That night, Calvin actually sent me a text.
"Bruno, thank you for delivering Annette back to me once again."
A bright, spotless living room.
Annette, in a robe, was sitting with Calvin and his son, watching TV.
On Calvin's wrist was the watch Emily had wanted so badly.
On Annette's face was a smile I had never once seen.
Next to me and Emily, the three of them looked far more like a real family.
I wiped my eyes and turned to look at my daughter, sitting there hollow and lost.
"Emily, would you be willing to come live with Daddy from now on?"
"Daddy's going to win this case for you, and take you somewhere better, somewhere beautiful."
"We'll forget all these unhappy things together."
She lifted her head slowly.
She looked at the freshly bandaged wounds on her own hand.
At my red, swollen eyes.
She was quiet for a long time, then nodded.
After Annette's visit, Emily's state started to slip.
She tried so hard to act like a normal child in front of me.
But the insomnia and the self-harm were beyond her control.
All ten of her fingers were bitten raw and bleeding.
It broke my heart.
I stayed at my daughter's side while I dug into the law every way I could.
Soon enough, the appeal hearing opened.
Annette stood across from me again, calmly reading out my daughter's crimes.
"Forensic examination recovered no viable DNA on the plaintiff's body."
"There were no signs of a struggle at the scene."
"The plaintiff's fall was purely an accident."
She glanced at me, and let her voice pause a moment.
Then, under Calvin's earnest gaze, she went on.
"From what I understand, the plaintiff and the defendant have long been on bad terms, and quarreled repeatedly over petty domestic matters."
"So this incident was nothing more than the plaintiff framing the defendant out of jealousy."
"I reserve the right to file a new suit on behalf of my client, demanding a public apology from the other party."
The plaintiff had become the defendant.
My sweet, well-behaved daughter.
In Annette's mouth, she had become a criminal beyond redemption.
I couldn't hold it in anymore and shouted at Annette.
"Annette, you're lying!"
"Emily never did anything wrong. It was Thomas bullying her the whole time!"
After it happened, I'd secretly read my daughter's diary.
Ever since Annette pulled strings to get Thomas transferred into Emily's class.
He'd been the one leading the bullying against her.
Cutting her hair, throwing away her textbooks, insulting her.
Emily didn't want to put me in a hard spot, so she never dared tell me.
She only brought it up gently with Annette.
And what she got in return was the other side treating her even worse.
Along with Annette's careless line, "Why doesn't he bully anyone else, just you?"
"Emily, don't be unreasonable like your father. When something happens, look at yourself first."
I no longer had the strength to argue over the past.
But there was one thing I never imagined.
That Annette would take the worries Emily had confided in her, and turn them into the reason to hurt her now.
While I stood there stunned, the judge before us had already handed down the verdict.
The appeal was lost.
No further recourse.
I froze where I stood.
The room spun, everything blurring.
Annette pushed a new complaint in front of me.
"You and Emily apologize to Calvin and his son, and this whole thing ends here."
"Otherwise, the next person in that defendant's seat will be you."
My tears were already spent. I couldn't even cry.
I walked forward, hollowed out.
And on my way down the stairs, I lost my footing and fell.
