My Wife Exonerated Her First Love for Killing My Mother—So I Gathered Evidence in Secret and Made Them Pay

In the empty funeral hall, I knelt on the floor with tears streaming down my face, clutching my mother’s portrait to my chest. Following the funeral director’s repeated instructions, I slammed my forehead against the floor again and again, as if I could fold my entire heart in half. Even now, I still couldn’t believe that the woman who used to make sweet-and-sour ribs for me every day and wait for me to come home had become nothing more than a small urn of ashes. I seemed to be back at the hospital yesterday, seeing my mother for the last time. Tubes covered her body, and she gripped my hand tightly, her voice breaking apart between each word. “Ethan, don’t be sad. Mom is leaving soon. You’ll be all alone after this. You need to take care of yourself. Don’t worry about me. Your dad will be waiting for me up there.” I held her almost-cold hand, but my lips trembled so badly that I couldn’t speak. In the end, I could only watch helplessly as my mother’s heart monitor gradually flatlined. Ryan, the man who had killed my mother, had fled long ago. After peeking into the emergency room a few times, he had swaggered away. My mother’s final smile kept replaying in my mind like a video stuck on a loop. I remained kneeling on the floor for a long time, until the sudden ring of my phone shattered the silence around me. When I answered, Emily’s voice came from the other end. “Hello, is this Ethan? Ryan’s hungry. He really wants the beef noodles from that place downtown. It’s too far away to order delivery, so go buy two servings and bring them to our hotel!” Before I could say anything, Emily hung up. Emily was as domineering as ever, as if this kind of thing were only natural and she knew for certain that I wouldn’t refuse her. I looked at the explicit photos Ryan had sent me that morning. Emily lay naked in his arms, her chest covered in countless hickeys, while Ryan stared at the camera with a provocative smile. I gave a bitter laugh, but my throat was too raw for me to speak. After wiping the tears from the corners of my eyes, I gripped my phone tightly. I didn’t understand how Emily could be so cruel. Even more, I never imagined she could treat my mother’s life as worthless just to protect the first love who had once abandoned her. The moment my mother was hit by the car yesterday, Emily received Ryan’s call and rushed to the scene. But all she did was comfort Ryan, who was in shock, and argue with the officers who arrived, desperately insisting that the accident wasn’t entirely Ryan’s fault. By the time I received the police’s call and arrived, the blood beneath my mother had almost dried, and her vital signs had grown dangerously weak. I broke down and demanded to know why Emily hadn’t called an ambulance immediately, but she only impatiently shook off my hand. “Oh, will you stop bothering me? It was just a minor car accident! What’s the big deal? Ryan was terrified. Of course I had to comfort him first!” During our five years of marriage, my mother had treated Emily like her own daughter. In her heart, Emily had even mattered more than her own son—me. Yet Emily had ignored my mother’s life just to comfort the man she loved when he was frightened. Later, at the traffic officers’ insistence, Ryan and Emily boarded the ambulance with my mother and went to the hospital. During the rescue attempt, Ryan and Emily sat lazily in their chairs, sweetly playing a two-player game together. Only a few minutes later, Ryan said he was hungry. Without even looking at me, Emily took his hand and started to leave. I dropped to one knee and nearly begged her. “Please, Emily. My mother has always treated you like her own daughter. Can’t you stay here with me?” Emily couldn’t pull free, so she slapped me hard across the face. “Do you think lying is funny? How can you still be jealous of Ryan at a time like this? Ryan said he was driving under thirty miles per hour. He couldn’t even kill a dog at that speed. How could anything happen to your mother?” With that, she linked her arm through Ryan’s and walked away without looking back. “Just wait! I’ll make sure Ryan goes to prison!” I knelt there numbly, no longer possessing the strength to cry. I could only stare lifelessly as they disappeared from my sight, hand in hand. Anyone with a normal level of intelligence could have guessed how terrible the crash had been from the crushed front of the car. Emily said those things only because she had blinded herself in an attempt to protect Ryan. The moment they walked out of the hospital, the emergency room doors opened, and the doctor announced that my mother had not survived. He told me to prepare for her funeral.In a daze, the vibration of my phone pulled me back to reality. Emily sent me another voice message. “Ethan, are you dead or deaf? I asked you to deliver the beef noodles, and it’s been half an hour already. You’re completely useless.” I replied with a cold laugh. “If you two are in such a hurry, why don’t you go get them yourselves? Is it because you’re too busy fooling around in the hotel?” Emily exploded with rage. “Don’t be sarcastic with me! Ryan went through such a terrifying experience yesterday. Of course I need to comfort him properly. He’s only like this because you scared him by threatening to report him. Why are you determined to drive Ryan into a dead end? It was only a scrape! Can’t he just rest for a few days?” The anger in my heart finally broke free. “Fine. Come find me here, and I’ll agree not to hold Ryan responsible.” I gave a cold laugh and sent Emily the funeral hall’s address. I wanted her to see with her own eyes just how serious the “scrape” she kept talking about really was. Emily was so desperate to help Ryan that she reached the funeral hall in less than forty minutes. She stormed in wearing high heels, but then she saw me dressed in mourning clothes, with my mother’s portrait displayed in the center of the room. Emily’s face instantly turned pale, and she stared at me in panic. “How is that possible? How could your mother have died? It was only a scrape…” I pressed my lips together, took the death certificate from my bag, and handed it to her. “I have no reason to joke with you about my mother’s life. After you two left yesterday, the doctor announced that she hadn’t made it.” “Ryan lied to you. He wasn’t driving thirty miles per hour. He was driving seventy-five.” Emily staggered, then collapsed weakly to the floor, repeating over and over that it was impossible. After all, everyone had seen how good my mother had been to her over the years. This time, Emily didn’t act impatient. She completed every part of the farewell ceremony with me, and no matter how many times Ryan called her, she refused to answer. When we returned home that night, she didn’t go her separate way from me as usual. For the first time, she took the initiative and asked me to bring her home. Neither of us spoke during the drive. After an exhausting day, my limbs felt weak in a way I couldn’t even describe. After showering, I lay down on the bed. Emily, who had slept in a separate bed from me for a long time, unexpectedly climbed into mine and wrapped her arms around my waist from behind. My heart lifted, and even my depression from that day eased a little. “Ethan, there’s something I want to talk to you about.” I turned around and saw the conflicted expression on Emily’s face. “What is it? Just say it. We’ve been married for years.” Emily looked up at me and hesitated before speaking. “Can you not sue Ryan? Your mother has already passed away. Why drag Ryan into this? Besides, Ryan already knows he was wrong.” I froze, then abruptly sat up. “What did you say?” Emily grew slightly impatient. “Why are you getting so worked up? Your mother was already so old. Her death wasn’t exactly unexpected. But Ryan is only in his twenties. Can’t you think about his future?” I trembled with rage and forced down the emotions about to explode. “So everything you did today was just to make me forgive Ryan? Forget it. My mother died unjustly. I will get justice for her no matter what!” After saying that, I ignored Emily. She rose furiously and walked into the living room. Then, as if venting her anger, she threw my mother’s portrait onto the floor. The glass in the frame shattered everywhere. I knelt down and picked up the shards one by one, allowing them to cut into my palms. “Emily, let’s get a divorce.” Emily let out a light laugh. She raised my chin with the tip of her shoe, her voice dripping with mockery. “Ethan, you’re nothing but my dog. Just because you’ve stayed by my side for a few years, do you really think you’re too good for me now? I married you because I pitied you. What right do you have to ask for a divorce?” “Let me tell you something. A dog has to obey its owner, or it might get abandoned.” With that, Emily kicked me hard in the shoulder. I lowered my head in pain, while she sneered and walked away. The door slammed shut behind her. I wiped away my tears, carefully lifted my mother’s portrait, and brushed the dust from it. This time, I was completely disappointed in Emily.