Chapter 2

The police officer helped me up from the ground.

My whole body hurt, my face burned, and my mouth was full of the taste of blood.

"Where's your disability certificate?" the officer asked.

I fumbled in my inner pocket, pulled out my disability certificate, and handed it over with both hands.

"This... can prove I'm really blind."

Chloe came over for a look and sneered: "You can buy fake certificates like this all over the internet. Can a real blind person run their own shop?"

"Exactly!" Devon chimed in. "There are tons of scammers faking disabilities these days! Look how fast he walks---does he look blind to you?"

I opened my mouth, wanting to say the guide dog leads me.

The officer scanned the code on the certificate with his police device.

A few seconds later, he looked up: "The certificate is real."

My heart eased a bit.

But Chloe said: "So what if it's real? He could have hired people to do it. He's the mastermind. Otherwise, why is all the evidence on him?"

Devon shouted into his phone: "Everyone hear that? This sick pervert isn't just pretending to be blind, he's the mastermind! Share this, let him get canceled!"

A stream of curses came from the phone.

The breath I'd just released caught in my throat again.

"Officer," Chloe said. "His massage parlor is right next door. Why don't we search it? Maybe there's more evidence."

"Yeah yeah yeah!" Devon said. "Search it! We'll definitely find more stuff!"

The officer hesitated, then nodded.

Chloe volunteered to lead: "I'll take you. I know the shop."

"I know the shop"---those words stuck in my ears. Why was she familiar with my shop?

I was pushed toward the massage parlor.

The guide dog stayed close to my leg, limping and still trembling.

Going up the stairs, I heard Chloe's footsteps ahead.

She knew the route well, never pausing.

Five minutes later, the officer came down from the second floor.

He was holding an extra phone and a key card.

Chloe told everyone: "The phone was found under his pillow, the key card in the drawer."

The officer turned on the phone.

I heard Sophie gasp.

"These... these are my photos, this is my schedule from last month. How does he have these?"

Chloe said: "Sophie, he's the stalker who's been following you. The evidence is all here."

"It's not mine..." I said. "That phone isn't mine..."

"Not yours?" Devon roared. "It was found under your pillow and it's not yours? Then whose is it? Did it fly in there by itself?"

"I don't know... I really don't know..."

I couldn't explain clearly.

I didn't even know what that phone looked like. How could I prove it wasn't mine?

The officer searched my pockets and pulled out my own phone.

"Is this one yours too?"

"Yes... that's mine..."

The officer turned on the screen and scrolled through the home screen.

"You have TikTok installed on your phone?"

"That's impossible..." I said. "I never installed TikTok. I use screen reader software..."

Chloe leaned over for a look: "Isn't this TikTok? Could I mistake the icon?"

"No..." I got anxious. "That's screen reader software, the icon is different..."

"Different?" Devon said. "You can't even see the screen. How do you know the icon is different?"

I opened my mouth but couldn't speak. He was right---I couldn't see.

Someone in Devon's livestream posted a comment.

"I looked it up! This blind guy registered a TikTok burner account three months ago. His following list only has Sophie Pierce!"

Devon shoved his phone in my face.

"What else do you have to say?"

"I never registered a TikTok account..."

"Never?" Devon roared. "The IP address is from your massage parlor! If you didn't register it, who did?"

Sophie suddenly spoke: "That account... sent me a DM."

Her voice trembled: "He asked me 'Sophie, when are you coming to New York?' and said 'I really want to see you.' I thought it was some creepy fan and ignored it."

Chloe said: "Sophie, why didn't you say this earlier?"

"I thought it was nothing..." Sophie said. "Now that I think about it, he probably targeted me back then..."

"No..." I panicked. "I never sent DMs! I don't even have TikTok!"

Chloe said: "You don't? It's installed on your phone and you don't have it? You registered a burner account and you don't have it? You sent DMs and you didn't?"

"I don't know..." I said. "I don't know why there's TikTok on my phone..."

"Don't know?" Devon laughed. "Stuff on your own phone and you don't know?"

The officer put both phones in evidence bags and looked at me.

"Anything else you want to say?"

I opened my mouth.

What could I say? I said that phone wasn't mine, but it was under my pillow.

I said I didn't have TikTok, but TikTok was installed on my phone, the burner account was mine, the DMs were "sent" by me.

I said I was blind, but nobody believed me.