Egbert was puzzled. “What do you mean?”
“Actually, it was Lucia who killed your mom.”
The moment finally came. I had been waiting for this moment and felt a thrill of excitement.
Egbert’s look towards me was ferocious, as if he could devour me alive. Clenching his teeth tightly, he managed to squeeze out a word. “What?”
“It’s also my fault. I’m too soft-hearted. Every time Lucia said she was broke, I couldn’t help myself and lent her money.” Avery raised a hand to wipe away tears that weren’t there.
“That day, she came to ask me for money again. While I went to get my bank card, your mother went out and demanded to talk to Lucia. When I came out of the room, I saw her push your mother down the stairs.”
“After she saw me, she knelt down and admitted her mistake, begging me not to reveal this, as she didn’t want to go to jail. I was so desperate and scared at the time, so I agreed not to expose the murder. Egbert, I’m sorry. It’s all my fault. If it hadn’t been for Lucia, your mother wouldn’t have…”
Avery certainly had the makings of an actress, and she started sobbing, her hands covering her grinning face.
“I even have the surveillance footage from that day. I was going to destroy it, but I felt pangs of guilt and decided to keep it.”
I was stunned for a few seconds. How did she have the surveillance tape?
She even dared to show it?
The police officer took the flash drive from Avery’s hand and plugged it into a computer. In the video, a man and a woman pushed an elderly lady down the stairs. The woman, who turned around for a moment, bore a striking resemblance to me.
The man in the video was wearing a mask and hat, fully covered, his features completely obscured.
This couldn’t be possible.
I forced myself to calm down. “This must be fake. The image is too blurry. It can’t be real, it must be a staged video.”
Avery bit her lip, her voice trembling as she spoke, “I pulled up this surveillance tape myself. Are you still going to deny it in the face of the truth? No matter what you say, it won’t change the fact.”
Just then, another man walked in.
“Why are you here?” Egbert asked.
“I heard about your mother passing and was worried about you. I even saw a live stream online and knew you were here, so I came to check on you. We’ve been friends for so many years, and you didn’t even tell me when you were in trouble.”
As the man entered, a strong smell of disinfectant wafted from him, making me frown and cover my nose slightly.
“Bernard, what live stream?” Avery asked.
I noticed that Avery and this man exchanged glances, their expressions distinctly unnatural.
Bernard raised his phone towards them, showing them the livestream, with audience numbers ranging from several hundred to over a hundred thousand.
Seeing this, Avery broke down. She stomped towards the door in her high heels, slamming it shut with a loud bang.
“Lucia, you have no shame. Do you think livestreaming will distort the truth?” Her delicate features contorted into a grimace, her stiff, artificial face unmoving, giving me the creeps.
What she didn’t know was that a camera was just above her head, now capturing every facet of her demeanor.
Egbert picked up his phone, ready to call the police. “I’ll bring back that officer to see for himself the kind of woman he was defending.”