Chapter5
The second those words left my lips, Jacob’s parents flinched ever so slightly. The guilt, the shock–it was there, just for a moment.
The audience, meanwhile, gasped in confusion.
Jacob swallowed hard but forced himself to glare at me with feigned confidence,
“Emily, enough of this nonsense!”
“First, you kill Ethan. Then, you complain about me being adopted.”
“And now, you’re accusing us of wanting you dead?”
“How far are you willing to go to push away
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everyone who’s ever cared about you?”
Margaret, ever the devoted mother–in–law, looked at me with wounded sincerity,
“Emily, we’ve all seen how much we cared for you over the years.”
“Even the smallest thing–like a sneeze- would have me worrying for hours.”
“How could we ever wish harm upon you?”
Their deception was almost admirable.
I pulled out a life insurance policy.
“Then what’s this?”
“You even took out a massive insurance policy on my life.”
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“And you dare say you weren’t waiting for me to die?”
At the sight of the document, their expressions changed instantly.
George was the first to recover, his face full of innocent confusion,
“We saw other parents buying life insurance for their kids and thought it was a responsible thing to do.”
“So we got you one too.”
“How is that a crime?”
“We just wanted to do something for you.”
Margaret nodded frantically. “Yes, exactly! We’re old, we don’t understand these things.”
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“Is it wrong to want to protect you?”
Their acting was impeccable. The crowd, ever fickle, started turning on me again.
“She’s just paranoid. No gratitude at all.”
“Buying life insurance is normal! Why is she making it sound so sinister?”
“She’s ungrateful, trying to twist everything.”
The live chat flooded with accusations.
I smiled and pulled out another stack of documents.
“Sure. One insurance policy is reasonable.”
“But what about these?”
I spread them out–multiple life insurance
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policies, all with exorbitant payouts.
“And guess who the beneficiaries are?”
“You three.”
Silence.
One policy could be justified as concern. But this? This was premeditated.
Everyone knew about murder–for–insurance scams. The crowd’s murmurs died down.
The livestream chat was buzzing, with viewers commenting on how the situation. was getting more and more complicated.
Before his parents could even speak, Jacob rushed to explain:
“My parents are old. They don’t understand
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these things.”
“They just wanted to do everything they could for your benefit. When they heard that buying insurance was a way to protect family, they went ahead and got you every possible policy, thinking that more insurance meant more security for you.”
“As for the beneficiaries and all that? They had no clue.”
“Come on, who didn’t grow up with parents who’d cook your favorite dish every day just because you once said you liked it?”
“They’re old now. They just want to do what they can, in the only way they know how, to show their care.”
“And if even this can be twisted and vilified, then Emily, you don’t deserve anyone’s
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kindness.”
Jacob’s heartfelt words struck a chord with
the onlookers.
Many of those who had been wavering just moments ago now looked at him with admiration, nodding in agreement.
The livestream chat was flooded with
messages:
“He’s right. The older generation doesn’t have such sinister intentions. They just wanted to do something good for her.”
“My grandpa is the same. He knows I love barbecue ribs, so every time I visit, he makes them for me.”
“My mom keeps buying all kinds of flower tea for me, saying she’ll wait for me to have
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time to drink it.“”
“Elders express their love in simple ways. They may not be able to do much, so they try to do everything they can within their means.””
“Exactly. Instead of being grateful, this woman is twisting their good intentions. and attacking them in public. That’s just disgusting.”
“She’s heartless. I bet even a stray cat passing by would get kicked by her.”
“Poor old couple. They’ve been kind their whole lives, only to be falsely accused by this ungrateful woman.”
The tide had turned again.
The crowd’s gaze toward me was now filled
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with growing hostility.
But I simply looked Jacob in the eye and smiled.
“If it was really just about doing what they could for my benefit…”
“Then why, after taking out massive life insurance policies in my name–did they hire a hitman to kill me?”
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