Chapter 4

My heart gave a sudden, violent jolt.

"Mom and Dad said?"

"They died seven years ago, Chloe. How the hell did they say anything to you?"

The air in the room instantly turned to ice.

Sean stammered in panic, scrambling to cover:

"Chloe... Chloe meant she had a dream!"

"Right! A dream! Mom and Dad visited me in a dream!" Chloe nodded vigorously, her eyes darting left and right.

That was her tell. She always looked sideways whenever she lied.

Before I could press further, Sean grabbed Chloe's arm and bolted for the front door.

*A dream?*

Did they really take me for an idiot?

Realizing something was deeply wrong, I immediately dialed an old contact at the coroner’s office.

I asked him to pull the archived crash files from seven years ago.

A few days later, he sent me a secure file.

The charred bodies pulled from that car crash... were not my parents.

Someone had forged the dental records and identification forms.

The moment I read the report, a sickening chill spread through my entire body.

They faked their deaths.

Why? Why would they abandon us and fake their own demise?

I wanted to dig deeper, but on my way home from work the following evening, Sean and Chloe cut me off in an alleyway, flanked by four shady thugs.

"Nora, you really want to play hardball, huh?" Sean barked, trying to sound intimidating.

"Hand over the half a million dollars from the house sale, and I swear we’ll leave you alone."

The thugs stepped forward, cracking their knuckles with greasy grins.

I stood completely still, not moving an inch.

Sean thought I was paralyzed with fear and smirked smugly.

"You brought this on yourself. Get down on your knees and apologize, and maybe I'll let you off easy."

Chloe joined in with a venomous grin.

"If you don't beg us right now, I'll let these guys have their way with you."

A wave of nausea washed over me.

The sweet little sister I once raised was entirely gone.

The thugs’ leering stares were repulsive.

I leveled a calm, cold gaze at them and softly said,

"Take them down."

Two heavy-duty private bodyguards I had hired that morning leaped out from the shadows.

Within seconds, the thugs were battered to the ground, howling in agony.

I had suspected an ambush all day. I wasn't stupid enough to walk alone.

Sean’s knees buckled, and he dropped to the asphalt.

"Nora... Nora, I swear I didn't mean it!"

Chloe immediately turned on the fake waterworks.

"Yeah! We were just joking with you, Nora!"

I lowered my eyes, forcing my voice to tremble with fake tears.

"Sean... Chloe... I spent all night thinking about this."

"We're blood. Family is family, after all. I can't bear to watch you two starve."

Sean and Chloe exchanged a glance, their eyes lighting up with unfiltered greed.

They genuinely thought I had turned back into their obedient, easily manipulated big sister.

"Nora, you... you really forgive us?" Sean asked eagerly.

I dabbed at my dry eyes.

"Next month is the seventh anniversary of Mom and Dad's passing. I want to hold a grand memorial service to honor their souls."

"Once the memorial is over, I'll give you every single cent from the house sale."

"Deal! We'll handle everything!"

They agreed instantly, desperate to lock it down before I changed my mind.

I turned around, a cold smirk pulling at my lips.

Just that morning, a private investigator had emailed me a dossier.

In the high-res photos, a middle-aged couple was lounging by a private pool on a sunny Caribbean beach.

It was my parents, living the luxury life, seven years after they supposedly burned to death.