Chapter 3

By the second day after my death, the police still had not identified the victim.

They could not recover any information from the burned phone. The Hart badge only showed that the case might be connected to my family.

The police compared the victim with everyone who had recently been reported missing.

None of them matched.

They had no other leads.

After my father gave the police a list of everyone who had worked at the old clinic, he prepared to leave the hospital.

My mother walked beside him and checked her phone.

I still had not called back.

“Should we send someone to look for her on the Southside?”

She finally asked.

My father kept walking.

“She wants us to worry. If we send people to search for her, we will be giving her exactly what she wants.”

My mother did not argue.

To them, I had simply failed to come home.

They did not consider me missing.

I was twenty-two years old, and I had lived on my own on the Southside for nineteen years. Leaving the Hart estate for a few days did not seem serious to them.

As they were preparing to leave, my brother Ethan’s flight landed overseas.

The moment he turned on his phone, he saw three missed calls from me.

He had been the first person I tried to reach the night before.

Ethan was the only person in the family who opposed Evelyn and Adrian’s engagement. He believed Evelyn should step aside because the marriage arrangement had originally been made for me.

He was also the only person in the family who cared about me.

The day before, he had argued with our parents about the engagement again. Instead of attending the party, he flew overseas to handle a business deal.

When I called him, his phone was off because he was still on the plane.

That was why I had called my father instead.

Ethan called me back first.

My phone was off.

He tried twice before calling our father.

“Where is Claire?”

My father was inside the elevator. The moment he heard my name, he frowned.

“She still hasn’t come home. Last night, she claimed someone had kidnapped her. She wanted to trick us into leaving the engagement party.”

His voice was cold.

“When no one paid attention to her, she turned off her phone.”

Ethan said nothing.

A moment later, he asked another question.

“Did she tell you where she was?”

My father thought about it.

“She said something about the Southside. I think she mentioned a clinic.”

The elevator doors opened.

Ethan’s voice suddenly changed.

“Are you at the hospital right now?”

My father stopped walking.

“Yes. There was a murder at one of our old clinics last night. Someone was locked inside, and the building was set on fire. The victim died after being brought here.”

The line went silent.

Several seconds passed before Ethan spoke again.

“Which clinic?”

My father gave him the address.

Ethan immediately opened the location we shared with each other.

The last location from my phone was in that neighborhood.

Phone locations were not exact.

The area shown on the map included the old clinic, two streets, and several abandoned buildings nearby.

The location alone could not prove that I had been at the scene of the fire.

Ethan was still worried.

“Has the victim been identified?”

“She hasn’t.”

“How old was she?”

“Around twenty.”

My father finally understood what Ethan was thinking. His voice grew heavy.

“You don’t seriously think the victim was Claire, do you?”

“I don’t know.”

Ethan answered immediately.

“That is why we need to rule it out.”

My father looked at my mother.

She had clearly heard the conversation, but she did not look frightened.

She only frowned.

“Claire grew up on the Southside. It would not be strange for her phone to show that area. The victim was not brought to the hospital until early this morning. Claire was still calling us last night.”

Her reasoning was not completely wrong.

There was still no direct link between my phone call, my location, and the unidentified victim.

Ethan did not argue with them.

“I’m coming back now. When I get to the hospital, I want a DNA test done.”

My father sounded impatient.

“There is no reason to turn this into a bigger issue.”

“We only need to rule out one possibility.”

Ethan’s voice was firm.

“If the victim is not Claire, one test will end this. If you refuse to take the test, then how can you be so certain she is safe?”

My father did not answer.

After the call ended, my mother stood outside the elevator in silence.

“Let’s do the test.”

My father turned to her.

She put her phone into her purse.

“When the results prove it isn’t Claire, Ethan will have no reason to come back and cause another scene.”

She walked away.

She still did not look back at the hospital morgue.

She never considered that I was really lying inside.

Ethan arrived at the hospital the following evening.

He showed the police my missed calls and the last location from my phone.

After reviewing the information, the police agreed that the victim needed to be compared with our family.

My father finally agreed to provide a DNA sample.

My mother remained calm as she signed the paperwork.

“Please complete it as soon as possible. Claire is still out there somewhere. This family cannot keep playing along with her behavior.”

Ethan stared at her for a long time.

“I hope you’re right.”