Chapter 4

The officer scrutinized Dominic's expression, clearly suspicious. "Let's stabilize the patient first. Then, we'll talk about everything else after we get to the hospital."

Dominic nodded, then flashed me a smug smile, as if he had things under control. I quietly clenched my fists, barely suppressing the excitement bubbling inside me.

Soon, we arrived at the hospital.

Just as Sarah was about to be wheeled into the emergency room, she suddenly regained consciousness. Her voice was hoarse, but she used the last bit of her strength to accuse me in front of the police.

"Hazel, why did you feed me mushrooms, knowing they were poisonous? I trusted you! So why did you do this to me?"

I looked puzzled. "But based on the timing, my mushrooms were only supposed to mature today. When exactly did I ever give you any?"

"Look at you, still trying to argue your way out of this!"

Dominic charged forward furiously. "I saw you handing Sarah a whole bag of them this morning! I saw it with my eyes! Officers, she tried to murder Sarah! You should arrest her immediately!"

On the hospital bed, Sarah struggled to breathe. "Hazel, I can understand you're jealous of my friendship with Dom, and I know you've always secretly made things difficult for me.

"But I never thought you'd be bold enough to try to kill me! Officers, you mustn't… let her go. She grew an entire crop of poisonous mushrooms… She's a… murderer…"

Her voice grew weaker until finally, she closed her eyes.

Dominic licked his lips and rubbed his hands together excitedly. "Officer, I can prove that my wife has wanted Sarah dead for a long time!"

As he spoke, he pulled out his phone and opened his photo gallery. "I kept all the texts she sent me."

Inside was a screenshot of our chat history. I had asked him why he was always so close to Sarah.

He had casually replied, "We grew up together. We're childhood friends. Can you stop being so paranoid? If there was anything between us, you wouldn't even be here."

"Gosh. Women are so troublesome. If you can't stand her that much, get rid of her yourself!"

Beneath that was a nodding emoji sent from my phone, except he was the one who sent it. This whole thing had been his setup since the very beginning!

"This proves that she has a motive. Right, officer?"

The officer said nothing, but the look he gave me was full of suspicion.

Then, Dominic frantically searched through his phone again. "Officer, this is proof that she was growing poisonous mushrooms! She's a monster! Not only was she trying to kill Sarah, but she was also going to poison innocent civilians, too!"

The so-called evidence was an audio recording.

"Honey, are you insane? Are you seriously going to grow poisonous mushrooms? You know it's illegal, right?"

"Well, they're cheap and very profitable! Besides, it'll be fine as long as they don't eat too much."

"No! I can't allow you to do this!"

When the recording ended, Dominic's eyes were already red with emotion. "You guys heard it yourselves. I tried everything to stop her back then, but she just wouldn't listen! I didn't expect her to be this bold and reckless!"

That heavily edited recording shattered the very last trace of pity I felt toward them.

I turned to the officer calmly. "They keep insisting that those mushrooms belonged to me and that I delivered them this morning. But I wasn't home then. I was at the greenhouse."

"You did that on purpose! You were trying to create an alibi!" Dominic seethed, pointing at me furiously. "You went back to the greenhouse after delivering the mushrooms!"

I laughed. "Sorry, but all the mushrooms in the greenhouse were burned down yesterday. Forget 30 pounds of them, I didn't even have an ounce left. And before the fire, I'd reported everything to management. I have witnesses who can verify that. However…"

I paused and pulled out the uneaten fried mushroom I had secretly kept in my pocket earlier. "I've seen this mushroom in a greenhouse before, but not mine. It came from another greenhouse owned by someone else in our family."