Brother, This April Fools’ Day Is the Last One Chapter 09

Brother, This April Fools’ Day Is the Last One Chapter 09

The officer raised a brow. “Chloe?”

“No. We’re here because fourteen of your former employees and students have come forward. They’re accusing you of assault, intimidation, and harassment.”

“We need you to come down to the station for questioning.”

“That’s absurd!” Arthur’s voice echoed through the room.

The officer grabbed his arm, cuffed him, and walked him out.

My parents stood frozen. I could see it, the panic breaking through, as everything they’d believed for years crumbled in front of them.

For the first time, the possibility that their daughter had been telling the truth hit them all at once. Mom pulled out her phone and started calling me.

Dad’s face drained of color. He staggered backward, and someone caught him before he could hit

the floor.

I reached for him before I remembered, my hand passing through empty air.

“Chloe, pick up. Why aren’t you picking up?” Her voice was cracking with panic.

Emma stepped forward. “Ms. Vance, Chloe told me that Lily and Oliver dragged her out of here today. If you can’t find her, start with them.”

Oliver’s mouth snapped shut. He didn’t say a word.

The worst possibility was already taking root in his head. That blackened thing on the kitchen floor,

it might have been me.

He didn’t want to believe it. The oven was broken, everyone knew that. How could it have killed anyone?

Then Lily whirled and pointed at Oliver. “It was him! Oliver’s the one who put Chloe in the oven. That thing on the floor, that might’ve been her. I tried to stop him. I swear I tried.”

Mom crossed the room and grabbed Lily by the shoulders. “What did you just say? Do you have any idea what you’re saying right now?”

Oliver looked at Lily and laughed, a hollow, shattered sound that didn’t belong in a room full of people.

“So that’s who you really are.” Oliver’s voice was flat. “You’re the one who came up with this

prank. You wanted to put her in the oven.”

“And now that it all went wrong, you’re pinning it all on me?”

Dad had already grabbed the keys and raced home. When he got there, the maids were huddled

together, talking.

“That thing, it sort of looked like a person, but we couldn’t tell. It was oozing grease everywhere, so

we tossed it in the dumpster.”

“We cleaned out the whole oven, Mr. Vance. The handyman actually came and fixed it yesterday. I

meant to leave a note this morning, but it completely slipped my mind.”

Her words hit the room like a gunshot.

Oliver tore through the neighborhood looking for the dumpster the maids had used. When he found it, I was in it.

He reached in and tried to lift me out, but my body came apart in his hands.

Something small clattered onto the pavement. A ring. Oliver’s legs gave out the second he saw it.

The police showed up minutes later. “We’ve been running into your family all day.”

“What happened here?”

“Oliver killed Chloe!” Lily screamed. “He killed her!”

Oliver didn’t say a word. He kept his head down.

“That’s not how this works, miss.”

“We’re going to need your whole family to come down to the station.”