Chapter 4

Once the hearing began, my brother laid out his so-called evidence one piece at a time.

In the bar footage he'd cut, I looked like the one who'd moved toward that man.

My struggling, after the drug had taken hold, he explained away as drunken affection.

"The plaintiff never clearly refused. She left with the defendant of her own accord. That alone proves the encounter was consensual."

Marlene shot back at once.

"The full footage shows she couldn't even walk straight by then!"

"And the hospital report confirms there was a consciousness-altering anesthetic in her system!"

But my brother calmly turned the point back on me.

"She took the drug herself. As an adult with full legal capacity, she is responsible for her own choices."

Soon it was Millie's turn to take the stand.

She glanced at me, timid, and handed over a medical record.

"Lily had an abortion behind Irvin's back, because the baby wasn't his."

"She's always been careless about men. I suspect this time is just another case of her regretting it afterward."

The name on the record drained the blood from my face.

A month ago Millie had come to me in tears, saying she was pregnant, that the man had a family and wouldn't divorce to marry her. She was terrified of shaming her dead parents, crying that she'd jump off a building. I was the one who took my own ID and went to the hospital with her.

And now she was using the secret I'd carried for her to prove I was a woman without standards.

"That wasn't mine!"

I looked at her, my eyes red.

"Millie, you know exactly whose record that is!"

Her gaze flickered, panicked, and she dropped her head fast.

"Lily, I'm sorry. I can't lie for you."

Marlene immediately demanded the examination records be verified.

My brother was ready for that.

"Verifying medical records violates privacy. I move to dismiss the request."

Then Irvin took the witness seat and submitted photos of me drinking with men, along with hotel records.

In the pictures I was in a revealing gown, passed out drunk in a stranger's arms.

"After we married, she often went to these drinking parties behind my back."

"Sometimes, when she got drunk, she'd go to a hotel with the man."

I shot to my feet, tears springing loose.

"You're lying!"

Three years ago, his company's cash flow collapsed.

He knelt and begged me to put on that gown, to drink with his investors in his place.

That night I drank until my stomach bled, and that was how I won him the contract that saved his company.

Then he decided the smell of alcohol on me would bother Millie, so he had the client send me to a hotel while he turned around and went back to her.

And now he was using what I'd suffered for him to prove I was promiscuous.

Irvin went stiff. He never once dared to look at me, only sat back down in silence.

The whole thing tipped completely toward their side.

The judge's voice came low.

"If the prosecution cannot effectively rebut the existing evidence, the court will rule based on the materials on record."

The last to take the stand was my mother.

Marlene sprang up, her eyes rimmed red.

"Ma'am, she's your own daughter!"

"This man has a record of hurting women. If he walks free, there's every chance he'll come after her!"

"One word from you today could destroy her whole life. It could get her killed!"

"Objection!"

My brother cut in, sharp.

"Opposing counsel is deliberately playing on emotion and slandering my client, attempting to interfere with the witness and the fairness of this trial!"

He looked coldly at Marlene.

"Watch your words. Do not defame my client."

My mother straightened her back and produced a yellowed written confession.

"I'm only telling the truth."

"She's loved to lie since she was a child. To dodge responsibility, there's nothing she won't make up."

It was something I'd written in college.

Back then Millie had stolen a classmate's necklace, and when she was caught she cried that she was scared the school would punish her.

So my mother locked me in a room and beat me for a whole night, forcing me to confess in her place.

She said Millie had no parents and couldn't afford another stain on her name.

So I wrote it out, again and again:

【I stole the necklace, and I deliberately framed Millie for it.】

After that I carried the name of a thief. I lost every award and every fast-track spot, and I was frozen out for three full years.

But now my mother held up that same confession she'd forced from my own hand, and said, flat and final:

"Twisting right and wrong, framing others, that's what she does best."

"This time is no different."

"She left with that man of her own free will, and afterward, afraid her husband would look down on her, she turned around and bit someone else."

I stared at her, dazed.

Marlene had gone white. She sank back into her chair, all the strength gone out of her.

Not long after, the verdict came down.

"Insufficient evidence. The defendant is acquitted."

Outside the courtroom, my parents, my brother, and Irvin closed in around Millie at once.

"It's over. Nothing's going to get in the way of your promotion now."

"We have to celebrate properly today."

My brother passed me and reminded me coldly:

"I told you. With me on the case, you were never going to win."

"Come to the restaurant later and apologize to Millie yourself, and we'll call this whole thing done."

They got in the car and left.

I stood alone at the courthouse doors, watching them disappear.

A van jerked to a stop beside me.

The door slid open, a hand clamped over my mouth from behind, and I was dragged hard inside.

A few hours later, the private room at the restaurant was full of good cheer.

The food was all on the table, but I still hadn't shown up.

My mother checked the time a few times, then frowned, impatient.

"Don't tell me she's still sulking?"

Something in Irvin turned uneasy for no reason he could name. He took out his phone and dialed my number.

The call picked up quickly.

He was about to speak when a cold, hard voice came from the other end.

"Hello. This is the criminal case task force."

"This phone was found in the courthouse's underground parking lot. There's a large amount of blood at the scene and clear signs of a body being dragged."

"The owner of this phone may well already be dead. We need your cooperation with our investigation."