Chapter 2

2.

Back at the rental apartment, Martha was sitting on the sofa watching TV.

She looked startled when she saw me walk in.

“Chase, why are you home so early?”

I gave a tight, bitter smile and said nothing.

Judging by her reaction, she had known for a long time that Yvette was not disabled.

Martha was the caregiver I hired to look after Yvette.

Because I had to work long shifts, I was terrified she might get hurt at home alone, so I bit the bullet and hired help.

My salary was meager, and Martha’s wages ate up more than half my paycheck, but I wanted Yvette to be safe.

My face remained completely calm. “Martha, you can pack up. You don't need to come back tomorrow.”

She froze, quickly trying to explain herself.

“Yvette was just painting down in the courtyard garden. I only came up to rest for a minute, I was just about to go back down, please don't be angry―”

I pinched the bridge of my nose, utter exhaustion weighing down my voice. “It's fine. Just go home. No need to say anything.”

Martha wanted to say more, but seeing the cold detachment in my eyes, she swallowed her words.

She grabbed her purse from the table and slipped out the door in silence.

Less than forty minutes later, Yvette came home.

She was wearing the cheap cotton sundress I had bought for her, stripped of the glamour she radiated at the boutique.

Her face wore that familiar, innocent, goofy smile―the exact look she had when I first found her.

“Chasey! Drawing! I made a drawing for you!”

She waved a sheet of paper and ran toward me.

Instinctively, I moved to catch her in my arms.

Then her cruel words from the mall echoed in my mind, and my arms froze in mid-air.

A faint scent of gardenia drifted from her skin―the cheap body wash she always used.

I looked down at her. Her eyes were bright and clear.

It almost made me wonder if the lying heiress at the mall was just a horrible hallucination.

I couldn't help asking myself: was she really that brilliant of an actress?

Or was I simply so pathetic and stupid that I missed the clues for six whole years?