Chapter 14 He spent four days calculating how many nights each week his mother spent alone in the house.

Lin Mo was awakened by the sunlight.

The curtains weren’t fully drawn, and a thin beam of light shone through the gap, landing directly on his eyelids.

He squinted, turned over, and reached his arm out from under the covers to touch his phone on the bedside table, turning on the screen.

09:17.

He stared at the number for three seconds, then the image of last night’s hallway struck him like a punch to the temple.

Her mother’s body. Backlit. The outline of every curve beneath her black lace nightgown. The instant her pupils contracted when she saw the bulge…