Chapter 3
My body was discovered by a scavenging old man the next afternoon.
Ethan arrived at the abandoned warehouse with the police. He calmly crouched in front of me, putting on gloves and a mask to begin the autopsy.
Last night, the lighting had been dim, and they had been focused on quickly destroying the evidence. Only now did he carefully examine this body from a forensic pathologist’s perspective.
“The victim is a young woman, approximately 25 years old…”
“Height around 5’6”…”
“The victim’s heart was brutally excavated while she was still alive…”
As Ethan examined and turned over the body, the figure seemed increasingly familiar.
How could it look so much like Aria?
Before I was killed, I had managed to call Ethan for help. He had only said one thing.
“Stop playing these despicable tricks to compete with Olivia for attention!”
I then called Jack, but he too only said one thing before impatiently hanging up.
“Honey, save—”
“Aria Collins, when will you ever stop?! Olivia already gave her birthday to you. What more do you want?!”
Ethan’s movements became somewhat frantic as he went to check the victim’s left ear.
I had three moles in a row on my left ear lobe. That was how he had recognized me years ago.
But where the ear should have been was now bare.
Both my ears had been cruelly cut off by the kidnapper.
It couldn’t be, right?
It must just be his imagination.
Ethan reassured himself and breathed a sigh of relief.
He told his assistant to record the conclusion that the victim had been brutally tortured and murdered, then walked away.
Meanwhile, Jack was at the hospital, accompanying Olivia who had just been rescued from the kidnappers and was still in shock.
Olivia was eating the nutritious meal Jack had personally prepared for her.
Since Olivia had given her birthday to me, I had never again tasted anything Jack made himself.
Jack sat by the bed, absentmindedly scrolling through his phone.
He kept refreshing our chat window.
He must find it strange that I hadn’t confronted him yet.
Yesterday was my birthday, but he had stayed at the hospital all night to take care of Olivia out of concern for her.
Based on what he knew of me, I should have been bombarding him with calls and messages by now.
But at this moment, our chat window was still quietly displaying my last message from two days ago, asking if he would be home for dinner. He hadn’t replied.
The call log also showed my last call to him yesterday afternoon, lasting only five seconds.
“Still sulking? Olivia’s in the hospital, so I had to stay and take care of her. Can’t you be more understanding as her sister?”
He sent me a message on his own initiative.
Then he started refreshing the chat window again, expecting me to reply instantly.
In the past, I always responded to his messages immediately.
Unfortunately, it wouldn’t happen this time.
He frowned, growing increasingly irritated. Olivia observed all of this.
“Jack, I want you and Ethan to take me to ride the Ferris wheel at the amusement park.”