155: Nail in the coffin

Nail in the coffin

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"You do understand that unless you talked, there's no way we can protect you."

"Tell us what happened?"

"What compelled you to do this?"

Andrea kept her silence as soon as she was taken into custody. She passed out seconds after Bear kicked her, only to wake up when she was being wheeled on the stretcher. When the medical team told the police she was perfectly fine, they took her to the station for questioning. 

"Miss Andrea Ng. What you had done guarantees a grave sentence. However, we want to believe there is another part of this story." Andrea slowly raised her eyes to the two officers across from her. One of them was a man and then the other was a woman. "Cooperating will give you a lighter sentence — we know you are not this kind of person. Just tell us, what happened?"

'What happened?' Andrea repeated the question they kept asking her about. 'What had compelled me to do this?'

She studied the investigators, who were interrogating her quietly. They looked sincere and eager to know the truth, but alas, Andrea had been in such situations before. Therefore, she was quite relaxed being held in here. Even with the fact she might not get out of there, that was fine with her. 

Life outside was dangerous. Not only those people in the gang were after her, but Andrea was also scared of another thing. 

Heaven.

Contrary to Heaven's name, her effect on people, once her mask was down, was akin to glimpsing at hell. 

Andrea's lips parted to snitch on Heaven, planning to reveal everything to the authorities. They might or might not help her, but she was hoping for the former. After all, bruises and rope marks were evident all across her body. These investigators weren't blind, and surely, they could tell her bruises were something she inflicted way before the incident.

[What… do you want from me?]

Just before Andrea could speak a word, her own voice rang in her head. Her mind was then pulled back to the memory before Heaven stabbed herself. She remembered asking Heaven what she truly wanted from Andrea, only to see Heaven shush her.

'She knew…' Andrea shut her mouth once again while her mind drifted elsewhere. '… she wouldn't let me go like this if she hasn't had plans if I talked about how she held me captive in the wine cellar.' 

Andrea clasped her hands that were over the table, keeping her eyes down.

'I can't say it, can I?' she wondered, remembering that sinister look on Heaven's face. 'That evil wench… just what will she do if I talked?'

At this point, Heaven instilled fear in Andrea's heart that no one else did. Andrea already regrets crossing paths with Heaven, but she knew she would regret it more if she stayed stubborn. She already did her best to exact her revenge, but in the end, just when she thought her goal was within her reach, the surface she was standing on collapsed. 

Andrea felt like she was free-falling right now. She could either land now and break a few bones, or choose to continue this fall and go straight to the fiery land of hell. 

"I didn't mean to hurt her," Andrea blurted out under her breath, setting her distraught eyes on the detectives. "It's just that… she saw me and I got scared. I was scared she would scream, so I tried to stop her."

A layer of tears brimmed her eyes as she went on with this lie. "I do hate Dominic Zhu. I loathe the entire Zhu Family. However, the madam has always been kind to me. Please punish me heavily."

Andrea hung her head low as she confessed, giving only half of the truth. It wasn't a lie, though. Andrea might've hated the Zhu family and wanted to bring them all down, but Heaven did nothing wrong to her. Even when Heaven stayed indoors, she wasn't particularly rude to people. If anything, she just kept to herself and chose to ignore everything around her. 

But that didn't also mean Andrea built any particular attachment to Heaven. She wouldn't try to kill Heaven twice if she felt pity for her. She had no particular emotion toward Heaven, but now that she had, it was something she regretted. 

"Please punish me heavily," repeated Andrea in between her sniffles, feeling exhausted by how her life turned out. "I'm sorry… Madam. I hope she forgives me one day."

The detectives in the same interrogation room looked at each other, nodding as if they had the same understanding. Meanwhile, inside another room that was connected to the interrogation room, stood Dominic and a few people. 

"She hates the Zhu Family?" wondered the chief, keeping his eyes on the glass showing the people inside the interrogation room. "Mr. Zhu, do you know this person?"

Dominic was quiet. His eyes never left Andrea's, noticing the bruises around her wrist and neck. There was still blood on her maid's outfit, but all he could think about was those bloodstains were his wife's. 

"Chief." The chief raised his brows, glancing at the young officer saluting at him. The latter then marched towards them, casting Dominic a glance. 

"It's fine," said the chief, waving dismissively. "How's the investigation?"

The young officer cleared his throat, handing out an envelope. "A tip came in the middle of the investigation."

"A tip?" the chief furrowed his brows as he thought that was quite fast, considering it had only been an hour since the incident.

"It contains important information about the suspect. According to it, Andrea Ng was a biologically male named Andrew Song. He used to be a part of the six-crow gang… he's on the run because he stole kilos of illegal substance." The young police filled in the chief while the latter checked the documents in his hand. 

The more he listened and read, the deeper the lines between the chief's brows were. "Have you confirmed these?" he asked on high alert, raising his head. 

"Yes." The young police nodded, bearing a serious face. "Not just that, but when we checked the Zhu Mansion's CCTV. She was spotted leaving the mansion in the middle of the night last night, only to sneak in tonight. Following her trail, it seemed she met up with someone. Or rather, she was ambushed."

Unbeknownst to Andrea, she made the right call in keeping her mouth shut. If not, she would've put the nail in her own coffin. 

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