By Zephyria 
What on earth is this man talking about?
Chrissy could only stare at him blankly. He couldn’t believe anything he had just heard. Especially the last part.
Nathaniel Miller fell silent after those words. Only a heavy silence settled between the two of them. Chrissy had so many things he wanted to say that he ended up unable to say anything at all. How much time had passed while they simply looked at each other in silence?
After a short knock, the door opened and the police officer who had first guided Chrissy here peeked his head in.
“Time is up. Please come out.”
Only then did Chrissy realize he hadn’t managed to say a word. Regret washed over him belatedly, but there was no changing the time that had already passed. He hesitated, but eventually stood up obediently. It was just as he was about to step outside that Chrissy finally spoke.
“……I’ll come back.”
At the words he barely managed to squeeze out while looking back, a faint smile appeared on Nathaniel’s lips. That was the extent of his reaction. Chrissy bit his lower lip, then quickly turned away and stepped outside.
……This is frustrating.
The weather was exceptionally sunny and the air was incredibly refreshing, yet Chrissy felt a suffocating tightness in his chest. How was he supposed to make sense of this situation? Nathaniel Miller’s sudden confession and everything surrounding it were simply confusing. Covering his face with one hand, he stood still for a moment before composing himself and looking up.
The first thing he needed to do now was check how the case was progressing.
The fact that Nathaniel Miller killed Chrissy’s adoptive father remained an immutable truth. The problem was how the case would proceed from here. The prosecution would naturally indict him for murder, but how did he plan to defend himself? Were there any chances of winning? An acquittal would be an absurd conclusion, so if that were the case…….
Thinking up to that point, Chrissy suddenly frowned. Why am I thinking from the murderer’s perspective right now? Regardless, if a crime was committed, a fitting price must be paid. No matter the reason, murder is the most heinous of crimes.
But even so, is the reason I’m trying to piece together a trial from Nathaniel Miller’s perspective because the opponent is Nathaniel, or because the victim was that man?
Justice is an absolute value. The scales do not tilt regardless of the situation or circumstance. Is that not why the Goddess of Justice is blindfolded—to maintain an absolute equilibrium?
However, Chrissy’s scales were already tilted. Was he not constantly thinking about how to make Nathaniel’s crime lighter? Realizing this, Chrissy became utterly confused.
“……Haa.”
It was just as he let out another deep sigh. Suddenly, he felt his phone vibrate, and upon checking the number, he remembered someone he had forgotten.
“……Mother.”
When he answered and reluctantly spoke, the sound of sobbing came from the other end.
“Chrissy…… please help me, what on earth is happening…….”
For a moment, Chrissy couldn’t find the words and simply listened to his mother’s crying. In this situation, she was also a victim. How great must the shock be to discover the true nature of the man she had trusted and relied on her entire life?
“I’m coming now.” Chrissy said and hung up. He was the only person who could comfort her right now.
The once quiet and peaceful neighborhood now felt somewhat unsettled. Perhaps because of the gruesome murder, the air felt bleak and even gloomy. Chrissy parked his car on the road in front of the house, likely where Nathaniel had parked, and stepped out of the driver’s seat. The garden, which his father had meticulously maintained, was a mess of overturned soil and trampled grass, as if people had been walking all over it. It was as if it were demonstrating that there was no longer anyone to tend to that garden.
Stepping back into the house he had barely escaped from required considerable courage. Standing before the door, he took a deep breath before ringing the bell, clenching and unclenching his fists to steady his trembling hands.
The familiar yet terrible sound of the doorbell echoed from the other side of the door. A moment later, the sound of hurried footsteps approached, and the front door swung open abruptly without the other person even checking who it was.
“Chrissy……!”
“Mother.”
Chrissy embraced his mother, whose eyes were already filled with tears, as if to comfort her. She hugged Chrissy tightly, then quickly pulled away and spoke.
“Come inside quickly. What in the world is going on…… let’s talk inside.”
His mother turned and walked in first, but Chrissy couldn’t bring himself to step inside immediately. Terrible memories resurfaced as if they had happened only yesterday, leaving him frozen and pale. Seeing this, his mother looked back, walked toward him, and grabbed his arm.
“What are you doing? Why aren’t you coming in? It’s okay, all the traces have been cleaned up.”
Ultimately, Chrissy was led inside by his mother. He felt a faint scent of blood, but of course, it was an illusion. The interior was so clean that it was hard to believe such a horrific event had taken place there.
“Please sit. Shall I get you something to drink?”
“No, I’m fine.”
Chrissy shook his head and sat in a spot slightly away from where she had offered. It was a position as far as possible from the chair his father used to sit in. He was almost impressed by his mother’s composure in offering a drink even in this situation. However, her visibly haggard face clearly revealed how much she had been suffering.
Nodding as if acknowledging his refusal, she sat on a single-person sofa next to him and soon lowered her head. Judging by the way her tightly bitten lips trembled, she seemed to be desperately holding back tears. She must feel like her world is collapsing, Chrissy thought as he took his mother’s hand. He intended to comfort her, but she subtly pulled her hand away. Chrissy assumed she did so to wipe away her tears.
“What should I do now?”
Was she asking how she should live her life from now on? Chrissy rested his arms on his thighs and leaned forward as he answered.
“You have to overcome this. I’m sure you can do it, Mother.”
“Of course. I believe so too. You’ll help me, right?”
Chrissy nodded at his mother’s question.
“Of course. I’ll gladly do whatever I can.”
Up to that point, it wasn’t bad. It would have been better if it had ended there, but Chrissy spoke words he should have kept to himself.
“I know you must have been hurt by that bastard too. But I also know that none of it was your fault, so…….”
Chrissy stopped mid-sentence. This was because his mother’s expression as she looked at him was completely different from what he had expected.
“What do you mean by that?”
Chrissy was momentarily flustered by her cold, frozen expression. Could she possibly not know yet?
He thought she might have just been shocked by the sudden fact of her husband’s death, but he was wrong. His mother glared at Chrissy with a chilling gaze and continued coldly.
“He is not that kind of person. Everyone is just misunderstanding. The investigation is ongoing, so everything will be revealed soon—that this is all a wrongful accusation…….”
Chrissy felt as if he had been struck, left dazed. His mother knew. She knew what kind of person that man was. She simply refused to believe it. Since the newspapers and everyone else were talking about it, he thought it would be harder for someone who didn’t know, but…….
Chrissy also knew how immense that man’s presence had been to his mother. Just as his biological mother had been to his biological father.
And his adoptive father, like his biological father, had betrayed his own wife. He could fully understand how great a despair that fact must be.
But even so, one cannot deny reality. Nor the crimes that man committed.
“Mother, I understand how you feel, but Father was not the good person you think he was.”
He spoke calmly, suppressing his emotions as much as possible, but his mother’s attitude remained adamant.
“Your father is not that kind of person. How could such a devout man do such a thing? Stop talking nonsense.”
Seeing her grow angry at him, he felt that he could no longer hide it. He had to say it. If not now, he would never be able to say it for the rest of his life.
How that man had betrayed his mother.
“No, Mother.”
Chrissy lowered his voice significantly to suppress his emotions, but he still couldn’t hide the tremor in his voice.
“I was also victimized by that bastard. For several years, starting from six months after I arrived here.”
The words poured out of him rapidly. It took an enormous amount of energy to reveal the secrets he had kept hidden all this time. As he looked at his mother, feeling a sense of exhaustion as if all the strength had been drained from his body, Chrissy froze.
He had expected his mother to be frozen in immense shock, but she showed no agitation whatsoever. Seeing her furrowed brow as she looked at him with unwavering eyes, Chrissy was left speechless. What… no, surely, that’s…
Impossible.
“……You knew.”
Chrissy spat out the words heavily, as if releasing a breath that had been trapped. Then, he murmured hollowly, as if he had lost his soul.
“You knew what that bastard did to me.”
His mother lifted her chin and narrowed her eyes. Staring at Chrissy with a look of contempt he had never seen before, she muttered.
“So, what?”
Her once calm breathing was slightly disrupted by anger. She clenched her fists, glared at Chrissy, and gnashed her teeth.
“You’re the one who seduced him, my husband.”