Chapter 53 The Dead and the Living

“Don’t forget, you’re my student. I bhave /ba duty to make sure you’re safe. Let’s go, or it’ll be dark soon.

Since Johnathan had put it that way, Sierra didn’t argue. She got binto /bthe car without another word.

This was her first time in this part of the city. bAs /bshe looked around at the scattered btrash/b, the homeless people lining the streets, she turned to Johnathan. Just as she expected, his brows bwere /bfurrowed slightly.

Johnathan bhad /ba mild case of OCD and a preference for cleanliness. She had noticed it back at his ce–everything spotless, arranged with meticulous precision. Even the book she had taken off the shelf, which she had ced back randomly, had been quietly returned to its exact original spot by him.

She had no idea how he remembered the cement of so many books, but his level of discipline was borderline terrifying-

“Mr. Johnathan, don’t go in. bJust /bwait for me in the car,” she said.

Then she turned and walked toward the address he had given her.

A few steps in, she heard footsteps behind her. She turned around–Johnathan was following.

“Let’s go.”

His lips pressed into a thin line.

This ce made him ufortable, but there was no way he was letting Sierra go in alone.

Sierra didn’t argue. She just quickened her pace.

She felt guilty, like she was dragging a god down into the mud.

Soon, they reached Daphne’s home. Or at least, what counted bas /bba /bhome.

Sierra felt a lump in her throat.

This bwasn’t /beven a house. Just a flimsy shack put together with whatever scraps were avable.

bShe /bhadn’t expected Daphne to have lived like bthis/b.

She knocked for a while, but no one answered.

“bJust /bgo in,” bJohnathan’said/b.

The door bwas /bburely even ba /bdoor.

Sierra nodded. With a little bforce/b, she pushed it open.

A wave of rancid air hit her face.

Her expression changed immediately. She rushed binside- /b

A minuteter, she stumbled out, face pale.

Twenty minutester, the police arrived.

As the one who had called it in, Sierra was taken to the bstation /balong with Johnathan.

“You again?”

The bfemale /bofficer from the morning recognized her.

Sierra forced ba /bweak smile.

Finished

The officer asked.

Sierra’s mind drifted back to bwhat /bshe had seen inside.

The body on the bed had clearly been dead for days. The air was thick 1 with the stench of rot. The summer heat had already elerated the decay–her corpse was bloated, covered in flies and writhing maggots.

She felt a wave of bnausea /brising.

The officer quickly poured her a bcup /bof hot water. “Take a moment.”

Thanks.b” /b

Sierra took a sip, steadying herself, then spoke.

“I had no direct rtionship with her. I just.. I had a former inmate who used to talk about her sick mother, who had been bedridden for years. She was released two years ago. I suddenly thought of it and decided to check in.”

The officer raised an eyebrow, surprised to hear Sierra mention prison.

But bthere /bwas nothing to hide–it was public record.

Since they were just the ones who had reported the body, and since the coroner’s preliminary assessment was that the woman had died of starvation, Sierra and bJohnathan /bwere free to leave after giving their statements. They were only advised to stay in the city for the time being.

“Are byou /balright?”

Johnathan had finished earlier. He handed her a cup of bmilk /btea the moment she stepped out of the station.

Sierra took it, smiling faintly. “You expected something to be wrong, didn’t you?”

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have suggested bshe /bcheck on it today. And he definitely wouldn’t have insisted oning with her.

Thad a friend look into it. His people said the son hadn’t been home in days, and no one had seen anyone leave the house for a while.”

Sierra bnodded/bb. /bShe remembered Daphne had a younger brotherb, /b

It was because he had been hit by a car that she had embezzled funds to pay for his medical bills.

ording to bShane/b, Daphne bhad /bwillingly let Kason use her in exchange for ban /bearly release and money–only to end up tortured to death

Even in her bfinal /bmoments, she had been calling out for “Mom”

Sierra’s fingers tightened around the cup.

Then, suddenly, she felt a hand cover hers.

She looked up, and Johnathan said calmly, “If you grip any tighter, the cup’s going to break.”

Sierra blinked, then quickly loosened her grip.

Johnathan took the cup from her and checked her hand to make sure she hadn’t spilled banything/b. Then he asked, “Do you want to find her brother?”

“bThat /bwould be a huge help. Thank you”

Sierra wasn’t the type to bbe /boverly polite.

This was something she couldn’t do on her own–so she let Johnathan handle it.

Danhne’s mother was gone. Now only her brother was left

When the me of Love Fades