4 Chapter Four -

Truth seemed to crush me with a heavy sense of pain.

The girls who had always been ahead of me, dealt with life as if it was served to them on a silver platter, aching over some new-found wounds. I felt so confused. They had destroyed my soul, belittled my dreams, and were now facing demons of their own.

Did that make me feel satisfied, happy? No.

For some weird reason, seeing my former bullies hurting and messed up brought along a feeling of epiphany; wrongdoers do get to pay, yet seeing anyone in pain is never going to give you the healing you want.

I had turned so bitter and frustrated in the need to see the ones who hurt me pay, yet upon seeing them suffering, it made me realise that this was not what I wanted. I wanted happiness, healing and a sense of success.

This was not what I had dreamed of.

Standing behind the interrogation room's mirror-window, I could see my ex tormentors answering questions; arrogance had always been their biggest traits. They were giving short replies, wearing glamorous jewellery and eyeing Detective Maggie with fury. Still just the same.

Seeing their soul still mingling with a sense of elitism made me feel a sense of pity for them. These girls were so lost, they were messed up and making all of the wrong choices in life. Their arrogant soul made me question so many aspects. Was jeopardising all my goals and dreams because of these girl's worth it? Was I a fool for allowing their opinion to crush me? Regret and agony couldn't stop poking in my heart.

I could see the police questioning the girls about whether they had felt they were being followed in the past couple of months, noticed any suspicious activity, yet their investigation was going nowhere, the girls had noticed nothing but their own selves. They were so self-absorbed.

Hearing their vague answers made me feel so confused. Why had Sid written down the names of these girls? What was his motive? He had scratched their names, which seemed like a clear threat to them, but hadn't done anything so far. I have noticed cases in which insane psychopaths believed sweet gestures meant harming those who had harmed their obsessions. Yet, this guy had done nothing of that (not that I wanted him to do something), but it's just that harming these girls would have made more sense of his part.

Frowning, I let out a yelp as someone tapped my shoulder from behind.

"Yes," I turned around with an anxious look on my face.

"Grace, we just got a package sent to our police station. It had your name stapled on top of it. The investigation team seems to think it's been sent by Sid. Would you mind coming with us to see if you can identify any of its contents?" Sana asked expectantly, making me nod and give her a weak smile.

Another package?

What was this guy up to?

There had to be a message hidden somewhere, but I couldn't figure out what that message was. And from the looks of it, the police seemed just as baffled as me. Stepping inside a small storeroom, I noticed a group of lady officers standing around a huge square table, with contents of several boxes spread on it. Everyone was wearing gloves as they handled the contents and made notes in their small notebooks.

Sana handed me a pair of gloves to wear, too. I guess while Maggie was busy, Sana had to take charge.

"Here," she then grabbed a file labelled '2019 Clues' and handed it to me. I was so done with files.

Shakily opening it, while wondering what the files could reveal, I quickly went through the first few pages and met Sana's gaze.

"These are just some bank records and financial documents," I gave her a baffled look. "I don't understand."

"These bank records and documents belong to your father's friend 'John'." She informed. "They are proof of him and his son employing corrupt means of earning money. Their recent trade with some oil industries is done on illegal grounds…"

What? Uncle John and Jamie were doing corruption? Their extravagant wealth was nothing but a vicious display of greed and selfish? I felt so wronged.

These people, our close family friends, were exploiting the rights of others, taking what was not there. It was so wrong.

"B-But," I literally stuttered, not believing what I just heard. "How could that be? And w-why would Sid tell us this?" My voice turned squeaky.

"That is what we want you to tell us." She gave me a look. "Has your father's friend ever wronged your family in some way, defrauded them in business or anything?" Hmmm. I couldn't recall anything of that sort.

Uncle John had always been a quiet and sweet guy. Although, his family did sometimes treat us like a bit offhandedly, but they had always been there for us. Even after Jamie's rejection. I had always been like a daughter to Mr and Mrs Wright.

Wait! Could Jamie's rejection be included as doing my family wrong? No, absolutely not. That was done on an understanding basis. The whole matter had been kept extremely private and as subtle as possible, which is one of the reasons I had respected Jamie. He hadn't completely rubbed it in my family's face.

So, with everything about the change in plans always kept under the wraps, I was convinced that Sid couldn't know anything about it. He may be my stalker, but the backtracking of promises verbally took place ages ago, he couldn't have known anything about it. Although, I wasn't going to leave anything out of knowledge, so I just shrugged at Sana's inquiry.

"Ummm…Mrs. Wright wanted me to j-join their family, b-but their son didn't agree with their plans." I tried keeping my pain wrapped up at this confession. I didn't like the feeling of ever being treated like I wasn't good enough. It seriously hurt.

"Hmmm," Sana immediately wrote this information in her diary. In comparison to Maggie, Sana seemed like an emotionless and hard-working secretary; her mannerism seemed bored and robotic. Maggie, on the other hand, was that stern boss who kept composed and dedicated, yet hid a storm of emotions hidden in her façade. She seemed like a dedicated officer, truly concerned about her cases and the people who are suffering because of them.

I felt like I could trust Maggie more.

Pondering over what Sid could possibly be up to, what were his reasons for revealing all this information, I turned around as Maggie now stepped into the room.

"They haven't noticed anything particular," she announced, looking at all the officers. I felt so confused. Nothing at all, so suspicious.

What game was Sid playing with us?

"Grace," she turned towards me. "There is nothing we can do at the moment. So why don't you come to my office, and we can spend some hours studying all the information that we have gathered till now, I think there is some kind of message Sid is trying to send you. Together, we can try decoding it.��

"O-of course," I nodded.

Sid was sending me a message, something only I would understand, and I think, with the help of the police, I could be able to decipher what he wanted to say.

I knew that he was a dangerous threat. This was a game, but I wasn't going to try my best not to lose. Unlike the police officers, I wouldn't allow this case to remain a mystery and Sid to taunt my ignorance.

I was going to escape his dark games…

Eventually.