Chapter 4

I didn't go back to Harbor City that day.

The next morning, I went to my mother's house again.

I wasn't going to start a fight; I just wanted to take away the files from Scarlett's accident all those years ago.

They had always been locked in the bottom cabinet of my mother's bedroom.

In the first few years after Scarlett died, I couldn't even bear to look at her photos too much. My mother and Percy handled all of it for me—the funeral arrangements, the settlement, the court hearings.

I had always thought they were protecting me.

When my mother heard I was looking for the files, she blocked my way in front of the cabinet. "It's been ten years. Why are you suddenly digging into this?"

"To have a lawyer look at it."

She got frantic. "Loretta already served her time in prison. Even if you know about the life vest now, without any other evidence, what can you do? Do you really want to put everyone through all of it again?"

I stepped past her and opened the cabinet door.

The accident report, the hospital records, the judgment—stack after stack, all there.

But at the very bottom was a criminal settlement waiver I had never seen before.

The person who signed it was Percy.

The date was the fourth day after Scarlett died.

At that time, I was still lying in the ICU.

I pulled the paper out. "What is this?"

Percy had just come in from the living room. When he saw the document, he stopped in his tracks.

The waiver was written very clearly.

As Scarlett's father, he accepted compensation from Loretta's family, expressed his forgiveness for the consequences Loretta had caused, and asked that the case be handled leniently under the law.

"She only served three years. Does that have anything to do with this?"

Percy didn't answer.

My mother said through tears, "I told him to sign it. You were still in critical condition, and the doctor said there were several more surgeries ahead. The Cox family was willing to cover all the treatment costs first, and then pay a sum on top of that. What was I supposed to do?"

"So Scarlett had been dead only four days, and you'd already forgiven her on her behalf."

"That wasn't about forgiving her!" Percy finally spoke. "I did it to save you first."

His voice was heavy, as if that one sentence was enough to explain everything.

I kept turning the pages and saw an old bank statement.

The Cox family paid a total of 2.6 million dollars in settlement.

My treatment and rehabilitation used up part of it over time, and the remaining 1.4 million dollars was transferred into Percy's account the year after I was discharged from the hospital.

I stared at that money for a long time.

That apartment in Harbor City was bought that same year, with a down payment of more than 1.4 million.

I looked up. "The down payment on the house?"

Percy's face went white in an instant.

My mother grabbed my arm. "Vera, you two had to start a new life. That money was just sitting there anyway, and Percy only wanted to give you a new home."

I lifted her hand off me.

Seven years ago, when we moved into Harbor City, Percy held me in the living room and said that from then on it would only be the two of us there, that there would be no more shadow left behind by Scarlett, no one to force me to look back.

I cried for a long time back then, thinking it was the life he had rebuilt for me.

Only now do I understand.

The first brick of that so-called new home was Scarlett's settlement money.