Just because I refused to help my nephew, Albert Wesley, pay for his wedding, my very own sister took me to court.

When my sister, Jocelyn Guthrie, appeared in court, she wept as she spoke.

"I worked myself to the bone, taking every job I could find just to support your college education. I endured endless humiliation, and it even ruined my health."

"You have an annual income of a million dollars, yet you won't even spare a fraction to help me! You're even talking about cutting ties with me? Do you even have a conscience?"

Seeing me sitting in the defendant's seat, unmoved, she trembled as she revealed the grotesque scars covering her body, even pulling out a disability certificate.

"I was even injured because of you. I was struck by a falling object at a construction site, leaving my leg permanently disabled. Now... I can't support my son anymore, so I'm asking you to repay the tuition. Isn't that the least you should do?"

My mother, Samantha Lawrence, and my brother, Andrew Guthrie, nodded along, backing Jocelyn up, condemning me for my ingratitude.

The entire courtroom erupted in anger, voices rising against me.

"What a monster! Her education has gone to the dogs!"

"Don't insult dogs! She's even worse than an animal!"

"Three hundred thousand dollars is too little! Your Honor, she must repay it with interest!"

Watching their righteous fury, I could only feel a bitter sense of irony.

She claimed she had sacrificed everything to put me through four years of university.

But the truth was... I had never even been to college at all.

"Yara Guthrie, I gave you everything I had, and this is how you repay me?"

Jocelyn Guthrie, my elder sister who once treated me like her own child, was shouting in court, completely losing all composure.

"I sacrificed everything for you! I'm only asking you to give up a small portion of your income to sponsor my son's wedding and for him to start a family, yet you won't even do that? Are you even human?"

She was trembling from agitation, tears and snot running freely down her face.

The people in the courtroom saw her patched-up clothes and deeply lined face, and their sympathy turned into sharp, condemning looks directed at me.

Looking at Jocelyn, worn down by half a lifetime of hardship, looking more like someone in her sixties or seventies, I let out a helpless sigh.

"Jocelyn, I've told you so many times. I never went to college, and I never received a single cent of tuition from you."

My grades were quite good when I was in my senior year of high school, but Mom said the family was in debt. With no other choice, I gave up on college and went up north to work.

I only came home once a year during the holidays. Whenever Jocelyn saw me, she either ignored me entirely, or, if she spoke, it was nothing but cold sarcasm and ridicule.

When she got married, she did not invite me.

When she celebrated her son's birthdays, she did not invite me either.

Two decades passed just like that, and then suddenly, she came looking for me, insisting I repay her for college tuition I never even had, so she could use the money for her son.

When I refused to admit to something that never happened, she dragged me straight to court.

"You're lying! Without my support, how could you have gotten a high-paying job at a multinational corporation with such an impressive degree? Pay me back, now! That's my blood and sweat! Where's your conscience? Why are you ruining my son's happiness?"

Jocelyn grabbed my collar, refusing to let go. "I suffered so much, only to raise an ungrateful wretch like you!"

My nephew, Albert Wesley, was not as emotional as his mother, but the pain in his voice was clear.

"Aunt Yara, my mother neglected my care, her own son, just so you could go to school. All these years, I paid my own tuition by working part-time. If we weren't truly desperate for money to get married, she wouldn't have forced you into this."

Looking at my sister, on the verge of a breakdown, my heart twisted uncomfortably.

"Jocelyn… It's not that I won't repay you. You've just got the wrong person."

"You still won't give up, huh? Fine! Take a look at this. This is the evidence!"

As she spoke, she flung a stack of printed transfer receipts onto the table.

"Your Honor, every transfer I made over the years is right here. Over the four years of her so-called college, I sent her a total of 360 thousand dollars. I only asked her to repay 300 thousand, and she still refuses! She's truly inhumane!"

I stared at her in disbelief.

"Three hundred and sixty thousand dollars? Jocelyn, forget that absurd amount, I've never even seen a single cent."

Seeing how firm I was, she shoved the receipts right in front of my face.

"Yara, how dare you lie so boldly?! Isn't this your account? Aren't you the recipient?"

"It is my account, but..."

Before I could finish, Jocelyn immediately turned to the judge and exclaimed, "Your Honor, she's already admitted it. Please proceed with the ruling!"

Faced with the sheer number and frequency of the transfer records, everyone in the courtroom was stunned.

"Isn't Yara an able-bodied adult? Couldn't she at least work part-time? What about student aid? This is just downright shameless."

"She's treating her own sister like a walking ATM."

"Alas… Nice people really do get taken advantage of. The sister was too kind and ended up sacrificing herself."

Amid the rising chorus of condemnation, Jocelyn raised her phone.

"Even then, Yara was never satisfied. She would ask me for money almost every other day. Sometimes when I truly had nothing left, she would call and curse me out, saying that I was useless, and that I didn't even deserve to be called her sister."

She pressed play.

From the recording came my voice: sharp, venomous, and unrecognizable.

"Jocelyn, you work every day. How could you possibly have no money? Don't you dare pretend to be poor. If you do, I'll come to your workplace and make a scene, telling everyone you don't even take care of your own sister. I'll ruin your reputation.

"What now? Are you perhaps spending your money on some pretty boy? No wonder your ex-husband divorced you and said you were promiscuous. Guess he was right!"

Each word was like a blade, stabbing straight into Jocelyn's heart. Her face went pale, and she nearly lost her footing.

"Yara, I supported you through school. I never asked for your gratitude, but I never imagined you'd repay kindness with cruelty."

She took a deep breath, then slowly rolled up her sleeves.

What was revealed made the entire courtroom gasp.

They were scars. Layer upon layer of them, jagged, uneven, brutal.

"This one is from being splashed with boiling oil. This one, from slipping while delivering food in the winter. These are from cuts I got working in a kitchen…"

Then, she pulled out a disability certificate.

"This... this is from when I was working at a construction site, doing manual labor. Something fell from above and struck me. I was lucky to survive, but one of my legs is permanently disabled."

Her voice broke. "What more could I have done for you? Would giving you my life have made me a good enough sister?"

Years of hardship and silent suffering overwhelmed her. She dissolved into sobs, unable to form another complete sentence.

The sight of her scars and the visibly twisted, deformed bone in her leg pushed the crowd past their limit.

"Your Honor, what are you waiting for? She should not only compensate her, she should kneel and beg for forgiveness!"

"This isn't a sister... This is a demon who crawled up from hell!"

"Disgusting. Trash like this doesn't deserve such a good sister."

The waves of condemnation grew louder and louder.

Finally, the judge spoke, his voice low and steady.

"Jocelyn, aside from this evidence, do you have any witnesses?"

Before he could finish, my mother, Samantha Lawrence, stood up from the gallery.

"Your Honor, I can testify. Everything my eldest daughter, Jocelyn, said is the truth. My husband passed away early. My son was still very young, so most of my attention went to him. Jocelyn had to take on the role of a second mother.

"I saw everything she went through. It broke my heart. I told her many times to take care of herself, but she was so obedient, so sensible. She said Yara was excellent in her studies, that even if it meant selling everything, she would support her education.

"Your Honor, you wouldn't believe this. Over these four years, Jocelyn earned more than thirty thousand dollars from selling her blood. Every last bit of it was sent to Yara."

The moment the crowd heard that Jocelyn had even sold her blood to support me, they could no longer hold back. People began to stand, shouting for the harshest possible punishment.

"What's the difference between this and a leech? She's an embarrassment of a human being!"

"She's trying to drive her own sister to death. Completely beyond saving."

"Someone worse than an animal like this deserves the death penalty! Keeping her alive serves no purpose!"

Seeing that the entire room had turned in their favor, a faint smile crept onto my mother's lips.

"Yara is cold-hearted. She has shamed her family and corrupted society's values. I, too, think she should be severely punished!"

Mom's words were met with nods of agreement from everyone there. The judge looked at me sternly.

"Yara, do you have anything to say for yourself?"

When I remained silent, my younger brother, Andrew Guthrie, immediately jumped in to accuse me.

"Hmph, nothing to say, huh? Feeling guilty now? Let's see how you argue your way out of this now that we have witnessed and supporting evidence!"

I let out a chuckle. "Nothing to say? Andrew, you should know better than anyone who actually took Jocelyn's money!"

A flicker of unease passed through his eyes, but he quickly stiffened and shot back,

"What nonsense are you spouting? Jocelyn sacrificed her health and money for your college tuition. Now, she's just trying to get justice for herself!"

I sneered.

"Fine. Since you're so sure I went to college, why don't you tell everyone which college I attended? What major did I study?"

He clearly had not expected that question.

After a brief pause, he blurted out, "You've always resented Mom for favoring me, so we're not close. How would I know which college you went to? All I know is, without a prestigious degree, how could a multinational company hire you, let alone give you an important position?"

Before he could finish, Mom hurried to add, "Andrew is the youngest. Of course I gave him more care... That's only natural, but you're too jealous, too petty. You could never tolerate him. That's why I asked Jocelyn to take better care of you."

"As for the college? I know. You studied at Jargath College and majored in new media."

I let out a quiet snort. They had clearly done their homework.

The chairman of the company I work for graduated from Jargath College, and to give back to his alma mater, he returned every year for campus recruitment.

The moment she named the university, whispers spread through the courtroom. The looks directed at me were filled with undisguised contempt.

I calmly pulled out my phone, went to the university's website, and brought up the graduation photo for the Class of 2018, new media major.

"Take a look. If I really graduated from here, why am I not in the group photo?"

Jocelyn turned to look at Mom in confusion.

A flicker of panic crossed Mom's face, but she quickly regained her composure.

"Whose fault is that? Yours, of course. To celebrate graduation, you went out drinking with friends. You drank to the extent that you had a gastric hemorrhage and ended up hospitalized for five days."

To make her story more convincing, she threw out a hospital certificate, her tone full of bitter disappointment.

"I told you to be considerate of Jocelyn and not to waste her hard-earned money, but you never listened. That one night alone, you spent thousands of dollars on alcohol."

A collective gasp rippled through the room.

"Spending thousands? Her sister worked herself to the bone to support her, and she just wastes it like that? Utterly shameless."

"Some people don't even earn a few thousand a month, and she blew it all in one night? That's outrageous."

Jocelyn's eyes widened in fury.

"What? If you asked me for money and used it properly, I could accept it, but to think you spent it on drinking and partying… Do you think my money comes easily? What kind of sins did I commit in my past life to end up with a sister like you?"

Her chest heaved violently, her face turning ashen with rage. She looked at me as if she wanted to tear me apart.

"Yara, I've changed my mind. I don't want just those three hundred thousand dollars anymore. I want every single cent I ever gave to you back! Principal and interest, plus two hundred thousand dollars for emotional damages. Six hundred thousand dollars in total, and I won't accept a single cent less!"