Chapter 4

When Selina and I were 20, we went camping in the mountains. In the middle of the night, a flash flood swept through the area, and a tree branch sliced open my lower abdomen.

With the floodwaters blocking the way, rescue crews couldn't reach us in time, so Selina followed the doctor's instructions over the phone and stitched up my wound herself.

On the third stitch, she accidentally tied the thread into a knot that wouldn't come undone. By the time she finished the seventh stitch, she was so afraid the wound would come apart that she clumsily tied two knots.

There was no medical record of what had happened, no photographs, and no one else knew about it. Only Selina and I knew of the incident.

George turned to her. "Do you know how this scar was made?"

Selina didn't answer.

George pulled back the white sheet covering the corpse's waist, exposing the crooked scar beneath the bright lights. Seven puncture marks ran along the wound, each at a different depth, and sure enough, between the third and fourth stitches was the same ugly, crossed knot.

Selina stared at it, her eyes fixed on that exact spot.

"The seventh stitch…" Her voice was so hoarse that it was barely audible. "…there should be two knots."

George bent down to take a closer look. Just as she'd said, two overlapping suture knots remained at the end of the wound.

That detail hadn't even been included in the autopsy report.

A deathly silence fell over the room.

This was exactly what Selina had demanded just moments ago—proof that couldn't possibly be refuted.

The color drained from Selina's face. She staggered backward, crashing into the metal examination table. The tray rattled, and the wedding ring rolled across the surface before falling to the floor at her feet.

"Impossible."

Selina stared at the body inside the body bag, shaking her head in disbelief.

"He stole 50 million dollars and sent me divorce papers after that incident. How could he have died three years ago?"

Zachary forced himself to remain calm as he tried to reason with her.

"Even if that body really is Jared, it doesn't prove he never betrayed you. He could've transferred the money beforehand and arranged for someone else to mail the divorce papers. Just because he saved you doesn't mean he never did anything wrong."

Janice quickly backed him up. "Zach is right. The fact that he died in the mountains only proves he didn't escape on his own. The 50 million dollars and the divorce papers are a separate matter."

Selina slowly raised her head, her expression clouded with confusion.

"He died on December 17, but the divorce papers arrived a month later. Why would he do that?"

Zachary's eyes were bloodshot as he struggled to come up with an explanation.

"Maybe he knew he wasn't coming back, so he deliberately set everything up to make you hate him. That way, when the truth came out, you'd feel guilty and start doubting me. Maybe this was his final act of revenge against you."

Selina didn't respond. She simply stared at the scar, unable to tear her eyes away from it.

For the first time, memories of the past three years came flooding back, overwhelming her before she could stop them.

Dad had knelt outside her company, begging her to reopen the investigation. Mom, frail and sick, had repeatedly assured her that I would never abandon her for money.

But Selina hadn't believed either of them.

She had driven Dad to his death, forced Mom away, and destroyed my family, all because she'd believed that if she took everything away from me, I'd have no choice but to come crawling back to her.

But by then, I'd already been buried beneath the snow in the mountains.

Selina bent down to retrieve the wedding ring, but her hands were shaking so badly that it slipped through her fingers twice before she finally managed to close her fist around it on the third try.

Its bent edges dug into her palm. Blood trickled between her fingers.

"Why didn't he tell me?" Selina stared at my corpse, her voice breaking as she spoke. "Jared, why didn't you come back and tell me?"

I stood right in front of her, watching helplessly.

It wasn't that I hadn't wanted to come back. I simply couldn't anymore.

Without warning, Selina grabbed Patrick by the collar.

"Who was it? He died on December 17, yet someone impersonated him and sent me divorce papers a month later. He's already dead. There's no way he could've stolen the 50 million dollars."

Her eyes were bloodshot as she demanded, "For the past three years, who's been impersonating him?"

Zachary's face instantly turned deathly pale, while Janice instinctively clutched her purse tighter.

Just then, footsteps sounded outside the examination room, and two police officers pushed open the door.

The officer in front, William Scott, carried a sealed evidence bag containing a badly damaged cell phone.

"We found this near Jared's body. Our technicians have just managed to recover some of its data."

Selina immediately released Patrick and turned toward him. "What data?"

William glanced at Zachary before turning his attention to Janice.

"Jared recorded an 11-minute audio file shortly before his death. There's another person's voice on the recording besides his."

William took out the recovered phone and pressed play.

A moment later, the sound of wind howling through the snow filled the room. Then my voice came through the recording.

"Mom, you were already awake. You saw me with your own eyes. So why did you lie to Selina and tell her Zachary was the one who saved you?"

All the color drained from Janice's face.