Chapter 4

After the first trial session ended, my mother held me tightly, helping me out of the courthouse.

Reporters blocked the entrance, flashbulbs blinding me.

Microphones shoved into my face one after another.

"Ms. Hart, did you deliberately strip naked to seduce Lily's brother because you were jealous she's pregnant with Attorney Price's child?"

"I heard you weren't even wearing underwear that night. Are you a sex addict? Sexually frustrated?"

"Seven years ago you used this kind of thing to create hype. Now you're trying to blackmail a 20-year-old male college student. Isn't this false accusation?"

"Is this your mother? Does she know how promiscuous you are?"

I was jostled and stumbled.

Someone took advantage of the chaos to grab my sleeve.

The fabric tore, exposing my shoulder and a large portion of my chest.

Countless flashbulbs went crazy, accompanied by men's suggestive laughter and whistles.

"Wow, so slutty, no wonder the guy couldn't help himself!"

Nausea churned in my stomach.

My mother frantically shielded me, covering my body.

"Get away! You bastards! Are you even human?"

In the chaos, someone shoved her hard.

My mother's forehead hit the sharp corner of a pillar at the courthouse entrance.

Blood pooled on the ground.

In the end, only the intervention of court security allowed us to leave.

That night, the doorbell rang.

Outside stood Ethan and a pregnant Lily.

The moment I saw them, my mother's expression changed.

"What are you doing here!"

Lily looked at me, tears in her eyes.

"Clara, I'm apologizing on my brother's behalf. But Jason is only 20 years old. He's never even been in a relationship. He really thought when you dressed like that you were... lonely..."

"He said when he touched you, you responded to him. You didn't resist at all! How can you pull up your pants and call the police, trying to ruin his whole life?"

My head exploded.

I stared at her.

"What did you say? I was drugged, my whole body was in spasms, and you say it was consensual?"

Lily, frightened, burrowed into Ethan's arms.

"Ethan, I'm scared... Is Clara's mania acting up again..."

My mother slapped Lily across the face.

"Shut your mouth!"

Ethan pulled Lily behind him, looking at my mother with a darkened expression.

"Lily is pregnant. You shouldn't have hit her."

Then he looked at me and sighed.

"Clara, drop the charges."

Hearing those three words, my heart was still pierced.

Though I had guessed it would come to this, hearing it aloud still hurt.

"As long as you sign to drop the charges, we won't pursue charges of false accusation against you."

"If you keep making trouble, it won't benefit you. You can't handle it."

I looked at him, suddenly finding this man before me very strange.

"Ethan, are you worried I can't handle it?"

"Or are you threatening me that if I don't drop the charges, you'll use public opinion to destroy me?"

His expression shifted slightly.

"That's not what I meant."

My mother pointed at the door, her voice trembling.

"Get out! Both of you, get out of my house!"

She clutched her chest, her body swaying.

I screamed and caught her.

Ethan also instinctively stepped forward, wanting to help.

I looked up sharply and pushed him away.

"Ethan, don't touch my mother!"

He froze in place.

My mother leaned against me, her face deathly pale, forehead covered in cold sweat.

I frantically dialed for an ambulance.

Ethan stood in the doorway, showing panic for the first time.

"Clara, I..."

I held my mother, trembling all over.

"Take Lily and get out of my house! If anything happens to my mother, I'll never forgive you!"

Ethan's lips moved.

But in the end, he couldn't say a word.

My mother's hands grew colder and colder.

I suddenly realized Ethan hadn't come to persuade me to drop the charges.

He had come to push the last person protecting me to her death too.