On Valentine’s Day, someone stabbed my mother-in-law twenty times until she died.

So, I took the murderer to court. My wife was a renowned lawyer, but she decided to defend him.

I confronted her in anger, but she casually replied, “Derek’s younger brother is still a college student. Can’t you be a little more forgiving?

“I’ll bring Derek and his younger brother along to visit your mother’s grave. Drop the charges. Don’t let this go to trial and embarrass me when you lose the case.”

Looking at the mangled corpse full of stabbing wounds, I could not help but let out a bark of laughter.

It looked like she was still unaware that the corpse was actually her own mother.

Right after I sent the body to the mortuary, my wife, Melody, arrived with Derek and his younger brother, Richard.

When Derek saw the setup of the funeral hall, he frowned in disapproval.

“Henry, even though Melody earns a lot, you shouldn’t waste all her money on a dead person!”

Then, both Derek and Richard brazenly spat on the body.

“Do you even deserve all this, you old coot?!”

I stepped forward in fury.

However, Melody pushed me away and shielded the two of them behind her.

“They’re right. Your mother’s dead. What’s the point of wasting money on her?”

I stared at Melody in shock, and I could not believe my ears.

Ever since my mother-in-law was murdered, Melody had not shown even the slightest concern about her case.

When I filed charges against the murderer, Richard, she even expressed interest in defending him in court.

On top of that, she also pulled some strings when Richard was in jail. She spent a fortune to get him released on bail.

I thought that she could not think straight after listening to Derek’s sweet talk. That was the only answer to her ridiculous behavior.

However, it turned out that she thought my mother was the one who had been killed!

This was all too hilarious, but I found Derek’s smug look insufferable.

“Henry, get a refund this instant. This must have cost tens of thousands, right?

“When your mother was still alive, she always found ways to cheat Melody out of her money. Why are you following in her footsteps now?”

Right then, Melody wore a look of disgust on her face.

“As the saying goes, ‘the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.’

“Your mother’s a wicked and greedy woman. She deserved to be stabbed to death!”

I clenched my fists tightly. “My mother has never wronged you. Stop insulting her!”

Melody turned a deaf ear to me and said to the workers at the mortuary, “I want a refund right now. We’re not holding this funeral anymore. Do whatever you want with the body.”

Derek then pointed at a stinky ditch outside the building.

“Melody, the dead deserve respect. Why don’t we keep things simple by tossing her body over there?

“Once she’s cremated, her ashes can return directly to nature. That way, we can even save the money for an urn and burial ground.

“Henry, what do you say?” Melody smirked.

“He should thank you for your kindness.”

Right after she finished speaking, the workers proceeded to move the body.

I tried to stop them, but Melody got the men to stop me.

It hurt me to see my mother-in-law’s body carelessly dumped by the side of the smelly ditch.

Melody lost her father at a young age. So, my mother-in-law played the role of both mother and father in her life.

She made sure that Melody could attend tuition classes, even if it meant surviving on just one bun a day.

In the end, Melody did not even bother to provide her a proper funeral.

With a dull thud, Richard kicked my mother-in-law’s body into the ditch.

Then, he tried to provoke me by giving me a mocking look. “Oops, my foot slipped. You aren’t going to get mad at me, are you?”

Before I could speak, Melody glared at me.

“Richard didn’t mean it. Fetch some water and rinse her body. There’s no need to get angry about it.”

Looking at the filthy body in the ditch, I felt so angry that I laughed.

“Melody, you’ll regret this!”

I hoped that when she learned it was her mother’s body that they had treated this way, she would remember what she just said.

“What’s there for me to regret?”

Melody did not even spare her mother’s body another glance. “I came to reach a pre-trial settlement with you. I don’t want to waste time on all this nonsense,” she said in a commanding tone.

“Write Richard a pardon letter. After all, he’s still a college student. He can’t have his life ruined because of this.”

I stared at her coldly. “Impossible.”

My mother-in-law had caught Richard stealing things from Melody’s house. She tried to stop him, only to end up being stabbed by him twenty times.

To show his dissatisfaction, he deliberately avoided stabbing her vital organs so that she died slowly and in agonizing pain.

“Why would trash like him deserve forgiveness?”

As a lawyer herself, Melody defended her mother’s murderer without any conscience. I was quite certain that her mother would never rest in peace.

Melody got annoyed.

“Henry, I’m not negotiating with you. I’m giving you a chance!

“Being a renowned lawyer, even if this goes to trial, I’ll still have ways to get him acquitted of his charges!

“I don’t want you to lose the case and disgrace both of us! After all, everyone knows that you’re my husband!”

I was indifferent. “Since you’re so worried that I’ll humiliate you, let’s get a divorce.”

Melody glared at me.

“Henry, I’m being respectful enough by telling you all of this. How dare you threaten me with divorce over such petty issues?!”

She then pointed at Richard.

“Even though he accidentally kicked your mother’s body into that stinky ditch, he’s helping to clean her up now, isn’t he?

“He’s admitted his mistakes, and he’s making up for them, so he should be forgiven!”

They carried my mother-in-law’s body from the ditch. Richard then urinated on her body while grinning smugly.

I stared at Melody in shock. Her face had contorted into a terrifyingly savage expression.

She actually saw such a vile act of desecration as “cleaning up” her body?

When Melody first became a lawyer, she had sworn to uphold justice. When did she become like this?

It looked like it all started when Derek became her intern.

He never cared about evidence. He handled cases purely based on assumptions.

Meanwhile, Melody helped him twist the truth and sent innocent victims to jail.

I told her that she should not be doing this.

However, she justified it by saying that it was to keep her intern from suffering setbacks so early in his career.

I looked at Melody in disappointment.

“I’ll give you the divorce agreement tomorrow.”

Derek pretended to stop this.

“Henry, Melody spent Valentine’s Day with me because she felt sorry that I don’t have a girlfriend. Don’t get angry because of this. Let me apologize.

“Please stop threatening her with divorce. Things won’t turn out well if she takes it seriously.”

Melody instantly erupted with anger once she heard what Derek said. As a result, she slapped me hard across the face.

“Henry, you’re so unreasonable!

“Listen here. We’re not getting a divorce. But I’m going to sign a pardon letter for Richard as your wife!”

Then, she quickly got someone to bring her a pen and paper. She scripted the pardon letter in front of me and signed it.

“I won’t give you a chance to show up in court either!

“You forced my hand, Henry!”

After Melody left, I spent a great deal of money to have my mother-in-law’s body properly dressed and restored. I also had a funeral hall set up.

Following that, I hired a lawyer to prepare a divorce agreement. Then, I gave Melody a call to come and sign it.

Derek answered the phone instead, and I heard Melody’s coquettish voice in the background.

“Henry, Melody doesn’t have time to answer your call now.

“She says you’d better stop using the divorce as an excuse to invalidate the pardon letter.”

After he finished speaking, he did not hang up on purpose so that I could hear Melody’s moans of pleasure.

I held back my disgust to record the call before hanging up.

Since she refused to sign the divorce agreement, I had no choice but to bring this to court.

After submitting the application via my phone, I took a screenshot of it and sent it to Melody.

[See you in court.]

The moment I arrived at the courthouse on the day of the murder trial, I was told that they had rejected my divorce application.

It immediately dawned on me that Melody was behind all this.

Shortly after, the workers from the mortuary called me.

They said that someone had destroyed the funeral hall and taken the body by force.

The workers then sent me a video.

When I clicked on it, my eyes were filled with rage.

There was the carcass of a pig in the ice coffin instead of my mother-in-law’s body.

A few wreaths had also been added on either side of the ice coffin with my mother’s name on it.

They had also replaced the beautiful poems dedicated to her with vile insults.

Derek came in late with his arm around Melody’s waist.

She glanced at her phone screen and said in a malicious tone, “Henry, this is the price you’re paying for your stubbornness!

“If you insist on going to trial today, forget about ever seeing your mother’s body again!”

Right then, Derek pointed at the pig in the coffin.

“Look. Doesn’t it resemble your mother? Melody and I went through a lot of trouble to find a perfect replacement for her body.

“Your family and friends can still pay their respects to it.”

“I’ll return your mother’s body only after Richard is declared innocent.”

I never expected Melody and Derek to be this shameless.

They plotted this to stop me from showing up in court, all because they thought that body was my mother.

As her immediate family member, I refused to reach a settlement with Richard. Hence, Melody’s pardon letter would be deemed void.

I gritted my teeth and punched Derek in the face.

“You’re worse than trash!”

Melody screamed as she shielded him behind her.

“Henry, believe me when I say I can have you thrown in prison!”

I stared at Melody with bloodshot eyes.

“An adulterous couple like you should go to jail instead! Desecrating a corpse is considered a crime too!”

Melody just sneered at me.

“Have you forgotten that I’m a lawyer? No matter who goes to jail, it’ll never be me. You can’t threaten me.

“You’d better think carefully about this. Do you insist on testifying in court, or do you want your mother’s body back?!”

A cold laugh escaped my lips.

“Melody, have you ever considered that the body is probably your mother’s instead of mine?”

Melody did not take my words seriously.

“My mother’s an honest and decent lady. How could she be so wicked to the extent that a kind-hearted college student would stab her to death?”

Then, she took out her phone and gave someone a video call.

“A word from me, and your mother’s body will end up rotting with maggots!”

On the screen, they dragged my mother-in-law’s body to the side of a sewer.

As they dragged her toward the sewer, a large burn scar was revealed on her forearm.

My mother-in-law once told me that when Melody was a mischievous child, she knocked over a kettle of boiling water. My mother-in-law got scalded in the process of protecting her.

Later, she told Melody that it was a birthmark to prevent her from getting upset.

Derek narrowed his eyes and quickly pointed at the scar as he said, “Melody, Henry’s mother is such a copycat! Not only did she copy the way your mother dressed, but she also created the same birthmark!”

Melody’s doubtful expression instantly twisted into that of disgust.

“The one my mother has is a real birthmark. Don’t tell me your mother tried to fake a burn scar too? What a pathetic imitation.

“Henry, I never thought your mother could be this despicable. Yet, my mother still praised her for being a kind person.”

My mother tried to copy the way her mother dressed, huh? Even my mother could tell how hard my mother-in-law’s life had been!

Whenever my mother bought clothes or jewelry, she would always buy extra for my mother-in-law.

My mother-in-law was very grateful for that, so she always treated me really well.

My heart was filled with sorrow as I tried to stop Melody from desecrating my mother-in-law’s body.

“It’s true that she’s your mother! That’s not a birthmark. It’s a burn scar from that time she protected you from being scalded!”

However, Derek egged her on without hesitation.

“The dead woman has the same birthmark as your mother. That’s a sign of bad luck. Just get rid of the body.”

Right after he finished speaking, he took his phone and gave the men on the other end of the video call some instructions.

I quickly grabbed Derek’s phone, but Melody swung her handbag at my face.

“Derek’s right! Stop mistreating him!”

The metal charm on her handbag scratched my forehead, and it bled.

Meanwhile, the person on the other end of the video call slashed my mother-in-law’s arm.

The already damaged limb looked even more grotesque, and I shook with rage.

“Melody, do you still have any humanity in you?!”

Melody shouted at me, “You’re the one who has no humanity for being so hell-bent on throwing Richard into prison!

“I already gave you a chance, but you didn’t appreciate it.

“Toss her body into the sewer!” Melody snarled at the person on the other end of the phone.

After that, she shoved the phone screen in front of me and forced me to watch as they tossed my mother-in-law’s body into sewage.

Melody raised her chin proudly as she looked at how furious I was. She walked into the courthouse with Derek as if she were the victor.

The trial officially began, and the judge outlined the facts of the case.

“The defendant, Richard Murdoch, had a conflict with the victim, Rosie Swift, after which he stabbed her to death.”

At that moment, Melody’s face went blank. Rosie was her mother.

She could not help but interrupt. “There must be a mistake in the victim’s information! How could it possibly be my mother’s name?”

The judge frowned and gave her a strange look.

“The victim’s identity has been verified. There’s no mistaking that she’s your mother, Rosie Swift.”