"Do you think that just because my sister isn’t home, no one can keep you in line?"

I leaned back in my chair, scrolling on my phone, my expression unmoved.

"I’m not upsetting him. I’m simply stating the truth."

"The truth?" Laura grew even angrier. "My sister clearly joined a confidential project to serve the country!"

"And you, instead of supporting her, aren’t even properly caring for my dad. What are you thinking?"

She spoke while patting George’s back, murmuring softly.

"Dad, don’t be upset. My brother-in-law must be exhausted from caring for you lately, and he’s talking nonsense because he’s confused. When he snaps out of it, he’ll apologize!"

George, panting hard, pointed at my nose and cursed.

"Exactly! Charles, you’d better apologize right now! Otherwise, when Anna returns, I’ll have her skin you alive!"

Watching this father and daughter echo each other made my stomach churn.

For five years, I’d been trapped in lies, giving everything like a fool.

"Slander?"

I slowly lifted my phone and pressed play. "Then listen. Isn’t this also slander?"

The recording immediately played the conversation between Anna and Laura in the elevator.

"Sister, if it weren’t for…"

The moment they heard it, their faces drained of color.

"Th-this isn’t real! You faked it! You’re framing my sister!"

"Faked?"

I raised an eyebrow and angled the screen toward her.

"Do you want me to show you the hospital corridor’s surveillance footage? It’s from 3 PM today. The elevator camera clearly recorded you two and your conversation."

"Should I call hospital security now?"

George’s body trembled, his furious curses stopping abruptly.

He collapsed back on the bed, struggling to breathe.

Laura instinctively stepped back, her eyes darting everywhere but me.

"No, no need."

"Why not?"

I stood up. "Didn’t you say I was slandering you? Didn’t you insist I was talking nonsense?"

"Now that the evidence is right here, what else do you have to say?"

George’s hands shook, panic flickering in his eyes.

"Charles, let me explain."

"Explain?"

I scoffed. "Explain how you lied to me for five years? Explain how you made me work myself to exhaustion like a fool?"

Or explain how Anna left me to care for her stroke-stricken father while she got pregnant with another man’s child and even wanted me to raise it for her?

Each question left the two of them speechless.

Then, the ward door opened, and a man in a suit walked in, followed by a lawyer.