Chapter 3

"Please come with us."

"I'm not the person in that video!"

For a moment, everyone in the room froze.

"I have evidence. Someone is deliberately framing me!"

Grandma let out a mocking laugh. "There you go again, talking nonsense. I suggest you just confess properly and stop bringing shame to this family!"

"The officer just said the time of the crime was around 11 a.m. today. At that time, I was at a cafe nearly an hour’s drive from the scene. So there’s no way I could’ve appeared on a security camera at the crime scene at 11:10!"

The officers exchanged looks, their expressions complicated as they considered whether what I said could be true.

"Don’t listen to her," Grandma cut in quickly. "She’s been clever since she was a kid. Lying comes naturally to her. I guarantee what she just said is completely made up!"

Afraid the police might believe me, she hurried forward and grabbed Detective Reed’s arm, acting as if she were part of the victim’s family.

My parents had started to waver, but after hearing her words, their guard went right back up.

Of course. In their eyes, I was just saying anything I could to escape punishment.

Right now, though, I didn’t have the luxury of being hurt by that. I gave them the name of the establishment: Cinder & Oak Cafe.

The police quickly went to retrieve the surveillance footage.

Just like I said, at the time of the crime, I was there.

The forensic tech team examined the surveillance systems at both locations carefully, over and over again.

There were no signs of tampering, yet my DNA had undeniably been found at the crime scene.

The case suddenly hit a dead end. Even so, I was still the prime suspect.

After the police left, my parents didn’t say a single word to me. They locked their bedroom door and even hid their food separately.

Meanwhile, Grandma called relatives every single day, complaining nonstop. She went on about how our family had such terrible luck to have produced a murderer.

Before, in the eyes of those relatives, I had been the model "perfect child". Now, I had become the ultimate cautionary tale.

Every second at home felt suffocating. All I could do was wait desperately for news from the police.

Finally, two days later, the doorbell rang. I rushed to open it, heart full of hope, thinking there had been progress in the case.

But the moment I opened the door and saw who it was, I froze.