I Died Saving the Family and Fiancé Who Betrayed Me

In the third year after my best friend went missing, eighteen skeletons were found buried under Fairview.

Among them, one was the most tragic, one hundred and eighty stab wounds, each deep enough to reach the bone.

In her cold hand, she held a wrinkled piece of paper. “Don’t be afraid, I’m just going home. If you can’t keep going, come back too.”

A loud system alert sounded in my mind. “Family and romance strategy values have dropped to ten percent. Host, please die soon to return to your original world.”

That night, I put on a wedding dress and sent my suicide note to the family group chat.

My foster sister’s fiancé, the man who once stood by me, replied, “Are you insane?”

My actress mother kept calling, her voice shaking with anger, demanding I take off the wedding dress and go back to apologize to my foster sister.

My brother, who worked as a police officer, also shouted in anger. “You know Heidi lost her memory and can’t handle you marrying Atlas Miller. Yet you still wear a wedding dress to upset her. Are you trying to make her worse?”

No one cared about my suicide note.

They didn’t know I wore that wedding dress not to marry Atlas, but to draw out the serial killer who had murdered my best friend and to finally escape the world that had trapped me for twentyfive years.

Only my younger brother, the lawyer, sent me several voice messages.

“Sister, do you know something?”

“Was that body Tessa Briggs’s? Was that note she left for you?”

I didn’t answer anyone. I just held my best friend’s photo and walked toward the hotel, watched by several undercover officers.

——

I sat quietly in the wedding car while the officers, disguised as the “best man” and “bridesmaid,” looked uneasy.

“Are you really sure about this? To catch the ‘Bride Butcher,’ you might not come back alive.”

“This case could decide whether Captain Carpenter loses his position, but you don’t have to risk your life…”

I spoke calmly. “I’m doing this; it has nothing to do with Scott.”

They exchanged looks, thinking I was still angry with him.

Someone whispered, “Let me call the Captain. At a time like this, he should be here to protect you.”

I watched him start to dial, the corner of my lips lifting slightly. When the call connected, he said, “Captain Carpenter, Sienna is about to act as bait to lure out the Butcher. It’s dangerous, she might not make it…”

Before he could finish, the line cut off. Then my phone started ringing.

Without any expression, I answered. On the other end, Scott’s angry voice came through.

“I used to think you were just spoiled and selfish because we spoiled you too much.”

“I didn’t expect that now, just to force a marriage, you’d lose all sense of shame.”

He clenched his teeth, breathing heavily as he forced out each word. “You not only made your sister’s condition worse, but now you even have the nerve to make my coworkers lie for you, saying you’re acting as bait. You want to trick us into pitying you so we’ll let you marry Atlas, isn’t that it?”

“Sienna, you’re just like that foster mother of yours, cheap, shameless, and obsessed with men. You dare use such a serious case just to feed your pride!”

He spoke clearly, his voice cold and cutting. “Get over here right now and kneel before your sister to apologize!”

“In front of everyone, make it clear that Atlas has nothing to do with you. You’re just a disgusting woman trying to steal your sister’s man!”

As I listened, my hand slowly tightened. When he compared me to my foster mother in that tone, my mind went blank.

He had once read the investigation file and knew how my foster mother, just to keep my foster father, Stephen Hayes, pleased, could watch without a word as he came into my room at midnight.

And when I cried and fought back, saying I would call the police, she hit me with a vase, leaving a scar on my forehead that would never fade.

Back then, his hands shook and his eyes turned red as he gently touched the scar on my face.

He swore to me in that same tone, “Sienna, anyone who has ever hurt you, I won’t let a single one of them go.”

I let out a faint laugh and spoke calmly. “My adoptive mother is Heidi’s real mother.”

“By what you said, she’s the one who should’ve inherited her mother’s bad side.”

“After all, she’s the one who pretended to be crazy and acted pitiful just to steal her sister’s marriage.”

“Aren’t all of you part of it too?”

There was silence on the other end of the call for a few seconds before I heard my foster sister crying in panic.

“Sister, I really didn’t mean it… I’m sick and can’t remember some things. I didn’t know about you and Atlas…”

“Mom, Brother, Atlas. I didn’t know my illness would upset Sienna. I might as well just die…”

Then my mother’s angry voice came through.

“Enough, Sienna! If you still have any conscience left, come and apologize right now! Otherwise, from this moment on, we’ll cut all ties with you!”

I heard a commotion, then the phone was snatched away.

It was Atlas. His voice was calm but impatient. “Sienna, cancel the wedding now and go kneel before Heidi to apologize, or I’ll break off the engagement.”

I looked down and answered without a fight. “Okay.”

Then I hung up.

The police officers exchanged looks, and nobody offered to have my brother come with me again.

The wedding car stopped at the hotel. When I opened the door, a foul smell hit me, eggs, fruit peels, and spilled drinks covered my wedding dress. I was shoved back and almost fell.

“Slut! You stole your sister’s boyfriend, forced a marriage, and used the Butcher case to play the victim! We’ll teach you a lesson today!”

“Her moviestar mother is so kind, and she still made her cry! A daughter like this should be beaten to death!”

Only then did I realize my family call had been broadcast live by my moviestar mother.

They pulled my hair, kicked me, and forced me to kneel and bow. Someone ripped at my wedding dress while another raised a camera to record my shame.

“Kneel and apologize to your sister and the actress!”

“And that wedding dress! Does someone like you deserve to wear it? Tear it off! Let her see how you steal a man!”

The pain made my hands shake, but I still lifted my head and shouted, “I did nothing wrong. Why should I apologize?”

The crowd grew restless, and my brother and mother’s bodyguards rushed in, pushing everyone back.

My brother’s voice shook with anger. “You still dare say you did nothing wrong? I told you not to provoke Heidi about Atlas, so why are you holding a wedding in a dress? Why make this mess just to force a marriage?”

But when he rushed over and saw me clearly, he froze.

My wedding dress was already torn, barely covering me, and bruises marked my skin. My forehead and body were smeared with dirty liquid.

He moved closer, wanting to wipe it away. Then he turned to my mother, his voice low and shaking as he tried to stay calm.

“How could you stream those words live and attract those crazy fans here?”

“What if this drags Heidi into it?”

Guilt flashed in my mother’s eyes, but after hearing that, she snapped, “Who told her to do wrong? She brought this on herself.”

I stepped back, avoiding his hand, and spoke calmly.

“I didn’t come here to force a marriage. Atlas's canceling the engagement with me to marry Heidi has nothing to do with me. I came here to act as bait, to lure out the Butcher.”

Mom’s face instantly went pale.

Before she could speak, my brother slapped me hard across the face. His face was tense with both anger and panic.

“I told you not to use a serious case that took the lives of so many girls as some way to get sympathy!”

He took a deep breath, his eyes cold, his voice cutting with anger. “You’re just like that best friend of yours, selfish and heartless!”

“She betrayed Spencer and ran off with the money.”

“Afraid of being hunted, she forged evidence, put that note in the victim’s hand, and faked her own death.”

“I already said that person wasn’t that woman, Tessa, but that fool Spencer still believed it and drank himself half to death, refusing to keep looking for the truth!”

The crowd started mocking.

“Wasn’t Tessa the gold digger who ran off with money back then? Her nude photos were all over those secondhand sites, right? You could see them for free!”

“A woman like her ruined the murder case. She got what she deserved.”

I clenched my hands, my heart twisting in pain.

Three years ago, Tessa had found proof that Heidi was faking her memory loss and madness, but before she could give it to me, she vanished.

Before she disappeared, her nude photos were posted for sale on secondhand websites for only 0.9 dollars.

At that time, Tessa cried and begged my younger brother, her fiancé, to help her sue them.

But my famous lawyer brother, who had never lost a case, sat lazily in the plaintiff’s seat during the trial, silent the entire time, and the case was dismissed on the spot.

When leaving the courtroom that day, Spencer gave a cold laugh. “This is the price for bullying Heidi.”

“This time, it’s just your nude photos. Next time, wait until you’re sold off in some black market auction to serve as someone’s plaything.”

That day, Tessa cried in my arms for a long time. The next morning, she disappeared without a trace.

I spent three years looking for her while Spencer mocked me every chance he got.

“She’s just playing hide and seek. She wants me to chase after her, huh? Let her play. Let’s see how long she can hide.”

Until one day, the dismembered victims from the “Butcher’s Brides” case were found in an abandoned basement in Fairview. At that moment, the system confirmed Tessa’s death.

My Tessa had been killed by the Butcher, and with her death, the system also declared my own ending.

The family and love I had spent ten years building all fell apart. It told me to end my life and leave this world.

But instead, I chose to use my death to bring justice to those poor girls who had suffered.

……

Atlas walked toward me, his face dark and cold. “Since you insist on going against us, then fine, I’m calling off our engagement.”

I nodded calmly, took out my phone, and typed a message. [Atlas and I have canceled our engagement.]

I lifted my phone to show them. “Is this enough?”

The three of them froze in place, stunned by my action. Atlas stared at me in disbelief, his jaw tightening as he gritted his teeth.

“Fine. Then you’d better get rid of the child in your belly, too. Who knows what you’ll do later using that kid?”

I placed my hand over my stomach, a faint, bitter smile appearing on my lips. “The child is already gone.”

As soon as I said those words, Atlas rushed forward and grabbed my shoulders.

“What nonsense are you saying! How could you be so cruel as to get rid of this child? How could you end our baby’s life without even telling me?”

It wasn’t surprising that he was shocked; he had seen how much I had looked forward to this child.

When my pregnancy was unstable, I endured those thick progesterone shots that left my belly bruised and sore. To help my baby grow stronger, I forced myself to drink bowl after bowl of bitter medicine, even when it made me want to vomit.

Though I was a doctor who believed in science, not gods or ghosts, I still placed a statue of God in my room and prayed sincerely every day, because I truly wanted this child.

In another world, I had been an orphan, always longing for someone connected to me by blood.

But I also knew that if this child came into the world unloved, like I once was, it would only bring more pain.

Atlas naturally thought that when I said the baby was gone, I meant I had ended the pregnancy myself.

His eyes widened in disbelief as he grabbed my hands, completely forgetting why he had come. He pulled me along, insisting that we go to the hospital to confirm it.

Just then, a cry came from behind. Heidi’s voice trembled with hurt.

“Atlas, isn’t today our wedding day? Why are you holding her hand? Why is she wearing a wedding dress?”

“Sister, did you ask me to come here just to see Atlas betray me? I hate you both!”

She turned and ran into the street, crying. My brother shouted, and my mother slapped me hard across the face.

“Why did you call Heidi here! You won’t be satisfied until you drive her insane, will you? If anything happens to Heidi because of you today, I’ll cut off our motherdaughter bond! Atlas, stop her!”

Atlas threw my hand away roughly, and I fell backward. My wedding dress tore against the gravel, scraping my knees until thin lines of blood appeared.

Sitting on the ground, I gave a bitter smile as I watched them all run after Heidi. That kind of scene, I had seen far too many times before.

When I first came back to this family, there was a short time when things were truly happy.

Back then, Mom smiled as she cooked for me, and my brother would take me out for ice cream after school. My younger brother would pull me along to play his favorite computer games.

But everything changed the moment I started dating my neighbor, Atlas. That was when Heidi began to lose control.

She cried and screamed, saying I scared her and that I wanted to send her back to our foster parents’ home.

With tears running down her face, she pointed at me and shouted, “Sister said, why should she have to live that kind of life? Why should she be beaten and scolded while I live comfortably in her place? She’s not happy about it, she wants me to suffer too!”

At first, Mom, my brother, and the younger one still tried to comfort her.

Mom would say softly, “That’s impossible. Sienna would never say something like that.”

My brother would defend me, “She’s a good girl; she’d never say that.”

Our younger one would quietly add, “Sister Heidi, you must have misunderstood Sister Sienna.”

But as time went on, Mom and my younger brother started to take Heidi’s side. When she cried and threw tantrums, their eyes grew cold as they looked at me.

“Will you ever stop? Do you have to bully Heidi? Are you only happy when she’s scared?”

“If I’d known, I would never have brought you back. You’ve destroyed this family.”

Back then, my brother still stood up for me. He said I chose to help girls who suffered from domestic violence.

“A kind girl like Sienna could never say something like that.”

“Mom, don’t be so unfair!”

He took me away from home for a while, traveling with me to help me relax.

Later, on my birthday, Heidi threw a huge tantrum, refusing to let me celebrate.

My brother came to pick me up himself, he ordered a cake and even spent his own salary on a white dress for me.

He said, “Tomorrow’s your birthday. I’ll take you to Disneyland, so stop thinking about those things.”

Then he patted my head and smiled. “Your brother will always believe you and stay by your side.”

But everything stopped the next day.

That morning, I left work early, planning to surprise my brother, but I was stopped at the entrance of the alley by my recently released adoptive father.

It was a dark, damp alley, with peeling paint and the smell of mold everywhere.

He dragged me into a corner, shouting, “You little brat, you dared to call the police on me, let’s see if I don’t teach you a lesson!”

I struggled, but he kicked me to the ground.

He snatched the cake from my hands and crushed it under his feet, the cream mixing with dirt until it looked like a pool of filthy blood.

He beat me until my head spun, tearing my dress into shreds, and in that moment, it felt like I had fallen back into the same hell I once lived through.

When I woke up, clutching my wounds, I ran to find my brother. He was sitting outside a hospital room.

I rushed toward him, crying, “Brother, help me…”

Before I could finish, his hand came down hard across my face. It was the first time he had ever hit me.

He grabbed me and dragged me into the hospital room, forcing me to kneel beside Heidi’s bed.

Clenching his teeth, he shouted, “I didn’t think you could pretend this well! You even bribed that old man to hurt Heidi!”

Tears ran down my face as I cried and shook my head. “It wasn’t me… really, it wasn’t me…”

But he didn’t believe me. He only looked at me with disappointment and said coldly, “I didn’t think those people could raise you to become like this.”

“Now Heidi has lost her mind because of you! Sienna, you should carry that guilt for the rest of your life and spend it making it up to her.”

Mom stood nearby, watching me without any emotion. Even Atlas looked at me with cold eyes and said, “You’ve really disappointed me.”

After that, he stayed by Heidi’s side almost every day, saying it was his way of making up for me.

At that time, I thought my adoptive father had lied just to get back at me.

Then one day, Tessa overheard Heidi talking to a friend on the phone. She was laughing proudly.

“I’m perfectly fine. I just pretended for a while, and she’s completely ruined. That old man, he’d do anything for some money.”

“I told you, what is she anyway? She thinks she can fight me for my family? As long as I cry a few times, they all believe me.”

When I heard about this, I felt completely numb.

……

My thoughts came back to me as I leaned against the wall, trying to stand. I turned to walk toward the hotel, but before I could take two steps, my brother rushed over and grabbed my arm.

He shouted angrily, “You called Heidi here on purpose and made her sick again! She almost got hit by a car and fainted from the shock!”

“You have to come with us to the hospital and kneel by her bedside to apologize!”

“When she wakes up, we’ll decide if we’ll let you go!”

I struggled as my brother dragged me into the car. In my earpiece, the police’s voice came through, “The suspect’s trail has disappeared. Stay where you are, you don’t need to go into the hotel.”

I took a deep breath, replied “Okay,” and turned off the earpiece.

They took me to the hospital’s emergency room. I stumbled as they pushed me toward it, and just as the door was about to close, I said softly, “Brother, I never told anyone that I was wearing a wedding dress to go to the hotel.”

“Brother, I didn’t call anyone, and I swear I didn’t bring Heidi here on purpose.”

“This time, do you believe me?”

Scott frowned and pushed me away, his voice cold. “Enough. Talking won’t change anything. Just admit you were wrong. As long as Heidi forgives you, Mom and I will let it go.”

I gave a faint, bitter smile, feeling the last bit of hope in my heart fade completely. Turning around, I walked into the emergency room.

The door had barely closed when a sharp pain hit the back of my neck. My vision blurred, and my body collapsed onto the cold floor.

When I opened my eyes again, I was tied up in a damp, moldy warehouse. The air was thick and stale, and the dim light above flickered weakly.

Next to me lay Heidi. She opened her eyes and immediately started cursing.

“Stephen, you old fool, are you crazy? I told you to drug her, not knock me out too!”

She tried to sit up but soon realized she couldn’t move, her tone turning even harsher.

“I said, just act a little! Tie her up, that’s all! Why did you tie me too? I just had my nails done, three thousand per finger! If they’re ruined, can you even afford that, old man?”

Just as she was yelling and scolding, something was suddenly thrown inside.

Heidi looked closer and screamed like she had lost her mind. It was a mutilated body, my adoptive father, her real father, Stephen.

A hunched figure stepped out from the corner, smiling darkly.

The system’s cold voice spoke in my head: This man is the Butcher.

As Heidi cried and begged for mercy, a group of armed police officers burst through the door, shouting loudly, “Release the hostages, or we’ll open fire!”

My brother, eyes red, rushed to the front and roared, “Let my sister go! I’ll make sure you die with a whole body!”

Hearing Heidi’s cries, Atlas shouted into the room, “I’ll give you three billion, just let Heidi go!”

The Butcher laughed, his voice cold and full of hate.

“I didn’t plan to kill anyone at first. But someone killed and blamed me for it, and I wasn’t convinced. Since that’s how it is, I’ll kill one more. This time, you’d better watch closely, this one’s mine.”

He spoke slowly. “I caught two people this time. You can choose. Whichever one you pick, that one lives. One is the girl whose name you just called, and the other is….”

Before he could finish, my brother and Atlas shouted at the same time, “We choose Heidi!”

“I choose Heidi!”

I gave a small, bitter smile and closed my eyes.

The Butcher laughed loudly and threw Heidi toward them. She stumbled into their arms, crying and begging them to take her away.

Before my brother and Atlas could even catch their breath, the Butcher pulled a round object from his pocket, grinning wildly as he got ready to throw it toward the police and the crowd.

“Anyway, I can’t escape this time. Might as well take a few more down with me before I die!”

My brother’s pupils went small, and he shouted right away, “Evacuate! He’s got a bomb!”

Screams, cries, and sobs mixed with the Butcher’s loud laughter.

“Die, all of you.”

The next second, everyone watched in terror as a frail figure staggered out from the corner.

I ran forward, threw myself onto the bomb, and pressed it hard against the Butcher’s chest.

The bomb buzzed between us, the sound cutting through my heart. Then there was a deafening explosion.

Darkness, heat, pain.

Glass shattered, wood splintered, and my ears felt as if they were being torn. Through the burning pain, a pair of gentle hands held me close.

It was Tessa. Her voice was soft like the wind, yet it sounded clear in my ear.

“Sienna, don’t be afraid, we’re going home.”

I choked up and tried to hold her hand. “Tessa…”

“I’ve missed you so much.”

The warehouse after the explosion was covered in flames.

The officers who had joined the raid tried to rush forward but were pushed back by the thick smoke.

Someone shouted, “Captain! Sienna is still inside!”

“It was Sienna who saved us!”