Brother Urged Me Home; Danmaku Said I'd Become a Murderer

At work, my brother messaged me.

Sis, something came up and I have to go out. Come home and take care of Mom.

I was about to ask for time off when a line of text appeared in front of my eyes.

Don't go home. Your mom's condition has gotten worse and she wants to be freed. She schemed with your brother to frame you!

He'll inject your mom with a drug before you get there, then leave just you and her alone in the house.

He rubbed your fingerprints onto that syringe while you were asleep. You'll get the death penalty, and he'll inherit everything himself!

I was a little confused. If that was the plan, why couldn't my mom just write a will and leave everything to Tony Dickerson directly?

Why go to all this trouble?

The danmaku popped up again.

Because your mom doesn't just want Tony to inherit her estate. She wants him to inherit yours too. Your apartment, your car, your savings. She wants to give all of it to Tony!

A chill ran down my spine.

Tony was still pushing me.

"Hurry up, Sis. Don't hold me up!"

I took a deep breath and replied: "I've got work I can't leave. Have the home-care agency send over an hourly worker."

Tony messaged again.

"Sis, how can you be like this? Is work more important than Mom?"

"You always say Mom would 'be better off dead.' Fine. But you can't actually abandon her!"

I had never said that.

He's doing it on purpose. Once your mom is dead, that line becomes your motive.

My finger paused. I searched our chat history for the word "dead."

Tony had complained about it countless times.

"Taking care of her every day, I can't do anything. She'd be better off dead!"

"Lily says she won't marry me as long as Mom's alive. What am I supposed to do, Sis?"

Two days ago, when I went home, Tony wiped my chat history. Said it was an accident.

But I have a habit of backing up my chats. That night, after I got home, I downloaded them from the cloud.

He didn't know.

I replied to Tony.

"I pay you six thousand a month to take care of Mom. That's your job. Push whatever came up to later."

After a pause, Tony replied: "Mom's out of her medication. I have to go pick it up, or she'll run dry!"

Last week when I went back, I'd checked on purpose. What was left was enough for half a month.

I pulled up the date the hospital had last filled the prescription, the medication details, and saved it.

I didn't call him out. "I'll get a delivery runner to help pick up the meds. You wait."

Tony went quiet for a while, then softened his tone.

"Honestly, I'm not feeling well either. I wanted to get myself checked while I'm out."

"A runner can't get checked for me."

"Sis, just take one hour off. I'll come right back the second I'm done!"

Don't believe him. That drug takes effect half an hour after injection.

He'll time it and come bursting through the door, saying you killed your mom!

I took a deep breath.

"I'll send a care worker to the house to cover for you. I can't step away from my work for a minute."

Tony refused in a hurry: "No need. I'll just tough it out."

I let out a small breath. The crisis was off for now.

But since my mom and Tony had already planned this, they were bound to make a next move.

My head was still a tangled mess when the danmaku exploded across my vision again.

Tony's put on gloves and picked up the syringe. He's injecting your mom now!

I sat bolt upright.

That drug has a very short shelf life. If he doesn't inject it soon, it'll go bad.

He'd planned to do it right before you arrived. Now he can't wait.

But I hadn't agreed to go home. So what if he injected her?

Had he already thought of another way to pin it on me?

Manager Walker walked over to my desk with a dark face, his phone screen shoved almost into mine.

"Scarlett Dickerson, you never even asked me for time off. Why is your brother out there running his mouth online?"

"Do you have any idea how bad this looks for the company? Go home right now and make him stop spreading lies!"

On the screen, Tony's eyes were red.

"I don't understand why Sunda is so heartless."

"My mom's been bedridden for years. I'm not feeling well today, and I just wanted my sister to cover for me for one hour. But Sunda won't even approve one hour off."

"If I die, my death is on Sunda!"

Our company was about to go public. Its reputation mattered more than anything.

Tony was deliberately shifting the conflict onto the company, using them to force me home.

The danmaku in the live stream was already nothing but curses.

"And here I was calling Sunda our hometown pride. How can they squeeze their workers like this?"

"Their execs probably don't have mothers. Come on, everybody, cut the orphans some slack for not knowing how to act human."

Manager Walker's face went dark.

So he opened his own live stream.

"Our company has always put its employees' interests first. Scarlett never even came to me to ask for leave!"

"I'm granting Scarlett three days of paid leave, effective right now!"

"Scarlett, go home and take care of your mother, immediately!"

He waved the driver over. "Jonathan Finch, take Scarlett to the Sunnyside apartment complex!"

I stepped back without thinking.

The danmaku boiled over.

"Just go home already, what's the holdup, the company gave you the time off!"

"Look at that face, she doesn't want to go. She has no intention of taking care of her own mother, does she?"

Manager Walker hurried to explain to the camera.

"You all saw it. I gave her the leave, and she still won't go."

"Scarlett, you've got no sense of duty and you're smearing the company on top of it. I'm sending HR to process your paperwork right now. You can clear out!"

The live stream erupted in cheers.

"Nicely done, someone like that deserves to get fired!"

"And to think her brother was blaming the company just now. Turns out she's the unfilial one."

HR brought the paperwork over fast.

No. Even if you're let go, you can't leave the office!

There's a stretch of road between your company and the Sunnyside complex with no cameras. Tony's going to claim you slipped back home along that road.

You have to stay at the office to keep the chain of evidence intact.

I took the paperwork and stayed in my seat, not moving.

Tony called your company's front desk. He knows you haven't left yet.

Sure enough, Tony's message came through.

"Sis, what's your deal? You lied to me before and said the company wouldn't give you leave, and now you've been fired, so why aren't you home yet?"

I replied, "You seem awfully eager to get me home."

"I told you I'm not feeling well and I need to go to the hospital for a checkup!"

"I've lost my job and I'm not feeling well either. I can't leave right now."

He's getting ready to stream again. The drug's about to take effect, and he's panicking!

Your mother's struggling on the bed, saying she can't die for nothing.

A bleak feeling spread through me.

Ever since I was little, Mom had favored Tony.

He got the meat. I got the leftover vegetable leaves.

He wore new clothes. I wore the old hand-me-downs relatives passed on.

When I got into college, I had to earn every cent of my tuition and living expenses myself.

Tony dropped out of high school, and instead of pushing him to find work, she handed him three thousand a month in spending money.

I'd always talked myself into it. Mom was old-fashioned, sons over daughters, it wasn't her fault, blame the era that brainwashed her.

But now, for Tony's sake, she was willing to turn me into a murderer.

My heart died completely.

I closed the chat with Tony and clicked into his live stream.

On camera he wore that wronged, pitiful look.

"My mom's been sick this whole year, and I've been the one taking care of her the whole time. My sister does nothing."

"She says caring for a parent is a son's job, that a daughter has no such obligation, she just waits around to collect her inheritance."

"I don't mind carrying more of the load most days, but I'm sick today. I don't get what's so wrong with her coming back to cover for me for one hour."

"Sis, I know you've always seen Mom as a burden. Sometimes you even wished, you even wished Mom would die... but she's still our mom!"

"Just come back and help me this once, and I promise I'll never bother you again, all right?"

The comments in the live stream boiled over with rage.

"She doesn't want to take care of her own mother, and now she's cursing her to die? How can a woman be this vicious?"

"Your mom raised you from diapers, wiping you clean every day, and you can't even go home to look after her for one hour? Did the dogs eat your conscience?"

The people in the office were staring at me too, contempt plain on every face.

"Scarlett, aren't you cold-blooded? You'd rather sit around doing nothing at the office than go home and take care of your own mother?"

"Mark my words, if that mom of hers ever ends up dead, nine times out of ten it'll be because she killed her!"

"Get out already. You're not our employee anymore, so what right do you have to hang around here?"

I sat at my desk, every eye on me like a blade at my back.

But I had to hold out here.

Hold out until this blame couldn't land on my head.

The comments came again.

Your mom's scared you really won't come back and Tony will get caught, so before the drug kicks in she's started writing a suicide note. It says you couldn't stand her being an old woman who wouldn't die, and that you drove her to kill herself!

She's telling Tony to use that note to squeeze money out of you. Pay up, or he goes public with it and lets everyone spit on your name!

Reading that, my body started to shake without my say-so.

There was no dodging this act now.

Better to walk into their trap on my own terms than sit here and let them scheme against me.

I pulled in a deep breath, grabbed my bag, and left.

I stood right under the building's security camera, called Tony, and started recording at the same time.

"You're not feeling well?"

"Obviously. Why else would I be telling you to come home?"

"And Mom? How is she right now?"

"Mom's perfectly fine!"

"Good."

I hung up and ordered an Uber, asking for a car with dash cams inside and out.

Then I dialed 911.

"There's a patient at the Sunnyside apartment complex who needs emergency help."

The Uber pulled up at the office entrance, and under the camera's watch, I opened the door and got in.

"Wait two minutes before we go."

The ambulance would pass the office on its way from the hospital to my mom's place.

Soon enough, the wail of the siren rose up.

"Follow that ambulance, please."

I called Tony.

"I've left. I'm heading home now."

Tony couldn't hide the excitement in his voice. "Hurry up, I feel like I'm about to die here!"

Tony's saying there's a real shot at getting your inheritance now. He tore up the suicide note your mom wrote!

The second you walk in, he'll leave right away, then come back pretending he forgot something.

Then he'll claim you killed your mom while he was out the door!

Everything that's happened today will become ironclad proof that you resented your mom as a burden and killed her!

I watched the comments in silence, my nails nearly breaking the skin of my palm.

I wasn't going to let him have his way.

Never.

The ambulance pulled up outside my building, and I climbed out of the Uber and went up with the paramedics.

Out of the elevator, I took a deep breath and keyed in the door code.

Tony already had his shoes on. The second the door opened, he was set to bolt.

Then he saw the medic beside me and froze, grabbing my arm.

"Why did you bring a doctor back with you?"

I tilted my head at him.

"Didn't you say you weren't feeling well? I got an ambulance for you while I was at it."

The medic looked Tony over, puzzled.

"Where does it hurt?"

Tony stepped forward quickly. "My chest felt a little tight earlier, but I'm fine now."

"My sister made a big deal out of nothing. You can go!"

"Sis, you look after Mom. I'm heading out to buy some groceries!"

As he talked, he was already pushing the medic toward the door.

They can't leave. He can't be left alone in that room.

I stepped in front of him. "How come I don't hear Mom? Is she not feeling well either?"

"Since the doctor's here, have him take a look at Mom while he's at it."

Tony's face went panicky. "Mom's asleep. Don't wake her up!"

I nodded and stepped out the door ahead of him. "If none of you are sick, then I'll go."

"Don't go out. Whatever groceries you need, I'll have a delivery guy bring them."

Tony's hand shot out and yanked me back.

"You can't leave!"

I looked at him, all confusion. "Why? Didn't you say you were fine now?"

His eyes darted, and he put on a pained look.

"Doctor, just take me straight to the hospital, I suddenly feel bad again... Sis, you stay home and look after Mom..."

The medic frowned. "Lie down first, let us check you so we can give first aid."

Tony got frantic. "Check what? Just haul me to the hospital!"

"How can we do that? What if something happens on the way?"

I leaned to peer toward the bedroom.

"Tony, Mom's always been a light sleeper. How is she not up with all this noise?"

"Doctor, please, go check on my mother. She's paralyzed and bedridden, her heart's bad too. I'm worried something's wrong."

The other medic stood and started for the bedroom.

Tony lunged across the room and blocked him.

"My mom's just fine. Don't disturb her!"

The medic looked him over. "You just said you felt terrible. How are you fine again?"

"I..."

I kept up the puzzled act. "Tony, you seem really nervous. You don't want the doctor to see Mom?"

"That's nonsense, I don't!"

"Then why are you blocking the door? Did something happen to Mom?"

The medic was getting anxious too. "Why are you in the way? Sick or not, let us in for one look!"

"With an elderly patient, a heart attack happens in an instant. Any delay and it's serious trouble!"

Tony planted himself in the bedroom doorway.

"Get out of here, my mom's fine. Are you trying to force your way into treating her? Watch it, I'll report you!"

But everyone could see the guilt on him.

The medic wasted no more words and reached out to shove Tony aside.

In the instant they grappled, a horrible scream came from the bedroom.

Tony froze.

The medic seized the chance, pushed him aside, and rushed in.