On Valentine's night, my father-in-law, Robert Stone, was deliberately run over again and again until he died.

My wife, Vivian Stone, one of the city's top internists, was using every connection she had to produce a psychiatric evaluation for the killer.

When I took the killer to court, she finally answered my call.

"Julian's brother didn't mean to hit and run. He's young. Of course he panicked when something happened."

"Julian and I will take him to Dad's grave to apologize. Tell your father to transfer hospitals quickly. Don't let him die in my hospital and bring bad luck here."

I looked at Robert lying lifeless on the hospital bed and suddenly laughed.

No wonder she had refused to come to the hospital for surgery.

She thought the man in the accident was my father.

I had just hung up when my wife, Vivian Stone, arrived with Julian Blake and his younger brother.

Julian looked at the body under the white sheet with open contempt.

"Nathan, if you ask me, that old man wasn't going to live long anyway. You've been harassing Vivian over a dead man on purpose. You're just trying to make trouble for us."

Julian's brother, Caleb Blake, was even worse. He stepped onto the mortuary gurney without a hint of shame, then spat on the body.

"Exactly. If the dead thing couldn't stay alive, that's on him. I didn't do it on purpose. Why are you being so petty, Nathan?"

Fury surged through me. I tried to stop him, but Vivian stepped in front of me and said impatiently, "Julian and his brother are only telling the truth. The man's already dead. There's no need to drag this to court."

I looked at Vivian and suddenly felt as if I didn't know her at all.

From the moment my father-in-law, Robert Stone, was hit until now, Vivian hadn't asked a single question.

When I kept messaging her to come save him, she was busy forging a psychiatric certificate for the killer, Caleb Blake.

She had even used special channels to get Caleb released on bail after he had already been taken into police custody.

I thought she had lost her mind because she was obsessed with Julian. I thought that was why she could be this heartless.

I hadn't expected that she thought the victim was my father.

It was so absurd I almost laughed.

Caleb looked at me with smug provocation.

"Nathan, hurry up and sign the letter of forgiveness. That way, Vivian won't have to keep working so hard to get me cleared.

"Do you know how much she's sacrificed to help me? If you issue the forgiveness letter yourself, it'll be better for everyone."

When Vivian saw that I didn't respond, disgust filled her eyes.

"He's just jealous of Julian. He never thinks about me.

"Honestly, a man like your father deserved to be killed."

My fists clenched.

"My father never wronged you. Don't slander him with that filthy mouth."

Vivian ignored me completely. She took out the forgiveness letter and said, "Sign it. If you're smart, I'll give your father a decent funeral. Otherwise, don't blame me for being cruel."

Julian immediately leaned in with fake enthusiasm.

"Vivian, why don't we just dump the body near the hospital garbage site?

"It can be cremated with the trash. Maybe the ashes can even be reused. At least he'd still contribute something to the world.

"What do you think, Nathan?"

Vivian rolled her eyes at me.

"He should thank you for being merciful."

Then she paid someone to have the body transported beside the garbage site.

I tried to stop them, but Julian and Caleb pinned me to the ground.

I watched Robert's body being casually placed beside the trash and felt sorrow for him.

Vivian lost her mother at birth. Her father had raised her all by himself.

Even when he suffered heatstroke carrying bricks on construction sites, he still paid for Vivian to finish her doctorate.

And now?

Vivian wouldn't even give him a simple funeral.

There was a sharp slap.

Caleb actually kicked Robert's body into the garbage pile.

Pinching his nose, he pretended to be shocked.

"Oops, I didn't watch where I was stepping. You won't be mad, right, Nathan?"

I had just opened my mouth when Vivian glared at me.

"Julian's brother didn't mean it. The body was going to be cremated with the trash anyway. There's no need to be so particular. What's there for him to be angry about?"

Seeing the body pushed into the garbage, covered in filth and stinking so badly it made people gag, I laughed instead.

"Vivian, you're going to regret this."

When she finally learned that the body she had degraded was her own father's, I hoped she could still be this generous.

"What do I have to regret?"

Vivian covered her nose in disgust and did not spare Robert's body a single glance. She ordered me, "My time is valuable. I don't want to waste it on meaningless things.

"Hurry up and sign the forgiveness letter. Then I'll have your father's body fished out.

"Julian's brother has a bright future. It can't be ruined like this."

I looked at her expressionlessly.

"Dream on."

Robert had only caught Caleb Blake installing surveillance cameras in Vivian's room and tried to stop him.

Caleb had deliberately rammed him with a car, then reversed and ran him over again and again.

To vent his anger, Caleb had even used a steel pipe to beat Robert while he was barely breathing.

And this thing, worse than an animal, wanted a forgiveness letter?

Vivian was a doctor, yet she was creating false testimony for the man who had killed her own father. Wasn't she afraid the dead would never rest?

Vivian grew irritated under my stare.

"Nathaniel, I'm not discussing this with you. I'm informing you.

"With my ability, even if this goes to court, I can get him acquitted.

"I just don't want you humiliating yourself in court. Everyone knows you're my husband. If you act petty over something this small, you'll embarrass me too."

I said calmly, "If you're so afraid of embarrassment, let's divorce."

Vivian glared at me in anger.

"Nathaniel! You're threatening me with divorce over a tiny matter like this?"

She looked at Caleb with righteous indignation.

"Even if he accidentally kicked Dad's body into the garbage, wasn't he helping clean up?

"He already knows he was wrong. Why shouldn't he be forgiven?"

Caleb was spitting and urinating on the body that had just been retrieved.

I stared at Vivian in disbelief. I genuinely thought something in her mind had broken.

An obvious act of desecration had somehow become "helping" in her mouth.

Where was the Vivian Stone who once spent five years stuck in a basic post because she refused bribes and insisted on a doctor's principles?

It seemed everything had changed after Julian appeared.

As a trainee assistant, Julian prescribed medication casually without even reading patients' conditions.

Vivian not only covered for him, she deliberately allowed patients to worsen just to pave his way.

I warned Vivian that as a doctor, she had to be responsible to patients.

She said carelessly that she simply didn't want a young newcomer to feel disappointed.

My eyes turned cold.

"I'll give you the divorce agreement tomorrow. Remember to sign it."

Julian wrapped his arm around Vivian's waist and said in a theatrically gentle voice, "Nathan, Vivian only went to a hotel with me on Valentine's night because she pitied me for being alone. Don't be angry over that. Vivian and I are innocent.

"How about this? I'll apologize to you. Take back what you said about divorce. If Vivian takes it seriously, I'm afraid you'll regret it later."

When Vivian heard that, rage flared in her. She slapped me across the face and jabbed a finger at my nose.

"Nathaniel! You really don't know when to stop!

"People with dirty hearts see filth everywhere. Let me tell you this: divorce is impossible.

"Not only will I refuse to divorce you, I'll sign the forgiveness letter as your wife and help Julian's brother."

She immediately had someone bring a forgiveness letter and signed her name on it right in front of me.

"I won't give you any chance to interfere.

"Nathaniel, you brought this on yourself."

After Vivian and the others left, I paid a large sum to hire people to clean and prepare Robert's body properly, send him to the funeral home, and set up a memorial hall.

Then I took the divorce agreement drafted by my lawyer and went to find Vivian for her signature.

At the door of the break room, a young nurse stopped me.

"Mr. Hayes, Dr. Stone and her assistant are resting inside. It might be... inappropriate for you to go in."

Through the crack in the door came Vivian's moans and a man's heavy breathing. The nurse was so embarrassed she ran away.

I took out my phone without expression. When the call connected, Vivian's cries became even more breathless.

"Nathan, Vivian's busy. She doesn't have time for you."

"She told me to warn you not to use divorce to invalidate the forgiveness letter."

After that, he deliberately moved the phone closer to Vivian. The sounds became even more explicit.

I forced down my nausea, saved the call recording, and turned away.

Since she didn't want an amicable divorce, I didn't need to preserve her dignity either.

After filing for divorce on my phone, I sent Vivian a message.

"If you won't sign, I'll see you in court."

On the day of the car accident trial, I received a notice that my divorce petition had been withdrawn.

I knew Vivian had done it.

At that moment, the funeral home called.

They said the body had been forcibly taken away, and the memorial hall had been destroyed.

The coffin that should have contained Robert's body now held a dead dog, filthy and twisted out of shape.

The wreaths in the memorial hall bore my father's name.

The coffin itself had been covered in vulgar words written in red paint.

Then Julian walked toward me leisurely with his arm around Vivian.

When Vivian saw my phone, she smiled smugly.

"Nathaniel Hayes, this is what happens when you go against me."

"If you insist on appearing in court today, you'll never see your father's body again."

Julian pointed at the dead dog in the coffin, malice filling his eyes.

"Look. Doesn't it look exactly like that dead thing? My brother and I worked hard to find one this similar.

"Vivian agreed to it too. Your relatives can kneel to this dog just the same.

"As for your father's corpse, once my brother is acquitted, we'll naturally return it to you."

I hadn't expected Vivian and Julian to be this devoid of humanity.

They were doing everything they could to stop me from attending court because they believed the dead man was my father.

If I, the direct family member, refused forgiveness, Vivian's letter would be useless.

Consumed by fury, I punched Julian in the face.

"You conscienceless animal! You don't deserve to be human!"

Vivian screamed and protected Julian behind her, her face full of anger.

"Nathaniel Hayes! Do you believe I can send you straight to jail?"

I glared at Vivian.

"The ones who should go to jail are you two adulterous dogs. Maliciously destroying a corpse is a crime."

Vivian looked at me with disdain.

"Have you forgotten my connections? With what I can do, anyone might go to jail, but never me. Your threats are useless.

"You'd better think carefully about whether you're going to court. Your father's corpse is still in my hands."

I laughed coldly.

"Vivian Stone, have you ever considered that this isn't my father's body, but yours?"

Vivian rolled her eyes at me.

"My father is an honest, simple man. How would he provoke a kind college student into running him over?"

She opened a video call and showed it to me as if she were flaunting a trophy.

"Look. With one order from me, your father's corpse will be nothing but bones."

In the video, Robert's body was being carried to the edge of a pool by several people in protective suits. White smoke rose from the liquid inside.