âWhatâs your end goal, then? I didnât ask you to kill anyone, but now youâve taken two lives! What are
you going to do about this?â
The woman was so furious that she trembled non-stop, her face void of any color.
Yet, the person over the phone merely laughed.
âMs. Snow, you said you want to give Susan Jadeson a taste of what it feels like to suffer a fate worse
than death, so itâs only natural that we come to such decisions. Besides, werenât you already prepared
for outcomes like these the moment you agreed to be a part of this?â
âYou!â
Upon hearing that, the woman found herself unable to retaliate.
But heâs right. Itâs already over for me. Why am I still acting like I have the moral high ground? If I were
that afraid of getting blood on my hands, I wouldnât have contacted them in the first place. The fact that I
reached out to them means I had already intended to do all this.
The other party hung up without another word.
Susan and Felicia arrived at the nail salon half an hour later.
âWelcome! Are you here to get your nails done?â an employee greeted.
âYup. Crystal nails for both of us, please.â
Susan immediately mentioned the kind of service she wanted.
The lady readily agreed and led them into the store.
After taking a seat, Felicia said to Susan right away, âSusan, these are the exact same seats we were led
to when I followed Zaylynn here.â
Hearing that, Susan nodded and waited for the lady from before to serve them.
Manicures were a popular beauty treatment in todayâs age, and many womenâincluding Susan herself
âwould have visited a nail salon at least once.
That was why Susan thought nothing of all the tools and bottles that the beautician had brought over,
and the only thing she looked at was a bottle of clear nail polish.
âIs this what youâll be using on our nails?â
âThatâs right.â
The beautician nodded.
Not asking anything more, Susan and Felicia let the lady work on their nails, and they were done in an
hour.
Upon getting up, Susan prepared to get Ian to have Xayden look into the nail polishâs contents.
But just as she walked out of the store and arrived at the roadside, a sudden thought crossed her mind,
causing her to stop in her tracks.
âWhatâs wrong, Susan?â asked Felicia.
âI just remembered something you told me about Zaylynnâs nails. They were quick-drying, right. Is that
what you said?â
âYeah,â Felicia replied, albeit still puzzled.
Susan immediately glanced at her shiny nails. âThen, why did we have to cure our nails? Were we not
clear enough with our instructions? Did the lady give us a different kind of manicure?â
âHuh?â Felicia only grew more bewildered.
Seeing that, Susan said nothing else to her, instead turning and heading back into the nail salon.
âExcuse me, maâam. Can I confirm that we were just given crystal nails?â
âYes, you were,â the busy owner of the salon appeared confused to see them return. âIt was our current
best-selling crystal nail manicure. Whatâs wrong? Is something the matter?â
âNo. Itâs just that I heard from another friend that her nails were quick-drying when she got the same
procedure done, but both of us here had to cure our nails. So, why the difference? Is there something
different about the materials used this time?â Susan asked.
Hearing that, the boss hastily walked toward them and glanced at their nails.
âHow could that be? All our nail services require curing. Could you have misheard something your friend
said? We apply multiple layers of polish to each nail, then cure every coating and make sure itâs dry
before moving on to the next layer. Thatâs what makes this a crystal manicure. Thereâs no way each
coating can dry that quickly just by blowing on them with a fan,â she explained.
Susan fell silent for a long while.
Then, she sat on the couch and requested, âI think you might want to let me have a look at your storeâs
surveillance footage from yesterday. Someone from our school died because of your nail polish. Itâd be
troublesome if I were to inform the cops now.â
With that, everyone inside the salon turned to herâincluding the beautician who had just tended to her
and Felicia.
How is she so smart?
Didnât they say sheâd be easy to deal with? Sheâs only in her early twenties! How could she have figured
out something so trivial?
Taking advantage of the commotion in the store, the woman left in a panic as the owner went to retrieve
the surveillance footage.
Meanwhile, Susan quickly noted from the footage that Zaylynn did not have her nails cured while she
was here yesterday.
Not only that but her nails were coated many more times than they should have been.
âI⦠I never taught her to do it that way. Who on earth is she, anyway? Iâve never even met her!â the
owner exclaimed.
As realization dawned on her, Susan hurriedly dialed Ianâs number while getting Felicia to call the police.
Whatever happened last night caused such a huge stir, and surely the cops mustâve come here since it
had something to do with the girlâs nails, right? But why didnât they figure out anything after dropping by?