Chapter 230: Why Would I Do This? Why Don’t You Tell Them?

Chapter 230: Chapter 230: Why Would I Do This? Why Don’t You Tell Them?

Laura Sherman shook her hand and tilted her head, looking down at her friend, who was sprawled on the floor.

"How could that be? Laura, you’re overthinking things." Wanda Sherman forced a smile, her hands still frantically feeling around on the floor.

The moment her hand touched her phone, a flicker of joy appeared on Wanda Sherman’s face. But before she could do anything else, Laura Sherman walked over and kicked it away with her foot.

Perhaps disgusted by Wanda Sherman’s actions, Laura Sherman shoved her flat against the floor. She gripped her friend’s throat tightly with one hand while raising a paring knife with the other, aiming it straight at Wanda Sherman’s eyes.

"What you just did made me very angry. What do you think I should do now?" Laura Sherman stared at Wanda Sherman, her expression unreadable.

"Laura, I’ll transfer the money to you right now! I’ll give you all of it! Just let me go, please!" Wanda Sherman struggled wildly, slapping at her friend’s arm and trying to push her off. At the same time, she begged for her life, quickly recanting her earlier stubborn refusal. "Laura, I was just talking nonsense! We’ve been best friends since we were kids! How could I possibly treat you like that?"

"Just let me go, and I’ll transfer every penny from my account to you."

"Murder is illegal. If you go to prison, what will happen to your mother? Listen to me. Give me the phone, I’ll transfer the money, and then we can take your mom to get treated, okay?"

Remembering the plan she’d made with her boyfriend, Wanda Sherman desperately tried to find something to say to stall for time.

Wanda Sherman was filled with regret. ’I should have just played along and said all that after she left.’

’Great. Now I’ve completely enraged her, and I’m the one in danger.’

But Wanda Sherman was no match for Laura Sherman’s strength. No matter how much she struggled, it was useless.

Laura Sherman said nothing. She raised the hand holding the paring knife high into the air and, as Wanda Sherman shrieked, plunged it downward.

The sharp paring knife grazed Wanda Sherman’s cheek before plunging into the floor beside her head, leaving a shallow red line on her pale skin.

"Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me! I’ll give you all the money! I was wrong, I shouldn’t have said those things!"

"Laura, please let me go! I’m my parents’ only child! They can’t lose me!" Wanda Sherman let out a loud "WAHHH!" and burst into tears.

She regretted everything.

’She truly regretted it now. She never should have taken advantage of Laura’s typically honest and gentle nature to steal her work and publish it as her own.’

’When Laura confronted her, she should have been more magnanimous and given her half the money.’

’If she had known from the start that it would lead to this, she never would have done it.’

’Looking at the state Laura was in... she wasn’t *really* going to kill her, was she?’

The more Wanda Sherman thought about it, the more terrified she became. Her crying grew more intense, and her words tumbled out incoherently. "Don’t kill me! It’s yours! It’s all yours! I’m begging you!"

"I’ll never do it again! Just let me go this one time!"

Just then, the apartment door was suddenly thrown open. A man walked in from outside. "Wendy, why didn’t you answer my call?"

The words had barely left his mouth when he saw his girlfriend pinned to the floor by a strange woman, sobbing with fear.

The strange woman was holding a paring knife.

The instant she saw the man, Wanda Sherman was ecstatic. ’My boyfriend’s here! Does this mean I’m saved?!’

"What are you doing?! Put the knife down!" Seeing the scene before him, the man dropped what he was holding and started to rush forward, but Laura Sherman’s next move stopped him in his tracks.

Laura Sherman pressed the paring knife against Wanda Sherman’s neck, her voice laced with menace. "Take one more step and I’ll slit her throat. Let’s see who’s faster, you or me."

After saying this, Laura Sherman looked down at the blubbering Wanda Sherman and spoke the words that made her friend’s blood run cold. "I told my husband that if I don’t call home tonight, he’ll know I’ve killed someone."

"And to tie up loose ends, he’ll send your parents down to join you. Wendy, wouldn’t it have been so much better if you’d just agreed to my terms in the first place? Then none of this would have to happen."

"Lau... Laura, murder is illegal. If you and your husband kill all three of us, you’ll go to prison! What about your child and your mother then?"

"Can’t we both just take a step back? You let me go, I’ll give you all the money, and we’ll pretend today never happened," Wanda Sherman said, trying to suppress the terror in her heart.

Laura Sherman tightened her grip on the paring knife, and a thin red line of blood immediately appeared on Wanda Sherman’s neck. "Tell your man to back off. If he takes another step, I can’t guarantee how steady my hand will be."

The man had been planning to sneak forward while Laura Sherman was looking down and talking, hoping for a chance to overpower her, but now he froze in place.

"I’ve already called the police! Let her go now, and we can still act like none of this ever happened!" the man shouted at Laura Sherman.

Since the apartment door was wide open, and with all the commotion they had been making, a crowd of curious neighbors had gathered outside Wanda Sherman’s doorway to watch.

Some had even raised their phones and were livestreaming the scene.

Someone in the livestream’s chat recognized the woman pinned to the floor under threat of death. It was the beautiful and popular author who had recently gone viral online. The stream’s viewer count immediately skyrocketed.

"You called the police? Good. The bigger the spectacle, the better." A cryptic smile spread across Laura Sherman’s face, terrifying Wanda Sherman.

In the next instant, Wanda Sherman’s eyes shot wide open. ’She finally understood the real reason behind Laura’s actions!’

「At the police station」

Zoe Sawyer and the others were just about to clock out and head back to their dorms when they got a call from the Chief.

"We got a report of a knife assault in an apartment. The other teams are all tied up, so you guys run with it." The Chief gave a brief summary of the case and sent the exact address to Evan Keller.

After getting the address, Evan Keller looked over at Zoe Sawyer and asked, "You in?"

"I’m in!"

Zoe Sawyer thought for a moment before giving a firm nod.

’Going back just means scrolling on my phone and sleeping,’ she thought. ’Might as well get some more field experience. Who knows what I might learn?’

Heath Hale and Barry Quinn, standing nearby, didn’t seem at all surprised by Zoe Sawyer’s response. They all started gathering their gear.

The team set out and hurried to the address provided by the caller.

"Officers, thank god you’re here! My girlfriend is being held at knifepoint by an attacker! You have to save her!" The man looked at Evan Keller and his team as if they were his saviors.

Heath Hale and Barry Quinn noticed people holding up their phones and immediately flanked Zoe Sawyer, shielding her from the cameras.

Hearing the commotion outside, Laura Sherman hauled Wanda Sherman up from the floor to use as a human shield, keeping the paring knife pressed against her.

As Evan Keller and his team entered, Laura Sherman looked at Wanda Sherman and spoke in a voice loud enough for everyone in the room to hear.

"So, why am I doing this? Wendy, why don’t you tell them?"