his sister."

At this, the crowd instantly grew enraged.

"Hey, officers! Why are you still protecting this murderer?"

"Mr. and Mrs. Wilcox, it's better if you consider Kathleen dead to you from now on. She doesn't deserve your forgiveness at all!"

"If you ask me, she should pay with her life and kill herself right in front of Douglas' tombstone."

Just then, Maureen came running from afar.

"Kathleen, I found it!"

Maureen pulled a photograph out of her pocket.

"I found this photo among the belongings of the heart donor. Kathleen, you know Lana Dyer, this little girl in the photo, don't you?"

In the photo, Lana and I stood hand in hand at the entrance of an amusement park, smiling blissfully.

The various media outlets all turned their cameras on that photo.

The crowd, which had been seething with righteous indignation, immediately calmed down.

"Could it be that Dr. Wilcox really had some unspeakable reason she couldn't reveal?"

"What exactly is this little girl's relationship with Kathleen? Why do they look so close?"

"So, Kathleen walked out mid-surgery because she found out who the donor was?"

"But even if that's true, as a doctor, she can't just leave a patient on the operating table."

The reporters all thrust their microphones toward me.

"Kathleen, what is your relationship with the donor?"

I opened my mouth. But before I could speak, Mom suddenly rushed forward and snatched the photo from Maureen's hand.

"Kathleen, haven't you caused enough trouble? Everyone, don't be fooled by her! The woman in this photo isn't her at all. This is a photoshopped image!"

She pointed to the date printed on the bottom right corner.

"At the time, Kathleen was studying abroad. But this amusement park is located here, so how could she have taken this photo?

"Kathleen, I know you don't want to go to prison and that's why you're trying every possible way to clear your name, but you can't just go around and slander the kind soul who donated her heart to Douglas."

Someone found my Facebook account online. During that specific period of time, my Facebook location check-ins were indeed abroad.

That person held up their phone screen to show everyone.

"Look, everyone! Mr. and Mrs. Wilcox are telling the truth. Kathleen was clearly abroad at the time. She must've deliberately planted this fake photo among the donor's belongings."

Leaning on Dad for support, Mom walked up to me and looked at me with such sorrow in her eyes.

"In our hearts, you will always be our daughter. But when you make a mistake, you must face the consequences. Kathleen, we've given you many chances to apologize and admit your mistake, yet time and again, you've hurt those of us who love you.

"At first, your dad and I were going to write a letter of leniency for you. But to prevent you from hurting anyone else in the future, we think you'd better stay in there and reflect on what you've done.

"Once you've truly repented and turned over a new leaf, we will personally come to bring you home."

Mom suddenly stepped forward and hugged me tightly. Then, she pressed close to my ear and said in a voice only the two of us could hear, "Kathleen, if you still want to save Christy, you'd better keep your mouth shut. Otherwise, I can't guarantee she'll still be around when you get out."

At those words, I forcefully shoved her away.

Caught completely off guard, Mom fell backward onto the ground, her arm scraped bloody by the gravel beneath her.

My actions thoroughly enraged everyone present.

Even the police officers who had been protecting me couldn't stand to watch anymore and decided to stop intervening.

The crowd surged forward, punching and kicking me.

I fell to the ground and shielded my head with both hands.

Maureen tried to protect me but was pushed aside by the agitated mob.

In the end, the police only stepped in to stop them because they were afraid I'd actually be beaten to death. Then, they took me back to the detention center.

Mom and Dad had already publicly refused to write the letter of leniency.

After the police led me away this time, all that awaited me was the judgment of the law. Yet, in the face of Mom's threat, I had no choice but to stay silent.

I stopped in my tracks and looked back over my shoulder at Maureen. Making sure no one else was watching, I silently mouthed a word to her.

She froze on the spot.

Just as the door of the police car was about to close, she shouted, "I've figured out the truth!"