Soon, the wail of police sirens tore through the afternoon noise. Several squad cars screeched to a stop at the club entrance.

A flicker of hope ignited in my chest. These were the officers assigned to my grandfather’s case—maybe now, finally, justice would speak.

Vanessa scoffed and casually waved her assistant over. The assistant walked straight to the lead officer and whispered something in his ear.

I couldn't see her face, but I saw the officer's. His expression shifted in an instant—from stern authority to obsequious grinning. He nodded repeatedly, practically groveling.

Then he turned to me, his demeanor suddenly icy and dismissive.

“Emily, stop making trouble. Go home.”

His voice was indifferent, like I were an unreasonable child.

At that moment, I understood everything—he had been bought off. Just a few words from her, and he was theirs.

I quietly took out my phone and began recording. My voice was calm, but my hands trembled. “Officer, I’m here today as a witness. I trust the police will help uncover the truth.”

Daniel spotted my phone and immediately stepped in, shielding Vanessa with a bathrobe, then shot a look at the officer.

The officer nodded and suddenly straightened, putting on a professional front.

“After investigation,” he announced, “your grandfather’s case has been classified as an ordinary accident, with him fully responsible.”

“As for the witness you’re referring to, he made an error. He saw nothing. Continuing to disturb public order will result in your arrest.”

My breath caught. They weren’t even trying to hide the collusion!

They had trampled the law right in the open!

I watched, stunned, as the lines between right and wrong blurred under their lies. I pushed past the guards and ran straight toward the man hiding behind Daniel.

“Please,” I begged. “Tell them what you saw! What really happened that day?”

But the witness stepped back, avoiding my gaze, trembling. His eyes flicked nervously between me and Daniel, lips sealed tight.

His fear was real—and revealing. He’d been silenced. Controlled.

Daniel stood nearby, smirking as if he'd already won.

They’d planned all this. Every step. Even the witness was just another puppet in their show.

As the officer began to turn away, I collapsed to my knees and clung to his leg.

“Please, officer! Help us! My grandfather is in the ICU, accused of fraud he didn’t commit! He’s an old man! How can this be justice?”

My voice cracked, drowned in grief and desperation.

“Careful! She’s attacking the police!” someone shouted.

In the next instant, I was kicked hard and thrown to the ground. My phone was snatched from my hands.

“No! Give it back!” I cried.

Pain shot through my body as I struggled to rise. The security guards lunged, pinning me down. I couldn’t fight them off.

The officer looked down at me, sighed, and said in a falsely kind voice, “Forget it, Emily. Take care of your grandfather. Stirring up trouble won’t help either of you.”

“You’re an adult now. Learn to bow your head.”

Bow my head?

No. The law is not meant to bow to power!

The roar of police engines faded in the distance, taunting me, leaving behind nothing but silence and defeat.

Vanessa bent down, lifted my broken phone between two fingers, and slammed it down on my head. A warm trickle of blood followed.

Still not satisfied, she stepped forward and pressed her high heel into my face. Her beauty was twisted by cruelty.

“You really think the police will go against the Blake family—for you?” she sneered. “That’s hilarious.”

I tried to resist, but the guards held me tightly. I couldn’t move.

Pain radiated through me, and my vision blurred. Still, I spat through clenched teeth, “The law will punish you. One day.”

“The law?”

She laughed. A cold, gleeful laugh that echoed off the club walls.

“Hasn’t Atty. Harvey told you? In City A, the law is ours.”

“You’ve gotten in my way too many times.”

She raised her heel, pressed it into my face with venom. “I gave you a chance. You couldn’t take it. Don’t blame me.”

With that, she turned and walked away. Daniel followed without a word.

I lay motionless for a long time.

Shame, pain, and despair crashed over me like a tidal wave. I saw no light, no hope.

But eventually, when my blood dried and my tears stopped, I rose. Slowly.

I couldn’t surrender.

My grandfather always told me—never give up.

I picked up the shattered pieces of my phone and held them close.

I would stay calm. I would find real evidence. I would make them pay.

I had to.

But as I turned to leave, a shadow fell across my path.

A group of men suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

Before I could react, rough hands grabbed me.

They dragged me off the street and into a dark, narrow alley.

They wore flashy hip-hop masks that didn’t even bother to conceal their faces.

Their leader held a baseball bat, tapping it rhythmically against his palm. “Sorry, you messed with someone you shouldn’t have.”

Then, without warning, he slammed the bat against my leg.

A second man clamped his hand over my mouth. My screams came out as muffled groans that echoed helplessly in the alley.

“Don’t worry,” someone snickered. “Our client was clear—cripple her, but don’t kill her.”

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The blows didn’t stop until my vision blurred from the pain. My legs felt like they were being ripped open. I was sure the bones had snapped.

Then the leader pulled out his phone and started recording. “Boss, check this out.”

A voice replied from the other end, cold and unmistakable: “No need to show me. Just make sure she never walks again.”

That voice.

It was Daniel.

I couldn’t believe it. The man who once told me to stay out of the kitchen after I burned my hand—was now the one behind this?

The bat came crashing down on the back of my head. Everything went black.

When I opened my eyes again, I was in a hospital bed.

Both of my legs were broken. The doctor said steel rods had been inserted.

The anesthesia hadn’t worn off yet. My body felt heavy and numb, but my heart was heavier. Numbness couldn’t block out the betrayal.

Daniel was sitting next to my bed, his expression unreadable. He reached forward and gently placed two documents in front of me: a divorce agreement and a property transfer contract.

This was the calmest I’d seen him in weeks. And yet, it felt like a boulder was crushing my chest.

“Don’t hate me,” he said quietly. “This is the only way to keep you from clashing with Vanessa again.”

He sounded almost gentle.

“Vanessa’s just a spoiled girl,” he added. “She overreacts. And look—your grandpa’s awake. At his age, losing a leg doesn’t change much. You need to stop dwelling on it.”

“Just focus on healing. After this all blows over, I’ll still take care of you and Grandpa. For life.”

I clutched the edge of the bedsheet, trying to keep my rage from spilling over. My voice trembled as I forced the words out: “You two are really a match made in hell. For her, you ignored Grandpa’s accident, faked the surveillance footage, leaked my private videos, and even hired thugs to break my legs. Do you even know how much this hurts?”

“Daniel,” I hissed, “do you even have a heart left?”

“My grandfather saved your life. And this is how you repay him?”

He leaned in, his eyes red, almost glowing with frustration. “Yes, your grandfather saved me. But Vanessa saved me, too. Without her, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”

“What more do you want from me? Should I worship your family every day to show my gratitude?”

“Didn’t I marry you? Didn’t I let your whole family move into the villa? Gave you luxury cars, private schools for our daughter—wasn’t that enough?”

He gestured at his shiny leather shoes, the sleek tailored suit, the Patek Philippe on his wrist.

“Everything I have now, I earned myself. No one—not even you—is taking it from me.”

After his tirade, he adjusted his tone, but the threat remained sharp beneath the calm.

“Just sign the documents and stop being difficult. We’re still husband and wife—for now. But if you resist... don’t blame me when I file for divorce first. Who’s going to want a cripple anyway?”

Before he could say more, I picked up the pen and signed my name on the divorce papers.

He didn’t expect that.

His eyes widened, but after a moment of disbelief, he let out a low, sarcastic chuckle. “Well, well... look at you, Emily. You've finally grown a spine.”

He slid the property transfer agreement toward me. “Sign this one too. I want to see how far you make it on your own, with no house, no money, no man.”

Instead, I tore the document in half—then into shreds.

“You’re dreaming. I’m keeping the house and custody of our daughter.”

Rage twisted his face. His chest heaved. “She’s a Harvey not a Carter! She's my daughter! You’re crippled—how will you raise her?!”

He stormed out of the ward.

Moments later, my phone rang.

It was the nanny.

“Miss Emily! Something happened to Lily!”

Just three words—“something happened”—and my heart dropped.

I tried to call the police, but my smashed phone was dead.

Its cracked screen reflected my broken, bloodied face.

I looked down at my legs, both wrapped in thick plaster. I couldn’t walk.

But I could crawl.

I pulled myself off the bed, inch by inch, gripping furniture and dragging myself across the floor. Every movement sent bolts of pain through my body, but I didn’t stop.

I couldn’t.

Lily needed me.

I didn’t know how I made it—only that by the time I got to the emergency room, my arms were shaking, and my fingers were raw and bleeding.

Then I saw her.

Lily lay silently on a cold hospital bed, covered with a white sheet.

My baby girl—like a broken doll.

Just days ago, she’d hugged me and begged to go to the amusement park. I had told her we’d go next week.

But there will be no next week.

Her body was bruised and scratched, signs of horrific abuse. I reached for her, holding her limp hand and trying to place it over my heart. Over and over.

It wouldn’t stay.

I cried out, my sobs echoing through the sterile hallway. My voice cracked, and I screamed until I couldn’t breathe.

Lily had been bullied to death—pushed off the building by Vanessa’s niece.

They covered it up. Bribed the school. Erased classroom footage.

I didn’t tell Grandpa. I didn’t have the heart.

Despite my injuries, I filed complaint after complaint. The police refused to open a case.

Meanwhile, Daniel quietly buried our daughter, hiding the truth.

I rushed to the cemetery in my wheelchair. When I reached her grave, what I saw ripped what was left of my soul into pieces.

Daniel and Vanessa stood in front of her tombstone, locked in a passionate kiss.

“Emily, don’t make things difficult for me today!” Daniel’s face darkened the moment he saw me.

The anger and hatred I’d been holding back finally burst out. “Your idea of ‘difficult’ is having an affair with the aunt of the person who murdered our daughter, right in front of Lily’s grave?”

Vanessa stood nearby, completely indifferent, a cruel smirk playing at the corner of her lips.

Daniel’s voice snapped like a whip. “It’s all your fault. If it weren’t for you, my daughter wouldn’t have died!”

His words hit me like knives. “Because of your selfishness, you killed your own daughter. Are you satisfied now?”

He pushed me down hard, knocking my wheelchair over onto my broken legs. I struggled to lift my head, fists clenched in defiance.

“Who exactly killed Lily, Atty. Harvey? Are you really sure?” I challenged him.

Daniel froze for a moment, a flicker of guilt passing through his eyes. “You are the murderer. It’s because you tried to scam people and were exposed online that my daughter fell into depression and jumped off that building.”

His blind defense of Vanessa’s niece—the true culprit who pushed Lily down the stairs—felt like a punch to my gut. He’d slandered me and my grandfather, extorted money from the Blake family, and refused to see the truth.

“Why am I being cyberbullied? Where’s the proof that my daughter was bullied or depressed? If something happened, there must be evidence—I will find the truth,” I vowed through clenched teeth.

Daniel glared at his daughter’s tombstone and spat venomously, “You destroyed yourself and killed your own daughter. Now you want to pin it all on me?”

Watching him deny reality so completely, I vomited a mouthful of blood.

He instinctively tried to help me up, but Vanessa’s cold voice stopped him.

“Ms. Carter, you’re worthy of being an entertainment reporter with your acting skills,” she sneered.

Daniel’s tone turned icy. “What are you pretending for? You indirectly killed my two children! I haven’t even cried yet.”

“Open your eyes, Daniel, and look!” I shouted, pulling up a video on my phone. I held it in front of them.

“This was sent to me by Lily’s classmates. Watch what she went through before she died.”

He snatched the phone and watched helplessly as the video showed Lily being forced to drink toilet water, beaten on the rooftop until bruised, and tormented in every possible way.

His face went pale, and he staggered back in disbelief.

But Vanessa stepped forward, snatched the phone, and deleted the video without hesitation.

“Don’t fool yourself with AI-generated images. You’re just angry at Daniel for loving me, so you want to blame me and my family,” she taunted.

Daniel, regaining composure, said coldly, “I’ve watched all the school surveillance footage. How could I be fooled so easily?”

I smiled bitterly, tears blurring my vision. He chose to believe only what fit his narrative.

Vanessa’s eyes glittered with devilish delight. “Daniel, I gave you time to deal with her, but you failed. Given your ex-wife’s stubbornness, she’ll cause trouble sooner or later.”

“It’s nearly time for the company to go public. You don’t want all your efforts to go to waste.”

She pulled a small pill from her bag and handed it to Daniel.

“Are you sure this medicine has no side effects?” he asked hesitantly.

“Don’t worry.”

He took the pill with a decisive nod and pinched my chin sharply.

“Take it obediently. We’re divorced, but I’ll still be responsible for you and Grandpa. I’ll make sure you have food and clothing for the rest of your life.”

I stared at him, searching for any shred of humanity left.

“No, Daniel, please don’t do this,” I begged.

“You must take it,” he insisted, forcing my mouth open and trying to shove the pill down my throat.

Years of love and memories were shattered in that moment.

Without hesitation, I bit down hard on his hand. Blood mixed with my tears as it trickled down his wrist.

Vanessa panicked and pulled him away quickly, inspecting his hand.

“You’re a mad dog biting randomly—how dare you hurt him!” she scolded.

Despite his protests, Vanessa unleashed a frenzy on me, punching and kicking like a maniac.

“Happy now? You’re about to become a real lunatic! No matter what you say, no one will believe you anymore.”

“You’re all talk. Let’s see how you prove you’re sane in a mental hospital!”

After exhausting herself, Vanessa grabbed Daniel.

“Let’s go to the hospital. The wound’s too deep.”

I turned my head, scratched my throat, and spat out the medicine.

I hadn’t taken revenge yet—I wouldn’t end up locked away in a mental hospital.

“Send him there, then,” Vanessa ordered the bodyguards. “Let the doctors take care of him.”

Daniel didn’t even glance at me as he followed her.

I was dragged to a car, my hands bound, and thrown into the back seat.

“You two stay with the young lady,” the driver said to the bodyguards. “I’ll handle this one.”

Then, the driver knocked me unconscious with a swift elbow.

In my fading dream, my parents wore military uniforms, waving goodbye as they marched off.

In the blink of an eye, I saw my grandfather on his hospital bed, tears streaming down his face.

“Your parents died for the country, and your grandfather fought on the battlefield, killed enemies. You shouldn’t be treated like this.”

The next moment, I saw my daughter again.

“Mom, it hurts so much!”

Pain ripped through me as I woke.

The car was pulling into my house.

The driver, seeing my shock, explained everything.

He used to be a lumberjack exploited by a cruel boss. Thanks to my report, he finally earned a fair wage.

Recognizing me, he decided to help.

“Go home, get money, and run away,” he said. “I’ll pretend you attacked me and buy you an hour.”

“I’m sorry, the Blake family is too powerful. This is all I can do.”

“One hour is enough,” I whispered, too tired to say more.

He helped me into the house.

Clinging to my last hope, I dug under Grandpa’s bed and pulled out a dusty box.

Wiping off the dust, I opened it and found medals and old military keepsakes.

Putting them on, I took a taxi and left quickly.

An hour later, I reached the military gate.

I crawled to the entrance on my knees.

Holding the medals high, I cried out:

“My parents were martyrs who died for our country. My grandfather was a soldier awarded for his bravery—yet he was paralyzed after a car accident and falsely accused of fraud.”

“My daughter was bullied to death at school. I was disabled and sent to a mental hospital against my will. Vanessa and Daniel colluded to destroy my family.”

“Now I ask: if the soldiers who defend our country are treated this way, is there any justice left in this world?”

As I knelt there, the driver calmly pulled out his phone and dialed Daniel.

“Atty. Harvey,” he said quietly, “Emily is at the army gate. She’s not crazy at all.”