Chapter 1

1

My mother was framed and thrown into a cell. My husband, the city's top-tier defense attorney, was her only hope.

But on the day of the trial, he refused to show up. He chose to stay home and look after his feverish first love instead.

In the middle of a brutal blizzard, I knelt in the snow and begged him to save her.

He looked at me with nothing but pure disgust, refusing to even spare me a glance.

"It's just one lost case, Aria! So she spends a few years behind bars. It's not like she's going to die!"

Later, my mother reached her breaking point in that prison and took her own life. That was the day my heart finally turned to ash.

When I finally handed him the divorce papers, he did a complete 180. He cried, begging me not to leave him, pleading for one last chance.

...

My mother is gone. She chose to leave this world in a cold, gray cell.

She didn't leave a single word behind. Her eyes were still wide open when they found her.

I knew why. She was framed, and she couldn't rest in peace with that injustice burning in her soul.

"Ms. Vance, please accept my condolences... I'll have the body sent to the funeral home. Do you think Attorney Prescott needs to step in to handle the compensation?"

Attorney Prescott?

Hearing that name snapped me back to reality. I slowly shifted my gaze to my phone screen.

Shana Wade had just posted a new update. A woman who looked almost exactly like me was lying in bed, being hand-fed porridge by a man.

The caption read, "After all these years, you told me I'm still your number one priority."

Only a corner of the man was visible, but I recognized those hands instantly. It was my husband, Lian Prescott. He was still wearing the watch I gave him for our anniversary.

I turned off the screen. As the official on the phone kept offering sympathies, I started to laugh until my whole body shook.

"Attorney Prescott is far too busy caring for a patient. He didn't even show up for my mother's trial. Why would he bother with this?"

In his heart, from the very beginning until now, there has only ever been Shana Wade.

He loved her to the point of losing his mind. He loved her enough to watch his own mother-in-law, who had been nothing but kind to him, rot and die.

I remembered the morning of the trial. The man who was supposed to go over the final evidence never showed up. Every call I made was either ignored or cut off.

I was frantic, trying to find a replacement lawyer at the last minute. But I was told that every piece of evidence and all the files were locked away with Lian.

And he was nowhere to be found.

I called him like a madwoman, dozens of times. The pathetic part was that I was actually worried something had happened to him.

On the fifteenth call, he finally picked up. But all I got was a verbal lashing.

"Are you done yet? Your notifications are waking Shana up. Have you no manners at all?"

I froze. "Shana? You're with Shana?"

"Lian... today is Mom's trial. You refused to show up just to stay with her?!"

I knew Shana was special to him. I had endured every cold shoulder he gave me because of her.

But today was supposed to be different. How could he abandon my mother for that woman?

I was fuming on my end of the line, but he sounded perfectly calm. It was as if sacrificing my mother for Shana was the most natural thing in the world.

"Yeah. Shana has a fever and she's all alone. Did you expect me to just let her suffer?"

"Your mom's little case isn't worth my time anyway. There are plenty of lawyers out there. Just go find someone else!"

"Enough! I have to go buy her medicine. Stop hounding me!"

He didn't have the patience to listen to me. He didn't care about my answer. He just hung up.

I didn't give up. I sent him a wall of messages, begging him to come to court, begging him to save my mother, or at least give me the files.

But in the end, every message was met with a red exclamation mark. I was blocked.

In that moment, my sanity snapped. I bolted out of the courtroom and drove straight to Shana's place.

I had never been there before, but the location had popped up in my feed countless times alongside photos of her and Lian.

I knew she was taunting me. But I had no other choice.

Just like Lian loved Shana even though she couldn't give him a future, I loved Lian. I loved him so much I had lost my dignity and my self-respect.