Her Last Lesson

I did not move. I only stared at her coldly.

Seeing no reaction from me, Evelyn burned with rage.

She picked up my son's favorite superhero action figure from the table beside her.

"If he may never wake up again, keeping these things will only feed your delusions."

Before the words had fully fallen, she smashed the figure hard onto the floor.

The toy shattered into pieces.

My heart shattered with it.

My son had begged me for that toy for so long before I finally bought it for his birthday.

The relatives and friends whispered among themselves, their eyes full of accusation and contempt as they looked at me.

Evelyn's cruelty continued.

She picked up my daughter's first-curl locket.

I had made it myself with the first lock of hair cut from my daughter's head.

She held up the tiny locket and walked toward the metal fire basin in the corner.

"I'll burn it as an offering for your atonement."

"No!"

I could not bear it anymore.

I sprang up from the floor like a desperate animal.

I roared, "Evelyn Hart, who do you think killed them?

"It was you!

"They died the night you locked them in the sauna!"

Evelyn froze.

She turned and looked at me as if I had gone mad.

"What nonsense are you saying now?"

She thought I was raving, trying to escape blame.

She was about to crush the locket in her hand.

Just then, her phone chimed.

A multimedia message had arrived.

She pulled out her phone impatiently, assuming it was another sympathy message.

But when she saw the screen, her whole body stiffened.

It was the autopsy report from the hospital.

Under cause of death, in bold black type, it clearly read: acute respiratory failure and suffocation caused by high temperature.

Below that was the time of death.

It was the night they had been locked in the sauna.

Evelyn's pupils shrank violently.

Every trace of color drained from her face.