True Love, Wrong Revenge

On our wedding day, I wiped out my wife Maria Garcia's entire family. Clad in a blood-soaked wedding gown, I forced myself on her.

After a night of passion, I put a knife in her hand and screamed for help. Her hands were cut, her throat poisoned, and rendered silent, leaving her no way to defend herself.

She was thrown into prison, her spirit broken, beaten, her eyes gouged out and tortured to death. Her body was dumped in a mass grave, where wild dogs tore at it.

A hundred days after her death, I was digging through a heap of bones, my eyes burning with fury, blood dripping from my fingers. "So this is how the Garcia family operates. Why didn't you warn me? Maria, come out and face me!"

***

Late that night, I was summoned to the palace by the king. I crawled and knelt before him, only able to see his feet.

"Minister Thompson, do you have any complaints about the execution of your entire family in the succession struggle?"

"I dare not," I answered.

A document was thrown at my forehead with a loud smack, instantly causing it to bleed. "Dare not? What is it that you dare not do? You've killed over eighteen members of the Garcia family and framed your own wife. If you could do that to them today, wouldn't you come for me tomorrow?"

I bowed low, pleading for forgiveness. This was all the fault of my father-in-law. I needed to avenge my family. The king chuckled as he toyed with his ring. "Christopher, you've lived a miserable life, like a dog. You've killed without even knowing who your real enemies are. , this has been the most fun game I've ever played."

I replayed his words in my mind over and over, but I couldn't understand his true meaning. Kneeling there, my face pale, I was filled with dread. "I don't understand the king's meaning. Please, explain."

With my forehead pressed against the marble floor, the pain from my wound brought me back to reality. "On the day of the succession struggle, the Garcia family didn't back me. It was your father who took the blame to protect the Garcia family, and by doing so, he protected you as well."

I was stunned. How could this be? My father-in-law had schemed for his own benefit, leading to the destruction of the Thompson family. My father was killed by arrows in the palace. My mother was hanged with a white silk ribbon in the Thompson Mansion. My elder brother was stabbed to death by my father-in-law. I witnessed all of this firsthand, and my father-in-law had told me so himself.