Chapter 2My Stepdaughter Said I Touched Her

Yvonne and Wendy dragged their suitcases out of the apartment.

I stood in the middle of the living room and stared at the closed door.

My hands were shaking.

I was not afraid. But everything I had kept buried for two lifetimes was finally starting to surface.

In my past life, I had given in at that juncture.

The moment Yvonne called me Dad, I agreed.

I cleared out my study for her, bought her a new desk and a new lamp, and treated her like my own daughter.

In the end, all that care got me a pair of handcuffs, three years in prison, and my mother’s life.

I walked onto the balcony and lit a cigarette.

Downstairs, Wendy and Yvonne stood at the entrance of the apartment complex and waited for a cab.

Yvonne was on the phone. Her voice drifted faintly up to me.

“…Grandma, please talk to Dad. He’s acting like he’s lost his mind. He says he wants to divorce Mom…”

She was calling my mother.

Wendy had been married before, but this was my first marriage.

Wendy and I never had children after we got married, so my mother treated Yvonne like her own granddaughter.

But in my past life, after my mother was killed by the dump truck, Yvonne took the compensation money and refused to even buy her an urn.

“She’s dead already. Why waste money on her?”

She had even dumped my mother’s ashes into a roadside flower bed.

…

I took out my phone and called my mother.

The line was busy.

Yvonne was still talking to her.

I hung up and sent my mother a message.

[Mom, no matter what Wendy and Yvonne tell you, don’t agree to anything!]

Then, I called another number.

The phone rang twice before someone answered.

“Hello, Henry?”

It was Harrison Zimmerman, the foreman at my construction site.

He had worked with me for more than ten years. He was an honest man, and he knew how to keep his mouth shut.

“Harrison, I need you to do two things for me.”

“Sure. What do you need?”

“First, go to an electronics market and buy me four pinhole cameras. I need high-definition cameras with audio recording. Bring them to my place tonight and install them.

“Put one in the living room, one in the hallway, one in the entryway, and one outside the master bedroom.”

Harrison was silent for a moment.

“Henry, why do you need security cameras in your house? Does Wendy know?”

“She doesn’t need to know. Just hide them well. I don’t want anyone to notice them.”

There was a brief silence on the other end.

“Henry, what are you trying to do?”

I put out my cigarette and watched Wendy and Yvonne get into a cab and drive away.

“I’m just protecting myself from thieves.”

I knew Yvonne would not let this go.

In my past life, I had been completely defenseless against her.

Things were about to change.

I went into my study, turned on my computer, and created a new folder.

I named it “Evidence”.

In my previous life, I had never expected to protect myself from my own family.

I had to quickly rectify that.

From that day, every word spoken in the house would be recorded. Everyone who came into this house would be caught on camera.

I was going to drag every ugly secret from my past life out of the shadows and into the light, one by one.

My phone rang. It was my mother.

“Henry, Wendy said you don’t want Yvonne to come home and that you want a divorce. What’s going on?”

I had not heard my mother’s voice in more than three years.

She sounded worried and furious.

“Do you have any idea how hard Yvonne is working to repeat her senior year?!

“Wendy has been with you for six years. You can’t just decide to get a divorce like this. Are you even thinking straight?!”

I fought back my tears and let her finish.

When she finally stopped to catch her breath, I said, “Mom, please don’t get worked up. I’ll explain everything in person!”

My mother lived in an old apartment complex on the east side of town. It was a six-story building with no elevator.

When I got upstairs, the door was unlocked. I pushed it open, and I immediately heard my mother’s voice.

“Yvonne, stop crying. I’ll stand up for you. If your dad dares to divorce your mom, I’ll be the first to object!”

Yvonne sat on the couch. She had both hands neatly folded on her knees.

The moment she saw me walk in, she stood up. Her voice was so soft that I could barely hear it.

“Dad.”

My mother sat beside Yvonne. She had one arm around Yvonne’s shoulders and pointed at me with the other.

“You brat, get over here!”

I looked at my mother, and my eyes filled with tears.

In my past life, I never even got to see her one last time.

She was seventy years old, and her hair was completely white.

The wrinkles on her face were much deeper than I remembered.

In my previous life, someone had pushed her outside the police station. She broke her hip and needed three metal pins to hold it together.

She limped for the rest of her life.

Later, a dump truck hit her on a provincial highway. Her body was launched across the road.

At the funeral home, I was still in cuffs. I wanted to reach out and touch her face, but the officers would not let me.

“Mom.”

My throat felt like it was closing up when I spoke.

“Mom, your blood pressure is high. Please don’t get so worked up.”

“Don’t change the subject! I’m asking you, why do you want to divorce Wendy?

“Are you cheating on her? Did she do something to betray you?”