Chapter 1

The night of our wedding anniversary, I was assaulted.

All because my husband wanted a little romance, coaxing me into drinking the celebratory liquor my best friend had brought over.

But the moment my best friend complained her cramps were bad,

he left me alone at the bar, out of my mind, and rushed off to bring her a heat patch.

On the day of the trial, my own brother, a lawyer, argued for the man's acquittal.

"She was dressed provocatively, and she drank the aphrodisiac of her own free will."

"When the man took her away, she didn't resist, which is proof enough that she went willingly."

My parents took the stand too.

"She's a married woman, dressing like that, drinking that kind of drug on her own. If something happened, it's what she gets for being loose!"

"We firmly refuse to press charges!"

I was shaking all over, crying as I demanded to know why they were doing this to me.

My husband and my brother only urged me to know when to stop.

"This was just an accident. If anything's to blame, it's that you don't know how to say no!"

"If the case keeps going, the police will trace where the liquor came from."

"Millie's about to be made permanent. She's the one who gave you that liquor, and her whole future will be destroyed."

My parents pleaded too, eyes red.

"Something already happened to you. Why drag her whole life down with it?"

Later, the man was found not guilty.

To get back at me, he took me.

And the family who had urged me to know when to stop, when they finally saw me with the life gone out of me,

every one of them went mad.

1.

The instant my brother announced he was dropping the charges and tore up every piece of evidence,

the man in the defendant's seat whistled at me.

"Told you, she was willing. She just didn't get any money out of it, so she's trying to frame me."

He grinned, his gaze crawling over every inch of me.

The courtroom erupted at once.

Everyone stared at my brother in disbelief.

He was the golden-boy lawyer who had never lost a case in this field. And he was my own brother.

Before the hearing, he had promised me himself.

"Don't be afraid. I'll put him away."

But now he calmly closed the file and pushed up his glasses.

"Your Honor, the plaintiff will not be presenting further evidence."

"The existing evidence cannot prove that the defendant acted against the complainant's will in committing an assault. We choose to withdraw the case."

A roar went off in my ears.

I froze where I stood, almost sure I'd misheard.

"What did you say?"

He didn't look at me.

I stumbled over and grabbed his sleeve, holding on for dear life.

"The bar's cameras caught him taking me out while I was out of my mind, and the hospital found drug residue in my system."

"Your own colleague said this evidence was enough to convict. How can you just withdraw the case?"

Only then did he lower his head to look at me, dropping his voice.

"It's precisely because the evidence is enough that this can't go any further."

His brows drew together, his eyes full of impatience at how I didn't understand.

"You know perfectly well that drug was something Millie took from her workplace, a wedding anniversary gift for the two of you!"

"She's about to be made permanent. The second the police trace where the drug came from and find out she took it out on her own, she loses her job, and she could face criminal charges."

"Something already happened to you. Do you really have to drag her whole life down too?"

My hand jerked.

"So you'd clear the man who hurt me?"

His tone was calm to the point of cruelty.

"Then what do you want to do? Destroy Millie's future just to get even? What's the point?"

"Even if you put him away, will the harm done to you disappear?"

"As long as you admit that night was consensual, the case ends, and no one comes after Millie."

"Irvin's already agreed. He told me to tell you he won't think less of you over this, and he won't divorce you. Isn't that enough?"

I watched my brother's mouth open and close,

and the words coming out of it were like a knife driven into my chest, over and over.

That night came crashing back into my mind.

He'd half dragged, half carried me out of the bar, my legs so weak I couldn't even stand.

I fought with everything I had, but he pinned me to the bed and beat me with an ashtray until my whole body convulsed and I couldn't move.

The wound on my forehead was still seeping blood, even today.

My face was bloodless, my body shaking beyond my control.

"And me?"

"When you were all deciding how to protect Millie, did any of you think about what I'm supposed to do?"

His expression was cold.

"What can you do? Just treat it like a dog bit you and be done with it. You weren't a virgin anyway, so is it really worth all this?"

I gripped the edge of the table, my nails nearly digging into the wood.

Eyes red, I said it out one word at a time:

"I won't withdraw the case."

"If you won't take it for me, I'll get another lawyer."

"Whatever it costs, I am going to put him away!"

The words had barely left my mouth when a slap cracked across my face.

My head snapped to the side, my ear ringing.

My mother pointed at me, trembling with rage.

"Are you not going to stop until you drive Millie to her death?"

"Her father died in that car crash years ago saving your brother!"

"Before he passed, he put Millie in our hands himself. We promised we'd raise her like our own daughter and never let her suffer the slightest wrong!"

"You still have us, and you still have Irvin willing to keep you. But Millie has nothing left! Why do you have to strip away the one future she's got?"

I held my burning cheek, looking at her, and a hopeless laugh broke out of me.

"You?"

"Aren't you all standing on the side of the person who hurt me right now?"

My mother's face changed in an instant.

The next second she shoved the person beside her aside and threw herself at the second-floor railing.

Half her body leaned out over it.

"Fine. You insist on suing, don't you?"

"Then go ahead and sue!"

"The moment you dare to appeal, dare to let the police come after Millie, I'll jump right now!"