She Said It Was Therapy, They Signed A Pardon Chapter 08
The color drained from Mia’s face.
“Mom… I didn’t mean for him to actually hurt her! I just wanted to embarrass her!”
Smack.
Dad slapped her hard across the face.
Mia fell to the ground.
But Dad was like a man possessed, his eyes red and wild.
“Do you have any idea what she was like when she came home that day?! She hasn’t slept a full
night in three years!”
“You knelt in front of us and said you didn’t know!”
“You knew the whole time!”
Mom covered her mouth and broke down.
Because she finally understood.
It had never been an accident.
Mia had been afraid that once I, the biological daughter, came home, I’d take everything from her.
So she’d destroyed me.
And what was worse–three years later, they’d believed her again.
They’d let her come back to “cure” me.
Mom suddenly grabbed Mia.
“And making your sister marry that man? That was you too! You said she had to accept him
completely–stop seeing him as her attacker and rebuild a normal relationship! You said once they
were married and living together, she’d stop being afraid!”
“Was that a lie too?!”
Mia panicked “1. I just read about a method in a book. It’s not like I’ve ever treated anyone
Dad froze. “What did you say?”
Mia’s face went white. She couldn’t speak
Noah had already pulled up the records on her so–called certification.
He held the screen out to Mom and Dad.
“She has no qualifications to give anyone psychological treatment. That certificate is just a completion certificate from a training program.”
Mom stared at the screen, all the strength draining from her body.
She staggered back two steps.
“So… we listened to someone who had no idea what she was doing… and let her push Ivy to this point, step by step?”
No one answered.
The answer was already there.
Noah didn’t stop.
That evening, he handed all the evidence to the police.
Three years ago, Mia had deliberately used my identity and lured that man to the birthday party. It was reopened.
The man’s early release was investigated too.
And the wedding–day surveillance–showing him and his groomsmen cornering me in that room- was crystal clear.
No one could escape.
And the thing Mia feared most finally happened.
The truth from three years ago came out.
Everyone who’d believed I’d betrayed Noah finally knew I’d never had an online romance with that
man
I’d never gone to meet him
I’d never betrayed anyone.
My identity had simply been stolen by my sister, and everyone had convicted me without asking.
Old classmates began deleting the posts they’d used to attack me.
The university contacted my attorney and confirmed that any disciplinary notes tied to the false
allegations would be cleared from my record. []
Even people who’d mocked me at that birthday party sent long apologies.
But no one could ever pass those apologies to me.
Mia completely fell apart.
She knelt, begging Noah.
“Noah, I know I was wrong. But I love you. We’re already married. I’m carrying your child…”
Noah just looked down at her.
After a long moment, he took off his wedding ring and tossed it at her feet.
“Do you know who designed this ring?”
Mia’s face went pale.
Noah’s eyes filled with tears. “Ivy. You even stole this from her.”
Mia cried and tried to reach for him.
But he stepped back.
“I didn’t know the truth before. So I believed every word you said.”
“Not anymore.”
Later, Noah cooperated fully with the police, confessing his own role in getting that man released
early.
One by one, the things Mia had done were dragged into the light.
The innocent image she’d spent three years building shattered completely.
As for Mom and Dad-
They didn’t even have the strength to hate her.
Every day, Mom sat in the hospital hallway, holding my clothes and crying.
When she finally stopped, her voice was gone
“She gave us a chance at the end. The rescue workers came to us. Why didn’t we go?”
Dad sat beside her, looking like he’d aged ten years overnight.
Six months later.
A coastal city, thousands of miles away.
I walked out of the rehabilitation center.
The sunlight hit my face, and I squinted.
I really had jumped that day.
But the wedding canopy set up on the hotel’s second floor had absorbed most of the impact.
I was badly hurt, but I didn’t die.
Too many patients had arrived at the same time, and my identity got mixed up.
The death notice Mom and Dad received was a mistake.
Later, when the hospital realized the error and was about to contact my family, I refused.
I asked the doctors not to tell anyone.
I never went back to that city.
I stayed here, in treatment and recovery, for a long time.
At first, I couldn’t even go near a window.
Then I learned to open the curtains myself.
Eventually, I could sit by the window and soak in the sun all afternoon.
After I recovered, I reapplied to college.
On the first day of school, I stood at the gate for a long time.
Strangers everywhere.
I felt good
My phone buzzed
It was a message from my lawyer
He said Mom and Dad were still looking for me
Noah hadn’t given up either.
Did I want to tell them I was alive?
I looked at the message for a long time.
Then I typed one sentence.
“No, thanks.”
I turned off my phone and walked into the school.
