Chapter 4Next Life, I Want to Be a Happy Person

To expedite the hunt for Walter Crane, my mother didn't even go home. After calling Lily to remind her to lock her doors, she decided to sleep in her office.

She worked until the early hours of the morning, finally lying down on the small cot. She had just drifted off when her phone shattered the silence.

Six a.m. A call at this hour was never good news.

She shot upright, grabbing the phone. "Rostova."

"Is this Chloe's mother? Your daughter is over a week late on her rent. I can't find her, and you're the emergency contact. You need to come down and pay what she owes."

It was my landlady, a sweet but notoriously early riser.

Despite her fury, my mother managed to restrain herself, knowing she was speaking to an elderly woman. She bit out a cold, "I'll handle it," and hung up.

She sat on the edge of the cot, rubbing her temples. The victim's identity remained a mystery, but my name, Chloe, seemed to be haunting her from every direction.

Frustration boiling over, she pulled out her phone and found my contact information. After a long moment of hesitation, she typed a single, furious line.

Get your ass to my office within the hour.

The message sent instantly, but a red exclamation mark appeared beside it.

Her eyes widened in disbelief. She slammed the phone down on the cot. "You've got some nerve, Chloe," she seethed. "You actually blocked me."

She paced the small office like a caged animal, so lost in her rage that she didn't hear her phone ringing again until the third or fourth time. She glanced at the screen.

It was my name. The contact she had saved simply as "C."

"You've got some nerve, Chloe!" she barked into the phone. "Still playing these stupid games?"

"I'm warning you, even if you were on your deathbed, you would still have to be that maid of honor!"

"Don't think this little stunt will make me forgive you. The only way I will ever forgive you is if you die!"

There was a moment of silence on the other end, then a man's hesitant voice. "Captain? It's me. We've found the primary crime scene. And… we found this phone here."