My Husband Is Defending My Dad’s Killer

Chapter 1: The Death of a Father

My father was falsely accused of secretly filming and harassing a woman on the subway. During the altercation, he fell and was sent to the hospital, where he died despite receiving emergency treatment. While I was consumed by grief, my husband, Granger, vanished.

Later, when I pressed charges against the woman for defamation and manslaughter, Granger reappeared as her defense attorney, arguing for her right to self-defense...

*****

The next time I saw Granger was in the courtroom during my father's case. Dressed in a black robe, he sat beside the defendant like a guardian angel. Perhaps out of guilt, he avoided my gaze.

My colleague frowned upon seeing Granger. "Isn't that Granger? How could he..."

"Hailey..." He trailed off, noticing my expression.

My eyes welled up, my hand clenched tightly beneath my own robe. How ironic! My own husband was defending the woman who caused my father's death!

The pain in my palm brought me back to my senses. My voice, calm and emotionless, cut through the air. "Get ready, the trial is about to begin."

"We... We probably won't win this."

*****

Half a month ago, my retired father had been invited back to teach at his former school. On the subway, he was accused by a woman named Kitty of secretly filming her after she caught him looking at his phone. My father tried to explain, even showing her his photo album to prove his innocence. But the girl wouldn't let it go, demanding compensation and blocking his way. During the ensuing argument, my father was shoved, hit his head on the ground, and died at the hospital.

It had been almost a month since my father's funeral, and Granger, my husband, had been conspicuously absent. And now, here he was, standing in court as Kitty's defense attorney.

I thought it was shameless enough for him to defend the woman who killed my father. But to my disbelief, he was actually trying to justify her actions as self-defense!

Granger requested to play the video evidence. In the shaky footage taken by a bystander, Kitty was crying hysterically.

"But you were pointing your camera at me just now! And you... you..." The camera zoomed in on a white stain on her floral dress. Coupled with the white stain on my father's zipper, the implication was clear.

The next video was from the subway's surveillance camera, showing my father being jostled by people in the train car. As he was getting off, someone bumped into his shoulder, causing him to stumble backward. His foot caught on something, and he fell. Blood bloomed from the back of his head, a macabre flower against the cold floor.

I had watched these videos countless times over the past two weeks, my heart breaking with each replay. But Granger's next words surpassed even his previous levels of shamelessness and vileness.

"My client acted out of self-defense after being subjected to secret filming and harassment."

"Objection!" My colleague immediately stood up. "There's evidence showing that the stain on the defendant's dress was not semen."

"Evidence?"

"Evidence..." My colleague frantically searched through our documents but couldn't find the lab report. Beads of sweat dripped from his forehead as he looked at me desperately. "What do we do..."

A chilling realization washed over me. It was just as I expected. Granger never went into battle unprepared. The fact that he dared to mount a "not guilty" defense despite knowing the accusation was false meant he had something up his sleeve.

Unsurprisingly, we lost the case.

*****

As we exited the courthouse, I came face-to-face with Kitty. It was my first time getting a good look at her. She was indeed a beautiful woman, even more so in the videos where she appeared utterly pitiful.

She seemed familiar, like someone I had seen before.

She recognized me too, a triumphant smirk playing on her lips. "Hailey, tough break." She looped her arm through Granger's, her voice dripping with faux sweetness. "Granger, I'm hungry~"

My colleague rolled his eyes and muttered under his breath, "What a scheming..."

Granger met my gaze and instinctively pulled his arm away from Kitty. "Hailey, Kitty didn't mean for this to happen. She... She's a young woman, after all. If word of this gets out..."

I stared at him, my gaze unwavering.

Granger shifted uncomfortably, avoiding my eyes. "You're a woman too, you understand how important a woman's reputation is."

"Your father was a teacher. If he knew, he would have made the same choice."

"So... So can you please drop the charges..." His voice grew quieter with each word, eventually fading into silence. His eyes held a mixture of anxiety and guilt.

I laughed, a humorless sound. "Granger, you are unbelievable!"

"Hailey..." He reached for me, but Kitty grabbed his hand. "Granger, there are too many people..."

As if on cue, reporters swarmed us, microphones and cameras thrust in our faces.

"Hailey, what do you have to say about losing the case?"

"You previously insisted your father was falsely accused, but now you've lost. Does this mean you were slandering an innocent girl to protect your father's reputation?"

I stopped and looked at the reporter who asked the question. "My father was falsely accused!"

"If he was falsely accused, then why did even Granger say he secretly filmed and harassed that woman?"

Anger surged through me as I glanced at Granger. "This isn't the final verdict."

"I will appeal. I will get justice for my father!"

Granger's face fell, but he couldn't say anything in front of the reporters.

As I stared at the flashing cameras, it suddenly hit me where I had seen Kitty before. I turned to her, a sardonic smile playing on my lips.

"So you're the ex-girlfriend who broke up with Granger because he couldn't afford the 300,000 dollar dowry and then married into a rich family, right?" My tone was conversational, as if I were simply stating a fact.

Kitty's composure cracked. "What are you talking about?" Her eyes reddened, tears welling up. "Hailey, I'm not even pressing charges against your father anymore. Why are you trying to slander me?"

Slander? I laughed, the sound bordering on hysterical. "Then why don't you tell everyone whether the 300,000 dollar dowry or you marrying into a rich family is a lie?"

"I..." Kitty stammered, her eyes darting around nervously.

"Enough!" Granger roared, his gaze disapproving. "Hailey, do you have to be so aggressive?"

I raised my hand and slapped him hard across the face. "Granger! You are truly despicable! And we're not even divorced yet!"

"Defending another woman like this in front of me... It's hard not to question your relationship with her!"

"Hailey! Don't be ridiculous!" Granger pleaded, his voice softening. "Let's go home, and I'll explain everything."

"No need! I'll have the divorce papers and your belongings couriered to you. I don't want to see you ever again."

With that, I turned and left with my colleague.

*****

On the way back, I sat in the car, lost in thought. My colleague gasped as she scrolled through her phone. "Hailey, look!"

She showed me her Twitter feed. Not only were the results of today's trial trending, but so was my father's name. I clicked on a post by a popular influencer who had live-streamed the trial and added his own commentary.

"Hailey loses case. University professor Kenny found guilty of secretly filming and harassing a woman on the subway!"

"Lawyer Hailey confronts defendant's lawyer, Granger, in public and accuses defendant Kitty of being a mistress."

He had even included the video of our confrontation outside the courthouse, focusing on my supposed aggression and Kitty's innocent, tearful demeanor.

The comments were overwhelmingly in support of Kitty. The few voices speaking up for me were quickly drowned out by insults and personal attacks.

I closed the app, trying to rein in my anger. It didn't take a genius to figure out who was behind this. They were trying to pressure me into dropping the appeal by turning public opinion against me.

But the more they tried to intimidate me, the more determined I became to fight for my father.

Back home, I collapsed onto the sofa, exhaustion weighing me down. My gaze fell on my father's photo on the coffee table, and tears welled up in my eyes again.

"Why didn't you just take a taxi? It's not like we couldn't afford it! And now look at you, your reputation is ruined, and you're..."

"Dad, you promised you'd stay home and help with the grandkids after this teaching gig was over. Why did you have to..." Why did it have to end like this?

I covered my face, sobs shaking my body.

Granger and I used to work at the same law firm. I was already a lawyer handling my own cases when he was just a rookie. I saw his hard work and dedication and was willing to mentor him. I let him sit in on my cases, explained the key points, helped him find relevant laws and regulations, taught him how to analyze cases, and guided him every step of the way.

We fell in love during that time, and everything else felt natural.

To be honest, Granger wasn't the son-in-law my father had in mind. It wasn't about money; it was about his family background.

He came from a poor, rural family. He was the eldest of three sons, and his younger brothers were still in school. He had put himself through college by working odd jobs and sent most of his salary back home to support his family. The 300,000 dollar dowry Kitty's family demanded was an astronomical sum he couldn't possibly save up at that time.

Kitty saw no future with him, no willingness to struggle alongside him. In the end, she chose to follow her family's wishes and married a wealthy man in her hometown.

That was what my father was worried about. Granger's family was a burden on him and could potentially become a burden on me as well.

And indeed, his family didn't contribute a single cent to our wedding, and we lived in the apartment I bought before we got married. Most of his money still went to supporting his family, while I, for the sake of our future, chose to leave the law firm and start my own business.

I was busy, so busy that I rarely went home and rarely communicated with Granger. Naturally, I had no idea they had reconnected behind my back.

I only found out when I was packing his things. Tucked away in his photo album was a picture of them together, dated a month before my father's accident.

I gritted my teeth, packed his belongings, and sent them to him COD along with the divorce papers. I deleted his fingerprints from our door lock and changed the password.

For the next month, I focused on organizing my father's case files and evidence. I didn't see Granger again until the eve of the second hearing.

It wasn't that he didn't try to see me during that month; it was that he couldn't find me.

We finally met at the clerk's office on the day we were scheduled to get divorced. Granger looked haggard, with dark circles under his eyes, as if he hadn't slept in days.

Instead of going straight to the divorce proceedings, he insisted on talking at a nearby café. As soon as we sat down, he accused me, "You posted that video online, didn't you?"

"What video?" I feigned ignorance.

He pulled out his phone and showed me the video posted by the influencer. In it, Kitty, wearing a sundress, accidentally spilled yogurt on herself. As she stood up to clean it, my father, jostled by the crowd, bumped into her from behind. He apologized, but Kitty suddenly made a scene, accusing him of secretly filming and harassing her, especially since he was holding his phone at that moment.

I took a sip of my coffee, my expression unreadable. I was the one who had the video released. It took me a month of scouring through countless videos before I finally found footage of the incident from a different angle. The person who filmed it was waiting for the story to blow up before posting it online to gain followers. I had to pay a hefty price to buy it from them.

"So?" I asked coolly.

"For the sake of our marriage..."

I cut him off, my voice ice-cold. "You cheated on me with her, didn't you?"