Chapter 4

Until someone told me my wife was cheating.

It struck like lightning.

During a prenatal appointment, I bribed a doctor and arranged an opportunity for amniocentesis.

The test showed the baby wasn't mine.

Every hope vanished.

I decided on revenge.

I'd kill that bastard child and Tôn Đình, and take back my company!

Buzz.

Another message.

The same number.

“Your wife's dead, too. Ha ha ha.”

I shook my head helplessly and replied:

“My wife and child are dead. That makes you so happy?”

“I'm happy for you. Now she's dead, you can date me openly.”

“Eleven tonight. The usual place.”

“No. Your wife's dead. I want to come to your house.”

I smiled and deleted the messages.

Then I noticed one unread message.

From Tôn Đình.

Sent at 1:29 a.m. the day before yesterday.

I frowned.

She'd died that day.

In other words, she'd sent it before her death.

I opened it.

“Darling, our baby really is in the wall.”

I laughed coldly.

Madwoman.

Taking a dream for reality.

Still, I'd devoted a great deal of effort to convincing the shareholders she was insane so I could regain effective control.

After bringing her to my hometown, I'd put sleeping pills and hallucinogens in her milk.

Then used the recorder I'd prepared to play a baby's giggles and pleas for its mother to hold it.

Finally, I'd scattered mountain soil beside the shoe cabinet, following a child's footprint stencil...

I remembered how tired I'd been.

Once the soil was down, I'd waited for her to sleep and wiped every muddy spot clean.

Cabinet. Floor. Rug.

All that diligent cleaning was, of course, meant to make her believe she really was hallucinating.

I'd even studied hypnosis and psychological suggestion.

In daily life, I kept planting the same idea in her subconscious.

“The baby's come back for Mommy.”

I put hallucinogenic psychiatric drugs in her food.

That scene of her feeding the doll at the door had followed my repeated recordings beside her ear:

“Mommy... I'm hungry... I want milk...”

I'd placed the doll outside myself.

Why outside?

First, to provoke her.

Second, so the villagers could witness her madness over her child's death.

I believed the combined effects of large amounts of hallucinogens, the recordings, and the doll would very likely produce behavior that looked insane.

If the drugs failed, I had a backup.

I'd make her take sleeping pills and turn in early, then hire an actress to impersonate her feeding a baby.

The woman's face and figure resembled hers.

With makeup, the same clothes, and that familiar doorway, no one would question it.

Fortunately, everything went to plan.

The drugs made Tôn Đình perform the scene herself.

Saved me the cost of an actress.

Afterward, while she was dazed by the drugs, I used another recording to suggest:

“The baby's been bricked into the wall.”

So she kept smashing walls to dig her out.

That wasn't enough.

To strengthen the effect, I bribed Dr. Lý.

The village's only doctor.

People trusted him.

If he called her mad, the neighbors would believe it.

Eventually, videos of her feeding the doll and smashing walls circulated locally.

Some neighbors were related to the hometown shareholders on our board.

They'd certainly pass the videos on.

And the shareholders would abandon her.

Then I'd regain effective control.

Under my meticulous, perfect plan, she became utterly confused, accepting every recording as truth.

Of course, I didn't actually need her permanently insane.

Large doses of hallucinogens, prolonged subconscious conditioning, and psychological suggestion would make her behave abnormally.

Once the drugs wore off, she would probably recover.

It didn't matter.

I only needed the shareholders to believe she'd gone mad.

Right up until she died, she still wanted to go home and see the baby in the wall.

Then a train killed her.

That was good, really.

A train only hurt for a second.

Being murdered would have hurt much more.

I'd planned to lure her to Thailand to worship a Kuman Thong, then have Hiểu Huy hire someone locally to kill her.

I'd already paid the deposit.

I knew she was merely confused.

Stop the suggestions and hallucinogens, and she might regain her senses.

But now she'd walked into a train.

I was clean.

All my worries were resolved.

I sat securely at the head of the company.

Ha ha ha.

Only one thing puzzled me.

Why hadn't I found the baby when I opened the grave?

Where had she gone?

I couldn't work it out.

If a wild animal had eaten her, there should still have been fragments of coffin or bone.

There'd been nothing.

As though the burial had never happened.

“Could Widow Vương have been right? Did she crawl out?”

“No. Impossible. A dead baby can't crawl!”

I quickly rejected it.

I'd caused the stillbirth by poisoning her.

Now I couldn't find Tôn Đình's body, and admittedly, that frightened me a little.

Forget it.

No more thinking.

I went to shower.

The moment I turned on the water, a faint rotten smell drifted up.

I frowned.

Familiar.

Like decaying flesh.

Why was it in my house?

I turned off the shower.

The smell weakened.

Had water gone stale in the heater because it hadn't been used?

I turned it on again, intending to empty the tank.

The longer it ran, the stronger the stink became.

At last, I couldn't bear it and abandoned the shower.

Tô Tô would be here soon.

Would she mind that I hadn't washed?

I changed into clean clothes, washed my face, took the stamina pills I'd prepared from a drawer, and put them on the dining table.

Then stretched comfortably on the sofa to watch television.

At eleven sharp, someone knocked.

Finally, Tô Tô.

Desire burned through me.

I hurried to the door.

The corridor was empty.

Had I imagined it?

I closed the door.

Soon, another knock.

Impatiently, I opened it.

Still no one!

The heat in me vanished.

My nerves tightened.

“Who's playing games?”

No answer.

I slammed the door.

Not long afterward, the knocking started again.

This time, I looked through the peephole.

One glance nearly made my legs give way.

An eyeball bulged against the other side.

Bloodshot.

Horrifying.

“Fuck!”

I ran to the kitchen for a fruit knife and yanked open the security door.

“Trying to scare me with ghost tricks, you bastard!”

“Ah!”

Perhaps I'd opened it too hard.

Tô Tô fell to the floor and looked up reproachfully.

“I came to see you. Why are you treating me like this?”

Relief flooded me.

I hurried to help her up.

“What were you doing?”

She glanced at me resentfully.

“I wanted to surprise you.”

I held her.

“That wasn't a surprise. It was a fright.”

Once the door closed, I couldn't wait to kiss her.

After serving that woman Tôn Đình every day, it had been far too long since I'd enjoyed myself.

Tô Tô giggled and dodged.

“Why were you so scared? Lost your child and your wife, and now you're afraid they'll come back for revenge?”

I bit her neck.

“Heartless girl. Wasn't all of this for you?”

“For me? It was for yourself.”

She wrapped her arms around my waist and laughed.

“See? She's dead. Now we can be together openly and enjoy ourselves.”

“Not yet.”

I shook my head.

“Her parents won't agree.”

She looked astonished.

“She's dead. They can still control you?”

I recalled those humiliating years.

“I was poor and desperate. Couldn't even afford university. Tôn Đình paid for my education. I was young. I wanted her family's help to make my future easier. Her parents thought a live-in son-in-law should be like their own son. We even signed a contract. Whatever happens, I have to support them. Otherwise, they'll sue me.”

“What do we do?”

She grew anxious.

“Do you really have to keep them for life?”

“Of course not.”

I snorted.

“I'll have to plan carefully. Find a way to send those two old things off without anyone knowing. Then everything in her family will be mine.”

“You're so clever.”

Her soft hands roamed over me, making me restless.

“Her family must have a lot of money?”

“Not much. A few houses in the countryside. This city apartment still has a mortgage.”

I pinched her waist.

“The company is what matters. But it's a mess right now. I need to straighten it out. And quietly deal with her parents. That'll take a few years to arrange.”

Her smile collapsed.

She abruptly pushed me away.

“I thought getting rid of Tôn Đình meant we could openly enjoy the money she left. Now you're telling me to wait?”

I froze.

“Tô Tô, were you only ever with me for money?”

“At first, I liked your looks. I was bored and wanted some fun.”

She smoothed her hair.

“Then someone reported me for taking patients' cash gifts. I lost my hospital job and my income. Your money was all I could turn to.”

“I can't wait. I owe a fortune for cosmetic surgery. Hand over your assets.”

She glanced at me.

“I have evidence you murdered your wife and child. If you won't pay, everyone will know.”

“Shut up! I didn't kill them! The baby was stillborn. Tôn Đình walked into a train!”

The word “murder” stabbed my heart.

I stood, fists clenched.

“Besides, that child wasn't mine! It was the bastard she conceived by cheating!”

Tô Tô doubled over laughing.

“I'm a nurse at the hospital. How hard do you think it was to falsify records saying the baby wasn't yours?”

“Hứa Lâm Hoa. You really are as cowardly and stupid as your wife said!”

I stared.

“You mean... she was my child?”

Tô Tô snorted.

“What else? Idiot. You killed your own daughter and congratulated yourself for getting rid of a bastard.”

My breathing quickened.

I'd killed my own child!

I still remembered what had made me poison Tôn Đình's food to kill the fetus.

That day, she'd berated me before our staff again.

“Hứa Lâm Hoa, you're an animal!”

“Your pregnant wife works herself to the bone, and you go fooling around with a hospital nurse!”

But I'd only asked Tô Tô a few questions about pregnancy care.

She'd patiently answered, and I'd treated her to a meal in thanks.

“You don't deserve to be human. You should have been born a pig or a dog!”

Her public humiliation stripped me of my masculine dignity.

Of every shred of face.

That same day, Tô Tô had broken up with someone.

She'd invited me for a walk to talk about her misery.

I'd comforted her and told her how my wife mistreated me.

We both drank too much.

Drunkenness carried us into a hotel...

She'd been so gentle.

Nothing like Tôn Đình, who cursed whenever she was angry.

Afterward, Tô Tô hadn't started a relationship with me.

Understandingly, she'd called it comfort between two unhappy people.

Later, she told me my wife had slept with a hospital executive.

At first, I'd half believed her.

During a prenatal visit, I bribed a doctor and arranged the amniocentesis.

I had the sample DNA-tested.

The child wasn't mine.

Tôn Đình had cheated.

That was why I'd got together with Tô Tô.

Why I'd poisoned my wife...

“Ah!”

I roared at her.

“You made me kill my own child! How could you be so vicious?”

“Me?”

She shrugged.

“I helped you. Otherwise, you'd have spent your life beneath Tôn Đình's shadow, a useless coward forever.”

“Relax. No one but me knows you caused their deaths.”

Rage rushed to my head.

“Bitch!”

“I'm a bitch? You're worse. A perfectly good wife and child weren't enough. You had to sneak around.”

She pursed her lips.

“Fine. I'm tired of pretending.”