Chapter 1

After my birth parents brought me back to their powerful family, my whole family ended up dead because of me in a single night.

First, my firefighter brother, while on duty, as if possessed, shouted my name and charged straight into the flames.

Then, my artist mom, who was sculpting my portrait, suddenly picked up a carving knife and slashed her own throat.

And my lawyer dad, while handling my kidnapping case, went mad and smashed a folder against his own head until blood poured out.

They only left behind one sentence. "Selena, we were wrong. We..."

When the police came to investigate, each of them was found with the lucky charm I'd made myself.

They ran every test imaginable, but found nothing wrong, so they let me go, saying I was innocent.

The media threw out insane offers, all just for a glimpse of my lucky charm.

I just smiled, never said a word about what happened to my family, and visited their graves every year, like clockwork.

Seven years after they died, I saw a figure standing by their gravestone who looked eerily similar to me.

Crying and laughing at the same time, I took out my treasured last lucky charm and fastened it around my waist.

I knew what happened back then couldn't stay buried anymore, and after I was gone, everything would finally be resolved.

Nothing. Just empty air.

"Selena Andrus, what was your motive for these murders? Why did you kill the people who loved you most?" the cop questioned.

I sat calmly on the edge of the flower bed, watching the cop rage at me, his face flushed. I just rested my chin in my hand, silent, as if I was watching a circus act.

After a long struggle, the paramedics finally hauled a body out of the office building. It was long since dead.

I stiffly turned my head, reached out, and let a drop of blood from the man's hair fall onto my finger. A spark of barely contained glee flashed in my eyes.

"Dad... I never thought you'd go through with it, too. It'll all work out for us in the end..." I laughed out loud.

My father's corpse lay on the stretcher, his eyes bulging in terror, like he'd seen something unspeakable before he died. But at the corner of his mouth was an eerie, impossible-to-ignore smile, his face horrifically contorted.

But instead of feeling any fear, I was actually intrigued, painting with the blood from his face like it was the most natural thing in the world.

As everyone caught sight of my dad's twisted, terrifying expression, the media turned their horrified eyes on me—while I just stared back at them, looking innocent and lost.

"How did you do it? Three people died in one night right after you came back—how could you not be involved?"

"Your father kept calling your name before he died, saying you'd all go to the same place. And the same red lucky charm was found on his body. Are you really saying you had nothing to do with their deaths?"

The media totally lost it after seeing that weird lucky charm three times in a single day. Everyone was desperate to know just how my parents and brother had met their end.

After all, three people in my family died in such bizarre ways, all on the same day.

First, my brother, who loved me more than life itself, met his end. During a fire rescue, the lucky charm I'd given him accidentally caught a stray spark.

The man who was always so calm suddenly seemed bewitched. He clung to the lucky charm, shouting my name like a madman. Even as the flames swallowed him whole, he just knelt there, obsessively praying to the lucky charm.

"Selena... I'm heading to that place now. We'll meet there soon..." he laughed.

With those words, my brother burst out laughing and threw himself into the blazing room, ignoring everyone who tried to hold him back. The flames consumed him, leaving nothing but ashes.

But when the cops came to pick up his body, they found the lucky charm he'd been clutching to his chest just lying there in his ashes, perfectly intact, not even a scorch mark on it, like the flames hadn't even dared to touch it.

When my mom heard about my brother's death, she was at home, beaming as she worked on a sculpture of me with her carving knife. Instead of looking sad, she just nodded and smiled, like she was genuinely proud of him.

"My son's all grown up now... I never thought he'd be so brave."

After that, she didn't say another word, just kept working on the sculpture until it was finished. Then she adjusted the lucky charm hanging around her neck, looked up, and finally spoke again.