After the Family Perjured for Her Best Friend, They Regretted Madly

The night of our wedding anniversary, I was assaulted.

All because my husband wanted a little romance, coaxing me into drinking the celebratory liquor my best friend had brought over.

But the moment my best friend complained her cramps were bad,

he left me alone at the bar, out of my mind, and rushed off to bring her a heat patch.

On the day of the trial, my own brother, a lawyer, argued for the man's acquittal.

"She was dressed provocatively, and she drank the aphrodisiac of her own free will."

"When the man took her away, she didn't resist, which is proof enough that she went willingly."

My parents took the stand too.

"She's a married woman, dressing like that, drinking that kind of drug on her own. If something happened, it's what she gets for being loose!"

"We firmly refuse to press charges!"

I was shaking all over, crying as I demanded to know why they were doing this to me.

My husband and my brother only urged me to know when to stop.

"This was just an accident. If anything's to blame, it's that you don't know how to say no!"

"If the case keeps going, the police will trace where the liquor came from."

"Millie's about to be made permanent. She's the one who gave you that liquor, and her whole future will be destroyed."

My parents pleaded too, eyes red.

"Something already happened to you. Why drag her whole life down with it?"

Later, the man was found not guilty.

To get back at me, he took me.

And the family who had urged me to know when to stop, when they finally saw me with the life gone out of me,

every one of them went mad.

1.

The instant my brother announced he was dropping the charges and tore up every piece of evidence,

the man in the defendant's seat whistled at me.

"Told you, she was willing. She just didn't get any money out of it, so she's trying to frame me."

He grinned, his gaze crawling over every inch of me.

The courtroom erupted at once.

Everyone stared at my brother in disbelief.

He was the golden-boy lawyer who had never lost a case in this field. And he was my own brother.

Before the hearing, he had promised me himself.

"Don't be afraid. I'll put him away."

But now he calmly closed the file and pushed up his glasses.

"Your Honor, the plaintiff will not be presenting further evidence."

"The existing evidence cannot prove that the defendant acted against the complainant's will in committing an assault. We choose to withdraw the case."

A roar went off in my ears.

I froze where I stood, almost sure I'd misheard.

"What did you say?"

He didn't look at me.

I stumbled over and grabbed his sleeve, holding on for dear life.

"The bar's cameras caught him taking me out while I was out of my mind, and the hospital found drug residue in my system."

"Your own colleague said this evidence was enough to convict. How can you just withdraw the case?"

Only then did he lower his head to look at me, dropping his voice.

"It's precisely because the evidence is enough that this can't go any further."

His brows drew together, his eyes full of impatience at how I didn't understand.

"You know perfectly well that drug was something Millie took from her workplace, a wedding anniversary gift for the two of you!"

"She's about to be made permanent. The second the police trace where the drug came from and find out she took it out on her own, she loses her job, and she could face criminal charges."

"Something already happened to you. Do you really have to drag her whole life down too?"

My hand jerked.

"So you'd clear the man who hurt me?"

His tone was calm to the point of cruelty.

"Then what do you want to do? Destroy Millie's future just to get even? What's the point?"

"Even if you put him away, will the harm done to you disappear?"

"As long as you admit that night was consensual, the case ends, and no one comes after Millie."

"Irvin's already agreed. He told me to tell you he won't think less of you over this, and he won't divorce you. Isn't that enough?"

I watched my brother's mouth open and close,

and the words coming out of it were like a knife driven into my chest, over and over.

That night came crashing back into my mind.

He'd half dragged, half carried me out of the bar, my legs so weak I couldn't even stand.

I fought with everything I had, but he pinned me to the bed and beat me with an ashtray until my whole body convulsed and I couldn't move.

The wound on my forehead was still seeping blood, even today.

My face was bloodless, my body shaking beyond my control.

"And me?"

"When you were all deciding how to protect Millie, did any of you think about what I'm supposed to do?"

His expression was cold.

"What can you do? Just treat it like a dog bit you and be done with it. You weren't a virgin anyway, so is it really worth all this?"

I gripped the edge of the table, my nails nearly digging into the wood.

Eyes red, I said it out one word at a time:

"I won't withdraw the case."

"If you won't take it for me, I'll get another lawyer."

"Whatever it costs, I am going to put him away!"

The words had barely left my mouth when a slap cracked across my face.

My head snapped to the side, my ear ringing.

My mother pointed at me, trembling with rage.

"Are you not going to stop until you drive Millie to her death?"

"Her father died in that car crash years ago saving your brother!"

"Before he passed, he put Millie in our hands himself. We promised we'd raise her like our own daughter and never let her suffer the slightest wrong!"

"You still have us, and you still have Irvin willing to keep you. But Millie has nothing left! Why do you have to strip away the one future she's got?"

I held my burning cheek, looking at her, and a hopeless laugh broke out of me.

"You?"

"Aren't you all standing on the side of the person who hurt me right now?"

My mother's face changed in an instant.

The next second she shoved the person beside her aside and threw herself at the second-floor railing.

Half her body leaned out over it.

"Fine. You insist on suing, don't you?"

"Then go ahead and sue!"

"The moment you dare to appeal, dare to let the police come after Millie, I'll jump right now!"

Elwin and my father went pale and lunged to grab hold of my mother.

Father's eyes were red as he roared at me:

"What are you standing there for? Say yes to your mother!"

"Do you have to watch her die in front of you before you're satisfied?"

I looked at them, numb, and all at once I was so tired.

"Do whatever you want."

Everyone froze.

I wiped away my tears, my voice flat and even.

"I won't drop the charges."

I didn't look at them again. I turned and stumbled out of the courtroom.

Back home, I dragged out a suitcase in a daze.

I couldn't stay in this house anymore.

But after packing for a long while, I realized how pitifully few things in that enormous walk-in closet were actually mine.

The cabinet held dresses my mother had bought for Millie Fox. On the vanity sat skincare my brother had picked out for her.

I went through every drawer and turned up only a few old pieces of clothing.

Everything else my mother had thrown out long ago.

She'd complained that my trophies gathered dust and were a pain to clean, then cleared the shelf and set out clay figurines Millie had shaped on a whim.

She'd even thrown away the wedding photos of me and Irvin.

Only because every time Millie saw them, she'd remember she had no parents to give her away, and it hurt her.

Standing there in a room full of Millie's things, I suddenly laughed out loud.

So there had never been a place for me in this house.

It was only today that I finally saw it clearly.

The lock clicked.

Millie pushed the door open and walked in.

When she saw the suitcase on the floor, the color drained from her face. She bit her lip, and tears came fast.

"Do you still blame me?"

I lifted my head and looked at the best friend I'd protected for eighteen years, and asked quietly:

"Shouldn't I blame you?"

"Millie, I'll only ask you one thing."

"You said what you gave Irvin was just something to set the mood. So why was what I drank a drug that paralyzed my limbs and knocked me out cold?"

Millie shuddered all over.

The next second, she dropped to her knees in front of me.

"Lily, hit me. Curse at me, if you want."

"I really didn't know it would turn out like this."

"I only wanted to give the two of you a special anniversary gift."

"I never thought Irvin would leave you and come to me over one word about my cramps, and I never thought you'd have an allergic reaction, that you'd be taken away and assaulted while you were unconscious!"

"If I'd known this would happen, I'd have rather died of the pain that night than call Irvin!"

She cried for a long time, and when she saw I still wouldn't reach out to help her up, a flicker of panic crossed her eyes.

Then she bit down hard on her lip and reached up to yank at her own collar.

"Then I'll take a naked photo right now and post it online, so I'm ruined too!"

"Would that let you calm down and forgive me?"

I stared at her, unable to speak.

Before I could get a word out, Irvin came charging in.

He snatched the phone away, pulled Millie up off the floor, and took off his jacket to wrap around her.

"Lily, will this ever end?"

He glared at me.

"How far do you plan to push Millie?"

I watched him standing there shielding her, and the last bit of warmth in my heart went cold for good.

"That night Millie had cramps so bad she couldn't even walk."

"Her parents are gone. In this city, apart from us, who else does she have to turn to?"

"I only went to bring her a heat pack. I was going to come right back."

"How was I supposed to know you'd go off with a strange man?"

"Are you telling me you did nothing wrong at all?"

My fingers curled sharply, and I looked at him, my face drained of all color.

Irvin's expression stiffened for a moment, then he quickly looked away from me.

"He took you away, so why didn't you fight back, why didn't you refuse?"

"Fine! Even if it's true that you had no strength left, then why didn't you hurry and leave after I did?!"

"You knew you'd taken something and weren't clearheaded, you knew a bar is full of all kinds of people, so why did you insist on staying there to wait for me?"

I stared at him, dazed.

He was the one who'd handed me the drug with his own hands.

He was the one who'd left me alone in that bar, already out of my mind.

And now he stood here demanding to know why I hadn't protected myself.

Millie tugged at his sleeve, her eyes red.

"Irvin, stop. It's all my fault."

"None of this has anything to do with you!"

Irvin's tone softened at once.

"You didn't mean for it to happen."

"Something like this happened to her, and no one hurts more than you do."

Then he turned to me, pleading, working every angle:

"Lily, it's already happened. Can't we just live our lives from here on?"

"I've already said I won't hold it against you, and I won't divorce you."

"As long as you drop the charges, Millie won't be investigated, and our family can go back to how it was."

"But if you insist on dragging this out, I'll have no choice but to"

I twisted my lips and cut him off, numb.

"No choice but to what? You're going to force me to drop the charges too, just like my mother?"

"If I don't drop it, you'll threaten me with divorce, is that it?"

I took the divorce papers I'd already signed out of the suitcase and threw them down in front of him.

"Fine. Sign."

Irvin's eyes went wide, staring at me like I was out of my mind.

Then he snatched up the papers and flung them hard back at me.

"You really have lost it!"

With that, he wrapped an arm around the sobbing Millie and slammed the door on his way out.

The moment the door shut, all the strength drained out of me.

I braced myself against the couch and sank slowly to the floor.

The next second, a sharp pain tore through my lower abdomen.

The color drained from my face, and I clutched my stomach without thinking.

A terrible thought surged up into my mind.

That night, after they pulled me out and brought me to the hospital, the doctor found I was three months pregnant.

But my body had taken too much damage, and the pregnancy was badly unstable.

"She can't be under any stress right now, and she can't overexert herself, or she'll likely lose the baby."

Now the pain in my lower belly was sharpening, and a hot wetness spread beneath me.

Terrified, I braced myself against the couch, but my legs had gone too weak to stand. Shaking, all I could do was call Irvin.

The phone rang a long time before he picked up.

"What is it this time?"

"Not done yet? You want another fight?"

The pain was too much to get a full sentence out.

"Irvin, my stomach hurts so bad"

The line went quiet for a beat, then he exploded.

"Lily, is there no end to this?"

"Millie had cramps that night and called me over, and now you're going to fake a stomachache too?"

"She calls me once and you have to twist it into some revenge?"

Cold sweat covered me. I forced the words out.

"I really"

"Enough!"

He cut me off, hard.

"Millie almost destroyed herself just now because of you, she's still crying, and here you are dragging her again with your sniping!"

"Lily, when did you turn this vicious?"

"You want to fake being in pain? Fine, I'll make sure every emergency line ignores your calls. Let's see whether it's real or not!"

The call ended.

The pain in my belly stabbed through me again. I slid off the couch and curled up on the cold floor.

I called for an ambulance over and over, but no one would take it.

In desperation, all I could do was call my parents.

The only thing that came back was my father's cold, furious voice.

"We don't have a heartless daughter like you!"

"Just to get even, you not only hurt your own best friend, you don't even care whether your own mother lives or dies."

"Whether you live or die is nothing to us!"

Before I could get a word in, my brother took the phone.

His tone was just as cold.

"Sign the statement."

"Admit that you left with him that night of your own free will, and drop the appeal."

"You sign, and I'll come right now."

It felt like a hole had been chiseled open in my chest, and a bitter wind screamed in through it, until I couldn't stop shaking.

The phone slipped from my hand and hit the floor hard.

"Lily?"

"Did you hear me?"

My brother's voice was still coming through the screen, but I had nothing left to answer with.

When I woke again, I was already in a hospital bed.

The doctor's face was full of regret.

"You were brought in too late. We couldn't save the baby."

"To stop the hemorrhaging, we had to remove your uterus. You're still at risk of infection, so we need to keep you under observation."

I stared at him blankly, and only after a long moment did I give a numb nod.

The others in the ward recognized me soon enough.

"That's her, right? Assaulted, and her own family's forcing her to drop the case. Poor thing."

Someone immediately scoffed.

"Poor thing, my foot. A married woman dressed like that, drinking whatever they gave her on purposewho knows if she just couldn't agree on a price and is trying to shake somebody down?"

A strange man sat right down on the edge of my bed, his clammy hand reaching toward me.

"I hear you like it wild. Down whatever they give you and wait to get picked up."

"Play with me too. I'll make it worth your while, I promise."

I flung his hand off in terror and screamed.

"Get out!"

He'd taken a slap from me, and in his rage and shame he shoved me down to the floor.

"Playing the chaste virgin? Whore!"

The next second, someone yanked him back.

A woman with her hair in a ponytail stepped in front of me, her voice cold.

"Harassing a patient, hurling insults, putting your hands on her and injuring herit's all on the security cameras."

"Touch her again and I'll call the police and press charges."

The man's face changed. He left, cursing under his breath.

Only then did the woman turn and hold out her hand to me.

"My name is Marlene Henson. I'm a lawyer. I handle assault cases."

Her voice caught a little.

"I was there for the whole last hearing."

"I know what was done to you. If you're willing to trust me, I'll get you justice. I promise."

The tears came at once.

I gripped her hand, shaking.

"Please help me."

...

On the day of the next hearing, she stood at the courthouse doors and steadied me.

"Don't be afraid. We're going to win this."

Standing in sunlight I hadn't felt in so long, I finally let a faint smile show.

But the moment I walked into the courtroom, that little bit of a smile froze on my face.

Sitting beside the man who had violated me was my own brother.

He wore his lawyer's robe, a thick stack of defense materials laid out in front of him.

Right after that, the witnesses came in.

My mother, my father, my husband, and Millie walked in one after another.

They didn't come toward me.

They took their seats on the other side's witness bench.

Once the hearing began, my brother laid out his so-called evidence one piece at a time.

In the bar footage he'd cut, I looked like the one who'd moved toward that man.

My struggling, after the drug had taken hold, he explained away as drunken affection.

"The plaintiff never clearly refused. She left with the defendant of her own accord. That alone proves the encounter was consensual."

Marlene shot back at once.

"The full footage shows she couldn't even walk straight by then!"

"And the hospital report confirms there was a consciousness-altering anesthetic in her system!"

But my brother calmly turned the point back on me.

"She took the drug herself. As an adult with full legal capacity, she is responsible for her own choices."

Soon it was Millie's turn to take the stand.

She glanced at me, timid, and handed over a medical record.

"Lily had an abortion behind Irvin's back, because the baby wasn't his."

"She's always been careless about men. I suspect this time is just another case of her regretting it afterward."

The name on the record drained the blood from my face.

A month ago Millie had come to me in tears, saying she was pregnant, that the man had a family and wouldn't divorce to marry her. She was terrified of shaming her dead parents, crying that she'd jump off a building. I was the one who took my own ID and went to the hospital with her.

And now she was using the secret I'd carried for her to prove I was a woman without standards.

"That wasn't mine!"

I looked at her, my eyes red.

"Millie, you know exactly whose record that is!"

Her gaze flickered, panicked, and she dropped her head fast.

"Lily, I'm sorry. I can't lie for you."

Marlene immediately demanded the examination records be verified.

My brother was ready for that.

"Verifying medical records violates privacy. I move to dismiss the request."

Then Irvin took the witness seat and submitted photos of me drinking with men, along with hotel records.

In the pictures I was in a revealing gown, passed out drunk in a stranger's arms.

"After we married, she often went to these drinking parties behind my back."

"Sometimes, when she got drunk, she'd go to a hotel with the man."

I shot to my feet, tears springing loose.

"You're lying!"

Three years ago, his company's cash flow collapsed.

He knelt and begged me to put on that gown, to drink with his investors in his place.

That night I drank until my stomach bled, and that was how I won him the contract that saved his company.

Then he decided the smell of alcohol on me would bother Millie, so he had the client send me to a hotel while he turned around and went back to her.

And now he was using what I'd suffered for him to prove I was promiscuous.

Irvin went stiff. He never once dared to look at me, only sat back down in silence.

The whole thing tipped completely toward their side.

The judge's voice came low.

"If the prosecution cannot effectively rebut the existing evidence, the court will rule based on the materials on record."

The last to take the stand was my mother.

Marlene sprang up, her eyes rimmed red.

"Ma'am, she's your own daughter!"

"This man has a record of hurting women. If he walks free, there's every chance he'll come after her!"

"One word from you today could destroy her whole life. It could get her killed!"

"Objection!"

My brother cut in, sharp.

"Opposing counsel is deliberately playing on emotion and slandering my client, attempting to interfere with the witness and the fairness of this trial!"

He looked coldly at Marlene.

"Watch your words. Do not defame my client."

My mother straightened her back and produced a yellowed written confession.

"I'm only telling the truth."

"She's loved to lie since she was a child. To dodge responsibility, there's nothing she won't make up."

It was something I'd written in college.

Back then Millie had stolen a classmate's necklace, and when she was caught she cried that she was scared the school would punish her.

So my mother locked me in a room and beat me for a whole night, forcing me to confess in her place.

She said Millie had no parents and couldn't afford another stain on her name.

So I wrote it out, again and again:

I stole the necklace, and I deliberately framed Millie for it.

After that I carried the name of a thief. I lost every award and every fast-track spot, and I was frozen out for three full years.

But now my mother held up that same confession she'd forced from my own hand, and said, flat and final:

"Twisting right and wrong, framing others, that's what she does best."

"This time is no different."

"She left with that man of her own free will, and afterward, afraid her husband would look down on her, she turned around and bit someone else."

I stared at her, dazed.

Marlene had gone white. She sank back into her chair, all the strength gone out of her.

Not long after, the verdict came down.

"Insufficient evidence. The defendant is acquitted."

Outside the courtroom, my parents, my brother, and Irvin closed in around Millie at once.

"It's over. Nothing's going to get in the way of your promotion now."

"We have to celebrate properly today."

My brother passed me and reminded me coldly:

"I told you. With me on the case, you were never going to win."

"Come to the restaurant later and apologize to Millie yourself, and we'll call this whole thing done."

They got in the car and left.

I stood alone at the courthouse doors, watching them disappear.

A van jerked to a stop beside me.

The door slid open, a hand clamped over my mouth from behind, and I was dragged hard inside.

A few hours later, the private room at the restaurant was full of good cheer.

The food was all on the table, but I still hadn't shown up.

My mother checked the time a few times, then frowned, impatient.

"Don't tell me she's still sulking?"

Something in Irvin turned uneasy for no reason he could name. He took out his phone and dialed my number.

The call picked up quickly.

He was about to speak when a cold, hard voice came from the other end.

"Hello. This is the criminal case task force."

"This phone was found in the courthouse's underground parking lot. There's a large amount of blood at the scene and clear signs of a body being dragged."

"The owner of this phone may well already be dead. We need your cooperation with our investigation."