Chapter 3

"The fight was vicious. My dad was screaming about a divorce, saying he was going to take me away and expose some dark secret."

"I felt like something was wrong, so I crept over to their bedroom door to peek through the crack. That’s when I saw my dad lying on the floor, covered in blood.

My mom was just standing over him, staring down coldly."

"Later, I watched her carry bricks and cement into the room. She sealed his body inside the master bedroom partition wall."

"Since that night, she never let me set foot in her room again. And whenever anyone asked about my dad, she just said he went abroad."

Hearing this, Eleanor clutched her chest, sobbing hysterically. "My poor baby!"

"I knew you wouldn't just abandon your mother! You were murdered!"

Chloe wiped her tears, pointing a finger at me. "Grace, you monster!"

"My brother was so good to you! Why did you kill him?"

Looking at their dramatic display of grief, I actually found it a bit funny.

"Who says I killed him?" I asked quietly. "Anyone can write a fictional essay. Anyone can make up a story."

"Do you have actual proof?"

Tyler’s eyes flared red. He turned to Detective Marcus. "Detective, my dad's body is right inside that wall in her bedroom. If you smash it open, you'll find the proof!"

Marcus’s face hardened.

He cast a long, calculating look at me.

After a tense silence, he gestured to the officers behind him. "Get inside. Break the wall."

A few young officers immediately grabbed sledgehammers from their patrol cars and headed for the front door.

I moved fast, blocking the doorway with my arms spread wide.

"Detective Marcus, you have no warrant and no physical evidence. On what grounds are you destroying my property? This is illegal."

Marcus stared me down. "Ma'am, your son is an eyewitness."

"Furthermore, our preliminary check shows that Richard has had absolutely zero social footprint for ten years. No bank activity, no phone signals, no ID usage. Nothing."

"We have strong reason to believe he is deceased. Step aside."

I didn't budge an inch.

"A high school kid ruins his SATs to write a confession letter, and you think he’s mentally stable? You're taking the word of an unstable teenager as gospel?"

"Just because my husband hasn't been active doesn't mean he's dead."

"Maybe he’s just hiding, or maybe he changed his identity to start a new life."

"You don't even have a death certificate. What right do you have to smash my walls?"

Marcus hesitated, his brow furrowed.

Just then, our next-door neighbor, Mrs. Higgins, spoke up from the crowd.

"Detective, I can back the boy up. What Tyler said is true."

Everyone turned to look at her.

Mrs. Higgins said solemnly, "I’m a very light sleeper. Ten years ago, on that exact night, I heard them screaming. It was a massive fight."

"But midway through, the noise suddenly stopped. The very next day, Richard vanished into thin air. I never saw him again."

Other neighbors started nodding in agreement.

"Yes! They fought so loud that night. And Richard never walked out of that house again!"

"I actually asked Grace about it back then. She told me Richard had to leave for an overseas job in the middle of the night, and they fought because she didn't want him to go. But she claimed he left anyway."