Chapter 397: What Do You Think

For what felt like forever, Frederick stood completely still, frozen in place. His mind was a total mess. He couldn’t make sense of his emotions or even string together a coherent thought. His whole body felt like Swiss cheese, riddled with bullet holes. The cold seemed to seep right through him, chilling him to the bone. Frederick stood there until his legs gave out, collapsing onto the couch behind him.

Then, he just sat there, completely zoned out, not moving a muscle. It was almost lunchtime when Caroline came downstairs and found Frederick sitting there like a statue.

“Frederick?” Caroline walked over with concern. “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

“Nothing,” Frederick muttered, shaking his head without elaborating.

Just then, Claire walked out of her room and started heading downstairs for lunch. The moment Caroline heard movement and saw Claire coming down, her brain short-circuited.

She thought, “Wait, is that Claire? Holy shit! Is that a ghost? No way. My eyes must have been playing tricks on me.”

This was broad daylight, for crying out loud. Ghosts didn’t just show up in the middle of the day—that was strictly nighttime horror movie stuff. Besides, she’d never believed in ghosts or supernatural stuff anyway. Caroline quickly rubbed her eyes and looked up at the second floor again. This time, she not only saw someone, but she could hear Claire’s footsteps coming down the stairs.

It really was Claire?

Caroline instinctively stepped back, and her heart pounded like crazy in her chest. Wasn’t Claire already dead? She’d died in that car crash, hadn’t she? There was an explosion, and she’d burned to death in that massive fire. So how could she possibly be standing right here? This couldn’t be real.

“I have to be dreaming,” Caroline thought.

Caroline’s eyes were wide with terror, which quickly gave way to disbelief. She kept trying to convince herself this wasn’t happening while pinching her thigh hard enough to make herself wince. The sharp pain made her eyes water. Okay, so this definitely wasn’t a dream or some kind of hallucination.

Was Claire actually alive this whole time?

“What’s wrong, Caroline? Not happy to see me?” Claire’s voice drifted down. “Why are you looking at me like that? You look terrified.”

Claire walked toward Caroline with deliberate and unhurried steps, and a knowing look was in her eyes. That day in the car, when she was drifting in and out of consciousness, she’d heard details of Caroline and Diana’s scheme.

Looking at Caroline’s face now, Claire could tell she was absolutely terrified. She probably couldn’t believe Claire was actually standing there alive and breathing.

At that moment, Claire regretted not waiting until nighttime to make her appearance. She could have just shown up in Caroline’s room after dark instead. Now, that would have given her a real scare, wouldn’t it? But then again, people who did awful things never really sleep peacefully anyway.

“Oh no, Claire, I’m not scared at all! I’m just so incredibly happy to see you.” Caroline rushed to say. “You have no idea how awful I’ve felt. I really thought you died in that car explosion.”

“I’ve been blaming myself this whole time. Gosh, I’m just so relieved you’re alive. Claire, I’ve missed you like crazy!” Caroline fought to keep her terror under control as she threw her arms around Claire, putting on an elaborate show of excitement.

Claire sneered, “Oh really? Well, I don’t miss you. And Caroline, don’t blame me for what I’m going to say. You and Diana were supposedly taking me to the hospital that day, but somehow, we just happened to get into an accident on the way.”

“Sure, accidents happen. They’re unexpected—no one wants them to happen. But isn’t it weird that when the crash happened, I was the only one left in the car? You and Diana had both gotten out. Kind of makes you think, doesn’t it?”

“Anyone would be suspicious. The three of us were driving to the hospital together, but by some amazing coincidence, you two stepped out of the car. And right at that exact moment—what perfect timing—a huge truck slams into us.”

“And oh, would you look at that? It just happened to be an oil tanker that exploded on impact, burning everything to ashes. A pretty convenient way to cover up a murder, don’t you think?” Claire let out a harsh laugh, and her eyes were locked onto Caroline with an icy stare as she laid out her theory.

Then, she turned to Frederick, and her gaze was challenging. “What do you think, Frederick?”