After we got our marriage certificate, I went to pick up our wedding rings, only to discover that the set I ordered contained two.

One was mine.

The other belonged to my fiancé Caleb’s childhood sweetheart, Heidi.

I brought the rings home, ready to question him, but instead walked in on Caleb bringing a pregnant Heidi into the house.

The moment I stepped through the door, the two of them behaved as if they were the rightful owners of this home. Caleb spoke casually, already giving orders.

“Heidi needs someone to take care of her now. You should cook for her every day, and make sure the meals are nutritious. She’s timid, so let her have the master bedroom. Go pack your things.”

I ignored him. I didn’t even want to ask about the rings anymore. I turned to head to my room.

My phone suddenly rang. My mother’s voice was trembling with tears.

“Your father… he’s been beaten and crippled. Come to the hospital now.”

I rushed out immediately. When I arrived at the hospital, I learned the truth.

It was Caleb who did it.

All because my father happened to look up at Heidi when passing by. Caleb exploded on the spot, beating him brutally while cursing him as a perverted creep.

I called him in fury, but he sounded completely unfazed.

“Your dad scared Heidi. His eyes were wandering like a pervert. What if he frightened the baby? How can you be so heartless? She’s a pregnant woman and you’re still taking your father’s side?”

I clenched my teeth and stayed silent. After ending the call, I dialed another number.

“The wedding is canceled. Take back the company shares. In seven days, I want both of them ruined.”

……

The moment I stepped through the villa’s front door, before I even had the chance to change my shoes, Caleb’s voice pressed down from behind me.

“Julia, leave your bracelet here. Heidi has been having nightmares lately. She needs it more than you do.”

My movements froze instantly.

That bracelet was the only keepsake my younger sister left before she died.

I turned back slowly, my fingertips turning cold. Caleb saw the redness in my eyes, yet showed not a trace of sympathy. He simply said, in a calm voice,

“Name your price.”

Nine years.

Nine years spent treading softly in a loveless relationship, humble to the point of dust.

So in his eyes, all my love amounted to nothing more than “name your price.”

I could not even bring myself to calculate what he thought it was worth.

When I lifted my eyes, I saw the condescending contempt in his gaze. In that moment, images flashed through my mind.

There was a time when I had been a girl held gently in someone’s hands.

A time when the man I loved was still alive.

My stomach had always been weak. Whenever I ate something spicy, the pain was so sharp I could not straighten my back. He would always make me a bowl of warm porridge, blowing it to the perfect temperature before feeding it to me spoon by spoon.

Whenever I acted spoiled, he would hold me in his arms, warm palms pressed to my stomach, whispering softly that the pain would go away.

When I was down, he could sit with me for an entire day, waiting patiently for one smile.

But now, I lowered my head and pushed the bracelet down my wrist bit by bit.

The sharp edge dug into my skin. A sudden sting shot up my arm. When I lifted my hand, there was already a thin line of blood.

Tears fell before I could stop them, hitting the floor one drop at a time.

Was the pain really only on the skin?

I took a deep breath and slid the bracelet onto Heidi’s wrist.

I even kept a gentle, dignified smile on my face.

“May the child you’re carrying stay healthy and safe.”

The moment I said this, Caleb actually gave me a look he believed was “appreciation.”

“Julia, as long as you behave, my child will be your child.”

Utterly absurd.

Before his words had even settled, the bracelet on Heidi’s wrist suddenly slipped off and hit the floor with a sharp crack.

Fragments scattered across the tiles like powdered glass.

A piece of it scraped her leg, drawing a thin line of blood.

Caleb rushed to her instantly, moving as though he were saving her life, scooping her into his arms like she was made of fragile glass.

He shouted at the butler, voice fierce with panic.

“What are you standing there for? Call the family doctor! Now!”

His urgency made everyone in the living room look at me with mocking eyes, as if I were the one who caused all of this.

To be honest, I almost laughed.

Heidi’s voice was soft as a breeze, laced with deliberate trembling.

“It’s all my fault. The bracelet Julia just gave me… I dropped it. I’m so clumsy.”

Caleb held her hand, speaking with a tenderness sweet enough to melt sugar.

“It’s not your fault. That thing was unlucky to begin with. It’s good that it broke.”

I froze.

The only thing my sister left me before she died had been dismissed as something ominous.

My fingers turned icy as I gripped the handle of my suitcase. I didn’t dare look at the two pretenders in front of me for another second. If I stayed any longer, I would be sick to my stomach.

I was just about to leave when my phone suddenly vibrated.

“Julia, come to the hospital now. Your father… he’s been beaten and crippled…”

My mother’s voice trembled with tears, nearly choking.

The living room fell silent.

Heidi and Caleb heard everything, yet neither of them said a word of concern. Not even the slightest hint of guilt crossed their faces.

I didn’t spare them another glance. I ran straight out the door.

Here is the refined English translation, faithful to the emotional intensity and novel-like tone, without adding unnecessary words and without any forbidden symbols:

By the time I rushed to the hospital, my legs were already giving out.

My father lay on the bed with his eyes tightly shut. His face was mottled with bruises, his chest wrapped in thick bandages, and his leg shattered into a comminuted fracture, encased in a cast that made it look like a cold block of stone.

The moment my mother saw me, her tears fell instantly. She clutched my hand, voice shaking as she told me what had happened.

My father ended up like this… because of Caleb.

All because he wanted to protect his childhood sweetheart, who was pregnant. All because my father happened to glance at Heidi as he walked by.

Caleb hadn’t asked a single question, hadn’t confirmed anything. He attacked my father on the spot, calling him a pervert and claiming he had “frightened a pregnant woman.”

Hearing this felt like someone splitting me open with bare hands.

Looking at my father, barely clinging to life, I forced down my trembling and called the police.

Soon, the court date arrived.

That day, Caleb and Heidi walked into the courtroom hand in hand, as if they were attending a casual gathering.

When they saw me, there was no guilt on their faces, not even the faintest hint of unease. It was as if the person they had hurt wasn’t a living human being, but simply a piece of useless trash.

“Do we really have to make this such a big deal, Julia?”

Caleb stood behind me, his tone filled with impatience and judgment.

I didn’t look back. I only said coldly, “You forced me to this.”

Then I strode into the courtroom, refusing to look at their disgusting faces again.

The trial began.

Caleb immediately put on a righteous expression, his voice firm and clear, as though he were the victim.

“As far as I know, my father-in-law kept staring at my friend Heidi. He disrupted public order and frightened a pregnant woman. Had I not been present, who knows what he might have done. I was protecting the community. I would rather uphold justice than shield my own family.”

As he spoke, he placed Heidi behind him, guarding her like she was some priceless treasure.

Then he shot me an irritated look.

“You’re not at the hospital caring for a cripple, yet you come here to accuse me? This is a courtroom. We speak with evidence, not emotion. Withdraw the suit. If something happens to your family because of this, I won’t take responsibility.”

At that moment, I finally understood why she tried so hard to stop me from calling the police.

Even when I knelt and begged her, she refused to stand up for my father.

Because from beginning to end, she stood on Heidi’s side.

I clenched my teeth, pushing down my fury as I tried one last time to summon even a shred of humanity from him.

“My father treated you like his own son. He helped you with everything, supported your promotions, helped you chase your dreams. He gave you everything he could.”

“Now he lies half dead because of you. You are his son-in-law. Can you truly live with yourself?”

Caleb rolled his eyes, speaking with disdain.

“Law is impartial. I am righteous in this. I stand with truth, not with family. I am willing to testify that your father’s leg was already damaged before. It has nothing to do with me.”

He lied without even a flicker of emotion.

My hands trembled with anger as I submitted the surveillance footage I had saved.

It was the crucial evidence showing Heidi striking my father first.

But when the video played, the screen showed nothing but static.

The evidence had been switched.

Heidi cast me a cold glance, mouthing two words: “Idiot.”

The only people with access to the evidence were me… and Caleb.

I slammed my hands on the table and shot to my feet. “Caleb! You tampered with the evidence! Do you have any humanity left?”

Caleb didn’t panic. He simply squeezed Heidi’s hand under the table, soothing her as gently as if comforting a child.

“Heidi is kind. She didn’t want to escalate the situation. She wanted to give your family a chance. But you came here full of malice, daring to frame her.”

Then he handed over an audio recording.

My father’s voice suddenly came through the speaker.

“So you’re Heidi? The child you’re carrying may not even be his. Give me five million, or I’ll ruin you.”

My entire body went rigid. The thread holding my sanity snapped in an instant.

Impossible.

The recording was fake.

My father had been unconscious ever since he was beaten. I had watched the dashcam footage dozens of times. That sentence never existed.

Heidi frowned, speaking in a fragile tone as if she had been cornered.

“Your father threatened me. I barely escaped.”

Caleb immediately pulled her into his arms, his voice cold and absolute.

“Julia, I will never forgive you. Your father being crippled is his own retribution.”

Then they presented all kinds of forged evidence, accusing my father of extortion, threats, and violence.

The judge didn’t even bother to look closely. A few perfunctory words, and the verdict came down.

I lost.

In an instant, my father and I became villains. Monsters who failed at extortion and then harmed a pregnant woman out of spite.

The snickers and mockery from the gallery stung my ears. I clenched my fists so tightly my nails dug deep into my palms.

The moment the hearing ended, before we even stepped out of the courthouse, reporters and onlookers had already blocked the entrance.

Heidi walked out surrounded by flashing cameras and sympathetic hands. Tears shimmered in her eyes, her palms pressed together like a persecuted saint.

The crowd’s anger and pity exploded at once, and fingers flew toward me and my mother.

I stood in the middle of it all, the cold wind numbing my already frozen face.

This wasn’t justice.

This was a trial they had orchestrated from the start.

Caleb wrapped Heidi protectively in his arms, his tone dripping with tenderness.

“Heidi, don’t worry. I won’t let anyone threaten you. I’ll protect you.”

The crowd’s emotions surged even higher.

Someone recognized me and immediately hurled a rotten egg my way.

A bucket of foul-smelling blood splashed down from the top of my head, seeping down my neck and soaking into my clothes. The stench was overwhelming, icy, humiliating.

“She’s a woman too, yet she tried to use someone’s reputation as leverage. Does she even have a conscience!”

“If the judge hadn’t been fair, that poor girl would have been ruined forever!”

“Her father deserved to be crippled! A daughter like that will never meet a good end!”

The curses pierced my ears like arrows.

I bit down on my lip until the taste of blood mixed with the stench filling my throat.

Only then did Caleb finally glance my way, frowning as if he were looking at filth.

“Stop resisting. If you behave, I can still consider our past and live with you peacefully.”

My voice was hoarse, barely holding up.

“Impossible. Even if it costs me everything, I’ll fight you to the end.”

Caleb’s expression darkened.

“Still refusing to repent.”

Heidi bent down slightly, giving me a gentle, pitiful look.

“I’m sorry about your father, but even if time went backward, I still wouldn’t agree to his demand for five million.”

Caleb followed her words smoothly, playing the righteous man.

“I’m your husband, but I stand for justice. I cannot allow wickedness to spread.”

The crowd was completely ignited.

“What a good man! Why do good people always end up with this kind of wife!”

“A woman like her would drive anyone to divorce!”

Watching Caleb’s performance made my stomach churn.

My legs suddenly buckled, and I stumbled forward.

Caleb shoved Heidi aside and kicked me hard in the chest.

“You’re trying to fake an injury at the courthouse too? How was I ever blind enough to fall for someone so disgusting!”

Pain exploded in my chest, knocking the breath out of me.

But deeper inside, in that place he once held, it hurt even more.

Three years ago, when his enemies tried to kill him, I had thrown myself in front of the blade to save him.

And now, the only thing he remembered was how to crush me.

Heidi tugged on his sleeve, her soft voice instantly hooking his attention.

“Caleb, my stomach hurts again. Can you make me some porridge? You cook well.”

He agreed at once and hurried off with her on his arm.

I watched their silhouettes fade, feeling something inside my chest shatter piece by piece.