Laughter erupted from the crowd.

Claire smirked and stepped forward like she was going to help me up.

Instead, I got my first close look at my daughter, burned beyond recognition.

Her breath was shallow, every exhale a painful moan that sounded like a broken whisper of “Mom…”

My heart shattered.

I reached out, trembling, wanting to hold her.

But before I could even touch her, Claire screamed and let herself fall backward on purpose.

My daughter tumbled from her arms and hit the ground with a sickening thud.

“My baby!!”

I crawled toward her, but Ethan shoved me down and held me there.

His eyes were red with rage.

“Rachel! How could you be so heartless?! Trying to kill your own daughter?!”

I shook my head desperately, tears blurring my vision.

I could only watch as Claire picked my daughter up like she was some discarded trash and held her again.

She looked down at me, smug.

“Rachel, even if you kill her, it won’t change the fact that you nearly burned her to death.”

“If you really care about her, then redeem. That’s the only way I can maybe trust you with her again.”

The crowd was eating it up.

Some started chanting.

“Redeem! Redeem! Redeem!”

Bottles and trash were thrown at my head and body.

In the chaos, Claire and Ethan exchanged triumphant glances.

My daughter’s limp little body in her arms felt like knives piercing my chest.

I gripped my phone tightly, the edge cutting into my hand.

Staring at the two of them, I said coldly, “Claire, you know where I went before the fire.”

“If you don’t want the little image you built for yourself to collapse, give my daughter back!”

Her eyes flashed with panic.

But before I could pull out the photo, Ethan stormed over and stomped on my hand.

Then he flipped my bag over and dumped everything out.

He picked up a few photos and sneered.

“Of course, I know where you went. I’ve got your whole little affair documented.”

The crowd erupted again.

Scattered among my things were photos—dozens of them—of me in revealing clothes, in bed with some stranger.

People snatched them up instantly, showing them to the live stream camera one by one.

“Wow, so many guys? She’s not just cheating—she’s a whore!”

“At her age? Probably making money with that limp of hers.”

“Poor fire chief, he’s been raising someone else’s kid!”

“No wonder she tried to burn her own daughter. Probably to cover it up!”

The venom was endless.

Ethan laid the photos out in front of me like trophies.

“Rachel, do you admit your guilt now?” It hit me then.

He had searched my bag earlier, not to check for damage from the fire but to plant these fake photos.

I grabbed my phone to fight back.

But he crushed my hand, grabbed my hair and forced me to watch his screen.

The live stream was exploding with tens of thousands of viewers and comments were scrolling faster than I could read.

“Why wasn’t this slut the one who got burned?”

“Let the heroine take the child. She’s the only one who deserves her.”

“Slut! Slut! Slut! Die! Die! Die!!”

Ethan kicked me to the ground, laughing cruelly.

He wrapped a hand around my throat and dragged me toward Claire.

“It’s over, Rachel. No one’s going to believe a word you say.”

“Go thank Claire.”

“Once she’s officially honored as a national hero, maybe I’ll let you visit your daughter in the hospital.”

I stared at him, stunned.

“You did all this… just to get Claire promoted?”

“Ethan, that’s your own daughter!!”

He scoffed. “Rachel, you really think I married you because I liked you?”

“Who’d want a cripple with a burnt leg who can’t even walk right? I needed your spot. And thanks to you, Claire got into the fire department.”

His words chilled me to the bone.

The marriage I thought was real had been a scam from day one.

Ethan was never my savior.

He had always been after my title, my credentials, my place.

I looked up at him in horror as he dragged me, step by step, toward Claire.

My hands and knees scraped the ground, leaving a trail of blood.

Claire stood tall, looking pristine in her uniform, makeup flawless.

“Did you think there wouldn’t be a day of reckoning, Senior?” she said with a smirk.

“You enjoyed being the official girlfriend for so long, didn’t you?”

“Five years ago, Ethan called me. You just happened to be in the way.”

I remembered it clearly.

Five years ago, she came to stay with me while I was prepping for the firefighter exams.

She said she wanted to sign up with me, said it would be meaningful if we joined together.

But she used my identity and tried to steal my scores.

I reported her and ended up taking the only female firefighter position.

I fought on the front lines, in blazing fires, just to be worthy of Ethan.

But now, I finally understood—whether in marriage or my career—I had just been a pawn.

Ethan had been paving the road for Claire all along.

“Kneel. Bang your head ten times,” Claire said with a smirk. “Then I might let you see your daughter up close.”

She clung to Ethan’s arm, smug and self-satisfied.

In her arms, my daughter’s face had turned purple. She could barely breathe.

My heart shattered again. But this time, I laughed.

“You really think I don’t have evidence? You’re murderers. Both of you!”

Ethan’s face darkened.

Claire’s expression twisted. Furious, she slapped me hard.

“Stop talking nonsense!” she hissed.

“We saved her, you’re the one who locked her up!”

The ring on her finger sliced my face open.

The crowd exploded again, throwing stones and garbage.

“Claire’s a hero! You’re a monster!”

I was beaten bloody, but I still managed to pull up the video on my phone and held it up.

“Ethan,” I said through clenched teeth, “how long has it been since you actually went home?”

"Do you know how many surveillance cameras I installed between the front door and the bedroom?"

Ethan’s pupils shrank instantly.

“So, what if you did?” he snapped, trying to sound confident. “What does that have to do with me?”

“It means I’ve got evidence. Evidence of your crimes.”

Even as he tried to talk tough, his body betrayed him. He moved to block my phone, one hand covering the screen, the other trying to snatch it away.

People nearby, their view blocked, grew more curious.

“There’s surveillance footage from before the fire? We have to see it! Let’s judge for ourselves if this woman’s really guilty!”

“Exactly! If there's evidence, she should be in prison already!”

“Strange... why won’t the fire chief let us watch it? Could it be that the video captured something else?”

Voices murmured louder. Online, the livestream chat was exploding with speculation.

Ethan’s face darkened.

Behind him, Claire approached, her face cold and stiff.

Together, they grabbed my phone. Without even looking at the screen, Claire sneered and addressed the crowd:

“Have you all forgotten? Three years ago, this so-called firefighting hero was stripped of her honors and expelled for violating regulations that led to deaths during a fire rescue.”

“That woman… is Rachel, the one standing right here.”

“She lost a leg in that fire and has hated the department ever since. She’s bitter. She even tried to burn the captain’s daughter alive—her own daughter—and now she's trying to drag the fire department down with her. She’s mentally unstable. Don’t believe a word she says!”

Everyone stared at me in disbelief.

Some reporters recognized the story from years back and began shouting:

“So, you’re the one who left a child behind and set off explosives?! That elderly couple is still fighting for justice!”

“She’s not a first-time offender—she has a history of this!”

“She’s spent all these years plotting, even installing surveillance in her home, just to burn her daughter alive. She’s clearly been planning this forever!”

Ethan saw his chance and jumped in, eyes welling with fake tears.

“Rachel… I didn’t know you hated me this much. I supported canceling your title for everyone's safety.”

“But to burn our own daughter and then record her suffering? That’s... that’s unforgivable.”

“But a child deserves dignity, too! I just can’t bear to show such a horrible video to the world…”

As he played the martyr, former fire department comrades stepped up in support.

“Captain, don’t fall for her trap. She just wants to destroy your life and reputation!”

“Exactly! Ethan married her out of kindness despite her injury and reputation. And now she’s getting revenge using our daughter! What an ungrateful woman!”

“I heard she even stole her exam spot from Claire’s younger sister! Ethan was supposed to marry Claire’s sister. She was the real firefighting hero!”

Five years ago, I risked my life to save them in dangerous fires, correcting their rule violations.

Now? I was nothing but a thorn in their side.

The couple from the explosion incident—the girl’s elderly parents—also stepped forward.

Their only daughter was killed. They wanted blood.

They pulled off their shoes and struck my face.

“Give us back our daughter! Give back our precious girl!”

The stirred-up crowd surged forward.

They slapped me, kicked my injured leg, poured drinks and ice water on me...

Ethan and Claire stood back, finally breathing easy, a hint of smug satisfaction flashing in their eyes.

I bent over to delete the video from my phone.

But the moment I unlocked it, a message popped up:

[This link has already been made public.]

I had already shared the surveillance footage the moment I rushed back to the scene.

Now, people in the livestream were starting to realize it.

Messages flooded in.

Even those at the scene began hearing Ethan and Claire’s voices—broadcast from the phones in their own hands.

“Ethan, that’s your own daughter. Are you really going to let her burn?”

“What ‘own daughter’? The one I had with you is my real daughter…”