Chapter 8 — Mother and Twin Daughters

The next second, a heavy flowerpot plummeted from above the doorframe, shattering directly onto the exact spot where I had been standing just moments before. Rich earth and jagged porcelain shards exploded outward, scattering across the floor. Arthur's face drained completely of color, turning a ghastly white. Amanda gasped aloud, the words slipping past her lips before she could stop them:

"Who told you to step aside!"

A profound, suffocating silence descended upon the entire office. Keia clutched her arm as she stumbled to her feet, tears of sharp pain streaming down her face, yet she did not forget to scream at the woman across the room:

"Mom, are you okay?"

My mind went entirely blank for a few terrifying seconds, and then I instinctively lunged forward, wrapping my arms tightly around my daughter's trembling frame.

"You scared me half to death."

Keia's voice shook uncontrollably as she pressed her face against my shoulder.

"I never intended to sign. I truly never planned to sign that paper. I only wanted to see what those people were actually plotting."

Meanwhile, Tinh Hoa had already pulled out her phone.

"Every single word has been recorded."

Arthur finally snapped out of his dazed shock, pivoting sharply on his heel with the intention of making a run for it. But the heavy sound of approaching footsteps echoed loudly from the stairwell below. Several figures in sharp uniforms appeared, blocking the exit at the top of the stairs. Tinh Hoa stepped to the side, her voice cutting through the air like shards of ice.

"Arthur, you are under suspicion of contractual fraud, deceptive advertising, forgery of authorization documents, and attempted intentional assault. Save your explanations for the police."

Arthur snapped his head around, his gaze locking onto Keia with a look of utter betrayal and fury.

"Did you call the police? I am your father!"

Keia slowly wiped the remaining tears from her cheeks, her expression hardening.

"The only time you ever remembered you were my father was when you wanted to sell me off."

Amanda tried desperately to stammer out a denial, but Tinh Hoa stepped forward, opening her laptop to project evidentiary files one by one onto the large conference room screen. Fabricated photographs of centrally managed flagship stores. Counterfeit letters of authorization. Transfer histories belonging to the defrauded franchisees. Screenshots of private chat logs between Amanda and Arthur, meticulously detailing their plot to "collect franchise fees upfront and then shut the company down overnight." There was even correspondence arranging for someone to position the heavy flowerpot above the doorway to manufacture a fabricated surveillance video that would "prove Khuong Le had accidentally tripped and fallen down the stairs all by herself." Dennis Tran’s legs turned to jelly, and he collapsed heavily onto the floor, utterly defeated.

It turned out that from the very day Keia had received that initial invitation, the two sisters had already quietly set their plan into motion. Keia had taken on the perilous task of pretending to be tempted, infiltrating the company's internal ranks to secure the promotional materials and fraudulent contract templates. Tinh Hoa, on the other hand, had taken charge of contacting the victims who had fallen into the franchise trap, locking down the ironclad evidence and coordinating directly with law enforcement to intervene at the exact right moment.

I looked down at Keia, my voice laced with lingering shock.

"Then why did you keep all of this hidden from me?"

The girl lowered her head, shrinking slightly into herself just like she used to do when she was a little child caught making a mistake.

"I was afraid you wouldn't be able to act convincingly enough."

I was so exasperated I wanted to scold her fiercely, yet my heart ached too much to actually do it. Tinh Hoa stood quietly nearby, calmly adding fuel to the fire.

"She was also worried that you would grow too softhearted at the crucial moment."

Keia instantly rose in defense of herself, glaring at her sister.

"Mother proved to be exceptionally firm just now, not softhearted at all."

I looked back and forth between my two daughters, a sudden, searing warmth prickling behind my eyelids.

The case eventually proceeded to a formal trial. Tinh Hoa walked into the courtroom standing tall and resolute as the legal representative for the aggrieved franchisees. On that day, she wore a sharp, tailored black suit, her presence commanding the room. Her voice was not thunderous, but every single word rang out with crystal-clear precision.

"For an extended period, the defendant deliberately exploited familial ties to cultivate misplaced trust, fabricating nonexistent business capabilities to lure numerous victims into signing fraudulent franchise agreements and extracting exorbitant fees. The actions of the defendant do not constitute ordinary business failures, but rather a meticulously premeditated scheme of fraud."

Arthur sat rigidly in the defendant's chair, his hair noticeably greater and thinned out compared to before. He cast a long, incredibly complex look toward me where I sat in the public gallery. I did not flinch or look away. More than a decade prior, he had arrogantly declared that I lacked the capability to raise two children on my own. More than a decade later, he sat in that very chair, forced to listen as the quiet daughter whom he had once believed lacked the courage to even raise her voice personally delivered him into the confines of a prison cell.

Keia sat directly beside me, her palms slick with nervous sweat. She tilted her head upward, asking in a hushed, tentative whisper:

"Mom, do you still harbor a fear that I might turn out bad?"

I reached out, closing my hand firmly over hers.

"I used to be terrified of that."

The corners of the girl's eyes grew red and glossy. I continued softly:

"Yet what I feared even more was the thought that, back then, I might have truly left with only one child."

Tears spilled instantly from Keia's eyes, rolling silently down her cheeks.

When the trial concluded and the courtroom emptied, Tinh Hoa emerged into the sunlight. Keia was the very first to dash forward, throwing her arms eagerly around her younger sister.

"Counselor Tran, you were outrageously cool in there just now."

Tinh Hoa wrinkled her nose in feigned disgust, pushing her sister away with an exasperated shove.

"Watch out, don't get your makeup smudged all over my clothes."

"I want to smudge them on purpose."

"So childish."

"And what can you possibly do about it?"

Standing a few paces behind them, I watched the two of them bickering back and forth like they always did, and suddenly burst out laughing, a genuine, resounding sound of release.

In the end, Arthur was handed a definitive prison sentence. Amanda did not manage to slip away unscathed either, facing her own legal reckoning. Dennis Tran, due to his direct involvement in fabricating official documents, was prosecuted under a separate docket. As for the victims of the fraudulent franchise scheme, they gradually recovered a portion of their hard-earned money through asset liquidation. My own shop name was officially and permanently registered, earning full legal protection.

When the dust had finally settled, Keia brought back the exact share-allocation contract that had originally been prepared for her to sign, carefully tucking it away inside an old, well-worn notebook kept at home. It was the very same notebook where she used to practice writing her fictional journal entries years ago. At the very bottom of the final page, she had scrawled a single sentence: I was not born a bad person; I simply came dangerously close to taking a wrong turn.

Beneath her words, Tinh Hoa had neatly appended her own line: Straying from the path can be corrected, but breaking the law is unforgivable.

Keia flew into an outraged fit upon reading it, chasing her younger sister in a wild sprint across half the apartment. Sitting comfortably on the sofa, I laughed until my stomach ached.

That evening, as I gazed at the glowing screen, the familiar rolling commentary appeared in my field of vision once more. This time, however, the glowing text was no longer stained a blinding, ominous red.

[The original tragic storyline has been completely shattered.]