I couldn't help but drift closer.

Even though I knew it was only an embryo, I felt an unbearable urge to see the child.

It was my first baby.

Maybe it knew I wasn't fit to be a mother and didn't want to meet me. Even so, I still wanted to hold it and tell it that I loved it. More than anything, I had wished for this baby to come into the world safely and in good health.

The thought overwhelmed me, and tears spilled over. Sorrow washed through me like a slow tide.

"Send the deceased for an identity match in the database," Joshua said. "She's been dead for about a year, so make sure they focus on missing persons within that time frame."

After Joshua finished up, he packed away his tools with detached efficiency and got ready to leave.

"By the way, Mr. Steward," Edwin said, as if suddenly remembering something. "Samantha's mother is causing a scene at the entrance again, demanding to see you. You should take the back exit when you leave."

I was stunned.

My mother? What was she doing here? Why was she looking for Joshua?

Joshua let out a cold, indifferent laugh. "She shows up every day! I have no idea what she's trying to prove."

Edwin scowled, his tone equally disdainful. "Yeah. What's there to argue about? A lawyer with no ethics doesn't deserve any sympathy. That was an open-and-shut case, and Samantha had insisted on defending that murderer. Honestly, she deserved that backlash. Then, she even had the nerve to run off out of fear!"

A year ago, there was a terrible accident. A man was repeatedly run over on a remote road with no security cameras, and the driver fled the scene.

My client, William Prince, was the prime suspect. His wife had sold everything they owned to hire me.

"I know you're the best lawyer in town, Ms. Lester! I'm begging you, please save my husband! I swear he's innocent!"

William's wife was a disabled woman. She held her two children as she pleaded with me on her knees to save the man who was the pillar of their family.

I looked at their earnest faces and couldn't turn them away, so I took the case. I didn't want my clients to suffer from injustice or leave with regrets.

At that time, everyone believed William was guilty. I was known to be the best lawyer, yet I took his case anyway.

By doing so, the backlash against me only grew worse.

People called me heartless for defending a murderer. I faced insults daily, and I was pelted with eggs whenever I stepped outside. People even smeared red paint across my front door in anger.

However, I ignored it all. My only focus was finding evidence.

I worked around the clock for two straight weeks, combing through every detail until I finally found it.

It was a bloodstained button.

It was enough to suggest a third person had been at the scene where the accident had happened.

Just as I was about to submit the evidence for inspection, I got a message—my mother had been kidnapped. There wasn't even time to call the police. I rushed to an abandoned factory, desperate to save her. But when I arrived, there was no sign of my mother.

Instead, I found Christina waiting for me.

"Samantha, did you really think you could ruin me? You brought this on yourself by defending those people! You found the evidence that I hit someone!"

That was when it all became clear to me. Christina was the real culprit. She had been the one behind the hit-and-run!

Before I could react, Christina pushed me into the asphalt pit.

The thick substance pressed down on me, suffocating me little by little. The toxic fumes robbed me of the strength to save myself. Christina stood at the edge, watching as I struggled and slowly sank beneath the surface.

Right before I died, she said, "Too bad, Samantha. The truth about my drunk driving will only be safe once you're dead, and with you out of the picture, I can finally be with Joshua!"

My disappearance became the final nail in the coffin of the people's accusations against me.

"I didn't run away! William was innocent! I was too!" I screamed at Joshua, my voice filled with the fury of someone wronged.

I had found the evidence to prove it!

However, it was useless.

When Joshua recalled my existence, he laughed disdainfully. In his view, I was the woman who was a stain on his reputation.

He confirmed Edwin's remark and said, "She's a lawyer with no conscience, that's for sure. She tried to defend a murderer! After people started cursing her, she took the dirty money and hid like a coward! She's a disgrace to the profession!"

With that simple, cutting remark, Joshua shattered everything I had built, and every ounce of pride I had in being a lawyer.

To him, I was nothing more than a coward and a traitor to my profession.

But Joshua, of all people, knew how much I sacrificed. How could he turn around and accuse me of something so terrible?

Maybe it was because my obsession ran too deep, but my soul followed Joshua home.

"Josh, you're back!" Christina greeted him, wearing an apron and smiling sweetly. Her dimples made her look so innocent and gentle.

No one would ever suspect that this softspoken and gentle woman had killed two people.

The incident report from that time revealed that when Christina first hit the victim, it wasn't fatal. But she kept running over them again and again until they died, leaving the body on the side of the road.

As soon as Joshua saw her, his face lit up with a smile. "Tina, what delicious meal have you made today?"

They embraced naturally, like the most ordinary couple in the world.

I looked around the place carefully.

This was the house Joshua and I had worked so hard to buy after three years of scrimping and saving. Every piece—from the couch to the coffee table, the vases to the utensils—was something I had carefully chosen and arranged. I had poured all of my love and effort into this place.

But though the decor remained the same now, every trace of me had been cruelly erased. Even the framed couple's photo I once hung in the living room had been replaced by their wedding portrait.

The bitter irony was that Joshua and I had been about to register our marriage too. Yet he never even bothered to take the time to snap a wedding photo with me.

"Those things are just a consumerist trap," he had said. "Spending thousands on a stupid photo? I'd rather buy a new computer!"

Then, he added with a cutting look, "Besides, you're not that good-looking. What's the point?"

Back then, his words had felt like knives stabbing into my heart. When a person was in love, they tended to hang on every word and opinion their partner had of them.

Joshua and I had fallen in love back in college. After graduation, we struggled and built our lives from the ground up in this city. We went from nothing to something together.

The year Joshua and I were supposed to get married, Christina came back. On the day we went to City Hall to register our marriage, she appeared at the entrance.

"Josh, I'm back."

That was the moment I truly understood the power of being someone's "first love".

With those words, Joshua abandoned me right there at City Hall.

But after years of being together, I couldn't let go. I kept tolerating it and kept trying to make it work. All I got in return was his growing resentment and relentless criticism.

He also blamed everything on me.

"Look at yourself. You're a lawyer who keeps working overtime. How am I supposed to marry you? Look at Tina. She says if we get married, she will be my perfect support and run the household! And you? You're just constantly blaming me and Tina for your own failures. You should reflect on yourself more!"

He kept implying and repeating the same thing—I wasn't good enough compared to Christina.

Every time he criticized me, I would react and try harder. Over time, I started to doubt myself. His belittling got to me.

It wasn't until our seventh anniversary that I saw the text messages he exchanged with Christina.

[Josh, I'll wait for you forever. We can get married once you break up with Samantha.]

And he replied, [Okay.]

That one word shattered my last shred of dignity.

I left that night. I moved out of our tiny apartment and threw myself into work. Under everyone's gaze, I took on William's case. They were watching and judging me.

That same day, I found out I was pregnant.

I thought long and hard. In the end, I decided to keep the baby. I had the means, the money, and the ability to raise it on my own. Even if I had to do it as a single mother, I knew I could give the child a good life.

But I never imagined Christina would be so cruel—she had stolen everything from me.

My marriage. My child. Even my life.

As I watched Joshua and Christina wrapped up in their sickening affection for each other, I couldn't help but scream in my mind.

Why?! What right did they have?!

Their happiness was built on my suffering!

It was my seventh day of following Joshua, and I was forced to watch him and Christina playing their sickening game of love.

Every single day.

They never mentioned me. Not once.

Maybe in their minds, someone like me was a stain on their "perfect" love.

Christina leaned in close to Joshua and whispered, "Honey, I've got a secret to tell you."

"Oh?" He played along, feigning curiosity. "What's the secret?"

"I…"

Knock, knock, knock!

A loud rapping at the door shattered the sickeningly sweet moment. The second the door swung open, a hand gripped Joshua's arm tightly.

"Josh, I've found some new evidence. Can you help me submit it?"

It was my mother, Mabel.

I had seen her many times over these past few days, tirelessly trying to clear my name, only to be turned away time after time. My father passed away when I was young, and my mother raised me on her own.

When Joshua saw her, he didn't hesitate and slammed the door on her.

Hard.

My mother's hand was still on the doorframe when it closed, and the door smashed her fingers. The sound of the door hitting her hand was sharp and violent. Her right hand turned purple almost instantly, and the papers she was clutching fell to the ground.

However, she didn't cry out. She bit her lip and held back the pain, her eyes welling with tears. She trembled as she bent down, using her left hand to gather the scattered papers.

"Mom…" I reached out, wanting so badly to touch her, to comfort her, but I couldn't.

My hand went right through her.

She forced a smile, though her hands shook as she picked up the documents. "Look, William's family said it themselves—Sammy never took their money! I even checked with the airline, and they said Sammy never boarded the flight…"

Some of the papers were old and yellowed with time, while others were fresh, like they were newly printed.

But they all had one thing in common—they all proved I was innocent.

Joshua's expression was flat as he cut in, "Are you done? William has already been sentenced. It's over. Samantha accepted that murderer's money and defended him, even though she knew he was guilty. What kind of person does that?

"Then, when people started calling her out and cursing her, she bought a ticket and fled!"

"That's impossible! My daughter would never do that!" My mother's voice cracked as she tried to defend me.

Joshua tore the documents to pieces, his face twisted with anger as he threw them in my mother's face.

"Why are you still trying to clear her name? Samantha wasn't fit to be a lawyer, Mabel!"

"No!"

My mother scrambled to pick up the shredded pieces of paper, but Christina casually poured a glass of water over them.

"Oops, I'm so sorry! My hand slipped!" Christina laughed lightly. "You didn't forget to make copies, did you?"

My mother fell to her knees, her voice breaking as she sobbed, "How could you? I dream about Sammy every night. She tells me she's innocent!"

Tears streamed down my face as I watched her. I wanted so badly to hold and comfort her, but all I could do was stand there powerlessly.

My mother's cries attracted a crowd, and Christina seized the moment. "Making a scene won't change anything, Mabel. Samantha betrayed her conscience defending that murderer. It's not exactly something to be proud of. She even accepted that murderer's money. She wasn't fit to be a lawyer since then!"

"No! My daughter was a lawyer. She would never violate her code of ethics!" My mother's voice rang out, unwavering in her belief.

And then Joshua delivered the final blow. "If you keep this up, I'll have no choice but to file a request to revoke Samantha's law license."

It felt like a knife twisting in my heart.

Joshua already took everything from me. Did he now even want to take away the one thing that meant the world to me?

Didn't he know that being a lawyer represented all my ideals and pride?

How could he do this?

My mother collapsed onto the ground, staring at the remnants of her hard work as she felt her last hope slipping away. The crowd murmured, their whispers harsh and cruel. They blamed her for raising such a shameless daughter.

Joshua didn't offer my mother any help. He simply closed the door in a cold and indifferent manner.

"So, what was that secret you were going to tell me?" He turned to Christina, eyes filled with anticipation.

"I'm pregnant!" Christina beamed, pulling out a medical report like it was a prize, and handing it to Joshua with pride.

His face lit up with pure joy, and he lifted her off the ground, spinning her around in his arms.

"I'm going to be a father!"

Inside, their laughter filled the air.

Outside, my mother's sobs echoed in the silence.

I could never meet my unborn child again, while my ex-fiance and the woman who killed me were celebrating a new life.

It was cruel and ironic.

Just then, Joshua's phone rang.

Each ring felt like a death knell.

Joshua answered, and the person on the other end said, "The test results are back, Mr. Stewart. We've identified the body. It's… Samantha Lester, the lawyer who disappeared a year ago."

I watched as Joshua stiffened, and his face drained of all color. His voice was shaky with disbelief as he asked, "What did you just say?"

The person repeated, "The DNA is a match, Mr. Stewart. The woman whose body we found… was your former fiancee, Samantha Lester."