Husband Framed Daughter for Bastard Son, I Fought Back

In my past life, my brother-in-law fell gravely ill.

His son begged my daughter to help with some acupuncture, and in the end my brother-in-law died.

I paid the compensation, and still the nephew sued my daughter for practicing medicine without a license and causing a death.

His girlfriend used that opening to take the guaranteed graduate-school placement that belonged to my daughter.

My daughter sank into depression, and after she got out she drowned herself in the river. Grief burned through me, and I died too.

When I opened my eyes again, the whole family was gathered together.

Every face was drawn tight, everyone worrying over my brother-in-law's illness.

"We've been to every big hospital there is. Nothing works." Melissa Acevedo wiped at her eyes.

The nephew looked at my daughter. "Barbara Edwards, why don't you take a look at my dad? You study Chinese medicine, and you got the graduate placement. Maybe it'll help."

"Give it a try. Take a look at your uncle." My husband spoke up.

A shiver ran through me. This wasn't a dream. I really had been reborn.

"No." I moved at once to block my daughter as she started to rise.

"What's that supposed to mean, Barbara's mother?" Melissa stared at me, offended. "I know you look down on us. But this is a person's life."

"Don't listen to your mother. Go take a look at your uncle." My husband spoke again.

"..."

"When I say no, I mean no."

I stood and took my daughter's hand. "Come home with me."

"You stay right there." My husband got up too and planted himself in front of me. "You really think a little dirty money means you get to run this family."

Being reborn wasn't something I could explain.

But I would never let Barbara walk the same road twice. I softened my tone.

"We'll talk about this at home."

"And they call themselves family. What a joke." The nephew spoke now, his eyes fixed on me. "If my girlfriend were here, she'd offer to treat my dad without being asked."

I shot him a look. "Call your girlfriend and have her come, then. I'll cover the travel."

Melissa wiped her eyes and stared at her son. "Enough. It's just our rotten luck, the two of us. Your father's no good, we can't measure up to rich relatives like your uncle's family."

"What is all this? Is this any way to behave?" My father-in-law slammed the table and glared at me. "Barbara studies medicine. What's the harm in her taking a look at her uncle?"

"You think because you've made a little money you can look down on this whole family?"

"Dad, it's true Barbara studies medicine, but she's still a student. She doesn't have her license yet. Legally, she isn't qualified to practice."

"If something goes wrong during the treatment, who answers for it?"

"Barbara's mother, if that's all you're worried about, then you've really wronged us. We're family. Even if Barbara did make him worse, of course we'd never blame her."

Melissa came forward and took Barbara's hand. "We've run to every major hospital already. At this point we're just trying anything we can."

She made it sound so pretty. If I hadn't seen her true face, I might actually have believed it.

Back then, when they sued Barbara, she was the one who screamed loudest.

My husband looked at Barbara. "That's enough. Stop stalling. Go take a look at your uncle."

"She can treat him. Just not now." I looked at my husband. "You and Barbara come home with me first. We'll talk it over, then decide."

My father-in-law glanced at my husband. "Ervin Edwards, I think you'd do well to let your wife run the household."

Ervin's face went dark at once.

"There's nothing to talk over. I can decide this myself. Barbara, go take a look at your uncle right now."

Barbara looked at her father, then at me. "Mom, let me just take Uncle's pulse first."

"Other people might not know, but you? You know exactly how this works." I glared at her. "How do you think you got that graduate placement? If I hadn't spent the money to smooth the way for you, do you honestly think you'd have gotten into medical school at all, let alone a guaranteed placement?"

"Mom... what are you saying?" Barbara stared at me in disbelief, tears standing in her eyes. "I got in on my own. How is that you paving the way for me?"

"How can you be so cold-blooded? We're family. So you've made some money now, fine, but the blood in my veins is Edwards blood."

"He's my own uncle. He's on the edge of death, and I'm studying medicine. What's wrong with me taking a look at him?"

My father-in-law started in with his sour tone again. "See? Even the child knows what family means. If you ask me, some people make a little money and their heads swell right up."

"Hmph..." Ervin gave me a cold snort and pushed Barbara to go help.

I wanted to take my husband and Barbara aside first and tell them the truth, but Ervin had a serious streak of male chauvinism in him. He wouldn't leave with me for anything.

Barbara was still young, tied up by all this talk of family, with no intention of leaving with me either.

The villain here could only be me.

I wasn't going to say anything more. I stepped forward, grabbed Barbara's hand, and turned to go.

"Mom, what are you doing?"

"Stop right there." Ervin moved to block me.

"Barbara, we're both adults now. We're not our parents' property. We get to make our own choices." My nephew spoke up from the side.

"Mom, my cousin's right. I'm an adult. I can make my own decisions."

My foolish girl. You are an adult, yes. But you haven't set foot in the real world yet.

You don't know what a human face over a beast's heart looks like.

Watching how this was going, I knew I had to do something, or I'd never get Barbara out of here.

The rage of just being reborn had made me reckless a moment ago. Now that I'd cooled a little, an idea came to me.

"It hurts... it hurts so much..."

I suddenly clutched my head. "Barbara, take me to the hospital."

Barbara was my own daughter after all. She panicked at once.

"Is this really necessary?" Melissa spoke up again. "So that Barbara won't help her uncle, you'll even fake being sick? What have we ever done to wrong you?"

"Do you want my husband dead that badly?"

I ignored her, crouching on the floor with my head in my hands. "It really hurts."

My father-in-law shot Ervin a cold, hard look. "Landing a wife like this really is a disgrace to the family."

Ervin's face was just as cold. He came forward and kicked me over onto the floor. "I'll teach you to fake it."

"Dad..." Barbara rushed to hold back Ervin, who looked ready to strike again. "Let me take Mom to the hospital first. I'll see to Uncle when we get back."

"Move."

Ervin shoved Barbara aside and came at me, kicking me again and again.

A moment later he had his hand around my throat. "Now tell me. Will you let Barbara treat her uncle or not?"

I couldn't breathe with his grip on me. Barbara ran up sobbing, trying to pull Ervin off.

But Melissa caught hold of her. "Barbara, this is grown-up business. Children stay out of it."

"Tell me. Will you let Barbara treat her uncle?" Ervin kept demanding.

I couldn't get a single word out. A few more seconds and I felt he'd choke me to death.

"Dad, I'll treat Uncle. I'll go treat Uncle right now."

Only then did Ervin let go of me. Barbara was already heading toward the inner room, and panic shot through me.

"Barbara, come out."

I screamed it.

Ervin kicked me again, glaring, cold.

Out of options, I slammed my head into the corner of the table. Blood welled up, and when I saw Barbara rush toward me, something in me finally settled.

No one had seen it coming. Ervin and the rest of them froze.

I used those seconds to call the police.

The way Ervin's eyes had looked while he was choking me, it was terrifying, ice-cold.

He'd truly meant to strangle me to death.

In that moment he'd been like a different person, nothing like the Ervin I knew.

That wasn't normal. When something goes this wrong, there's a reason behind it.

Right now, the police had to be brought in.

Then I'd have my chance to tell Barbara the truth.

The instant the call connected I put it on speaker on purpose, a warning to Ervin and the others that I'd already called it in.

That was when they finally caught on. Ervin lunged first, grabbing for my phone.

But I'd already given the address. His face went dark enough to drip, and he turned away, cold-faced.

"Shame on this house, shame on this house." Walter's face was ashen. "A wife calling the police to have her own husband arrested. No sense of disgrace at all."

Ervin shot me a vicious look and turned into Jerome's room.

Melissa glanced at me, then followed him in.

Crying, Barbara worked at cleaning my wound.

"Mom, why?"

"Don't ask right now. But you have to trust me. Everything I'm doing is for your sake."

Barbara nodded, good girl that she was, and went back to tending the cut.

She'd just finished when Melissa came running out.

"I'll kill you, I'll kill you." She screamed it, charging at Barbara.

The sudden turn drained the color from Barbara's face. She had no idea what was happening. Neither did I.

I couldn't fathom why Melissa had suddenly gone mad.

"The police are here, they'll handle it, calm down." Ervin stepped up and caught Melissa in his arms.

His eyes swung to Barbara and me, cold enough to freeze the blood. "The police are already downstairs. Let's see how the two of you explain yourselves now."

"Dad, I don't understand what you're saying." Barbara stared at Ervin.

Barbara didn't understand. Neither did I.

He was the one who'd tried to strangle me. I was the one who'd called the police. What was he getting at now?

Something felt off, like something bad was about to happen.

And right then came a knock at the door.

The nephew went to open the door. The police had arrived.

"Officers, please, you have to help me get justice." Jerome's wife was on her knees, sobbing and wailing without stopping.

She pointed at Barbara. "It was her. She thinks that because her mother has money and power, she can use my husband to practice her medical skills."

"I said no." She swung her finger toward me. "So she threatened me. Said she'd get me fired, said she'd make sure my son couldn't graduate."

"My husband couldn't afford to cross them, so he had to let her daughter practice on him."

"And then and then"

She cried harder. "And then she killed him."

"I didn't." Barbara looked at the officers. "I really didn't."

"I'll testify." Ervin stepped forward at that moment.

"The dead man is my own brother." He turned to the police. "Barbara is my daughter. Cordelia James is my wife."

"It's true. My wife threatened my brother's family, and Barbara killed my brother under the excuse of practicing medical treatment."

"Dad" Barbara was completely stunned.

I was stunned too. I thought Ervin was about to clear our names, and instead he was framing us right alongside Jerome's wife.

Slap, slap, slap

Ervin struck himself across the face several times in a row. "Cordelia has money and power. She's used to running this whole family."

"Under her spoiling, Barbara grew lawless too. They decided I've been disobedient lately, so they're making an example out of him."

"My poor brother. It's all my fault, useless older brother that I am."

Walter shuffled toward the officers now, trembling. "What a disgrace this family is, what a disgrace. None of us can stand up to this vicious woman."

"I'm begging you, you have to get justice for us."

"Dad, you died so horribly." The nephew broke into loud sobs.

They made such a scene that it drew the neighbors.

Plenty of people were pointing at Barbara and me, cursing.

"A perfectly healthy man, gone just like that. Such a waste."

"I saw Jerome out for a stroll downstairs just yesterday."

"I never imagined there were people this vicious in the world."

Accusations came from every side, and Barbara kept repeating, almost by reflex, that she hadn't done any of it.

Stay calm. Right now I had to stay calm.

An autopsy!

Yes, an autopsy!

A body doesn't lie. An autopsy would establish the exact cause of death.

"Please seal off everything here and perform an autopsy on the body." I looked at the police.

"No." Jerome's wife glared at me. "My husband is dead and you still won't leave him alone?"

"Cordelia, you're too cruel." Ervin said it just as angrily.

The family refuses the autopsy. What now?

Just then Barbara came to my side. She wiped away her tears and took my hand.

"Mom, in a criminal case the police can order an autopsy directly. They don't need the family's consent."

She stared at me. In that instant she finally understood why I'd held her back before.

I stood ramrod straight and looked at the officers. "I ask for an autopsy again."

"The man is dead. Will you still not leave him in peace?" Walter's face was streaked with tears. "I'm the one who decides this. Let Jerome be laid to rest sooner."

"He's my son. As for how he died, I won't pursue it."

"Dad." Ervin shot him a look.

Jerome's wife was watching him too.

"Am I not allowed to decide?" Walter glared at the two of them. "Barbara did kill Jerome, true, but she's still my granddaughter. Do you really mean to send her to prison?"

"Ervin, your family pays Jerome's widow some compensation, and we call this matter closed."

Walter turned to the officers. "You can go. This is a family matter. We'll handle it ourselves."

"Sir, this already involves a homicide. It's a criminal case. It isn't something you can just call off because you feel like withdrawing the report."

"Since ancient times, where the people don't complain the officials don't investigate. We're not reporting it anymore. Isn't that enough?" Walter's voice climbed a notch. "My son is already dead. Do you people really have to put my granddaughter in front of a firing squad?"

"Dad, I'm the one who called the police in the first place. Ervin was beating me."

I stepped forward. "After the officers got here, you were the ones who said Barbara used Jerome as a test subject and caused his death. That's a frame-up."

"This isn't about whether you pursue it or not. I called the police, and I'm demanding the truth."

"You you" Walter jabbed a finger at me. "I knew all along you were no good. You won't rest until you've torn this family apart, will you?"

"Dad said to withdraw the report. Are you going to listen or not?"

Ervin glared at me, looking like he wanted to raise his hand again.

Watching them, something settled in me. They were afraid of the autopsy, which meant the autopsy was sure to turn up something.

I turned to the officers. "I'm so afraid they'll hurt me. Can I withdraw the report?"

"Don't worry. We'll keep you safe."

"This case now involves a homicide. We'll investigate it thoroughly."

While the police spoke I kept watching for the smallest shifts in Ervin's expression, and the others'.

There was no panic on their faces. If anything, they were hiding a trace of smugness. Was there something I still hadn't caught?

It left me uneasy, but if I wanted to prove Barbara's innocence, the autopsy was the only way.

The police immediately had everyone present give their fingerprints and began sealing off everything in the house, searching for anything relevant.

Then they found a syringe in the uncle's room.

Something dropped in my chest. I glanced at Barbara without thinking, and her face went white at once.