Chapter 4

"Maybe she just turned off the watch herself, why are you so anxious?"

Chloe grabbed Leo, "You can't leave! It's New Year's, and you promised to spend it with me!"

Leo helplessly patted her head.

"Chloe, behave. I'll just go check on her. If she's not in any danger, I'll be right back."

"I'll send someone to look."

Chloe insisted, "You have to stay home with me today!"

Leo furrowed his brow, about to say something else.

Chloe suddenly grabbed a fruit knife from the table and held it to her throat.

"If you dare walk out that door today, I swear I'll kill myself right here!"

Mom and Dad screamed, and Leo gasped in horror, quickly raising his hands to placate her.

"Okay, okay, I won't go! Just put the knife down!"

A flicker of triumph crossed Chloe's eyes. She tossed the knife aside.

"It's just finding someone, right? It doesn't have to be you. Don't worry, I'll handle it."

Leo bent down, shaken, picked up the knife, and returned it to the kitchen.

"Don't grab knives like that all the time. What if you get hurt?"

Watching his worried expression, a dull ache spread through my chest.

When I was little, if I didn't come home for more than two hours, he would panic.

Back then, he was the same way, scolding me verbally, but his face was full of worry.

"Do you know how long I looked for you? Who told you to run off? What if something happened?"

But ever since Chloe came back, I became invisible.

Even if I deliberately didn't come home for a whole night, no one cared.

When I was a teenager, I couldn't understand and once asked Leo, my eyes red, why he didn't look for me.

He shook his head, amused.

"Stella, didn't you have your GPS watch?"

"I told you, that was the way home. You could find your way back yourself."

Years later, that sentence still echoed in my mind.

What I couldn't understand before, I understood perfectly now.

The way home?

From the moment Chloe returned, I had no home anymore.

The next day at noon, Chloe showed Leo a video.

The video showed my back, happily picking mushrooms.

Chloe's assistant asked, "Stella, do you want to come home?"

I didn't even turn around, impatiently saying, "Tell Mom and Dad I'm doing great here, and I'm never coming back."

The assistant asked again, "Where's your watch?"

My tone was flat, "It's off."

The video was clearly doctored, but Leo didn't notice.

He didn't care what I said; instead, he sighed in relief, smiling.

"It's good that Stella's okay. Looks like she's quite used to living there."

"I'll go pick her up after New Year's."

Chloe was furious. "Didn't you hear her say she doesn't want to come back?"

Leo didn't care.

"It's just a phase. Nowhere's better than home. She'll get tired of it after New Year's."

Saying this, he didn't forget to add, "Tell your assistant to leave Stella some extra cash, so she doesn't run out."

He said this and then left for work, completely missing the fierce jealousy in Chloe's eyes.

The door clicked shut, and Chloe immediately called her assistant.

"Bury Stella's body somewhere, anywhere. Even dead, she's still got Leo wrapped around her finger. What a bitch!"

The assistant, who had never done anything like this, his voice trembling, "What if they find out...?"

"What are you scared of? You didn't kill her. Burying her is practically doing a good deed!"

Saying this, she remembered something else, and a strange, chilling smile played on her lips.

"Oh, and get her phone back for me."

"Leo will definitely text her. If no one replies, he'll get suspicious."