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 twenty-five 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.