Chapter 3

"You," I said, cutting the lawyer off before he could finish. "Kyle Banks, right? Take the case. Keep me off death row. If you do exactly what I say, this will make your name."

His expression tightened, disbelief and irritation mixing together.

"Keep you off death row? Are you serious? You killed 40 people. This only ends one way."

I didn't respond to that. "You're my lawyer. Whether you like it or not, you're defending me. Go to the school. Film Ms. Martin's routine with the new senior honors class and post it online as soon as you can."

"Why?" The word slipped out before Kyle could stop it.

"Just do it. When you're done, I'll tell you why I killed them. That's your shot."

The room went quiet. After a long pause, I heard his chair scrape back.

"Fine. I'll get it. You'd better not be wasting my time."

Kyle worked fast.

He came back the next day with his phone, looking worse than before, dark circles under his eyes, anger just under the surface.

"I got your video. It's already up. Happy?"

He dropped the phone on the table, screen facing me. The footage was already playing.

Natalie showed up at the classroom at 5 a.m., setting breakfast on every desk.

At 6 a.m., when the students arrived, she handed out milk one by one.

Between classes, any time the room was empty, she stepped in and took questions, patient and unhurried.

Even when a student asked the same question four or five times, she didn't show a trace of irritation.

It went on like that until midnight. She finished grading everything and was the last one out of the office.

"Read the comments," Kyle said, his voice tight. "The whole internet's praising her. They're saying you're nowhere near her level, calling you a jealous killer, and saying you deserve what's coming. Is this what you wanted?"

I scrolled through the feed.

[I'm gonna cry. Ms. Martin is amazing!]

[She got 40 kids into top schools, and some psycho murderer destroyed it!]

[Give him the death penalty! Execute Simon Rivera!]

Kyle didn't take his eyes off me. "You promised me the truth. Why did you kill them? Don't tell me it's jealousy. I'm not buying that."

I looked up. "When they're reading in the morning, did you notice the page turns? It's perfectly in sync, like they're all moving as one. And in class, every student's glued to the board. Not a single one drifts."

Kyle's expression shifted. "So what? What does that prove?"

"Nothing," I said. "You can go."

"Are you playing me?" His voice rose. "You're about to die! You think this is funny?"

The guards glanced over.

Kyle stared at me for a long moment, then let out a breath that sounded more like a laugh. "Fine. You got me. I should've known better."

He grabbed his phone and walked out without looking back.

-

The courthouse was already packed on the day of the first hearing.

By the time I stepped into the defendant's box in prison clothes, the shouting had filled the room.

"Kill him!"

"He butchered those kids! He doesn't deserve to live!"

"Execute him!"

Natalie was brought in, supported by an officer, wiping at her tears. "They were just kids… They had their whole lives ahead of them… How did it end like this?"

The prosecutor read out the charges. One parent after another stood to describe what I had done.

When it was my turn, I said the same thing as before, without inflection. "I was jealous of Ms. Martin. So I killed her students."

One of the older judges leaned forward, tapping his gavel. "Even your own daughter?"

"Yes. She wouldn't stop talking about Ms. Martin."

The room erupted again.

"That's his own daughter! Even animals wouldn't do that!"

"It was just the two of them after his wife died, and he still killed her. He's not human!"

"Order!" The judge struck the gavel, then turned his gaze to Kyle. "Defense counsel, do you have any new evidence to present?"