On the day of our wedding, Henry Zander, my fiance, gets his legs broken in a car crash in his attempt of playing the knight in shining armor who intends to rescue the damsel in distress.

So, I terminate our wedding on the spot.

Both families surround me, trying to convince me to prioritize the bigger picture. My future mother-in-law cries her heart out as she takes my hand.

"Winona, Henry got crippled because of his acts of heroism! He's the real hero here! If you head over to the hospital and take good care of him from now on, we'll still be a family!"

My mom hugs me as well, her voice lowered. "You're still pregnant with the Zanders' heir, Winona. Do you have the heart to deliver your baby to this world without a father in their life? Hurry up and apologize to the Zanders so that this incident can be water under the bridge!"

My dad acts more impulsively by slapping me on the spot and calling me an insensitive bastard who humiliates the family.

Regardless, I walk over to the emcee calmly and pick up the microphone.

"I'll give the 880-thousand-dollar wedding gifts meant for Henry and me to the driver involved in this car accident."

"She's lost it! This woman's completely lost it!"

Everyone stared at me like I had lost my mind.

"What did she just say? She gave the wedding money to the driver who hit her fiance? Did the shock scramble her brain?"

"Who does something like that? Henry must have the worst luck alive. He lost his leg saving someone, and his fiancee handed the money to the person who caused the accident!"

Dad rushed onto the stage and slapped me across the face. The sharp crack echoed through the entire room.

My head snapped to the side, my cheek burning as the taste of blood spread across my tongue.

"You ungrateful wench! Have you lost your mind? What nonsense are you talking about?"

He pointed straight at me, his body shaking with anger.

Mom ran up and grabbed my arm, shaking me hard. "Winona, what's wrong with you? Did you hit your head or something? Apologize right now! Apologize to everyone, and to Henry's parents!"

As she spoke, she kept throwing frantic glances toward the Zanders in the audience, forcing an obsequious smile onto her face.

"Winona, don't forget. The baby you're carrying is a member of the Zander family! What are you going to do about the baby if you keep this up?"

To smooth things over, Mom blurted out my pregnancy in front of everyone without hesitation.

The crowd erupted once more.

"What? She's pregnant?"

"She's pregnant, so how could she treat her husband like this? Does she not have a conscience?"

"My God, what did the Zanders ever do to deserve this?"

My mother-in-law, Helen Basette, stopped crying and shouted at me, "Winona, I'm begging you! Even if you don't care about yourself, think about my grandson! You can't be this selfish!"

As soon as she finished, Henry's aunt, uncle, and the rest of his family all stood up, pointing fingers at me.

"Winona, you've completely let us down!"

"Henry's in the hospital, and instead of comforting him, you're making a scene!"

"Exactly! Take it back and go to the hospital to take care of him. Otherwise, we won't let this go!"

I ignored them. Instead, I raised the microphone and delivered my final words.

"Don't worry. I already scheduled an appointment with the OB-GYN first thing tomorrow morning. This baby isn't coming into this world. I'll make sure of that myself."

The moment those words left my mouth, the entire room went silent.

A few seconds later, Dad broke free from Mom's grip and lunged at me. "I'll kill you, you heartless monster!"

The rest of the family scrambled to hold him back.

Helen stared at me like she was looking at a beast. Her lips trembled, and a broken wail escaped her throat before her body gave out and she collapsed.

My parents dragged me to the hospital, where the Zanders had me boxed into a corner against the wall.

My parents stood off to the side, their faces flushed and their heads lowered.

"Winona!" Helen rushed out of the ER, her face pale. "Henry is lying in there, and you gave the money to the person who hit him. What exactly are you thinking?"

She lunged at me, trying to grab my hair, but Henry's aunt, Rebecca Zander, pulled her back.

"Calm down, Helen. Don't hurt yourself," she said, though she immediately turned on me. "Winona, how could you do something like this?"

"Exactly! Has Henry ever treated you badly? Has the Zander family ever wronged you?"

"You ungrateful piece of trash! This wedding is over!"

"Return the wedding money, too!"

The accusations came at me relentlessly, yet I stayed silent through it all.

Mom couldn't take it anymore. She tugged at my sleeve, her voice shaking as she forced a weak smile and tried to appease Helen.

"Helen, please calm down. Winona was just too shocked to think straight. She didn't mean it! We'll give her a good talking-to. As for the money, we'll figure something out once we get home. How does that sound?"

Rebecca let out a cold snort and shoved Mom aside. "Figure something out? What exactly is that supposed to mean? Are you planning to sell your daughter off? Oh, right, that's what your family does best, isn't it?

"Now that Henry's leg is broken, you think you can run off with the wedding money and find someone else? In your dreams!"

Mom stumbled back, nearly falling, her face draining of color. "That's not true… We're not that kind of people…"

Dad stood there, shaking for a second, before trying to calm the situation the only way he knew how. He forced a smile and started mumbling apologies to the Zander men, nodding so hard he looked ready to bow.

"This is our fault. I didn't raise my daughter right. Please don't take it to heart…"

"Get out of my face! Don't talk to me like we're family," Henry's uncle snapped.

One of Henry's cousins jabbed a finger in Dad's face and sneered, "Look at you. You've got no backbone, no pride, and you raised a daughter just as rotten. Your whole family is bad luck. Get out of here with that jinx and quit being an eyesore!"

Dad's face turned scarlet, but he didn't dare argue. He just kept apologizing under his breath. "You're absolutely right. This is all our fault…"

In the middle of all the commotion, I finally lifted my head. "Are you finished?"

They instantly quieted down.

I pulled my arm free from Mom's hand and stepped forward.

"I wasn't driving the car. I didn't hit anyone. Henry's broken leg has nothing to do with me," I said softly. "The 880,000 dollars were money my parents gave me. It was mine, not the Zanders'. I can do whatever I want with my own money."

"And just so we're clear…" I said, looking at their livid faces one by one. "I've already transferred it to the driver's family. Every single cent."

"You…"

Helen clutched at her chest while jabbing a finger in my face. She looked seconds away from passing out again.

Dad pointed at me, then glanced at the operating room doors, before finally slamming his fist against the wall.

"You disgrace!" he roared. "Are you trying to drive our whole family into the grave?"

Mom had already sunk to the floor, covering her face as she cried, but I didn't look at any of them again and turned to leave.

"Where are you going?" Dad shouted after me, his voice cracking with desperation. "Where the hell do you think you're going?"

I didn't turn around, and my steps didn't falter.

"I'm going to meet the real victim in this accident."

I went to the OB-GYN first and handed my appointment form to the nurse.

I completed the registration, paid, and finished all the paperwork before sitting down on a cold bench in the hallway to wait for my name to be called.

The doctor looked over my test results and frowned. "You're young and healthy. This is your first pregnancy. Are you sure about this? Have you talked it over with your family?"

I looked at her and answered calmly, "We did. The father's dead."

That was the truth. At least to me, Henry was already dead.

By the time I came out of the operating room, my legs felt weak and unsteady, and a dull ache pulsed through my lower abdomen.

I braced a hand against the wall and slowly made my way down the hall as I went by myself to the ICU viewing window.

Inside lay the girl Henry had saved, Ariana Larson. Tubes covered her body, and her life hung by a thread. Her parents stood outside the room, their faces clouded with sorrow.

I had barely stopped walking when Henry's parents stormed toward me with a crowd of relatives behind them.

"Winona!" Helen pointed at me, her eyes red-rimmed. "You've dragged our family through the mud, and you still have the nerve to show up here? You'd better get that wedding money back right now!"

I looked at her calmly. "The driver's family already used it to hire a lawyer. That money is gone."

"You—"

Just then, Mom came running toward us with tears streaming down her face and a receipt in her hand. "Winona, did you really go to the OB-GYN? Did you really get rid of the baby?"

She slapped the receipt against my chest. "How could you be this cruel? That was your own flesh and blood!"

"What?" Helen snatched the paper out of her hand.

The moment she saw the words on it, she started shaking. "You vicious bitch! You gave the money to the person who ruined my son, and now you've killed my grandson! I'll kill you!"

She lunged at me like a madwoman, but Henry's father, Keith Zander, held her back.

The scene drew everyone's attention in the hospital. Countless phones were raised, their cameras all pointed at me.

"You bitch! Just you wait!"

Keith stared at me, hatred flickering in his eyes. He then pulled out his phone and dialed a reporter. "Hello, Mr. Wright. This is Henry Zander's father. I've got a hell of a story for you!

"My daughter-in-law, Winona Burke, the woman who handed the wedding money to the driver who caused the accident, just came to the hospital and aborted our grandson. Even tigers don't eat their cubs. She's a monster!"

At this point, he was practically shouting. He listened for a moment, then hung up.

Less than ten minutes later, my phone started vibrating nonstop.

"#WinonaBurkeAbortion"

"#Hero'sFianceeHands880ThousandDollarsToTheDriverWhoHitHim"

"#WinonaBurkeMostViciousWomanOfTheYear"

"#EvenTigersDon'tEatTheirCubs"

The hashtags shot to the top of the trending list almost instantly.

Right after that, Henry's parents started a livestream, crying in front of the camera as they spoke.

"Winona, do you have any conscience at all? Henry got hurt saving someone! The city is honoring him with a Medal of Honor the day after tomorrow. You're going to get on that stage and apologize to our son in front of everyone!"

The internet was outraged, and countless people in the livestream were hurling insults at me.

"How are you still alive? Someone like you should be dead! Henry must've had the worst luck on earth ever to have met you!"

"I'd love to know what your heart is made of. Stone? How could you kill your own child? You don't deserve to be a mother!"

"Somebody dox her address, her workplace, everything. We're going to take her down!"

In just over ten minutes, my phone number, my home address, and all my personal information had been posted online.

My phone started blowing up, and people edited photos of me to make it look as if I were dead.

At the same time, another piece of news sent Henry's reputation soaring even higher.

"The city has decided to honor Mr. Henry Zander with a Medal of Honor in recognition of his heroic actions."

Henry became a hero, while I became a person detested by everyone.

"#Henry'sParentsCallForWinonaBurkeToApologize"

Just then, a new hashtag appeared. The Zanders' livestream had gone viral.

Ariana's parents also made an appearance o, the two of them looking like they had aged overnight.

"We truly can't understand how someone could be this cruel. Mr. Zander saved our daughter, and this is how his fiancee repays him. Our daughter is in the ICU, and yet she gave money to the person responsible!"

Those words further cemented me as everyone's enemy.

Amidst the internet's fury and anticipation, I logged in with my real profile and joined the Zanders' livestream, delivering a single response.

"Fine. I'll be there at the awards ceremony."