“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!”

He took me away from home for a while, traveling with me to help me relax.

Later, on my birthday, Heidi threw a huge tantrum, refusing to let me celebrate.

My brother came to pick me up himself, he ordered a cake and even spent his own salary on a white dress for me.

He said, “Tomorrow’s your birthday. I’ll take you to Disneyland, so stop thinking about those things.”

Then he patted my head and smiled. “Your brother will always believe you and stay by your side.”

But everything stopped the next day.

That morning, I left work early, planning to surprise my brother, but I was stopped at the entrance of the alley by my recently released adoptive father.

It was a dark, damp alley, with peeling paint and the smell of mold everywhere.

He dragged me into a corner, shouting, “You little brat, you dared to call the police on me, let’s see if I don’t teach you a lesson!”

I struggled, but he kicked me to the ground.

He snatched the cake from my hands and crushed it under his feet, the cream mixing with dirt until it looked like a pool of filthy blood.

He beat me until my head spun, tearing my dress into shreds, and in that moment, it felt like I had fallen back into the same hell I once lived through.

When I woke up, clutching my wounds, I ran to find my brother. He was sitting outside a hospital room.

I rushed toward him, crying, “Brother, help me…”

Before I could finish, his hand came down hard across my face. It was the first time he had ever hit me.

He grabbed me and dragged me into the hospital room, forcing me to kneel beside Heidi’s bed.

Clenching his teeth, he shouted, “I didn’t think you could pretend this well! You even bribed that old man to hurt Heidi!”

Tears ran down my face as I cried and shook my head. “It wasn’t me… really, it wasn’t me…”

But he didn’t believe me. He only looked at me with disappointment and said coldly, “I didn’t think those people could raise you to become like this.”

“Now Heidi has lost her mind because of you! Sienna, you should carry that guilt for the rest of your life and spend it making it up to her.”

Mom stood nearby, watching me without any emotion. Even Atlas looked at me with cold eyes and said, “You’ve really disappointed me.”

After that, he stayed by Heidi’s side almost every day, saying it was his way of making up for me.

At that time, I thought my adoptive father had lied just to get back at me.

Then one day, Tessa overheard Heidi talking to a friend on the phone. She was laughing proudly.

“I’m perfectly fine. I just pretended for a while, and she’s completely ruined. That old man, he’d do anything for some money.”

“I told you, what is she anyway? She thinks she can fight me for my family? As long as I cry a few times, they all believe me.”

When I heard about this, I felt completely numb.

……

My thoughts came back to me as I leaned against the wall, trying to stand. I turned to walk toward the hotel, but before I could take two steps, my brother rushed over and grabbed my arm.

He shouted angrily, “You called Heidi here on purpose and made her sick again! She almost got hit by a car and fainted from the shock!”

“You have to come with us to the hospital and kneel by her bedside to apologize!”

“When she wakes up, we’ll decide if we’ll let you go!”

I struggled as my brother dragged me into the car. In my earpiece, the police’s voice came through, “The suspect’s trail has disappeared. Stay where you are, you don’t need to go into the hotel.”

I took a deep breath, replied “Okay,” and turned off the earpiece.

They took me to the hospital’s emergency room. I stumbled as they pushed me toward it, and just as the door was about to close, I said softly, “Brother, I never told anyone that I was wearing a wedding dress to go to the hotel.”