Chapter 4

The owner wanted to fight it out with my mother when she smashed his phone, but she refused to back down and ended up in a scuffle with him.

My father glanced at them, but did not stop the fight. Instead, he raised the fire axe and aimed it at the lock on the coffin. My mother caught what he was doing from the corner of her eye and screamed, "Don't you dare, Edward!"

She quickly abandoned the fight with the owner and stumbled over to the coffin. She sprawled over it and made sure her neck was right where the lock was. "Go ahead! Chop me up too if you dare! I'll kill myself if anyone dares to interfere with disciplining my son!"

The axe paused mid-air, while my eyes widened in the coffin as I breathed my last. All of my pain vanished, and my body felt extremely light as I started to float. I floated out of the coffin and quietly stayed in the basement, watching the drama unfold in front of me.

It was nice. I was finally released from my pain.

Joe seemed to sense something, and he dashed forward to press his face against the coffin. After that, he sobbed out loud in fear, "Dad… Janine is not making any sounds. She's not heaving anymore! Why aren't there any sounds coming from inside?"

My mother continued to stubbornly sprawl herself across the coffin while sneering with disdain. "Go ahead and continue pretending! That little wretch has always loved playing tricks like this by acting like the abused victim. Does she think she can trick me with this little scheme of hers? I'll stall as long as I can, and we'll see how long she can take this!"

Joe broke down crying. "Mom, Janine isn't breathing anymore! Please, just move aside!"

My father flung the fire axe to the side and plopped down. "Sharon, Honey… Please move aside and let me save Janine from that coffin."

Even the owner chimed in, "Madam! You can't do this to me. What am I supposed to do if someone dies in my escape room?"

However, my mother refused to budge.

This continued until footsteps were heard coming from outside. "Who called 911? Why was the line cut off halfway through the call?"

The owner scrambled to run out while speaking incoherently. "It was me! I made the call! Help! There is a mad woman inside who locked her daughter up in a sealed coffin. She might die inside!"

Two police officers came forward immediately to pull my mother, who was still creating a huge scene, away from the coffin. She kept screaming, "Let go of me! I'm an education expert! It's not illegal for me to discipline my daughter!"

The lead officer looked at her sternly and said, "Don't you know that this can be considered attempted murder? That man over there. There’s no need to hesitate. Break the coffin open with that axe!"

My father did not hold back as he picked up the fire axe from the ground and swung it twice at the lock on the coffin, but the old-fashioned lock was surprisingly sturdy. All the axe did was leave several scratches on it.

"Where's the key?! If this coffin is not opened, everyone here needs to come with us as suspects of a major criminal case!"

My mother refused to back down. "Stop scaring me when all I'm doing is disciplining my children."

The police officers ignored her excuses. They took out their handcuffs to cuff Joe, who had a hopeless look on his face. My mother finally panicked. "Officers, my son is about to have his SATs. He can't afford to have a criminal record! Stop! Wait! I have the key!"

She took out another key from her pocket, which looked just like the one she had swallowed. My father turned red with anger. "I can't believe you had a spare key all this time! How can you be so cruel, Sharon?! I want a divorce after we get Janine out of the coffin!"

My mother rolled her eyes. "She's only been locked in there for just a few minutes…"

While she was speaking, my father and the police officers worked together to open the coffin. My mother approached the coffin while speaking, and she looked inside. Her smile froze when she glanced inside, and the expression on her face turned to one of fear and despair.