Chapter 3

The footage showed ten-thirty at night.

A man in a white T-shirt, wearing a black baseball cap and a black face mask, moved furtively through the hallway.

He glanced left and right, then pushed the door open and slipped into Tiffany's apartment.

And the design printed on that T-shirt was exactly the same as the one Ryan was wearing right now.

Then the footage jumped ahead to ten forty-five.

Thick smoke was pouring out through the gap in Tiffany's door, and the man in the cap burst out in a panic and ran off down the stairs.

The man's build, his height, the way he walked, all of it looked exactly like Ryan.

The moment this false evidence appeared, the whole crowd went into an uproar.

"The proof's ironclad! It's this kid, no question!"

"Wearing the exact same clothes and you still dare say it wasn't you!"

The neighbors whipped out their phones, switched on their flashes, and snapped away at Ryan like mad, curses thundering all around.

Seeing this, Tiffany pulled out her own phone and started a livestream right there on the spot.

She wept prettily into the camera.

"I'm just a girl living on my own, and my next-door neighbor, a trainee pilot, broke into my place in the middle of the night and tried to violently assault me."

"When he couldn't, he set the place on fire, and I nearly burned to death. The cameras caught all of it, and now his mother is threatening me."

The stream's title instantly drew tens of thousands of viewers, and the comments scrolled past in a dense flood, all of it online abuse.

"Since when do scumbags get to be pilots? Lock him up already!"

"A guy like this needs his pilot's license revoked. Never let him fly!"

"Yeah, we can't let a monster like that escape the law!"

Ryan looked at the comments and the faces around him and clawed at his own hair in despair.

Eyes rimmed red, he shouted at the crowd in a hoarse voice.

"That person in the video isn't me at all! I swear I didn't do it!"

The words had barely left his mouth when a figure suddenly pushed out of the crowd.

It was my husband, Gerald.

He rushed up and, without a word, slapped Ryan hard across the face.

The slap cracked out, snapping Ryan's head to the side, a thread of blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.

"You animal! You've humiliated me completely!"

Gerald cursed viciously and kicked the back of Ryan's knee, forcing him down to kneel in front of Tiffany.

"Get down and beg her forgiveness right now! You want everyone at my company laughing at me!"

Gerald cared more about his image than anything, and he was terrified that this thing trending online would ruin the deal he'd just closed.

Looking at Ryan kneeling on the ground, Tiffany's lips curled into a quick, smug little smile.

She made a show of wiping her tears and, feigning generosity, spoke into the camera.

"Mr. Barrett, I'm a decent person, I really don't want to drag this out and make it ugly."

"As long as he pays me three hundred thousand dollars in emotional damages and medical bills, and gives up his spot as a trainee pilot tomorrow."

"Agree to those few conditions and I'll sign the settlement right away, go to the station to drop the charges, and keep him out of prison."

Then she looked at the phone screen with fake sincerity.

"Everyone watching, I want to give him a chance to turn his life around too."

The instant Gerald heard he could settle quietly and save face, he nodded again and again.

He turned and clamped down hard on my arm.

"Vivian, are you deaf! Go home and get the deed so we can take out a loan against the house!"

"Get three hundred thousand dollars together and pay her off to make this go away, and tomorrow take this little animal to your parents' place. Don't drag me down with you!"

I looked at Gerald's disgusting face and yanked my arm out of his grip.

Then I whipped my hand back and slapped him hard across the face.

The blow sent Gerald staggering.

I pointed right in his face and let him have it.

"Gerald, do you even deserve to be called a father! You'd rather believe some lousy security tape and this woman's lies than your own son?"

"Ask you to put up the money and you play dead, but ask me to sell the house and suddenly you're more eager than anyone. Get out of my sight!"

The crowd around us flared up again.

The gold-chain woman led the shouting.

"This woman's insane! Absolutely shameless, the evidence is right there and she's still covering for a criminal. What a vicious mother!"

"Call the cops and haul her in too, for obstruction!"