"Mom… I'm sorry… Mom, Hye Ji can't help… I'm sorry, Mom… Dad's gone insane!"
As if she had been waiting for her daughter all along, Madam Lin's trembling hand suddenly shot up and clasped Hye Ji's wrist, her grip surprisingly firm despite her fading strength. The shock froze Lin Hye Ji in place, her breath caught in her throat, until she realized her mother's lips were moving.
Leaning down, straining to hear the whispers that barely escaped Madam Lin's bloodied mouth, she caught the desperate words.
"Go… to Aunt May… Hye Ji, listen… Make sure you… go to Aunt May…"
She repeated the name again and again, her weakening voice breaking with each syllable, until finally, her hand slipped from her daughter's grasp and fell limply to the floor.
Hye Ji's vision blurred. Her ears rang, her mind detached, as though the world itself had gone silent. She didn't hear the frantic shouts of the house keeper ordering an ambulance, nor did she register the sound of her father's harsh breathing as he moved swiftly, erasing every trace of the crime.
"Housekeeper Shen!" Mr. Lin barked, his voice slicing through the chaos.
The housekeeper, who had been gone at some point in time, came rushing in, arms full with a bucket and mop.
"What the hell are you doing with that?" Mr. Lin demanded, his eyes narrowing.
"You told me to clear the scene, sir," the housekeeper stammered, blinking in confusion.
Mr. Lin's face twisted, panic and fury colliding in his expression. He slammed his fist against the wall.
"Are you brainless?! I'm going to tell the police she fell down the staircase during our argument! Why in God's name would I want you scrubbing the damn evidence off the stairs?!" His voice cracked with both rage and desperation, sweat glistening on his brow.
"Get the surveillance camera right now. I want it destroyed!" Mr. Lin snapped, his voice sharp with urgency as he remembered his reason for calling her.
The housekeeper bowed quickly and reminded him, "Sir, the surveillance camera broke down a few days ago. The repairman promised to come tomorrow morning."
At once, Mr. Lin remembered his wife telling him about the malfunction earlier. His stiff shoulders relaxed slightly.
"Good… good… good," he repeated three times, his voice steadier now, as though convincing himself that fate was on his side.
Turning to the woman beside him, he lowered his tone. "Su Man, you must leave. Remember—you were never here."
"Yes, darling," Su Man replied with a sickeningly sweet smile, her voice dripping with false affection. She pressed a lingering kiss on his lips before slipping out through the back door like a shadow.
Moments later, the wail of an ambulance siren cut through the night. Paramedics stormed into the house, lifting Madam Lin's lifeless body onto a stretcher. As they carried her out, Mr. Lin followed, his face twisted in false grief, tears of pretense streaming down his cheeks.
Through it all, Lin Hye Ji remained frozen. She did not weep, she did not speak. She simply stared—her wide eyes empty, her small body trembling.
The housekeeper knelt, gently lifting her from the cold floor. "Come, little Ji," she whispered, her own voice thick with sorrow. "Let's go see your mother at the hospital… you deserve to be with her one last time."
Her heart ached as she looked at the child. She had watched Hye Ji grow from a cheerful, laughing girl—so much like her mother—into this stunned, silent shadow.
The housekeeper crouched to meet Hye Ji's eyes, her own brimming with tears. "You must remember this, little Ji. It was your father who struck your mother with the vase. He is the murderer. One day, when you are grown and strong, you must avenge her." She gently stroked the girl's hair before leading her to the waiting car.
By the time they reached the hospital, the child's world had already begun to crumble. The housekeeper hurried her into the emergency ward, just in time for her to hear the doctor's solemn words:
"She's gone."
The finality of it echoed in Hye Ji's ears. Her vision spun. The floor seemed to slip away beneath her. As she collapsed backward into darkness, she faintly heard the housekeeper, Shen, crying out her name in panic, her voice breaking.
And beneath it all—like poison—the sound of her father's pretentious sobs for the wife he had murdered.