Chapter 3

“Fourth, if you absolutely have to talk to her, you must stand under the camera near the antique clock in the hallway. You cannot leave the camera’s range, not even for a second.”

My dad was completely stunned. “What? Is this really necessary? Mia is your friend, after all. She’s just a young girl—”

“Dad!”

I raised my voice. My eyes turned teary before I could stop them.

“You can’t judge a person by their appearance. Just think of it as something you’re doing to make me feel better, okay? If anything were to happen to you, I wouldn’t be able to go on either!”

When my dad saw me on the verge of tears, he finally gave in. He let out a long sigh. “All right, all right. I’ll listen to you. I’ll do whatever you say.”

To be safe, I moved all the cash and gold jewelry in the house into a bank safety deposit box that same night.

I took every sharp kitchen knife and locked it in my bedroom. I only left one dull bread knife that had never been sharpened.

Finally, I replaced all the sleeping pills my dad kept at home for his neurasthenia with vitamin tablets. I personally watched him take his real medication every night.

A trap had already been quietly set in our home.

Just as I expected, the prey could not wait any longer. She began testing my defenses.

On the fifth night after Mia moved in, I was in my bedroom working overtime on a report.

Suddenly, Mia’s sweet voice came from the bathroom. “Oh no! Mr. Langley! Mr. Langley!”

I heard everything clearly through my headphones. I opened the surveillance footage on my backup phone and watched coldly.

“Mr. Langley, I forgot to bring my towel into the bathroom. Charlotte seems to be asleep. Could you please get it from the balcony and hand it to me? I’m so cold.”

The bathroom door opened slightly. Steam drifted out through the gap, but the camera could only catch a vague view because that area was a blind spot.

My dad’s room remained completely silent.

That was because I had already bought him a pair of high-end noise-canceling headphones.

At that moment, he was wearing them in his room while listening to classical music. He could not hear anything coming from outside, not even thunder.

Mia called out two more times. When she saw that there was still no response from the master bedroom, her voice became slightly irritated.

I calmly walked out of my bedroom, went to the balcony, grabbed a towel, and walked to the bathroom door. Then, I kicked the door.

Mia screamed from inside.

I threw the towel through the gap under the door.

I coldly said, “Mia, I told you to come to me if you need anything. My dad doesn’t hear well. You could scream until your throat hurts, and he still wouldn’t hear you. Also, if you forget to bring your towel again next time, you can come out without one.”

The next day was the weekend. I purposely told her that I needed to go to the office for a few hours.

Not long after I left, I saw an interesting scene through the surveillance footage.

Mia wore a silk nightgown that showed a lot of skin. It was slightly sheer but still covered the important parts. She purposely pulled one shoulder strap down and walked around the living room.

Sometimes she went to the kitchen to pour herself a glass of water and made a lot of noise. Other times, she walked back and forth in the hallway outside my dad’s bedroom and pretended to look for something.

However, the door to the master bedroom stayed closed. It was as if someone had welded it shut.

My dad remembered every warning I had given him. He locked the door and stayed safely inside his room.

Mia spent a full thirty minutes pacing around the living room. In the end, she sneezed from the cold and pulled her clothes tighter around herself. Her face was dark with frustration.

She spat toward the master bedroom door, muttered curses under her breath, and finally went back to the guest room.

The funniest attempt happened in the middle of the night.

At around 1 a.m., a loud crash suddenly came from the living room. Then, Mia let out a desperate cry. “Ah! It hurts! Mr. Langley, help me! I think I broke my ankle!”

I got out of bed. I did not even put on my slippers before I opened the door and rushed into the living room.