Chapter 1

"Serena, sign it."

Outside the courtroom, my husband Julian threw a letter of understanding in front of me, his gaze behind the gold-rimmed glasses as cold as ice.

"You don't want Leo to bear the crime of defamation even after his death, do you?"

Chloe had just driven my brother to jump off a building to his death. And my husband was holding her shoulders, gently wiping her tears.

"Julian, my heart hurts so much..." Chloe pouted, snuggling into his arms.

"Serena, you only have thirty seconds left." He didn't even look at me.

I stared fiercely at the man and woman in front of me, my voice trembling, "What if I don't sign?"

Julian finally looked up, slowly tapping into the live broadcast on his phone.

In the cemetery, several bodyguards holding shovels stood in front of my brother's unsealed tombstone.

"Be good," he smiled. "Can you bear to let Leo have no peace even after death?"

At that moment, I finally understood that the love I once believed in was nothing but a joke.

Serena's POV

Just because my brother got in the way of the industry's little princess on a talent show, he was framed for drug possession.

He was bullied across the internet.

Finally, he leapt from the rooftop of Starlight Entertainment.

The day I took that arrogant Chloe to court, she was released on the spot due to "insufficient evidence."

And standing at the defendant's desk, protecting Chloe, was the city's most powerful financial tycoon, the president of Starlight Entertainment. Also my secretly married husband of three years, Julian.

After the trial ended, the handsome, noble man walked to the plaintiff's desk and threw a letter of understanding and apology in front of me.

"Serena, sign it. You don't want Leo to be cursed and slandered by the whole internet for defamation even after his death, do you?"

His tone was coaxing, but the gaze hidden behind his gold-rimmed glasses was as sharp as ice.

I looked at him, my voice shaking.

"Why, Julian?"

I couldn't understand.

I was his wife. He had loved me so much.

Even if it meant defying his family's marriage arrangements, even if it meant being put under house arrest by the Sterling family, he still insisted on marrying me.

I was just a small-time star with no background.

But after my brother died, I begged him crying countless times. Even this morning, I knelt at his feet, threatening him with divorce, begging him not to intervene in this case.

But what did he say?

"Serena, don't force me! Chloe got into a car accident trying to save me. Her legs were almost crippled, and she can never dance ballet again. I must protect her, even if... the enemy is my most beloved wife."

As he spoke, he tapped his tablet, showing me a live broadcast feed.

"You have two minutes to consider. Even if you aren't thinking for yourself, you should think of Leo. Sign it, and I'll have someone return Leo's ashes to you."

The video showed the cemetery, where several bodyguards in black holding shovels were standing in front of Leo's unsealed tombstone. With one move...

My tears fell instantly.

"What are you doing?!"

But he didn't even frown.

"Be good, don't waste time. Can you bear to let Leo have no peace even after death?"

"Julian!"

I stared fiercely at the man in front of me, biting my lip until it almost bled.

"I want a divorce."

But in this cruel confrontation, he remained relentlessly calm.

"Serena, you only have thirty seconds left."

At that moment, my heart felt as if pierced by a needle.

How ironic; this man had once loved me with all his life.

Three years ago, he fell in love with me at first sight in Starlight's practice room.

I was a nobody small star practicing desperately, yet he confessed his love a full hundred times.

He would book an entire sea of flowers overnight just because I casually mentioned I liked them;

He would also hold me distressed and carry me across three streets when I sprained my ankle during dance practice.

It was also then that I learned there was a daughter of the Walker family who grew up with him and had been chasing him for years.

But he had no one else in his eyes.

"Serena, I only love you; I only have sibling feelings for Chloe!"

The turning point happened half a year ago. Chloe was in a car accident abroad, and to save Julian, both her legs were severely injured.

Since then, his attitude toward this friend completely changed.

He canceled cross-border meetings to accompany her personally, and even to pave the way for her entry into the entertainment industry, he forcibly canceled all my schedules.

At first, I believed him.

Until the day my brother had the accident. I was blocked by crazy anti-fans downstairs at the company, and Julian's phone couldn't get through no matter what.

Out of helplessness, my brother Leo went alone to confront Chloe, but this trip led him to fall from the 33rd floor, never to return.

Everyone insisted it was an accident, saying Leo committed suicide out of guilt.

Even Julian, who happened to be absent from the scene when the incident occurred, believed this statement.

But that day, I clearly received my brother's last voice message. I heard the chaos on the other end of the phone, mixed with Chloe's cold mockery and my brother's desperate cries.

My brother was driven to his death!

Over the past six months, I suffered in pain and self-blame, and finally found a shred of evidence through my breakdown.

I begged Julian countless times to help me.

But during this trial, he stood on the opposite side without hesitation.

He protected the murderer who killed my brother, and to force me to apologize to her, he even used my brother's ashes as a threat...

At this moment, looking at Julian in front of me, I only felt he was so unfamiliar, as if he came from hell.

I despaired and accepted my fate, trembling fingers signing crooked handwriting on that statement.

"Satisfied? Then tell them to get the hell out of the cemetery..."

But as my hoarse voice just fell, a sudden exclamation came from behind.

Chloe suddenly clutched her chest and lay on the defendant's desk.

"Julian, help me, my heart hurts so much!"

At that second, Julian panicked so much that he directly dropped the tablet and rushed quickly behind him.

On the other end of the live broadcast, the countdown had already ended. Without receiving Julian's order to stop, the bodyguards had already swung their shovels...

"No! I've already signed! Julian, tell them to stop!"

I screamed, but how would those bodyguards listen to my orders.

I wanted to pounce and grab Julian, but the man's heart was entirely focused on Chloe; he even slammed his elbow into me as he rushed out holding her.

I fell hard to the ground, my forehead hitting the corner of the desk. Blood slid down my cheek, and tears smashed onto the tablet one after another.

It was too late, already too late...

I saw the white porcelain jar holding the ashes brutally smashed. Against the cold wind, the ashes scattered bit by bit onto the muddy ground.

Heart-wrenching self-blame tore at my heart.

My brother loved cleanliness the most when he was alive, but now, not only did he die unjustly, even his ashes were being trampled into the dirt.

"Leo, I'm sorry..."

My crying broke down completely.

Suddenly I regretted it so much, regretted falling in love with Julian, regretted marrying him.

Endless regret struck my mind like a dull bell, and my vision suddenly went dizzy.

In a world that darkened frame by frame, I only heard Julian's anxious voice outside the courtroom.

"Chloe, hold on, as long as you're okay, I'll promise you anything!"