My Husband Forced Me to Take Sister's Blame; He Regretted Madly

The day my husband asked me to take the fall for the crash his foster sister had caused, I was exactly six weeks pregnant.

He said that because I was carrying a child, even if I went to jail I could post bail. But Kate Pope was about to lock down a tenured public-school teaching position, and once there was a record on her name, her whole life would be ruined.

I believed him.

After they locked me up, I waited every single day for him to come and get me out.

I waited until the pain in my belly became unbearable, until blood soaked through my trouser legs, and I begged him over the phone to submit the prenatal exam papers, to save our child.

But he was at Kate's medical checkup instead.

"Just hold on one more day. Today matters to her."

The baby was gone. My father sold the old house and dragged his sick body across the country to find evidence for me.

But when a sudden brain hemorrhage put him on the operating table, and the surgery was short by only five thousand dollars, Denys Stevens transferred the money in our joint account to Kate to cover the deposit on her marital home.

When my father died, I was wearing handcuffs. I never even saw him one last time.

Later, Denys came to see me. I thought he'd come to take me out.

Instead, he pushed a signed confession in front of me.

"Kate just cleared her posting review. Hold on in here for two more years, and when you get out, I promise I'll make it up to you with another child."

In that moment, I had nothing left.

My child, my father, my freedom, and the husband I'd loved for eight years.

So when the truth finally came out, I did not go home.

I took my father's ashes and vanished completely from his world.

"Denys, please, leave the prenatal papers!"

I clung to his briefcase, my belly cramping in waves.

The doctor had just finished examining me and said I was showing signs of a threatened miscarriage. I had to be hospitalized right away to save the pregnancy. As long as a family member submitted the prenatal report and the bail application, I had a chance to leave the county jail.

But Denys was taking the papers away with him.

"Gabriella, let go."

Kate hid behind him, the teacher's medical clearance pinned to her white blouse, her eyes rimmed red.

"Please don't blame him. Today's my last checkup. Once the review period ends, my brother and I will come get you, I promise."

I stared at them, no longer daring to hold on to any hope.

"Come get me. We agreed I'd only be in here one day, and then you'd take me out. But I've been in here a whole week. Did either of you even think about me once?"

"Denys, if the baby weren't about to be lost, if I hadn't called you, would you have remembered me at all? Or is there only room in your heart for Kate?"

But it was her who got behind the wheel and hit that person, not me.

At my words, Kate's tears spilled over in an instant.

"I know she regrets confessing for me. I'll go turn myself in right now. Let them sentence me if they want. My dad died young anyway, so no one will feel sorry for me."

She turned to leave, and Denys pulled her back at once, soothing her gently.

"Don't talk nonsense. Your father saved the Stevens family. I promised I'd protect you. How could I ever let you confess?"

Then he turned and scolded me.

"Gabriella Simmons, you signed the statement. You admitted with your own mouth that you were the one driving, that you hit that person. Now you're using the baby to force Kate to throw away her future. When did you become so selfish?"

I braced myself against the edge of the desk, feeling the cramps twist through my belly in waves, and the panic swallowed me whole.

"The baby, my baby! Denys, just submit the papers first. Let me keep the baby."

The officer on duty spoke up too.

"Lawyer Stevens, your wife isn't well. The doctor advises you to apply to change the coercive measure as soon as possible."

Denys was still hesitating. I couldn't wait. I reached out and grabbed at the briefcase, and several sheets of paper fell to the floor.

The bail application was already filled out, dated two days ago. It just had never been submitted.

I looked at him, unable to believe it.

"You had it ready all along. Why didn't you file it?"

"The victim is still in the ICU. If you get out now and change your story, it'll affect Kate's posting review."

"I won't change my story!"

"No, I don't trust you. Kate's job has to be airtight. I'm a lawyer. I understand the risks better than you do. As for the baby,"

Denys picked the application up off the floor, his face cold.

"once Kate's officially hired, I'll deal with your situation then."

Kate tugged at his sleeve, still the picture of pitiful helplessness.

"Denys, she's carrying your child. You should save her. Even if my dream is to be a teacher, it can't come at the cost of your baby. If something happened, and she pinned it all on me, that would be terrible."

Her words gave way, but the look she gave me couldn't hide her triumph.

Denys lowered his voice to comfort her.

"You've worked toward this for three years. No one has the right to force you to give it up. Not even my own child."

My belly dropped hard, and blood dripped down my calf onto the floor.

I grabbed the hem of Denys's clothes and begged him, over and over.

"Denys, the baby can't wait that long. I'm begging you, save him, please"

He looked down at the blood on the floor, and at last his brow twitched. But Kate pressed a hand to her chest and sagged softly into his arms.

"Denys, there's blood. I'm scared."

Denys let go of me at once and caught her.

"Kate, breathe slowly. I'll take you to the hospital right now."

The iron gate of the jail was right behind me. Once Denys walked out, there would truly be no saving me or the baby.

I dropped to my knees in front of him with a thud.

"Denys, I confess. I'll do the time. Just leave the prenatal papers, just let the baby live, and I'll agree to anything you want!"

Kate grabbed Denys at once.

"There's only half an hour left for the physical. Miss it and she forfeits. There are doctors right here for your wife. Let's go first."

Denys looked down at the blood pooling by my legs and reached for the prenatal exam papers again.

Kate shot me a poisonous glance, then turned and put on her pitiful act.

"If you don't come with me, the school will assume something's wrong with my family. Denys, she hates me so much now. If she really gets out and goes to the hospital, doesn't that mean I'm finished?"

His hand stopped. His face wavered through several turns, and when he looked at me again, his eyes had gone completely cold.

He tossed a confession at me.

"Sign it."

The paper said I confessed of my own free will, that no one had induced me, that I was willing to bear full responsibility for the crime.

The moment I signed, I would be nailed to the pillory with no way down.

But there was nothing else to do. I couldn't watch my child slip away, so I bore the pain in my belly and signed my name.

"Now leave the papers, Denys. The baby and I really can't hold on any longer."

He took the confession back, the coldness in his face unchanged.

"Everything waits until Kate's physical is done."

No!

By then the baby would truly be gone!

I wrapped my arms around his leg and begged, sobbing.

"Denys, you promised me! I can go to prison, but the baby can't wait!"

Kate leaned into his chest, frail and helpless.

"Denys, forget it, I won't take the exam. If she ends up blaming me for killing the baby, I couldn't live with that either. It's only a test. How could it matter more than your child?"

At that, he seemed to make up his mind at last, and told the officer to pull me off him.

Just then my father's trembling voice came from outside the door.

"Gabriella!"

He saw me kneeling on the floor, the legs of my pants soaked with blood, and his face changed in an instant.

"Dad, why are you here?"

"The station back home called me. They said you drunk-drove and hit someone. I didn't believe you'd ever do such a thing, so I got someone to bring me to the city right away."

He held me up and turned to glare at Denys, his eyes gone red.

"Son-in-law, why is my daughter kneeling on the floor? Why are the police saying she drunk-drove into someone? Aren't you a lawyer? You can't find a shred of evidence? If you won't look, I will!"

"My daughter could never do something like that. Someone set her up!"

Kate's head snapped up.

"That's a lie! Gabriella hit that person and killed them, you can't talk your way out of it!"

Trembling, my father pulled out his old flip phone, dropped to his knees before the officers with a thud, and pleaded.

"It can't be true. My daughter isn't that kind of person. Please believe me!"

The officer couldn't bear it and moved to help the old man up.

Guilty as she was, Kate rushed to snatch the phone.

"You old fool, no more of your nonsense here. Gabriella already admitted she did it. Arguing won't change anything!"

My father clung to the phone with everything he had and would not let go.

He didn't understand grand principles. He only knew that the daughter he'd raised to be obedient could never have drunk-driven into anyone.

Denys hurried over to stop him.

"Dad, calm down. The police already know the truth. Making a scene here won't help!"

My father slapped him across the face, in bitter grief.

"Making a scene? Your wife is in here carrying your child, suffering, and you don't care about any of it, and you say I'm making a scene? Denys, you animal, I should never have married my daughter to you!"

Kate cried out.

"Denys, if we don't go now I'll be late for the physical! I'll be finished!"

Denys's face changed. He reached out to grab the phone, my father wouldn't let go, and he shoved him hard.

My father staggered back a few steps and slammed the back of his head against the metal cabinet, blood running down the side of his face.

"Dad!"

My eyes tore wide open and I pushed off the floor to lunge toward him.

But a sharp pain seized my belly, my legs gave out, and I collapsed into the pool of blood.

The police panicked too.

"Doctor! Someone help, doctor!"

My father, still clutching his head, kept shouting.

"Save Gabriella first, she still has a baby inside her!"

Denys stood frozen where he was, unable to understand how it had come to this.

He only wanted Kate to make her exam. He never meant to lay a hand on anyone.

Kate pulled at him, frightened and smug at once.

"Denys, we have to go. We'll be late for the physical."

He looked at me once, then held her up and steered her toward the door, glancing guiltily back over his shoulder.

"The physical first."

As I was wheeled into the emergency room, I could still hear the sound of their footsteps leaving.

When I woke, my father knelt at the bedside, his head wrapped in gauze.

The doctor set down the miscarriage certificate and shook his head with regret.

"We couldn't save the baby."

The door of the ward opened again. On Kate's chest, the exam certificate already bore its stamp of clearance.

She hooked her arm through Denys's and said, grinning.

"I've got good news for you. My physical passed."

Kate held the health certificate up in front of me, the red stamp facing my eyes. Denys stood beside her, still carrying the celebration cake in one hand.

My father shot to his feet, the bandage on his forehead soaking through with blood again.

"My daughter just lost her child, and you two have the nerve to celebrate?"

Denys frowned.

"Dad, Kate only wanted to share the good news with Gabriella. Don't be like this. The child is gone, and that isn't her fault."

"She was worried Gabriella would be upset, so she rushed over just to check on her."

"Check on her? Or come to see whether my daughter's dead yet?"

My father snatched up the miscarriage report and hurled it at them, his stooped body shaking with rage.

"Denys Stevens, you're the most famous lawyer in this city. When I handed my daughter over to you, what did you promise me? You said you'd never let her suffer. But she's been locked up for seven days, and you haven't said one word to defend her. I don't believe my daughter would drink and drive. I'll find my own lawyer, and I will clear her name!"

The smile faded from Kate's face.

"Uncle, my sister-in-law already confessed. It won't matter who you go to."

"Whether it matters is not for an outsider like you to decide!"

My father yanked out his IV needle and made for the door, one hand braced against the wall.

I tried to catch hold of him, but he shook my hand off.

"Dad, your head's still bleeding!"

He turned back to look at me, his face set.

"I couldn't protect your child. The least I can do is bring you home."

Watching my father's back as he walked away, unease knotted in my chest. I begged Denys to talk him into coming back, and all I got was this:

"If your father comes back, he'll only turn everything upside down. Better to let him go. Once he can't find a single lawyer willing to defend you, he'll accept his fate."

My father took my case file and his old flip phone and went to every law firm in the city.

But the moment they heard my name, they refunded the consultation fee, took one phone call, and shut the door on him.

In the end it was one lawyer who quietly told him,

"Mr. Stevens put the word out in the group chat. The evidence against Gabriella Simmons is airtight. Anyone who reopens her case can forget about taking cases in this city ever again."

My father called Denys on the spot.

"You won't save Gabriella, so why are you stopping me from saving her?"

"Dad, she's already confessed. The more you stir things up, the more you'll add to her sentence. Accept it. Once Kate clears the posting period, I promise you, I'll file the appeal for her myself."

"Kate, Kate. All you can see is your precious little sister. So my daughter's supposed to suffer through all of it?"

"Dad, I didn't mean that. I only want to remind you to face reality."

My father wouldn't accept his fate. He sold the old house in the country and went to the next city.

At last he found a lawyer willing to take the case, but the lawyer needed him to bring the repair records for the vehicle from the accident first.

My father went to the auto shop, and the owner told him that on the night of the crash, Denys had come in overnight to replace the driver's-side airbag.

He had just gotten the repair receipt in his hand when he clutched his head and collapsed in the doorway.

The bleeding inside his skull from Denys's shove had never fully stopped, and after days of running around, he was already unconscious by the time he reached the hospital.

The doctors wanted to operate at once. They were short fifty thousand for the deposit. Our joint account held exactly fifty thousand.

I got the call in the county jail, begging into the receiver,

"Denys, I don't want anything anymore. Not the child, not my freedom. Just save my father. Even if you told me to die right now, I'd agree."

"Please. For the sake of the fact that you once called him Dad too, save his life."

There was only silence on the other end. And just when I thought he'd softened and would agree, Kate's voice came from beside him.

"Denys, we're still fifty thousand short on the deposit for our wedding home. If we don't pay today, the landlord will sell it to someone else."

Denys was quiet for a moment.

"Doctor, what are the chances the surgery succeeds?"

"Under twenty percent."

Kate started to cry.

"Uncle only has a one-in-five chance of waking up. Denys, but my posting period is almost over, and I don't even have a place to live. What will people think of me?"

I screamed as hard as I could,

"We can buy a house later. I only have one father! Count this money as a loan from me, and when I get out I swear I'll pay you back!"

"Kate, I'm on my knees begging you. Let my father go."

My father didn't live to see the surgery.

When the nurse told me he was dead, I coughed a mouthful of blood onto the table and pitched forward.

Before my mind went black, I heard Denys speak.

"Gabriella, sorry. The money didn't get transferred in time, and the old man passed."

When I woke again, I was back in the county jail's infirmary.

My father's things sat on the nightstand: one old coat, and the cracked flip phone he'd carried for years.

I grabbed the nurse.

"Where's my dad? I want to see him!"

She looked away from me, shaking her head with something like regret.

"His body's already been sent to the funeral home. Lawyer Stevens said it would be handled after the case is over."

Heels clicked in the hallway.

Kate Pope walked in carrying a cake, a fresh set of house keys swinging from her hand. When she saw the wretched state of me lying in the bed, she couldn't hold back a laugh.

"Don't blame Denys," she said. "He was in a hard spot too. Can you really fault him? Your uncle's surgery had such low odds, that fifty thousand could've been thrown away for nothing. But me, I'm different. Give the money to me, and a house lasts a lifetime."

I stared at those keys. She leaned in close to the bed, dropping her voice.

"Gabriella, wouldn't it have been easier if your father had just accepted his lot? Why did he have to fight me, until Denys had to put out the word: anyone who takes your case can forget about ever working with his firm again."

"Your dad ran all over the city and couldn't find a single lawyer brave enough to take you on. In the end he had to sell the old house and go to the next city over. Such a shame. He'd just found the repair shop, he was that close to overturning your conviction, and then he collapsed right there at the door and died."

"Gabriella, don't you think you're just unlucky?"

She set the cake down and stroked her own cheek, pleased with herself.

"Then again, Denys gave up his own child for me. What's the life of your father next to that?"

She kept baiting me, and I couldn't take it anymore. I lunged at her and clamped both hands around her throat.

"You bitch, give me back my father!"

She screamed and staggered backward. Denys pushed the door open at that exact moment and yanked me off her.

My lower back slammed into the edge of the bed, and the wound started bleeding again.

Kate shrank into his arms.

"Denys, she said she wants to kill me! She lost her father and now she's blaming everything on me. I'm scared!"

Denys shielded her and looked at me coldly.

"Your father ran off on his own and missed his treatment. What does that have to do with Kate? Stop making trouble!"

"Making trouble!"

I looked at the man in front of me, so familiar and so much a stranger, and the fury inside me erupted like flame.

"Before, you used the baby to force me to confess. The baby's gone, so you used my father. Everything I cared about is gone now. What's left for you to force me with?"

Something like panic flickered in his eyes, but he still produced a new confession.

"No one is forcing you. You brought all of this on yourself! I'll give you one more chance. Court is tomorrow. Confess on the stand, and I'll argue for leniency, and I'll let you see your father one last time."

I looked at him.

"And if I don't confess?"

"Then be ready to rot in there for good! The evidence is a closed loop. Even if you tell the truth now, no one will believe you."

With that, he gave me one cold look and turned to leave.

"I'm handling your father's arrangements. The day you cooperate is the day you get his ashes."

The next day, I stood in the courtroom in handcuffs.

The prosecutor read out my confession. Denys sat at the defense table and confirmed to the judge:

"The defendant confessed while clearheaded and of her own will, under no coercion whatsoever."

The judge asked whether I pleaded guilty.

Denys looked at me and murmured a reminder.

"Think about your father."

Kate sat in the gallery, a confident smile fixed on her face.

The baby was gone, my father was gone. They had nothing left to threaten me with.

I raised my head.

"I'm recanting."

Denys shot to his feet.

"Gabriella, think about what you're doing!"

"The one who drove the car and hit that person was Kate Pope. Denys Stevens coached me to confess and faked the materials to fool the investigation! I didn't do anything. They forced me to take the fall!"

The courtroom broke into an uproar. The judge brought down the gavel.

"What evidence do you have?"

I watched the color drain from Denys's face, and I said it one word at a time.

"There's no way I drove that car and hit anyone, because I don't even have a driver's license!"