He Covered for His Fake Innocent Girl, I Sent Both to Prison Chapter 04

He Covered for His Fake Innocent Girl, I Sent Both to Prison Chapter 04

Once upon a time, Marcus used to protect me the exact same way he now protects Candy.

Back when those rich frat boys stalked and harassed me, leaving me paralyzed with fear, he had charged out of nowhere to stand as a shield between us, fiercely barking at them to back off.

Then, grabbing my wrist, he had pulled me straight out of their perimeter.

Later, I found out that the arrogant crowd had held a massive grudge against him and deliberately made his life hell for it.

When I found him, my eyes red as I tearfully apologized, he had only smiled, gently patting my head.

“It’s fine. I just can’t bear to see you cry.”

The very man who used to lose his mind with worry if my eyes so much as welled up was now completely blind to my agony, all because of another girl’s tears.

When exactly did Candy begin driving a wedge between us?

Maybe it started the day she became Marcus’s graduate student. Whenever he talked about her, he claimed he saw his younger self in her. Yet, the look in his eyes was always pure, doting affection.

Or maybe it was that night she called Marcus in floods of tears, crying that she was cornered on campus by a male student forcing a confession out of her.

Marcus, always so composed and rational, had completely lost his head like a reckless teenager and thrown fists at the guy.

When I went to bail him out and saw his bruised, swollen lip, a bitter pang of jealousy hit me for the very first time.

He had tried to explain it away: “Valerie, when I heard what was happening to her, it reminded me so much of how you were harassed back then… I just saw red…”

But… when I was the one trapped in that nightmare, he had only taken my hand and led me away…

…

When I finally regained consciousness, I was already lying in a hospital bed.

The doctor told me with deep concern that it was a miracle I was brought in on time. The impact had been to the back of my head, causing severe internal bleeding—I had come terrifyingly close to never waking up at all.

I offered a quiet word of thanks, got my wounds treated, and discharged myself.

But the moment I arrived outside my apartment building, a few sketchy, malicious-looking men began tailing me.

“You’re that vile bitch from the internet, aren’t you?”

“Look at her, trying to act all respectable, when she’s actually twisted enough to hire thugs to assault a defenseless student. Since you love desperate men so much, why don’t we show you a good time today?!”

Leering disgustingly, they lunged forward and began tearing at my clothes.

I screamed in absolute despair, scrambling backward, but they still managed to rip my shirt open, leaving deep, purple bruises all over my skin.

It wasn’t until the building’s security guard finally rushed over and called the cops that the lowlifes scattered like rats.

I collapsed onto the pavement, my entire body trembling uncontrollably.

The guard stood over me, looking down with a gaze full of unvarnished contempt. “Honestly, you had it coming. Who told you to be so malicious and target a completely innocent young girl?”

I snapped my head up, my voice shaking violently. “What did you just say?”

The guard let out a scoff and walked off.

My brain went entirely numb, a violent buzzing exploding in my ears. I frantically pulled out my phone and swiped open X.

Sure enough, a massive public statement posted by Marcus Logan filled the screen.

[I apologize for taking up public attention. The recent allegations regarding me assaulting a student are entirely a misunderstanding. My ex-fiancée, Valerie Vance, out of sheer jealousy, hired local thugs to assault my student, leaving her family with no choice but to try and force her to marry that beast!]

[Out of a soft heart and a desire to shield Candy, I initially stepped forward to take the blame. However, I did not expect Valerie’s attitude to be so utterly vile; far from showing remorse, she doubled down on her malice. Therefore, I have decided to expose the entire truth.]

[Furthermore, I will step up and take full responsibility for my student. I intend to marry her and cherish her for the rest of my life!]

Candy had left a comment right beneath it: [With you by my side, I’m not afraid of anything anymore.]

Blood rushed to my head in a roaring wave, the sheer weight of the betrayal hitting me like a physical blow.

Beneath his post, the comments were a jarring mix of congratulatory wishes for the new couple and horrifying abuse directed at me.

My photos had been edited into utterly vile, degrading images, and people were threatening to doxx my address to teach me a lesson.

My phone was completely flooded with text messages packed with sickening profanity.

I kept typing out replies, desperate to explain that I hadn’t done any of it, that Marcus was spinning a web of lies. But the internet had already made up its mind.

[Your own fiancé literally exposed you! It was definitely you!]

[Do you have a single shred of evidence to prove you’re innocent? No, right?! Die, you toxic bitch!]

With trembling fingers, I forwarded the post directly to Marcus.

[Why are you slandering me like this?]

Marcus replied almost instantly. [Didn’t I tell you to help me smooth things over with the university board yesterday? You just walked away without a care in the world, and now the administration is holding me accountable. I had to come up with something to clear my name.]

[Besides, everyone online was calling Candy a homewrecking whore. She was crying so hard yesterday she almost fainted. I did this to protect her reputation.]

[What about me?! Do I just deserve to be torn apart by a lynch mob?!]

[Valerie, it’s just a few comments from random trolls online. Can’t you just not look at your phone? People will forget all about it in a few weeks anyway.]

[By the way, the wedding starts in an hour. Get over here right now to be the Maid of Honor. Apologize to Candy in front of everyone. We need to make the performance convincing.]

Then, his tone shifted into a smooth, dismissive drawl: [Be good. If you keep throwing these tantrums, I can’t guarantee I’ll actually legally marry you in three years. You need to remember, Valerie—your mother is dead. I’m the only family you have left in this world.]

A violent shudder ran through my entire body.

Once upon a time, standing beside my mother’s hospital bed, he had held my hand and sworn to be my ultimate sanctuary, promising to take care of me for the rest of his life.

Yet now, the very fact that I was completely isolated and alone had become the weapon he used to ruthlessly trample all over me.

As the tears began to blur my vision, my phone buzzed with a message from an unknown number.

[Ms. Vance, I don’t know if I should be telling you this… but I have the security footage from the day Candy ‘got hurt’ in the university hall… I think you deserve to know what actually happened that afternoon…]

I tapped on the video file, and the moment it loaded, I froze completely in place.

It was from the commencement ceremony a month ago. Candy, who was supposed to walk across the stage for her hooding ceremony, had suddenly vanished along with Marcus.

As the primary benefactor of the research lab, I had joined the faculty members to look for them backstage, only to run right into Marcus frantically carrying an unconscious Candy out of the building.

We had rushed after them to the hospital, where the attending physician had given us a bizarre, highly judgmental look.

“You young people need to prioritize safety, even when you’re looking for cheap thrills.”

That was how we found out Candy had been looking for a thrill with someone in the backstage prop room—the one housing the high-intensity theater spotlights.

They had somehow gotten locked inside, cooking in the intense heat for three agonizing hours until she suffered severe dehydration.

The university had erupted into chaos over the scandal, and the administration moved to expel Candy immediately.

But the moment she woke up, she wept hysterically, screaming that she had been assaulted and that the perpetrator had fled.

The university tried to pull the security tapes, but the footage had already been wiped from the system…

Whenever anyone pressed her for details, she refused to speak, throwing tantrums and threatening to throw herself off the building.

Marcus had even used the threat of pulling my lab funding to coerce the university into dropping the investigation and burying the incident entirely.

At the time, I couldn’t comprehend his behavior and had tried multiple times to demand justice for Candy. Yet every single time, Marcus had cut me off with an icy reprimand.

“Drop it, Valerie! Dragging this out isn’t helping her—you’re just going to cause her secondary trauma!”

But now, staring at the screen, I watched Marcus and Candy wrapped around each other, urgently bursting through the doors of the prop room…

A sharp, agonizing pain flared in my chest.

It turned out my suspicions were entirely correct. Candy was never assaulted. She had crossed the line with him willingly.

But as I dragged the video playback slider further along, a completely unbelievable detail caught my eye.

My pupils dilated in sheer shock.

After a long, breathless silence, a hollow, mocking laugh escaped my lips.

Oh, Marcus Logan…

Do you have any idea that the girl you’re so self-righteously protecting actually made you the ultimate scapegoat?

My phone pinged repeatedly with aggressive, impatient demands from Marcus. I pushed the dark thoughts down and typed out a calm, placid reply.

[Fine. I’ll be there.]

I was going. Not to help them play out their pathetic little charade, but to deliver the most crushing, catastrophic blow of their lives.