My parents’ faces had turned uncharacteristically grim.

Davina, her voice trembling with tears, threw herself into my mother’s arms.

“Mom, I am so scared. What if something really happened to Ruby? It is all my fault. If I had not asked you to take me out to relax, she would not have been home alone.”

My mother patted her back gently.

“Do not be silly. She is far too afraid of death. This is probably just another stunt to get our sympathy. She pulled the same trick six years ago.”

Six years ago… yes, I remembered.

Back then, I cornered my cousin in an alley with a few thugs. My mother, furious, dumped me in the deep mountains.

That was how I, helpless and alone, was found by a lecherous bachelor from the village.

I fought with everything I had, but lost under the crushing difference in strength.

Later, my parents took me home, but I had already been left with a crippling shadow over my mind. I slit my wrists. I climbed to the rooftop, ready to jump.

At first, they cared. It was not until Davina somehow got hold of the photos from that night when I was assaulted.

I will never forget the look of disgust in my parents’ eyes.

However, when I found myself on that rooftop again, what I saw was Chloe, cornered and crying at the orphanage, and Mrs. Lawson, sitting alone in her yard. At that moment, I stepped back and kept on living.

To my mother, my experiences were simply summed up as an act.

The reporter, looking uneasy, took out his phone to call the police.

Before the call could go through, my father snatched the phone and hung up.

“I am a trained criminal investigator. Yes, she’s faked this scene very convincingly, but…” He let out a sharp, dismissive laugh.

“It’s just another one of her elaborate lies.”

I thought suddenly of the time Davina had been kidnapped by traffickers, and my father went without sleep for days, chasing the faintest thread of a lead until he dragged her back safely.

Now, surrounded by physical evidence, he chose to look away.

Father, did you really hate me that much?

A sudden sound from the bedroom snapped every head toward it, and in an instant, the crowd swarmed to the door in a noisy rush.

My father smirked, turned the knob, and when it did not budge, he kicked the door open.

“Ruby, how long are you going to keep up this act?”

It was not me inside.

It was Chloe, trembling in a corner, clutching her head.

My father was startled for a moment.

Mrs. Lawson immediately recognized her.

She stepped forward to pull her into an embrace.

“Chloe? What are you doing here?”

Chloe’s eyes reddened the moment she saw her.

“There was a bad guy. Ruby hid me here so he would not find me.”

I could not help but smile in relief. She was finally safe.

My father’s expression faltered for just a moment at her words.

The reporter knelt and asked in a gentle voice, “Chloe, can you tell us where Ruby is?”

Chloe’s wide eyes blinked once, then she gave a small nod. Her finger lifted to point toward the space beneath the bed.

“She’s there.”

Every gaze in the room shifted to the underside of the bed, but no one moved.

From outside came the wail of sirens. Mrs. Lawson had secretly called the police.

The officers quickly sealed off the bedroom, then carefully lifted the bed frame. There I was.