He Killed His Wife and Framed Me for It

1: 1

On a bridge in the pouring rain, a man covered in blood climbed out of the wrecked car up ahead.

He hammered against my window, sobbing, begging me to save someone:

Please, help me, my wife is eight months pregnant, she's pinned in the passenger seat, she's not going to make it!

As a doctor, my instinct was to get out and help.

But right then, a line of text drifted across my vision:

Do not get out of the car! That woman was already dead before the crash! Both her and the baby!

He caused the crash on purpose. He needs a passerby to pin it on!

The second you touch her, he'll report you for practicing medicine illegally, and your whole career is finished!

After that he'll cling to you, drive your parents to their graves, and strip you of everything you own!

The man was crying like his heart was tearing apart, dropping to his knees, knocking his forehead against the ground:

"I saw the AED sticker on your car. You're a doctor, aren't you?"

"Please, get out and save her, I'll do anything, I'll be your servant for life!"

I drew a sharp breath and locked the doors on the spot.

"Bad timing. I'm only a vet. You'd better wait for the ambulance!"

"A vet? That can't be right."

The man went rigid, his eyes narrowing at me with suspicion.

"Only a clinical doctor carries a defibrillator that professional in the car."

"Why would a vet keep one of those?"

He crawled forward two steps on his knees, pressing closer against the window.

"Doctor, I'm begging you!"

"Please, have some mercy, save my wife! She really can't hold on much longer!"

I watched him weeping, and not one part of me softened.

To anyone else, this was just a husband with nowhere left to turn.

But I was the only one who knew this was a carefully laid trap, built to devour whoever stepped in.

I pushed down what was churning inside me and kept an apologetic look on my face.

"I'm sorry. I really am just a vet."

"I don't know human emergency procedures. I don't dare touch her. If something goes wrong, I can't carry the blame."

"You should hurry and call 911 and wait for the ambulance."

Those words seemed to set him off.

He flew into agitation in an instant.

"A vet is fine too!"

"You still deal with medicine, don't you? You know more than an ordinary person like me!"

Then he pointed toward the road ahead of the bridge.

"Look at this weather!"

Through the sheets of rain, you could just make out the taillights of the stalled traffic.

Packed together into one long band of red.

"Rain this heavy, an accident jamming the whole bridge, gridlock the entire way!"

"There's no way an ambulance can get up here!"

"If we keep waiting, my wife and my child are both gone!"

His words were made to stir people up.

Any passerby with slightly weaker nerves would have caved by now.

"I can contact the traffic department for you and explain the situation on the bridge."

"They'll clear the traffic right away, and the ambulance can get through quickly."

I took out my phone and made as if to dial.

But right then, the man's expression changed all at once.

"No! Don't! There's no time!"

His eyes flickered for a second, then he slipped back into that helpless look.

"I know. You and I are strangers. It's only right that you don't dare trust me."

To get me to give in, he even offered up his own information.

"I'm not some bad person!"

"I'm a local. My name is Damian Abbott. I work at the finance tower. I have a steady job!"

"I would never scam you, never shake you down!"

"All I'm asking is that you save my wife's life. Afterward I'll reward you handsomely, and I'll remember what you did for me the rest of my life!"

He sounded utterly sincere.

Laying out his identity, his address, his job, all of it.

Nobody could find a single flaw in it.

Just as I was about to lower my phone, the text flooded across again:

Don't believe him for a second!

He looks pitiful now, but the moment you get out to help, if anything goes wrong, it's your life he's after!

Exactly! Don't let your bleeding heart run away with you!

Going soft means throwing away your whole life!

My heart dropped hard.

That was it. I couldn't gamble.

The price of losing this bet, if I softened, was too high.

Not only would my own life be ruined, my parents would be dragged into it too.

I couldn't afford the gamble, and I didn't dare take it.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Abbott. I really can't help you."

"You should hurry and find a way to reach 911, and wait for the rescue."

2: 2

The moment I said it, Damian's whole expression changed.

Before I could react, he threw himself down, slamming his forehead against the ground.

Again and again, with a force that was frightening to watch.

Thud, thud! Thud, thud!

"Doctor! I'm begging you!"

"If it comes to it, I'll trade my life for hers!"

In seconds his forehead was a mess of blood and torn skin.

"Just save my wife, and I'll jump off this bridge right now!"

"I die, she lives!"

Just then the other drivers noticed the commotion and started getting out of their cars, crowding in around us.

"Oh my God, this is heartbreaking. The husband's practically killing himself over her!"

"Saving a life is worth more than anything! You're a doctor. How can you just sit there and watch two people die?"

"A man doesn't kneel for nothing. Nobody begs like this unless they're out of options."

"Stop hesitating and help them! Wait any longer and you'll lose the mother and the baby both!"

The crowd kept growing, the muttering rolling back and forth.

I lowered my window a crack, my eyes going cold.

"What would I want with your life?"

"Who exactly asked you to trade a life for a life?"

Damian switched tracks at once, like he'd found a new opening.

"I get it now!"

"Doctor, you think I'm just talking, that I won't back it up, is that it?"

"You want money, right?"

He forced himself upright, a calculating glint in his eyes.

"Name your price! Whatever it is!"

"Just get out and save them, and I'll give you everything I have!"

"If that's not enough, I'll apply online right now to mortgage the house and the car! Every asset I own, it's yours!"

"Just save my wife and my child!"

I shook my head, still not giving an inch.

"I'm sorry. Same thing I already told you. I can't save your wife."

"I'm a vet. I really don't have the ability to help her!"

At that, the crowd's uproar swelled.

"He's willing to give up everything he owns to repay her, and she still won't budge?"

"That's stone-cold. Money can be earned back later. You only get one life!"

"A vet still studied medicine! She'd know basic first aid. Anything's better than watching someone die!"

Every one of them was pushing me to get out of the car.

Pushing me to take this scalding-hot problem into my own hands.

Just then, from the wrecked car up ahead, a weak female voice drifted out.

"Help it hurts so much"

"Somebody save my baby my stomach hurts so bad"

The voice carried the agony of someone dying.

It didn't sound faked at all.

Damian's head snapped around, his voice raw with grief.

"Sweetheart! Just hold on a little longer!"

"Don't give up! The doctor's coming to save you! Hang on just a bit more!"

The moment he finished shouting it, he turned back and drove his forehead into the ground over and over.

He was crying so hard he could barely breathe, his voice shaking.

"Are you really going to watch them die right in front of you?!"

The crowd got swept up in it too.

"Exactly! We can't wait any longer! The pregnant woman's crying out in pain. Any longer and it'll be too late!"

"Doctor, what is it going to take for you to help them?"

"Can't you make an exception? Two lives are on the line!"

"We're all human. Don't be so cold about it!"

All their voices tangled together.

A flicker of doubt ran through me.

Could it be the pop-up was wrong?

Could the pregnant woman really still be alive?

But before I could think it through, the pop-up scrolled again in front of my eyes.

Don't believe it! That's audio he prepared in advance!

The woman was already dead before the crash, mother and baby both. There's no one alive in that car!

The second you get out to help, once she's declared dead beyond saving, every onlooker here becomes a witness!

They'll all testify that your botched rescue is what killed the mother and child!

He walks away clean, and you take the fall for everything he did!

The last trace of pity inside me faded.

"I'm sorry. I really can't save her."

I stopped paying them any attention and pulled out my phone.

Then I called the traffic department.

"Hello, there's been an accident on the Hudson River Bridge, with a pregnant woman trapped inside."

"Please send someone to direct traffic as soon as possible, and dispatch an ambulance and the police to handle the scene."

"There's something wrong here. I suspect the pregnant woman inside is already dead!"

3: 3

The moment I said it, Damian's sobbing hitched to a stop.

He was staring hard at me, and something dark and ugly slid through his eyes before he could hide it.

"Doctor! Why would you curse my wife to die?"

The next second, he was helpless again.

He knelt there in the standing water, eyes swollen red from crying.

"You don't want to save her? Fine, I don't blame you!"

"The world is cold. I accept that!"

"But how could you stand here in front of everyone and curse her dead?"

"She's eight months pregnant, and she was just calling out to you for help!"

That lit the crowd's anger completely.

"Damn, this doctor is vicious!"

"Looks so respectable, so how is she this cold-hearted?"

"His wife's clearly still alive and crying for help, and she just curses her dead?"

"This is insane! If you don't want to save someone, fine, but why say something so cruel?"

"A healer's compassion? More like a healer's ice. Not a shred of kindness!"

Seeing that everyone had taken his side,

a flicker of satisfaction slipped through Damian's eyes, too quick to catch.

He turned at once to face the crowd and poured it all out through his tears.

"My wife and I grew up together. We've known each other seventeen whole years!"

"I've never asked for anything in this life except for her to safely have our baby and for us to live a good life together!"

"Every single day I've cherished her, never once let her suffer the smallest hurt!"

"If it weren't for this sudden accident, we'd have been the happiest family"

By the end, he was crying so hard he could barely breathe.

"This doctor says my wife is already dead?"

"Then who was that just now, calling for help inside the car?!"

That line was the finishing blow.

The crowd's mood swung completely with him.

"Right! I clearly heard a woman's voice just now! A living cry for help, how could that be a dead person?"

"This doctor really is cold-blooded to the extreme! Making up a lie like this just so she doesn't have to save anyone!"

"We have to expose her! Get her fired! Show everyone what she really is!"

Plenty of people raised their phones and turned the cameras on me.

Some went straight to livestreaming, typing out headlines built to grab eyes.

Major crash on the Bay Bridge! Cold-blooded woman doctor lets victims die, publicly curses injured pregnant woman!

The moment the livestream went up, the traffic on it shot through the roof.

Countless viewers poured in, all of them cursing me.

Watching it all unfold, my heart went cold, piece by piece.

Public opinion, sympathy, the underdog act, the crowd's sense of justice

Damian had turned every weapon he could reach on me.

I fixed my eyes on him and spoke evenly.

"If you love your wife so much, why didn't you call the proper rescue services the moment it happened?"

"Why is it that after the crash, instead of staying focused on your trapped wife, the first thing you did was fix your teeth into me, a veterinarian?"

"Is the traffic really blocking the rescue route dead, or is it because the person in that car has been dead all along?"

Three questions in a row, straight to the heart of it.

Damian's face went white in an instant.

His eyes wandered; he didn't know how to talk his way out.

Just then, from the wrecked car up front came a woman's pained voice again.

"Helpplease, save me"

"Honey, I'm so scared, I don't want to die yetour baby isn't even born yet"

Damian seized it like the last straw.

He shouted back toward the wrecked car with everything in his throat.

"Honey! Don't be afraid! You won't die!"

"I'll get you out, I swear! Just hold on a little longer! Don't be scared!"

He lunged forward and clawed at my car window,

both hands clamping down hard on my wrists.

"Doctor! I'm begging you! Save my wife and my child!"

"I'll kowtow to you! I'll get on my knees! Please, just have some mercy!"

His grip was frantic and brutal.

He screamed and begged and shook me like a madman all at once.

The crowd caught fire at the sight.

In an instant one shout drew a hundred.

"What are you waiting for? They're almost dead! Save them, now!"

"Stop wasting words on her! She's cold-blooded and refusing on purpose! Just drag her out!"

"Hurry! Every second wasted is two lives!"

In the chaos, two young men rushed up first.

Using the moment Damian had me held, they shoved their arms into the car and found the door-unlock button.

The next second, the door was wrenched open.

They grabbed me without a word and hauled me bodily out.

4: 4

Damian saw it, and a flicker of triumph crossed his eyes.

He clamped down on my wrist and hauled me toward the crashed car.

I locked my jaw, threw my whole body into it, and gripped the door handle for dear life.

Held my ground by sheer force, refusing to give an inch.

"What are you doing?!"

"This is illegal, what you're doing!"

"I already told you! I'm just a vet, I can't save people!"

Right then, a shout went up from the crowd.

"Everyone, hold on! The people in the livestream already dug up everything on her!"

Every movement stopped.

Countless eyes swung onto me.

The man held his phone up and read out loud to the crowd:

"She really is a vet, no lie! You can find her animal hospital online!"

At that, the onlookers wavered for a second.

But the next moment, his tone turned.

"But she did her undergrad in clinical medicine!"

"She only switched to veterinary medicine in grad school!"

"And the school she graduated from is a top medical university!"

"Her emergency skills are more professional than most doctors! She is one hundred percent capable of saving people!"

The second those words landed, the whole scene exploded.

An even fiercer wave of condemnation came crashing in.

"Oh my God! So she refused on purpose!"

"She can clearly save them, but she hides behind this vet excuse! What a vicious heart!"

"She's got the skill to save a life and just watches a mother and baby die. What kind of person does that?"

"Someone like this doesn't deserve to be a doctor. She has no basic decency at all!"

Under the storm of accusations, the triumph in Damian's eyes nearly spilled over.

He wrenched my fingers off, hard.

Before I could fight back, my whole body was being dragged forward.

The ground scraped against my skin.

Left a streak of bright red blood.

"I will not treat her! There is no way I'm touching her!"

I screamed through gritted teeth, fighting with everything I had to break loose.

But Damian's strength was terrifying.

Step by step he dragged me toward that mangled car.

Closer to the abyss that could ruin the rest of my life.

The onlookers even parted on their own to open a path.

They stared me down, waiting for me to see my error, repent, and go save the victim.

Just as he was about to shove me into the car,

a burst of urgent sirens sounded not far off.

Several police motorcycles broke through the traffic, racing toward us.

The traffic officers directed the cars with practiced ease, carving out an emergency lane by force.

The police and an ambulance came right behind, pulling to a steady stop in front of us.

The clamor cut off all at once.

In the instant Damian froze, stunned.

I threw him off with everything I had and stumbled toward the officers.

"Officer! Help!"

Two officers caught hold of me at once.

"Easy, what happened here? How is the injured person?"

I gasped for air.

"Officer! I think the pregnant woman has been dead for a while already!"

"These people dragged me by force to make me save her, trying to pin all the blame on me!"

Right then, the paramedics rushed toward the crashed car with a stretcher.

Damian's face went white.

He lunged forward on instinct, throwing his arms wide to block them.

"No! You can't touch my wife!"

"She's badly hurt, you can't just move her! If something goes wrong"

An officer beside him stopped him at once.

"Please, don't worry. These are trained emergency responders."

As he spoke, the paramedics had already pulled open the passenger door.

Leaned in to check the injuries.

Everyone held their breath, waiting for the final word.

The next second, a paramedic's muffled cry came from inside the crashed car.