Yeri frowned. "That sounds serious. Shouldn't he see a therapist? What if he ends up depressed?"
"That's for him to decide," Shin said flatly. "Humans have a talent for complicating their own lives."
Yeri tilted her head at him, her expression practically asking, And you're not human?
Before she could say it aloud, the car jolted violently as the driver slammed on the brakes.
Shin reacted instantly, bracing himself with one leg while pulling Yeri tightly against him, shielding her from being thrown forward.
"I'm wearing a seatbelt," Yeri said.
"You'd still hit your head," Shin replied before turning to the driver. "What happened?"
The driver swallowed nervously. "A tree… it suddenly fell across the road."
A tree?
Yeri looked ahead. Sure enough, a massive tree lay sprawled across the street like an uninvited barricade. But there had been no storm, no warning.
Shin's gaze swept the surroundings, sharp and cold.
"No need to check. Turn back and take another route."
"Is someone after us again?" Yeri asked, scanning the area.
It looked normal enough, just a few startled pedestrians lingering nearby, equally confused by the sudden obstruction.
Shin didn't answer. But the air around him had changed, tension coiling quietly beneath his calm exterior like something waiting to strike.
---
A week passed, and Lianna's legal case against Madam Neri and her father finally reached its conclusion.
The verdict was delivered: her father was sentenced to ten years in prison.
Before the trial ended, he had tried countless times to contact Lianna. But as long as she refused to settle, Sin Miele Estate remained a place he could not simply barge into.
Beyond the evidence proving that he had purchased the drug and used it on Zahn Neri, Lianna had also filed a separate case against him for misappropriating her late mother's assets to support his mistress and her family.
Assets that were meant to be her inheritance, yet never reached her, even after her marriage.
"Congratulations," Yeri said, pulling Lianna into a hug after attending the final hearing. "Sometimes I feel like your life belongs in a drama… it must have been so hard all these years."
Lianna let out a soft laugh, though her eyes were red, shimmering with unshed tears, relief and joy tangled together.
"I never thought I'd have the strength to fight back," she admitted. "You were the one who gave me the courage. I really owe you a lot."
"Lianna!"
A hoarse, furious voice tore through the moment.
Her father struggled wildly against the police officers restraining him, trying to lunge toward her.
"You ungrateful daughter!" he shouted. "I arranged everything so you could marry into a noble family, and this is how you repay me? With betrayal? I may have crossed the line, but wasn't it all for your own good? If I wanted to harm you, I could have married you off to anyone! But I knew how much you loved Zahn Neri, so I made sure he would take responsibility for you!"
His voice grew harsher, venom dripping from every word.
"Even if you think I was wrong, I'm still your father! You unfilial little bitch! You're just like your mother, selfish and malicious! Stop wasting public resources and withdraw this case! Tell them this is just a family matter! You wouldn't really prosecute your own father!"
Lianna looked at him, her expression calm.
"For my sake?" she said quietly. "I recall someone saying you didn't care who I married. Whether it was Zahn Neri or some old man from the Neri family, as long as you got your share."
Her father flinched, the truth striking like a needle, but he quickly masked it. His gaze darted toward Madam Neri, who stood to the side, watching the spectacle unfold.
Though she had been implicated, Madam Neri had managed to extricate herself with her wealth and connections.
By exploiting legal loopholes, she escaped with a lighter sentence: three years of house arrest and a substantial financial compensation to Lianna for emotional damages.
It wasn't the outcome Lianna had hoped for, but it was enough.
Without Shin Keir's legal backing, she might not have even been able to build a case against someone like Madam Neri.
And this wasn't over yet.
The looming legal battle involving Neri Medical Hospital still hung above Madam Neri's head like a blade waiting to fall.
"You dirty old witch!" Lianna's father suddenly roared, pointing at Madam Neri. "Why am I the only one getting ten years?! This was your idea in the first place! Otherwise, would I have dared to drug your son? I knew you couldn't be trusted, so I kept evidence of everything!"
He turned toward the judge, shouting about injustice, demanding that Madam Neri receive a harsher punishment.
Madam Neri snapped back instantly, hands on her hips, her composure cracking like thin ice.
"I devised everything?" she scoffed. "You shameless beggar! If you hadn't blackmailed me, threatening to ruin my son's career if he didn't marry your daughter, do you think I would have allowed her into my family? Do you think I would have just stood by while my son was drugged? Do you know how heartbroken I was?!"
Lianna's father froze for a split second… then burst into manic laughter.
"I blackmailed you?" he sneered. "Lies! All lies! Where's your evidence? If I had anything like that, I would've released it long ago or the police would've found it already! No wonder my unfilial daughter turned so vicious. Living with a witch like you… how could she not?"
The two descended into a storm of accusations and curses, voices clashing like blades.
The judge's gavel struck repeatedly, sharp and futile, while officers struggled to restrain them both.
A courtroom turned battlefield with only the wreckage of greed and resentment.
Lianna exhaled softly, as if setting down a weight she had carried for years.
Without another glance, she gestured to Yeri.
The two turned and walked away, leaving the chaos behind them like a fire finally allowed to burn itself out.
"Lianna!" her father called out again as he watched her leave. "Even if you hate me, I still raised you and gave you a good life growing up! How do you think you were able to meet someone like Zahn Neri? Become part of the elite and stay by his side? Did you think I didn't know you got half of his assets? And now you'll even receive huge compensation from that old witch! All I did was drug Zahn Neri, but look at you, haven't you lived well all these years? Don't you have even a shred of conscience?"
Yeri felt a knot of worry tighten in her chest.
With so many people around and the media waiting outside like vultures circling a feast, Lianna could easily be branded as unfilial and ungrateful.
After all, the public didn't truly know what kind of life Lianna had lived in the Neri household.
While some might understand her determination to clear her name and prove she wasn't the one who drugged Doctor Neri, many would still think she had gone too far by sending her own father to prison.
Moreover, in society, depression was rarely taken seriously. To some, it was nothing more than a "luxury illness," an excuse used by the wealthy rather than something real and suffocating.
Before Yeri could voice her thoughts, the lawyer had already stepped forward, quietly reminding Lianna not to respond to the reporters and, if possible, to maintain an aggrieved expression.
It seemed Yeri wasn't the only one who understood the situation.
As the courtroom doors opened, reporters surged forward like a breaking wave, some targeting Lianna, others Madam Neri and Lianna's father.
"Your father will spend ten years in prison while Madam Neri is only under house arrest. Do you think the verdict is fair?"
"Could you explain the details of the drugging incident? If Madam Neri was also involved, why did she allow you to enter the Neri household? What was the purpose of drugging Doctor Neri?"
"You and Zahn Neri were childhood sweethearts, why would you drug him? Was he planning to break up with you, and your father couldn't accept it?"
"What benefits did your father gain from this case?"
"Why isn't Zahn Neri here? Did he avoid appearing? He claimed to support you, could it be that he couldn't bear seeing you and his mother stand against each other?"
Lianna wore dark sunglasses, her head lowered, giving no indication that she would answer no matter how soft or aggressive the questions became.
Bodyguards blocked those who tried to push through, forming a moving barrier as they escorted her forward.
Some reporters quickly shifted their attention to Yeri.
"Yeri, how long have you known Lianna? Do you think the verdict is fair?"
"As her friend, do you think it was worth going this far for a daughter to prosecute her own father?"
"Miss Zhi, you're also a daughter. Would you send your own father to prison over a past incident? Isn't this something that could have been resolved within the family?"
Yeri frowned. These reporters were experts at prying open emotional wounds, carefully choosing words that would provoke and corner their targets.
Sure enough, seeing Yeri dragged into the storm, Lianna's expression darkened. She looked ready to speak, but the lawyer swiftly stepped in, offering polished, textbook responses instead.
Just then, someone rushed forward from behind. When she couldn't break through the bodyguards, she dropped to her knees, sobbing pitifully as she begged Lianna to be magnanimous and forgive her father.
Lianna's eyes narrowed behind her sunglasses. She hadn't seen this two-faced woman in years, her father's former mistress, now his current wife.
The crowd instinctively parted, not out of sympathy, but to get a better view of the spectacle unfolding before them.
"Oh my, Lianna~ isn't that your stepmother?" Madam Neri's voice slid in from the side, laced with amusement as she crossed her arms. "I know the two of us have had our misunderstandings over the years, after all, we both have strong personalities. But what family doesn't argue? Setting our issues aside, perhaps you should at least hear out your stepmother."
Lianna fell silent.
Madam Neri knew exactly how much Lianna loathed her stepmother. Her feigned concern wasn't concern at all, it was a needle, delicately aimed.