The appeal was set for five days out.

I already had the divorce papers drawn up and the plane tickets booked.

Once everything was settled, I would take Emily and leave this place of grief for good.

After I'd coaxed her to sleep, I called every lawyer in Marisville, one after another.

But the moment they heard Annette Carlisle's name, every last one of them waved me off.

I was at the end of my rope when her voice came from behind me.

"Bruno, save your breath."

"You can't win this case."

I turned toward her, on my guard.

"What are you doing here."

"I came to see Emily."

Her voice was calm, the way it always was.

"She's still my daughter. What she's become is partly on me."

I thought of the hope on my daughter's face.

I hesitated, then stepped aside and let Annette in.

Sure enough, Emily lit up the moment she saw her mother.

Without thinking, she hid her injured hand behind her back.

And forced out the brightest smile she could manage.

"Mom, you came to see me."

Annette didn't answer.

She opened the briefcase in her hand.

Emily's sharp eyes caught the necklace inside, and she reached for it, delighted.

"Mom, you actually bought the watch!"

Annette had once promised that if Emily got into the nation's top university, she'd give her a limited-edition designer watch.

But before Emily's fingers could touch it, Annette frowned and pushed her hand away.

"This isn't for you."

She took a camera out of the briefcase.

And set it down in front of Emily, all business.

"Emily Carlisle, I need you to answer the following questions seriously."

"Everything you say will be admissible as testimony."

The smile faded a little on my daughter's face, but she still nodded, obedient as ever.

"Why did you fake a fall to frame Thomas Pruitt?"

"Was it because Bruno was jealous of Uncle Calvin, and put you up to all of it?"

The smile froze completely on my daughter's face.

In its place, her eyes went red.

She shook her head, at a loss for what to do.

"I didn't…"

"Mom, believe me, I really didn't!"

Annette's expression stayed severe.

"Emily Carlisle, you're an adult now."

"I won't keep covering for what you've done. If you don't tell the truth, I will make you pay for it myself!"

"Enough!"

Seeing my daughter about to break down, I rushed forward and put myself between them.

"Annette, Emily is your daughter."

"Fine, you don't believe her. But you're actually siding with an outsider to accuse your own child. What kind of mother does that!"

Annette switched off the camera.

Her face stayed severe, without a flicker of feeling.

"I'm only doing my job."

"As a professional lawyer, I won't let any perpetrator go, and I certainly won't cover for any criminal."

At the word criminal, my daughter went white.

All her life she had looked up to Annette as her idol.

Her greatest dream was to get into her mother's alma mater and become a brilliant lawyer.

Annette knew that dream. She knew that anyone who wanted to be a lawyer couldn't afford a single stain on her record.

And still, so casually, she called her own daughter a "criminal."

My heart felt like it would split open from the pain.

I held my daughter and pointed toward the door.

Coldly, I told Annette to get out.

She didn't react at all.

She stood, slammed the door, and was gone.

Without another word.

That night, Calvin actually sent me a text.

"Bruno, thank you for delivering Annette back to me once again."

A bright, spotless living room.

Annette, in a robe, was sitting with Calvin and his son, watching TV.

On Calvin's wrist was the watch Emily had wanted so badly.

On Annette's face was a smile I had never once seen.

Next to me and Emily, the three of them looked far more like a real family.

I wiped my eyes and turned to look at my daughter, sitting there hollow and lost.

"Emily, would you be willing to come live with Daddy from now on?"

"Daddy's going to win this case for you, and take you somewhere better, somewhere beautiful."

"We'll forget all these unhappy things together."

She lifted her head slowly.

She looked at the freshly bandaged wounds on her own hand.

At my red, swollen eyes.

She was quiet for a long time, then nodded.

After Annette's visit, Emily's state started to slip.

She tried so hard to act like a normal child in front of me.

But the insomnia and the self-harm were beyond her control.

All ten of her fingers were bitten raw and bleeding.

It broke my heart.

I stayed at my daughter's side while I dug into the law every way I could.

Soon enough, the appeal hearing opened.

Annette stood across from me again, calmly reading out my daughter's crimes.

"Forensic examination recovered no viable DNA on the plaintiff's body."

"There were no signs of a struggle at the scene."

"The plaintiff's fall was purely an accident."

She glanced at me, and let her voice pause a moment.

Then, under Calvin's earnest gaze, she went on.

"From what I understand, the plaintiff and the defendant have long been on bad terms, and quarreled repeatedly over petty domestic matters."

"So this incident was nothing more than the plaintiff framing the defendant out of jealousy."

"I reserve the right to file a new suit on behalf of my client, demanding a public apology from the other party."

The plaintiff had become the defendant.

My sweet, well-behaved daughter.

In Annette's mouth, she had become a criminal beyond redemption.

I couldn't hold it in anymore and shouted at Annette.

"Annette, you're lying!"

"Emily never did anything wrong. It was Thomas bullying her the whole time!"

After it happened, I'd secretly read my daughter's diary.

Ever since Annette pulled strings to get Thomas transferred into Emily's class.

He'd been the one leading the bullying against her.

Cutting her hair, throwing away her textbooks, insulting her.

Emily didn't want to put me in a hard spot, so she never dared tell me.

She only brought it up gently with Annette.

And what she got in return was the other side treating her even worse.

Along with Annette's careless line, "Why doesn't he bully anyone else, just you?"

"Emily, don't be unreasonable like your father. When something happens, look at yourself first."

I no longer had the strength to argue over the past.

But there was one thing I never imagined.

That Annette would take the worries Emily had confided in her, and turn them into the reason to hurt her now.

While I stood there stunned, the judge before us had already handed down the verdict.

The appeal was lost.

No further recourse.

I froze where I stood.

The room spun, everything blurring.

Annette pushed a new complaint in front of me.

"You and Emily apologize to Calvin and his son, and this whole thing ends here."

"Otherwise, the next person in that defendant's seat will be you."

My tears were already spent. I couldn't even cry.

I walked forward, hollowed out.

And on my way down the stairs, I lost my footing and fell.

"Bruno, are you all right?"

Calvin stepped up to steady me, but his nails dug hard into my arm.

He kept his voice low.

"Bruno, do you know why you lost the case?"

"Because I cleared away all the evidence ahead of time."

"The night your daughter got hurt, Annette was sleeping right beside me."

"She called Annette more than a dozen times, but we were too caught up in each other to pick up."

"The moment I found out what happened, I got to the scene first and cleaned up every piece of evidence, exactly the way Annette told me to."

My head buzzed.

The whole world twisted out of shape in front of me.

I lifted my head in disbelief, past the point of feeling any pain.

Thomas came over too.

He crouched down in front of me, a taunting grin on his face.

"Old man, how'd you end up as useless as that daughter of yours?"

"Can't hold on to your wife, can't win your lawsuit."

"Take my advice. Hand Annette over to my dad nice and quiet, or Emily's going to have a very hard time from here on out."

Hearing the filth in that threat.

Fury swallowed whatever reason I had left.

I lunged and grabbed Thomas by the throat.

"You animal, don't you dare touch my daughter again!"

The next second, Annette hauled me off.

One ringing slap brought me all the way back down.

She helped Calvin and his son up, her face full of contempt.

"Bruno, have you lost your mind, making a scene in front of everyone? Do you want me to put you away with your daughter?"

"The rotten branch falls from the rotten tree. No wonder a decent kid turned out like this under you!"

She yanked my arm and dragged me in front of Calvin.

"Apologize."

"Or I'll show you exactly what a professional lawyer can do to you!"

The taste of blood seeped into my mouth.

I raised my head and spat a mouthful of bloody foam into Annette's face.

"In your dreams!"

For my daughter, I would never bow my head.

Annette and I parted on the worst possible terms.

She simply seized the chance and moved into Calvin's house.

The three of them ate and lived together, for all the world like a real family of three.

I tried to use the things Calvin had said to dig up new evidence and refile the case.

But I was afraid my daughter would find out we'd lost.

So I stuck to the flight we'd already booked, planning to take her away for a while to clear her head and let things cool down.

But when I came back after finishing the packing, I found Annette standing at the foot of the hospital bed.

Playing on the TV was the recording of yesterday's hearing.

Annette didn't spare a word.

"Emily, you're an adult now. Don't think you can do whatever you want just because Bruno indulges you."

"I already know everything you two schemed."

"Apologize to Calvin and his son, or I'll send you and your father to prison together."

My daughter was already sobbing too hard to speak.

In front of someone who refused to believe her.

Every explanation meant nothing.

She cried helplessly, at a loss.

It drew the attention of the patients passing by.

A visitor there for someone else suddenly turned to look at Emily.

"Hey, isn't this the girl from that leaked-video scandal? What's she doing here?"

"She looks even better in person than in the video. Just wonder if she's as wild as she was on camera."

"How about we add each other online and set something up?"

My daughter and I both froze where we stood.

Emily reacted first, snatching the phone I'd hidden away.

I don't know what she searched.

In an instant, a suggestive sound rang out through the empty hall.