"Quick, test it! Check if it's human bone!"
She snatched it up to examine it herself, but her hands were shaking so badly and her vision kept blurring.
A colleague grabbed it from her and fed it straight into the analyzer. After what felt like an eternity, the team exhaled:
"It's animal bone."
"Guess there's no 120th victim after all. We all got played."
The live comments caught on fast, and a wall of abuse rolled in against me:
"Not her bones! That means she's not even dead!"
"Are you kidding me?! I actually thought she'd changed. Turns out she's still disgusting, teaming up with a serial killer to con everyone."
"Thank God her mom was smart enough to see through it. Otherwise she'd have smeared Carina again! Almost made us think Carina hired a hitman!"
"Tsk tsk tsk. Conspiring with a murderer... Maybe she had a hand in some of those other 119 kills too!"
Mom's grip on her phone tightened inch by inch. She picked up the photo of my smiling face from the ground, stared at it for two seconds, then ripped it to shreds.
On camera, she finally snapped:
"Everyone, rest assured. I'm filing for an arrest warrant for Rosemary Delgado immediately!"
"A degenerate daughter who conspires with a serial killer will get no mercy from me!"
She pulled out her phone and sent a voice message, every word dripping with venom:
"You like playing dead so much? Then you'd better play dead for the rest of your life!"
"What a shame! Why didn't you actually die? I wish to God those were your bones in that grave!"
"Let me tell you something. If you were dead, I wouldn't shed a single tear! I'd hang up banners and celebrate for ten days straight!"
After she sent it, she blocked and deleted every way I had of reaching her.
Then she announced on every platform that she was severing all ties with me as mother and daughter.
I cried until my very soul shook, screaming at Mom that it wasn't me, that I hadn't done any of it.
Until I felt the last bone being slowly unearthed.
I smiled bitterly.
As you wished, Mom. You'll see me soon enough.
At that moment, another search team shouted:
"We found a lesson plan in the burial chamber, and a knife!"
"And a piece of... a human skull."
