Chapter 4

The call was on speaker.

Everyone near the entrance heard Claire’s answer. Several people gasped.

“Oh my God. His daughter’s been dead this whole time?”

“I knew he was lying. It’s official security footage. It can’t be fake.”

“Wasn’t there a girl from Jefferson High who jumped off a building six months ago? Was that his daughter?”

“And this is Jefferson High. What if he saw his daughter’s ghost?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. He probably couldn’t cope with losing her and had some kind of breakdown.”

Their voices crashed over me from every direction.

The room spun. I had to brace myself against the desk to stay on my feet.

What the hell was Claire talking about?

The three of us had eaten breakfast together that very morning.

How could Ivy have died six months ago?

I opened my mouth to demand an explanation, but Claire seemed to know exactly what I was thinking. Before I could speak, she switched to a video call.

She was standing in Ivy’s bedroom.

The cozy pink princess room was completely empty.

On the bookshelf sat a memorial portrait of my daughter.

Claire’s parents stood behind her, their faces etched with grief.

A sharp pain suddenly stabbed through my temple.

My head filled with a deafening roar, and the phone slipped from my hand and hit the floor.

I only caught Claire’s last few words.

“Honey, did you forget to take your medication again?”

The parents around me fell silent.

The suspicion in their eyes had been replaced by pity and sympathy.

Ms. Leedon picked up my phone. The screen was still showing the registration document I’d opened earlier.

She frowned.

“Mr. Young, this isn’t an official admission ticket. It’s an old pass from one of Jefferson High’s practice exams.”

I slowly looked from her face to my phone.

The pain in my head grew worse by the second.

But I still couldn’t accept that taking my daughter to school that morning had been nothing but a hallucination.

My parents had died when I was young. My first wife couldn’t handle the hardships of building a life with me from nothing, so she divorced me soon after Ivy was born.

Other than Claire, Ivy was the only family I had left in the world.

Just a few hours ago, she’d smiled at me and said, “See you later, Dad.”

Her voice still echoed in my ears.

How could I believe she was now nothing more than a photograph?

But Claire and her parents would never joke about something like this.

The security officer, Officer Williams, and Ms. Leedon had no reason to conspire with my wife and deceive me either.

We were an ordinary family. Why would anyone go so far as to alter official security footage just to frame me?

One impossible question after another tore through my mind.

Despair closed in around me.

Had I really lost my mind?

Had I buried the painful memory of Ivy’s death and created a fantasy where she was still alive?

I clutched my hair and replayed the footage again and again.

Every time, I watched myself get out of the car alone.

Even the security officer, who’d been so hostile moments ago, sighed sympathetically and helped me into a chair.

Something hit the floor with a soft thud.

A small plastic bottle had slipped from my pocket and rolled to my feet.

Officer Williams bent down and picked it up. His expression sharpened as he read the label.

“Mr. Young, this is a powerful prescription sedative.

“You shouldn’t be out driving around alone while taking medication like this. Call your wife and have her come get you immediately. Otherwise, I’ll have to call an ambulance and send you in for an emergency psychiatric evaluation. Do you understand?”

I stared blankly at the bottle in his hand.

Then my unfocused gaze slowly sharpened.

No.

There was nothing wrong with my memory.

Ivy was still somewhere inside this school.

And now I knew exactly what they were trying to do.