That email report—I had to send it, no matter what.
A wave of bitterness surged in me. I didn’t even know if I’d make it out alive today…
Just then, the overhead monitor crackled with Chloe’s delighted voice:
“Ethan, Rachel just said it was Margaret in there with her. Exposed now, isn’t she?”
“If that really were Margaret, why would she give away the only mask? Ethan, your trick with the toy mask is brilliant. Watching her blind mother put on that ridiculous thing suddenly makes me feel much better~”
Ethan’s pampering laugh followed:
“As long as Chloe’s happy.”
Margaret’s eyes widened with hope when she heard Ethan’s voice:
“Son! Is that you?”
But her voice was warped beyond recognition by the gas, and since I’d fitted the mask in a camera blind spot, Ethan hadn’t seen her face.
He scoffed coldly:
“Old hag, know your place! You blind wretch think you deserve to call me son?”
Margaret froze, her smile stiffening. After a few stunned seconds, she realized she still wore the mask and tried to rip it off.
“Son, it’s me, your mother! Hurry, save me!”
But the mask blocked her vision, and her fumbling hands were clumsy under the suffocating gas.
Ethan clicked his tongue in disgust:
“Can’t even pull off a mask properly. And you dare say you’re not Rachel’s blind mother?”
He clapped his hands.
The next moment, the gas pipe cover beside Margaret blew open, blasting her body ten meters across the chamber.
Bones cracked audibly—her ribs snapped. Her head lolled to the side as she fainted.
My pupils shrank.
Every piece of equipment in the institute could be controlled remotely. With the lab shut down, only the computer in Ethan’s control room could trigger that pipeline.
So he and Chloe weren’t just watching—they truly meant to kill us!
Ethan chuckled:
“Chloe, how was that acrobatics show?”
Chloe giggled, clapping:
“Amazing, Ethan! I want more!”
More toxic gas surged in, thickening the air into sticky dampness.
“Ethan, you’d kill your own mother? You’re a monster!”
I scrambled up, trying to rip off Margaret’s mask to prove her identity. But her face was a bloody ruin from the impact, the mask fused into her flesh. Peeling it back already revealed bone.
I froze mid-motion.
“Why stop? Too scared to finish?”
The mocking voice rang from the monitor:
“Rachel, even now you’re still trying to trick me? I called my mom’s assistant, Mr. Johnson. He said her car has been parked at the company all day. She never left!”
A bitter smile tugged at my lips.
Ethan would never know—Margaret had deliberately erased her tracks, even leaving her car behind, because she knew her purpose in visiting me wasn’t pure.
