"Gerard, is there something you're keeping from me?"
The smile on his face stiffened for a moment.
"Why would you ask that?"
"It's nothing." I lowered my head and pushed at the steak on my plate with my fork. "Just asking."
He looked relieved as he sat down beside me.
"Mandy, give it a little while, and we'll get married. My parents have already picked out a place for us. They're just waiting for us to give the word."
He said it with such warmth, as if we really were a couple in love.
Halfway through the party, Olivia took the stage as the guest of honor to give her speech.
She thanked her parents, thanked her teachers, and finally, her gaze settled on me.
"There's one more person I have to thank. My sister, Amanda."
Every eye in the room turned to me.
Olivia's voice cracked with tears.
"A while ago, we had a small misunderstanding and things got ugly between us. My sister even lost control and hurt me."
"But I know she didn't mean it. She was just under too much pressure."
She paused, and tears spilled down her cheeks.
"Mandy, you don't have to worry. I never blamed you, not once. You're the closest person in the world to me."
Her words were airtight, dredging up the fact that I'd hit her while showing off her own forgiveness and generosity.
The guests stared at me with strange eyes, the whispers never stopping.
"So she's the one who put her sister in the hospital."
"Looks so quiet and gentle. Who knew she could be that vicious?"
"How could an older sister treat her own sister like that…"
My mother's expression was grim too, and she shot me a hard glare.
I met every gaze without a flicker of expression.
When Olivia finished and stepped down from the stage, she suddenly lost her footing and pitched straight toward where I stood.
On instinct, I tried to move out of the way.
But it was already too late.
Her body swept past me, knocked over a table, and then crashed through the glass railing behind me.
Screams erupted on all sides.
Everyone rushed to the railing.
The Sky Garden was on the hotel's top floor, the sixty-eighth.
A fall from there left no chance of survival.
I stood where I was, staring at the wreckage on the ground, my body cold.
The exact same scene as the last life.
It didn't take long before someone spotted something.
"Her phone! Look at her phone!"
Olivia's phone had landed on the floor, the screen still lit.
On it was a suicide note, just finished, never sent.
The recipient list was everyone in her contacts.
Every word of it bled, accusing me of abusing her, mind and body, for years out of jealousy.
Of even forcing her to go out and earn money to fund my lavish lifestyle.
If she refused, I would beat her.
"I really can't go on anymore. Sister, if there's a next life, I hope we're never sisters again."
"Mom, Dad, I'm sorry. Your daughter has failed you."
The crowd's eyes shifted in an instant, a mix of shock and disgust.
My father's lips trembled with rage, and he suddenly swung his arm at me.
"Animal! You animal!"
My mother had already collapsed to the floor, sobbing.
Gerard charged up to me, gripping my shoulders and shaking them hard.
"Amanda! How could you do this to her! She's your sister!"
His face was full of grief, his bloodshot eyes wide.
His shaking made my head spin, but I suddenly smiled.
Looking at the faces around me, furious, contemptuous, horrified, I spoke each word slowly.
"That's right. I forced her to do it."
I met their stunned eyes and said it again.
"I drove her to her death."
My father raised his hand, ready to give me another slap.
But his wrist was caught by a stronger hand.
A middle-aged man in a dark suit, steady and composed, stood beside me, his face stern.
It was Adrian Dickerson, the most trusted assistant my grandfather had had in his lifetime, and the chief financial officer of our family's company.
Two people in uniform stood behind him, and that uniform belonged to the Financial Regulatory Authority.
My father froze.
"Director Dickerson? Why are you here?"
"I filed the anonymous report." I looked calmly at everyone, my voice landing with weight in the silent Sky Garden.
"I guessed my mother would move the assets out of the trust fund today, so I froze her overseas accounts ahead of time and submitted the evidence."
The official behind Adrian nodded, pulled out a tablet, and turned it toward the crowd.
"Based on the malware packet evidence and the IP address tracing Miss Amanda Harding provided…"
Adrian looked at the hotel manager, who had long since gone slack with fright.
"That so-called suicide note from a moment ago—the IP address where it was written and sent was not in this hotel."
"Because the real Miss Olivia Harding isn't here at all right now."
