I had lost my appetite and wanted to return to my room.
My father called out to me: “Aria, wait. There’s still a good show to watch.”
I turned back, and my father, with a cultured smile, spoke words like a demon:
“What do you think would be better? Chopping off their limbs or mincing them into meat neste?”
“What do you think would be better? Chopping off their limbs or mincing them into meat paste?”
Hearing my father’s words, Lucas and Sophia’s faces grew even paler.
As if imagining some horrifying scene, Lucas suddenly looked at me.
“Don’t do this! Aria, I’m begging you. I don’t want your kidney anymore. I’ll give you mine if you want. Please let me go…”
Before he could finish, my brother interrupted him: “What would she do with that dirty thing?”
Then, my brother ruffled my hair.
“Aria, be good and go rest. Dad, Mom, and I will take care of everything for you.”
Ignoring Lucas’s pleading gaze, I stood up and walked upstairs.
I had warned them.
Behind me, I heard Lucas’s painful and desperate cry: “Aria, I was wrong. I won’t do it again. I can change. Please forgive me-”
My brother interrupted him again:
“If change was useful, what would we need the police for?”
They worked quickly. By dawn, I could hear the sound of my mother chopping bones.
I sighed and took out earplugs from the bedside drawer to put them on.
When I got up in the morning, there was a large bowl of meat soup on the dining table downstairs. I didn’t need to guess to know what meat it was made from.
There was a faint smell of blood in the air. Looking at that bowl of meat, I had no appetite at all.
My mother walked out of the kitchen, wiping her hands as if complaining.
“The smell on those two was too strong. I’ve been trying to get rid of it for a long time, but I still can’t completely eliminate the odor.”
for Broth
I immediately stood up and said, “Dad, Mom, Brother, I’m going back to my room first.”
I fled back to my room and locked the door.
Two people who were with me yesterday had now become a dish on the dining table.
And I had even been in a relationship with one of them.
Thinking about this, I couldn’t help but feel nauseous.
I stayed in my room all day without going out. I knew I couldn’t escape from my current situation, but even though I had lived in this house for 19 years, I was still afraid.
When I was young, I thought my parents and brother were normal. When my mother served meat soup, although I found the taste strange, I would still drink it.
As I grew older and my understanding gradually became clearer, I realized this was wrong. But every time I saw the way my parents looked at me, I couldn’t say anything.
Later, I simply kept my mouth shut and became silent.
At dinner time, my father came to knock on the door. I opened it, and he pushed in a plate of vegetables and a bowl of rice.
“I know you’re not used to eating those things. You haven’t eaten all day, at least eat something.”
Looking at the green vegetables, my stomach was already at its limit of hunger, so I lowered my head and said to my father. “Thank you.”
My father still had that cultured expression. He seemed to want to say something to me, but before he could open his mouth, there was a “ding dong” sound from downstairs.
My heart jumped to my throat-
Someone was ringing our doorbell!
My heart started racing wildly. I was worried that it might be the police.
Although I was very afraid of my family members, they had never done anything to hurt me and had always been good to me. I ran away from them because I couldn’t adapt to their lifestyle, not because I wanted them to be caught.
My mother opened the door. Standing at my room door, although I couldn’t see the specific situation downstairs, I could hear the voices coming from below.
“Hello, we’re the police. We’re investigating a missing person case. Is Miss Aria Reed here? We have a few questions we’d like to ask her.”
Hearing this, I could no longer contain my fear. They had actually come looking for me!
That voice seemed to have some magical power, or perhaps it was because I had never been good at lying since childhood. Upon hearing this question, I instinctively wanted to go downstairs.
I hadn’t even taken a step when my father grabbed my wrist and gave me a look.
Downstairs, my mother’s panicked voice rang out, “What? Aria? Has she gone missing? No wonder she’s been out and hasn’t even sent a message. So something really happened to her. Oh, my poor Aria…”
My mother was clearly much better at lying than me. She began to play the role of a middle–aged woman who thought her daughter was missing. All her usual elegance disappeared, and the police, seeing her in this state, took a step back, finding her a bit difficult to deal with.
“Ma’am, please calm down. Miss Reed isn’t missing. She’s involved in a missing person case,” the police officer said, seemingly concluding from my mother’s words that I wasn’t at home and not wanting to waste more time. “Since Miss Reed isn’t home, we’ll leave for now. If you hear from her, please inform us immediately.”
My mother nodded, her face still tearful.
“Okay, okay, okay. As long as it’s not our Aria who’s missing, that’s good. I’ll let you know as soon as I hear from her.”
Perhaps because my mother was acting too cooperatively, they left without any suspicion.
After the door was closed, my mother let out a sigh of relief. My brother’s voice came from the living room: “Mom, the International Academy should give you an Oscar this year.”
However, my mother ignored my brother’s joke and looked up at me with a serious expression, calling out, “Aria, come down for a moment.”
I went downstairs. Strangely, although I was afraid, I subconsciously knew that my mother wouldn’t harm me or betray me.
“Aria, the police have now traced you. Although I helped you cover it up this time, they will eventually find you. You need to face the police yourself, do you understand?”
Although my mother’s tone was serious, her expression couldn’t hide her worry.
I nodded involuntarily: “Mom, I understand.”
Then, my mother taught me how to deal with the police and how to answer their questions.
I memorized it word for word.
That very night, after I had finished memorizing the script, our doorbell rang again.
“Coming,” my mother said as she went to open the door. My brother glanced at me inconspicuously,
