Chapter 3
I decided to report it to the police.
Taking my phone with all the chat records and stream replays, I headed to the nearest station.
The young officer who took my statement was patient, jotting down everything I said.
Then he told me this wasn't something they could build a case on.
He explained, "Online speech is a gray area. And the problem with your husband's project has a clear cause. The employee. Legally, there's no provable link between the two.
"It's just a coincidence.
"As for this livestream you mentioned, we'll flag it to higher-ups and keep an eye on it. But that's about all we can do right now."
I walked out of the station and stared up at the overcast sky, feeling more helpless than I'd ever felt in my life.
It was like the whole world was moving on while I was trapped alone in this absurd nightmare.
Back home, I found the house was quiet.
Charles wasn't around. He was probably off at the office, dealing with the fallout.
Lily was lounging in the living room, munching on chips and watching TV without a care in the world.
She glanced up as I walked in, totally unbothered, and flashed me this bratty smirk. "So, how'd that go?" she asked. "Did the police tell you I'm, like, a total genius or what?"
That was it. My patience shattered.
I strode over, snapped off the TV, and looked her dead in the eye.
"Lily," I said, "I've already called the police. That livestream and that Top Patron are both under investigation."
The smile vanished from her face.
But it wasn't fear that replaced it. It was pure rage.
"Who do you think you are?" she shrieked, jumping to her feet.
"You ruined my cash cow! Top Patron promised if Dad goes bankrupt, he'll give me a fortune! Enough to live easy for life!"
"Money? Is that all you can think about?" I finally screamed, the control I'd been clinging to completely gone. "That is your father! If he goes bankrupt, this family is over! Don't you understand that?"
"Family?" Lily scoffed. "Please. This family has been broken for years. Are you really that blind?"
She leaned in, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper.
"Mom, aren't you curious why Dad's been coming home so late? Why is he always smiling down at his phone?
"Top Patron checked for me. Dad's cheated on you.
"He also said your family might have some hidden history of mental illness. That's probably why you're so paranoid and jumpy all the time."
With every word she spoke, my heart sank deeper.
I stared at her face, a mirror of her father's, but the venom spilling from her mouth made her seem like a terrifying stranger.
She wasn't trying to help me. She was using these words like daggers, stabbing into my already wounded heart to watch me finally break.
Just as I was reeling from her words, my phone buzzed.
It was a text from an unknown number.
[You're next.]
Below was a screenshot.
There, pinned as the top comment in DarkWish Live, was a new wish.
[I wish for Lily Carter's mom to get hit by a car the moment she walks out the door.]
Underneath, a long scroll of tips and donations flooded the screen.
I was the next target.
The realization chilled me to the bone, but it also sparked a fierce survival instinct.
They wanted me broken. They wanted me dead.
Like hell I'd give them that.
I forced down the panic raging inside me and made myself think clearly.
Lily's words were like poison seeds, taking root in my mind.
Charles was cheating on me? A family history of mental illness?
I had no way of knowing what was true, but it was enough to shatter my judgment.
This had to be the Top Patron's game, trying to throw me off balance and make me eat myself alive with doubt and pain until I walked right into their trap.
I wouldn't fall for it.
I saved the screenshot of the wish against me and deleted the text.
I needed evidence. I needed to find the devil hiding behind the screen.
Seeing me stare blankly at my phone, pale and silent, Lily must have thought her plan had worked.
She hummed a smug little tune and sauntered back to her room.
Once she was gone, I steadied my nerves and began to search the house.
If what she said about a family illness was true, there had to be a clue somewhere.
I went to the old wooden chest in the corner. Inside were dusty photo albums we hadn't opened in years.
I flipped through the pages, a lifetime of happy memories flashing by—Charles in his younger days, our wedding day, and Lily as a newborn.
My fingers traced the outline of her baby picture, a sharp pain stabbing at my heart.
Just then, a single photo slipped from between the pages and fell to the floor.
It was another baby picture. The infant was too small to make out its features.
But someone had marked it with a shocking red X.
Under the X, barely legible handwriting spelled out: [Wrong.]
My heart lurched in my chest.
With trembling hands, I flipped the photo over.
On the back was a single line written in a neat script.
[Riverside General Hospital. Dr. Lane.]
Riverside General Hospital was the place where I gave birth to Lily all those years ago.
I remembered Dr. Lane.
She was my attending physician back then, a gentle woman who always made me feel safe.
What the hell did this mean?
Suddenly, the front door clicked open.
Charles was home.
He reeked of alcohol, stumbling like all his energy had been sucked out.
The moment he saw me, tears welled up in his bloodshot eyes.
He lurched forward and collapsed into my arms, his voice hoarse with despair.
"Honey, I think we're really screwed this time.
"Mr. Thompson, the project manager, was in a car accident this afternoon!
"H-He's gone..."