3: 3

The building manager saw that I hadn't answered and sneered, "What, you country girl, gone mute all of a sudden? Tell your mother to pay up, or this isn't over."

I only grew firmer, my face dead serious. "We won't confess to something we didn't do. Stop throwing filth at my mother."

As the argument went on, more and more people from the building gathered to watch.

Once Nellie had fed them her version of things, the crowd looked at us like they wanted to swallow us whole.

A heavyset middle-aged woman spat as she screamed at my mother, "You wicked snake of a woman. They hired a country nobody like you to keep house, paid you good money too."

"And this is how you treat an old lady? You're an animal in human skin."

Another girl with narrow, squinting eyes shot my mother a look, her tone dripping with contempt.

"If you didn't have the patience to look after people, you shouldn't have taken the job. You think they hired you to be the queen of the house?"

"Someone as heartless as you deserves to be poor and broke for the rest of your life."

"Cough up the fifty thousand you stole. Half in the grave already and still this shameless. Careful you don't shave years off your own life."

My mother was shaking all over with rage, her lips visibly turning purple.

I glared at the narrow-eyed girl and said furiously, "Shut your mouth. Stop talking nonsense."

"Nellie's got you all fooled. It's just her word, and that proves nothing about my mother abusing anyone."

My mother clutched her chest, dragging in big gulps of air.

"I, Lydia Lambert, have lived my whole life upright and honest. I've never done a single cruel or wicked thing."

"My in-laws had three sons and three daughters-in-law, but I'm the one who cared for the two of them to the very end, and I never said one word of complaint."

Nellie choked out, "What are you trying to say? You think I'd wrongly accuse you?"

I watched her clumsy little performance and couldn't hold back. "You are wrongly accusing us. You say Mom abused an old woman. Where's your proof?"

"You live in a nice building like this, with an elderly person here who can barely move around. Don't tell me there isn't a single camera in the living room."

"Pull up the footage, and won't the whole truth be right there?"

My question stopped Nellie cold. She froze for a beat, then stammered, "I... our camera's broken. We haven't gotten it fixed yet."

"But that's no excuse for you people to dodge responsibility. I will get justice for my mother."

The narrow-eyed girl pulled out her phone and started filming me and my mother nonstop, and Nellie's mother too.

"I'm posting you two lowlifes online as a cautionary tale, so everyone can see your ugly faces."

My mother reached out to grab the phone, stumbled, and dropped straight to the floor.

The woman with the phone shoved it right in my mother's face and kept filming.

"This is what evil people get. Heaven's punishing you. Why didn't the fall just kill you? That'd be justice served."

I quickly helped my mother up and turned a furious stare on her.

"Watch your mouth. My mother stands straight, so she doesn't fear a crooked shadow. Until the truth is clear, you have no right to spew this poison at her."

Nellie put on a wounded look, pulled her mother into her arms, and sobbed, "The truth speaks for itself. Mom, are a widow and her daughter just meant to be trampled on?"

The heavyset middle-aged woman glowered at us and said through gritted teeth, "Don't worry, no one's going to trample on anyone. Since you won't admit it, we'll let the police handle it."

Hearing that, I sent off a message on my phone.

Then I pulled out my phone, dialed, and said in a cold voice, "Is this 911? Someone here is falsely accusing my mother of abusing an elderly woman. You can have the alleged victim examined for injuries and prove my mother's innocence."

4: 4

Nellie rushed over and snatched the phone right out of my hand.

“I don't want this getting ugly either. Just hand over a two-hundred-thousand payout and we can settle it quietly.”

“You're the only college student in your family. I don't want to saddle you with a record. I only want to get justice for my mother.”

The middle-aged woman looked at Nellie with an aching sort of pity.

“You're too soft-hearted, that's why people walk all over you. With animals like this mother and daughter, you have to be harsh.”

“Otherwise who knows what other heartless things they'll pull down the road.”

The middle-aged woman shoved my mother and said impatiently, “What are you standing there for? If you don't want to ruin your daughter's future, hurry up and pay the compensation!”

My mother was so wronged she was on the verge of tears, and she said miserably, “I never abused any old woman. Besides, even if you sold me off, I couldn't come up with two hundred thousand.”

The property manager shot my mother a glance and said impatiently, “Then sell your house, sell your land, and if that's not enough, go sell your blood.”

“Either way, you've got exactly two roads. Pay up, or go to prison.”

My mother turned to me with a pleading look, tears shining in her eyes.

I grabbed my mother's arm and said firmly, “Mom, we didn't do it, so don't admit to it.”

“In a minute I'm going to expose Nellie's lie and clear your name.”

The property manager looked me over with distaste and sneered, “You two hicks can quit putting on your loving-mother-and-daughter act. Just pay up!”

Nellie squeezed out two tears and played up how pitiful she looked.

“After the fifty thousand you stole, fifteen thousand more isn't asking too much.”

“My mother is over eighty. Your mother nearly beat her to death. Life is priceless, don't you understand that?”

The people around us were moved by the scene, and they turned sympathetic eyes toward Nellie.

“What a poor woman. How could someone that old be put through this? There's no justice in the world.”

The middle-aged woman glared at my mother, jabbing a finger in her face, and snapped, “You heartless piece of trash, get down and kowtow an apology to the old woman right now.”

The crowd chimed in loudly too, “Apologize! Apologize now! On your knees! Kowtow!”

Seeing public opinion swing her way, Nellie could barely keep the smile off her lips.

My mother stood frozen in place, helpless as a child, not knowing what to do.

I stepped forward, seething, and said, “Until the truth of this has been properly investigated, none of you has any right to pass judgment on my mother.”

The property manager gave me a hard shove and said mockingly, “You broke little wretch, you dare to make noise here? This is a high-end community, not somewhere for you to bark.”

The middle-aged woman strode over and grabbed my mother by the collar.

“If you don't apologize today, don't even think about leaving here!”

I tried to get to my mother, but the people around held me back so tightly I couldn't move at all.

The middle-aged woman kicked the back of my mother's knee hard, and my mother went down, her face twisted with pain.

She pressed down on my mother's head and said furiously, “I see you'd rather do this the hard way. Apologize to the old woman, now!”

I fought against them with everything I had, screaming at the top of my lungs, “You monster, let go of my mother right now. She never hurt anyone!”

Just as my mother's head was about to be forced to the ground, a man came running up the stairs.

He saw me and said, out of breath, “Carol, I brought you the thing you asked for.”

I took it from him and shouted at the middle-aged woman, “Let go of my mother now. This is a brain-computer interface. Put it on Nellie's mother's head, and the computer screen will automatically show who hit her.”

“In a moment everyone will know exactly who the real culprit is.”

Nellie's expression turned unnatural, and she stared at the device in my hand in terror.