Jonathan spoke as though what they were discussing had nothing to do with him at all—as though it were not something he himself had experienced.


    "You''ve said the same things more than once, and each time, you speak with such pain and sincerity. It''s almost as if you were speaking the truth. At this point, I can even finish the story for you," he said coldly. "You tried to reach my room from the window, but you slipped and fell, hit your head, and briefly lost consciousness. By the time you woke up, the firefighters had already arrived. You were desperate to rush back into the fire to rescue me, but were stopped by them. Isn''t that about right?"


    "That''s exactly how it was!" Elizabeth nodded. "Jonathan, don''t you believe me?"


    She looked at her son with a mix of hope and hurt in her eyes, but he merely gave a soft scoff of disdain through his nose.


    Whether it was then or now, she had always used the same script to describe what had happened that night.


    The mockery in his eyes deepened. "Have you repeated the story so many times that you''ve even managed to deceive yourself?"


    Her gaze flickered sharply again. The unease gnawing at her had be impossible to ignore.


    Why does he keep talking about the fire that night?


    Don''t tell me...


    Has he uncovered what really happened that day—and the real cause of the fire?


    "I-I swear, I''m telling the truth! Your misunderstanding of me runs too deep, Jonathan. I admit, I neglected you when you were little. I often failed to be a proper mother to you, but no mother would ever ignore her own child''s life at a moment like that! I-"


    He found her hollow words utterlyughable. Taking out his phone, he tapped on the screen several times, then turned it around, holding up an old photo before her eyes.


    "Then exin this."


    It was a somewhat blurry photograph. Against a dark background, a disheveled figure stood barefoot under a streemp, wearing only light clothing. She had her hands on her hips, gasping for air as though she had been running for her life. Though the light from the streemp was faint, it perfectly illuminated half of the woman''s face—it was unmistakably Elizabeth.


    In the upper right corner of the photograph, one could vaguely see a patch of night sky glowing bright red-clearly from the raging mes of a burning vi.


    Furthermore, there was a timestamp on the lower right corner-showing exactly when the photo was taken.


    Elizabeth stared at the photo, dumbfounded. It felt as though someone had stolen her voice from her; she couldn''t make a single sound.


    "Well? Why don''t you exin this to me?" Stepping forward, Jonathan brusquely shoved the photo toward her panicked eyes again. "ording to yourstory, when the vi caught. fire, you should''ve been lying unconscious downstairs. So why were you at the foot of the hill at that exact time? Based on the


    timestamp, the firefighters hadn''t even arrived yet."


    She swallowed ufortably, her throat dry and scratchy. The photo,bined with his usatory tone, seemed to trigger some kind of


    nightmarish shback for her


    causing her to stagger backward unsteadily, herplexion growing even paler.


    "I-I don''t know! Where did you even get this? It has to be fake! Or photoshopped! And besides, the person in the photo isn''t even me!" She argued desperately, gritting her teeth.


    "Is the photo fake? Or is it real, but the person in it isn''t you?" He let out a coldugh


    as he put his phone away. "Get your story straight. Are you confused... or have you finally run out of lies?"


    "It''s fake!" she denied, shaking her head vehemently.


    Jonathan turned to Derek. "Is the photo fake, Grandpa?"


    Derek''s expression was simrly grim, the deep creases on his face seeming even more pronounced under the bright midday sunlight.


    Looking at Jonathan with a mixture of heartache and guilt, he gave a heavy sigh.


    "It''s real."


    Clearly, he, too, had discovered the photo while investigating the incident in the past.


    The photo had been taken by one of


    the residents living nearby, who noticed the mes engulfing the vi on top of the hill and rushed out to check on the situation, inadvertently capturing the disheveled Elizabeth in the shot.


    But he had never shown the photo to Jonathan, even though so many years had passed.


    He felt that the very existence of the photo was too cruel to Jonathan.


    It tantly proved that, when the fire broke out at the vi that night, Elizabeth''s first instinct as a mother was to save herself to flee toward safety, as far away as possible, on her own.


    The thought of her son, sleeping in the room beside hers, had never even crossed her mind. She had abandoned him,pletely.


    The fire hadn''t even gotten out of control yet at the time, but... it never even urred to her to wake Jonathan when she fled for her life.