Chapter 1

When they saw their daughter tied to the autopsy table, the chief prosecutor, Davin Elkin, and his wife, Portia Elkin, broke down completely.

“Ms. Lance, your daughter committed suicide. What gives you the right to kidnap mine? She’s only eight!

“You’re a parent too. How could you be so cruel?”

The police officers standing behind Davin urged me to calm down. My colleagues also pleaded with me not to throw away my future in a moment of confusion.

“Fable, get a hold of yourself. Don’t hurt an innocent child. Mavis really did take her own life.”

“You know the law. For your sake and everyone else’s, don’t throw everything away. If Mavis were watching, she would not want to see you like this.”

“That’s right. Mavis is still in the morgue. She’s waiting for you to bring her home.”

Some viewers in the live stream chimed in to support them.

[Is she sick in the head? Her own daughter is gone, and she has the nerve to take it out on someone else?]

[I heard she couldn’t accept her daughter’s suicide. All seven appeals were rejected. It sounds like she’s just taking revenge on Mr. Elkin!]

[Seven failed appeals prove her daughter must have killed herself. Otherwise, they’d have found the real murderer by now.]

[Her daughter committed suicide. Shouldn’t she, as the mother, reflect on her own problems?]

They believed they were right. So did I.

My daughter, Mavis Lance, absolutely could not have committed suicide.

Three months ago, she passed away. She was supposed to go to university in Nexopolis.

They recovered her body from a river. When they found her, she was fully nude and covered in bruises.

Though I was a forensic doctor, the department assigned a different forensic doctor to perform the autopsy due to the conflict of interest presented by her being my daughter.

I thought the autopsy would bring justice for Mavis, but the final ruling concluded that she had died by suicide.

Mavis was a bright and cheerful girl. She could never have taken her own life.

After claiming Mavis’ body, I conducted the autopsy myself through tear-blurred eyes. I discovered that Mavis had been violated before her death.

I gathered all the evidence I could find and filed appeal after appeal for a new trial. Every single one was denied.

By the seventh attempt, I even submitted photographs of Mavis’ severe and shocking tears as proof. That appeal was also rejected.

I refused to accept it. That was why I kidnapped Davin’s daughter, Valarie Elkin.

I wanted them to confess the truth themselves.

But I still had hidden secret, not so far as to lose my humanity.