Chapter 3

I backed Ginnie into the corner.

With the surveillance footage right in front of her, she could no longer keep pretending. But what shocked me was that she looked offended instead.

"They're my friends. That's the online friend who does travel stuff," Ginnie declared loudly. "I promised him before that we would do a home exchange. Since I promised, I have to keep my word!"

Her logic made me laugh. "Ginnie, are you insane? We already rejected the home exchange plan. What right did you have to give our passcode to someone behind our backs?"

"So what?" Ginnie rolled her eyes. "We're not at home, and the house would have been empty either way. What's wrong with letting them stay for a few days?"

Dad was so angry that he rushed forward and raised his hand as if to slap her. But when he looked at her face, which looked so much like my uncle's, his hand stopped in midair. He lowered it with a tremble.

"Ginnie, have you lost your mind! That's our home, not a hotel! How could you just let strangers come in? How could you give them the passcode?" Dad sounded heartbroken. "Look at what they've done to our home."

Ginnie stubbornly argued, "Uncle Fred, they're just having a party with friends. Young people just like to have a little fun. If it's messy, they can clean it up afterward, right?"

Mom sobbed as she pointed at the phone screen. "Look at that. Can cleaning fix this? Those vases are antiques, and they're using them... Using them as urinals?!"

I immediately enlarged the surveillance image just in time to see one of the men relieving himself into a vase. Then, I saw two of his guys carrying a packed cardboard box toward the door under one of the men's orders.

The antique shelves were already empty.

"They're stealing things!" I pointed at the screen.

Ginnie glanced over. Her eyes showed a little panic, but she still refused to admit it. "That... That's Hugh helping me organize things! He said he was afraid they'd get damaged, so he was putting them away first..."

"Putting them away by carrying them outside?" I sneered.

My parents stared in horror as I pointed at the man giving orders and said, "That's your punk boyfriend whom you've known for less than a month, right?"

I had sensed that Ginnie was dating someone as early as a week ago. I had caught her video calling him several times, and their conversations were intimate and explicit. I had only pretended not to see because I did not want to get involved in her relationship.

Thinking back about it now, the so-called online friend was probably her boyfriend.

Ginnie suddenly looked up. "How... How did you know?"

I did not answer her. Instead, I exited the surveillance feed, tapped the dialer, and entered 911.

When Ginnie saw that I was calling the police, she panicked. "Zach! Don't call the police! Please don't call the police!"

Her arrogance from moments ago vanished at once. "If Hugh gets arrested, he'll hate me forever! And... And he owes a lot of money to dangerous people. If he gets arrested, those creditors will come after me! Please, Zach!"

So, that was it.

"You knew he owed money?" I kicked her away. "To help him repay his debts, you let him take our antiques as payment? Ginnie, do you have any conscience at all?!"

I did not move, and my thumb hovered over the call button.

Ginnie suddenly screamed, sprang up, grabbed a fruit knife, and pressed it to her neck. "Don't call the police! If you call them, I'll die right in front of you!"