Dad, I'm No Illegitimate Child

---- Chapter 7 "shut up!" Dad slammed his palm against the table, his face twisting. "Oh right," the abductor said, leaning forward without a trace of fear. His eyes locked onto Dad's, and a cold laugh slid out of him. "Do you know what your daughter said before she died?" I saw Dad's eyelid twitch. "She said, 'Dad, why don't you ever believe me?'" The man's laughter grew wild, filling the interrogation room with that warped, icy sound. Dad's jaw clenched, the muscles in his face twitching as he forced out each word.

"Did you really kill her?" "Of course," the man said, his eyes bloodshot with a kind of sick pleasure. "I called you. I warned you, but you didn't believe me. And I did exactly what you told me. You said to cut her into pieces, so I did. 1 made sure to fulfill your wish." The cramped, dim room fell quiet all of a sudden. It was the kind of silence that settled over the place right before death. ---- Dad's expression shifted from fury to numbness, then finally to a chilling calm. I watched him raise a hand and switch off the surveillance camera. Then he walked to the door and locked it.

For the rest of the afternoon, screams and curses tore out from inside that room. No matter how hard the officers outside pounded on the door, Dad never opened it. When the door finally swung open, he stepped out, covered in blood from head to toe. He stared into thin air, though it looked as if he were speaking to his colleagues or perhaps someone only he could see. "T beat him to death." I didn't know exactly what happened, because the moment he shut the door earlier, a grim reaper had pulled me away. Everything afterward was relayed to me later by that grim reaper.

On my final day in the mortal world, the grim reaper asked whether I wanted to go back to take one last look. I hesitated, then nodded. The next time I saw Dad, he was in prison. He seemed ---- to have aged overnight. He sat on the narrow bed, his head tilted as he stared at the small window high on the wall. His eyes were half-closed. I couldn't tell what he was thinking. He didn't move and simply sat there like a statue. I sat by his feet and looked up at the same sliver of light coming through the window. After a long time, a faint sigh slipped out above me, threaded with a tremor.

"Edith, I'm sorry." When I left the prison, I felt strangely calm. The grim reaper spoke to me again. "You have a choice. Reincarnate with no memory and become someone entirely new, or return to life as Edith, carrying all your memories." I didn't hesitate. "I want to be reincarnated." He looked surprised. "Most people who die unjustly choose to return for revenge. Don't you want that?" I gave a small, bitter smile. "Of course I want revenge. ---- But I never want to be his family again." As I stood in line for the oblivion potion, the grim reaper brought news.

Dad had received a suspended death sentence for murder. Once he was imprisoned, all the old corruption cases resurfaced. The amount of money he had embezzled and taken in bribes was staggering enough to explain the villas, the luxury cars, and the lavish life he had given Agnes and Helen. Agnes tried to flee with Helen overnight but was stopped at the airport. Their house was seized, and their bank accounts were frozen. Ina fit of rage, Agnes slapped a policewoman and was arrested on the spot. All the fraudulent deals she had made by leveraging Dad's position were exposed one after another.

I listened and laughed quietly. Justice had been served, and they had faced retribution at last. But none of it mattered to me anymore. 1 lifted the oblivion potion to my lips and drank it in one go.