Back then, his hands shook and his eyes turned red as he gently touched the scar on my face.

He swore to me in that same tone, “Sienna, anyone who has ever hurt you, I won’t let a single one of them go.”

I let out a faint laugh and spoke calmly. “My adoptive mother is Heidi’s real mother.”

“By what you said, she’s the one who should’ve inherited her mother’s bad side.”

“After all, she’s the one who pretended to be crazy and acted pitiful just to steal her sister’s marriage.”

“Aren’t all of you part of it too?”

There was silence on the other end of the call for a few seconds before I heard my foster sister crying in panic.

“Sister, I really didn’t mean it… I’m sick and can’t remember some things. I didn’t know about you and Atlas…”

“Mom, Brother, Atlas. I didn’t know my illness would upset Sienna. I might as well just die…”

Then my mother’s angry voice came through.

“Enough, Sienna! If you still have any conscience left, come and apologize right now! Otherwise, from this moment on, we’ll cut all ties with you!”

I heard a commotion, then the phone was snatched away.

It was Atlas. His voice was calm but impatient. “Sienna, cancel the wedding now and go kneel before Heidi to apologize, or I’ll break off the engagement.”

I looked down and answered without a fight. “Okay.”

Then I hung up.

The police officers exchanged looks, and nobody offered to have my brother come with me again.

The wedding car stopped at the hotel. When I opened the door, a foul smell hit me, eggs, fruit peels, and spilled drinks covered my wedding dress. I was shoved back and almost fell.

“Slut! You stole your sister’s boyfriend, forced a marriage, and used the Butcher case to play the victim! We’ll teach you a lesson today!”

“Her movie-star mother is so kind, and she still made her cry! A daughter like this should be beaten to death!”

Only then did I realize my family call had been broadcast live by my movie-star mother.

They pulled my hair, kicked me, and forced me to kneel and bow. Someone ripped at my wedding dress while another raised a camera to record my shame.

“Kneel and apologize to your sister and the actress!”

“And that wedding dress! Does someone like you deserve to wear it? Tear it off! Let her see how you steal a man!”

The pain made my hands shake, but I still lifted my head and shouted, “I did nothing wrong. Why should I apologize?”

The crowd grew restless, and my brother and mother’s bodyguards rushed in, pushing everyone back.

My brother’s voice shook with anger. “You still dare say you did nothing wrong? I told you not to provoke Heidi about Atlas, so why are you holding a wedding in a dress? Why make this mess just to force a marriage?”

But when he rushed over and saw me clearly, he froze.

My wedding dress was already torn, barely covering me, and bruises marked my skin. My forehead and body were smeared with dirty liquid.

He moved closer, wanting to wipe it away. Then he turned to my mother, his voice low and shaking as he tried to stay calm.

“How could you stream those words live and attract those crazy fans here?”

“What if this drags Heidi into it?”

Guilt flashed in my mother’s eyes, but after hearing that, she snapped, “Who told her to do wrong? She brought this on herself.”

I stepped back, avoiding his hand, and spoke calmly.

“I didn’t come here to force a marriage. Atlas's canceling the engagement with me to marry Heidi has nothing to do with me. I came here to act as bait, to lure out the Butcher.”

Mom’s face instantly went pale.

Before she could speak, my brother slapped me hard across the face. His face was tense with both anger and panic.

“I told you not to use a serious case that took the lives of so many girls as some way to get sympathy!”

He took a deep breath, his eyes cold, his voice cutting with anger. “You’re just like that best friend of yours, selfish and heartless!”

“She betrayed Spencer and ran off with the money.”

“Afraid of being hunted, she forged evidence, put that note in the victim’s hand, and faked her own death.”

“I already said that person wasn’t that woman, Tessa, but that fool Spencer still believed it and drank himself half to death, refusing to keep looking for the truth!”

The crowd started mocking.

“Wasn’t Tessa the gold digger who ran off with money back then? Her nude photos were all over those second-hand sites, right? You could see them for free!”

“A woman like her ruined the murder case. She got what she deserved.”

I clenched my hands, my heart twisting in pain.

Three years ago, Tessa had found proof that Heidi was faking her memory loss and madness, but before she could give it to me, she vanished.

Before she disappeared, her nude photos were posted for sale on second-hand websites for only 0.9 dollars.

At that time, Tessa cried and begged my younger brother, her fiancé, to help her sue them.

But my famous lawyer brother, who had never lost a case, sat lazily in the plaintiff’s seat during the trial, silent the entire time, and the case was dismissed on the spot.

When leaving the courtroom that day, Spencer gave a cold laugh. “This is the price for bullying Heidi.”

“This time, it’s just your nude photos. Next time, wait until you’re sold off in some black market auction to serve as someone’s plaything.”

That day, Tessa cried in my arms for a long time. The next morning, she disappeared without a trace.

I spent three years looking for her while Spencer mocked me every chance he got.

“She’s just playing hide and seek. She wants me to chase after her, huh? Let her play. Let’s see how long she can hide.”

Until one day, the dismembered victims from the “Butcher’s Brides” case were found in an abandoned basement in Fairview. At that moment, the system confirmed Tessa’s death.

My Tessa had been killed by the Butcher, and with her death, the system also declared my own ending.

The family and love I had spent ten years building all fell apart. It told me to end my life and leave this world.

But instead, I chose to use my death to bring justice to those poor girls who had suffered.

……

Atlas walked toward me, his face dark and cold. “Since you insist on going against us, then fine, I’m calling off our engagement.”

I nodded calmly, took out my phone, and typed a message. [Atlas and I have canceled our engagement.]

I lifted my phone to show them. “Is this enough?”

The three of them froze in place, stunned by my action. Atlas stared at me in disbelief, his jaw tightening as he gritted his teeth.

“Fine. Then you’d better get rid of the child in your belly, too. Who knows what you’ll do later using that kid?”

I placed my hand over my stomach, a faint, bitter smile appearing on my lips. “The child is already gone.”

As soon as I said those words, Atlas rushed forward and grabbed my shoulders.

“What nonsense are you saying! How could you be so cruel as to get rid of this child? How could you end our baby’s life without even telling me?”

It wasn’t surprising that he was shocked; he had seen how much I had looked forward to this child.

When my pregnancy was unstable, I endured those thick progesterone shots that left my belly bruised and sore. To help my baby grow stronger, I forced myself to drink bowl after bowl of bitter medicine, even when it made me want to vomit.

Though I was a doctor who believed in science, not gods or ghosts, I still placed a statue of God in my room and prayed sincerely every day, because I truly wanted this child.

In another world, I had been an orphan, always longing for someone connected to me by blood.

But I also knew that if this child came into the world unloved, like I once was, it would only bring more pain.

Atlas naturally thought that when I said the baby was gone, I meant I had ended the pregnancy myself.

His eyes widened in disbelief as he grabbed my hands, completely forgetting why he had come. He pulled me along, insisting that we go to the hospital to confirm it.

Just then, a cry came from behind. Heidi’s voice trembled with hurt.

“Atlas, isn’t today our wedding day? Why are you holding her hand? Why is she wearing a wedding dress?”

“Sister, did you ask me to come here just to see Atlas betray me? I hate you both!”

She turned and ran into the street, crying. My brother shouted, and my mother slapped me hard across the face.

“Why did you call Heidi here! You won’t be satisfied until you drive her insane, will you? If anything happens to Heidi because of you today, I’ll cut off our mother-daughter bond! Atlas, stop her!”

Atlas threw my hand away roughly, and I fell backward. My wedding dress tore against the gravel, scraping my knees until thin lines of blood appeared.

Sitting on the ground, I gave a bitter smile as I watched them all run after Heidi. That kind of scene, I had seen far too many times before.

When I first came back to this family, there was a short time when things were truly happy.

Back then, Mom smiled as she cooked for me, and my brother would take me out for ice cream after school. My younger brother would pull me along to play his favorite computer games.

But everything changed the moment I started dating my neighbor, Atlas. That was when Heidi began to lose control.

She cried and screamed, saying I scared her and that I wanted to send her back to our foster parents’ home.

With tears running down her face, she pointed at me and shouted, “Sister said, why should she have to live that kind of life? Why should she be beaten and scolded while I live comfortably in her place? She’s not happy about it, she wants me to suffer too!”

At first, Mom, my brother, and the younger one still tried to comfort her.

Mom would say softly, “That’s impossible. Sienna would never say something like that.”

My brother would defend me, “She’s a good girl; she’d never say that.”

Our younger one would quietly add, “Sister Heidi, you must have misunderstood Sister Sienna.”

But as time went on, Mom and my younger brother started to take Heidi’s side. When she cried and threw tantrums, their eyes grew cold as they looked at me.

“Will you ever stop? Do you have to bully Heidi? Are you only happy when she’s scared?”

“If I’d known, I would never have brought you back. You’ve destroyed this family.”

Back then, my brother still stood up for me. He said I chose to help girls who suffered from domestic violence.

“A kind girl like Sienna could never say something like that.”

“Mom, don’t be so unfair!”