The day I buried my daughter, I thought I was done crying. But when I knelt in front of that small grave, my world tilted.
She was only six. My little girl. My everything.
And then she came. Cerise.
The woman who killed her.
She walked right up to me. Everyone started whispering. I couldn’t even look up. I thought maybe she’d come to apologize. But no. She took what she was holding: a small, decayed cat crawling with maggots and threw it right onto Amy’s tombstone.
People gasped. Someone screamed. I just froze.
And Cerise said, smiling like a saint, “Don’t be mad. I’m just worried little Amy’s soul might get lonely. I brought her favorite pet to keep her company underground.”
My body went numb. My teeth were shaking. I wanted to grab her by the throat and smashed her face, but my legs wouldn’t even move. All I could do was kneel there, feeling the dirt soak through my dress, watching that rotting thing slide down my daughter’s name.
But the next morning, I sued her.
People warned me not to. They said she had a powerful backer. Someone untouchable.
I didn’t care. My husband was a lawyer. He would make sure she'll ended up in jail.
Turns out, I was the biggest fool in the room.
The trial was a joke. We had everything: footage, witnesses, reports. Still, the judge ruled in her favor.
Cerise walked out free.
And me? I was charged with killing my own child.
When I looked up at the bench, I saw who delivered the verdict.
The judge was Cerise’s older brother—the man whose love confession I once turned down.
And right beside her, smiling faintly, was my husband.
Justine Halley.
The man I’d built my life with. The man I thought I knew.
Everyone used to call us the perfect couple. The devoted doctor and the brilliant lawyer. But when I saw his face that day, I understood. He was the one protecting her instead of protecting me.
....
Ten years in prison taught me what pain really meant.
They starved me. Beat me. Broke me.
But the worst part wasn’t the bruises. It was the silence. The not knowing why.
When I finally got out, I walked for hours. I don’t even remember how I ended up there... standing by the glass doors of the ballet school where my daughter used to dance.
That’s when I saw him.
Justine.
He was leaning against his car, smoking. Then Cerise appeared, dressed in soft pinks and pearls, her hair pinned perfectly as if she’d never known a sleepless night.
Beside her was a little girl in a white leotard and ballet slippers, ribbons tied around her small wrists. She couldn’t have been more than ten.
The child’s face lit up when she saw him.
“Daddy!” she run straight into his arms.
Justine smiled and crushed his cigarette underfoot. He bent to lift her, “Sofie, did you dance beautifully today?”
The girl giggled. “I did! Teacher said I’m ready for the recital!”
Cerise laughed, “Of course she did. Our daughter’s always the star.”
Our daughter.
The words sliced through me like glass.
Because my marriage with Justine was never over.
And our real daughter Amy was dead.
Dead because of her!
So who was this child calling him Daddy?
And how could he smile like that, as if nothing had ever happened?
The scene in front of me felt too real.
I bit my lip so hard I tasted blood. It was the only way to stop myself from crying out.
So that was it.
He helped her destroy me so they could live happily together. Husband and wife.
But why?!
Why did he have to ruin me to do it?
If he’d just said he wanted a divorce, I would’ve let him go. I wouldn’t have begged. I wouldn’t have fought. I would’ve walked away quietly.
My phone buzzed in my hand. I looked down and there it was. Our old picture.
Me and Justine, grinning outside the campus gates. We looked so young. So stupidly hopeful.
We both came from nothing. Dirt roads. Cheap uniforms. Empty stomachs.
But Justine had it worse.
His mother died giving birth to him. His father was a soldier who never came home from the war. After that, Justine was sent to live with his uncle and aunt... a house that looked decent from the outside, but inside was nothing short of hell.
They made him scrub floors until his hands bled. Beat him for spilling water. Locked him out when they had guests.
I still remember those days, how pale and thin he looked, how carefully he tried to hide the bruises. I used to give him half my lunch every day.
Once, I made the mistake of standing up to his uncle. The man nearly killed me for it. I ended up in the hospital for a week.
Justine came to see me there. He stood beside my bed, “Emily, when I grow up, I’ll become a lawyer. I’ll make sure no one ever hurts you again.”
And he did.
He worked his way up, got into a top law school, became a respected attorney. Everyone admired him for it the poor boy who made it.
I became a doctor. We thought we’d beaten the odds.
That same year, we both got jobs, got married, had a child, and moved into our first home.
Four dreams in one year.
I remember the night we moved in. Justine, who almost never cried, suddenly broke down.
He held me and our baby close and whispered, “Wife, meeting you is the greatest blessing in my life.”
I believed him.
I thought we’d made it through the storm.
I thought that was the end of all the pain.
But happiness doesn’t break slowly. It shatters in an instant.
My daughter, Amy, died under Cerise’s car.
And the man who promised to protect me fell into her arms.
Now they had another child together, like Amy never even existed.
Cerise’s voice cut through my thoughts.
“Hubby, I think today’s the day Emily gets released. Don’t you care at all?”
I froze. I didn’t even breathe. I just watched him.
“She knows her own way home. Why should I care?”
His words hit harder than the prison walls ever did.
