It was only moments before Elizabeth beat her aunt to the car:
"Let's just leave." She didn't even give herself time to say goodbye to her friends, but a strong hand suddenly gripped her wrist. It was Emma, whose expression betrayed growing concern as she said, "If you want to talk anytime, you know I'll be here." Her trembling voice was somewhat clear, breaking the chill of the air and the night that had fallen on all three of them. Even Lucas stood silently beside Emma this time.
"Yes, at least you should tell us what's happening," he said, crossing his arms as if his words were non-negotiable.
Elizabeth's cold expression didn't last more than a few seconds before it became even more serene as her gaze darted between the blood covering them and the wounds, only to look at her aunt Isabella and Emma's family standing inches away, watching them—some still lost in their own thoughts, like Isabella, others in shock and tension.
"Guys...you know how miserable we look right now in our current state. Let's just relax today and I'll tell you everything later," her calm voice finally breaks the tension as she pats her dear friend's hand, which is still holding tightly on her, to continue, "I'm fine."
Slowly, she looks back at her aunt and says in a somewhat steady voice, "Let's go, Auntie." And so she gets into the car, followed by Isebella with quick steps after saying goodbye to Lucas, Emma, and her family, to catch up with her niece, who now doesn't really know what she's thinking or how she can be so calm.
"Unbelievable... I'll have to wait until tomorrow!" Lucas sighs, shifting wearily from one leg as his attention moves between Isabella and Jack, who suddenly emerges from the interrogation room, seemingly there to check on her.
"Wait!" Jack shouts quietly, stopping Isabella before standing inches away from her, his gaze scanning her as if to make sure she's not hurt.
The young girl watched the street from inside the car, her eyes never meeting Jack's, even as he spoke with her aunt. Her mind was elsewhere entirely, and she seemed oblivious to the guest sitting a few meters away, watching with curiosity and a wide smile. They had piqued Mrs. Vera's interest even more now...
"Are you telling me that this is the expression of a girl who has seen her father?" she says, laughing merrily at her assistant as she leans her body further towards the scene outside. "I need to know what Frederick's connection is to them, do you understand?" she tells him, the smile still gracing her face.
"Yes, ma'am," her assistant replies coldly from the driver's seat, watching her in the mirror. She is watching them intently until Isabella moves from the spot...
Finally, Isabella expelled the air trapped in her chest, breaking the silence of the dark road. "Was...was your father always like this? I don't understand," her eyes questioned, never leaving the shadow of the seated Elizabeth. The suffocating silence, like a noose, gripped her nerves with every silent second Elizabeth remained .
"Yes," she finally replies, gripping the cloth that lightly wraps her injured eye. She seems uncomfortable even talking about Henry, but she continues, "He treated my mother like that too and insulted us almost every day. I don't know how my mother loved him."
"Do you think she knew about Isla from the beginning?" Isabella asks again, sweat pouring from her veins and her grip on the steering wheel tightening as if she's trying to remember if her sister really died while she was carrying all of this burden without even telling her.
The young girl had barely heard the name "Isla" from her aunt when she approached her, her eyes shining in the dim light. "What did you discover in her autopsy, by the way?"
Isabella shifts uncomfortably at the mere thought of Isla's body. She tilts her head slightly, as if recalling some memories, and replies, "Whoever killed her was certainly an expert surgeon or a cannibal, or both." She observes Elizabeth's bewildered expression as she takes a deep breath:
"We found her spleen missing, her eyes gone, and one of her livers had also been removed. All of this happened while she was under the influence of a strong anesthetic, but she was conscious."
"What about the fingerprints at the crime scene?" she asks, her curiosity growing as she watches her aunt's expression turn practical and calmer as she buries her fingers in her hair. "They were all destroyed by the rotten blood that filled the place, but for some reason the killer cut off all of her fingers, maybe he mocking the police or something"
In stark contrast, far from the car and inside the police station, Clara sat impatiently with her head in her hands. Henry's incessant shouting echoed from the interrogation room, piercing her eardrums. "Will this man never shut up?!" she muttered irritably, her gaze falling upon Mr. Hector's business card, which appeared to have fallen from Isabella's pocket...
Her colleague leaned towards her, whispering somewhat nervously, "I think Mr. Jack will lose his temper if this continues."
"But really! I feel like something's really missing," she muttered to him, her eyes still on the business card, as if the name Hector were familiar. Then she suddenly stood up from her seat, startling her colleague. "What? What's going on!!" He almost thought that what was happening today was truly madness.
"I'm just going somewhere! I'll be back in a few minutes," she tells him as she hurries out after grabbing her coat.
"Where to?! At this hour?!" he asks, his eyes wide with shock. But she's already gotten into a car. "It's okay, I'll be right back," she tells him, pressing the gas pedal and driving off, leaving behind a cloud of dust that hits her frozen colleague's face...
"Damn it!! What am I going to tell the BOSS!" he shouts at her, but it's already too late.