Yeri didn't need to guess.
He was simply making excuses because he knew perfectly well that he and Xati didn't get along.
"My wedding. I can decide and make changes if I want."
Shin's gaze darkened slightly. He could already feel her affection beginning to tilt toward that little abomination again.
And he was decidedly unhappy about it.
In the end, no changes were made.
Shin refused, regardless of whatever reason Yeri gave him, putting the two into an unmistakable cold war.
---
A week passed, and the hearing resumed.
This time, Calin's legal team didn't get exactly what they had been hoping for.
The medical results confirmed that Yeri had never been pregnant.
Moreover, because Shin's side had exposed Calin's private life, the public had become deeply invested in the case, particularly in the men she had been involved with.
The situation grew so massive that Calin began receiving death threats from the idols' fans. Worse, her current address, which she shared with her mother, was doxxed.
Madam Ricci was terrified.
Their home was constantly surrounded by people, and outside their walls were rotten eggs and vegetables, vandalized surfaces, and even dead rats left as threats.
This time, Sergei Ricci was also forced to attend.
With his involvement in several of the crimes connected to Calin, he had become an important witness or accomplice. However, he retained his own legal team and firmly denied having any involvement in Calin's case against Shin and Yeri.
"So you're saying you were never involved in the plan to drug Shin Keir?"
"No." Sergei answered firmly.
When questioned about the incident involving Allen, he denied that as well.
"I was simply trying to calm Calin down. She was paranoid when she woke up. Whatever Marianne Vega heard at the time wasn't meant to imply that I wanted to harm Allen."
Again and again, Sergei denied the allegations.
With every answer, he seemed to be cutting another thread tying him to Calin.
Calin's expression gradually twisted with disbelief and fury.
She couldn't understand why her own brother had suddenly changed.
Why wasn't he protecting her anymore?
"What do you think you're doing?" Madam Ricci immediately confronted him after he stepped down from the witness stand.
Sergei ignored her and simply took his seat.
He looked presentable enough, but the fatigue was impossible to hide.
His company was gone.
His status was gone.
His reputation was in ruins.
He looked like a man carrying the weight of everything he'd lost on his shoulders.
"If this continues, your sister is really going to get convicted!" Madam Ricci hissed.
Sergei scoffed. "Then you should've stopped her from the very beginning instead of expecting me to play parent to her. Every time she causes trouble, you downgrade it to her being young or call it a mere mistake. Then you use my position as her brother to make me play the knight in shining armor."
Madam Ricci couldn't have been more shocked.
This was the first time her own son had openly talked back to her.
-
The hearing continued.
Shin's legal team eventually presented another piece of evidence.
The footage showed Calin illegally entering the KGG building after paying off a security guard.
The next sequence showed her inside Shin Keir's office and the audio was remarkably clear.
Calin spoke about Yeri's father and Shin's uncle in connection with the death of Shin's mother. As the conversation progressed, she became increasingly unhinged when Shin failed to give her the reaction she expected.
Then came the most shocking part.
Calin suddenly began tearing at her own clothes.
Anyone could guess what she had intended to do.
She had been preparing to accuse Shin Keir of assaulting her.
No wonder she had been thrown out of the building afterward.
Watching the footage from her seat, Calin trembled.
She had never expected Shin's office to have surveillance. He had always been notoriously private.
"Damn, just how obsessed is she with Shin Keir?" someone in the audience whispered. "She failed to drug him, then tried to ruin his reputation. Maybe she was planning to blackmail him into taking responsibility for her."
Calin's lawyer immediately stood to defend her.
"This was done under Bryce Gate's influence. My client was being manipulated and coerced."
Unfortunately, the person they were blaming was currently nowhere to be found.
Bryce Gate had escaped prison.
And the fact that he remained on the loose had become another matter that deeply unsettled the police.
Not long afterward, the hearing was temporarily adjourned.
The jury withdrew to review the documents, evidence, and testimonies presented so far.
For the first time, the case seemed to be moving toward its inevitable conclusion.
-
At this time, although Shin was present, he was still busy dealing with company documents, while Yeri suddenly seemed to find her nails extremely interesting as she kept inspecting them.
If she wasn't doing that, she was busy tapping away on her phone.
Secretary Yun, standing off to the side, could already tell that the two must have fought again.
Still, this wasn't his business, so he wisely kept his thoughts to himself.
"Ask her if she wants to eat or drink something," Shin told him.
Secretary Yun was momentarily baffled, but he soon realized that Shin meant for him to ask Yeri.
"I'm not deaf or invisible. Why are you dragging other people into this just because you're sulking?" Yeri said before Secretary Yun could say anything.
"I remember someone telling me I shouldn't talk to her about trivial things," Shin replied.
Yeri glared at him before making a snide remark. "If only you're adult enough not to compete with a child, but you just have to be stubborn about it."
"By human lifespan, he's more than an adult," Shin said in a voice only the two of them could hear.
"You said so yourself. Xati is unaware of what I've lacked. You know I owe him some motherly affection," Yeri said, lowering her voice almost to a whisper. "And perhaps the reason he's a problem to you is because no one ever taught him properly. Do you have any idea what kinds of atrocities I thought that child committed back in the demon realm? Maybe I could make things right."
Irritated, Shin replied, "He's a demon. What trouble could he possibly have caused? No demon that weak would simply drop dead from it. Besides, if he needs to understand human behavior, morality, or whatever else, he'll learn it in seconds just by reading a few books."
Yeri fell silent.
"If you're worried about making things right, then do it with me. What about what you owe me?" Shin continued.
Yeri stared at him incredulously. "You're making this so transactional. Is the reason you insist on marrying me just because I owe you?"
Shin's expression turned cold as he grabbed her wrist.
"I think you're the one making this transactional. I gave you your memories because you asked for them. I did it for your sake, so you could understand and know what I'd lost and what I'd sacrificed."
Yeri was about to argue that he was being hypocritical. He wanted her to leave the past behind while simultaneously expecting her to repay him for what she had owed him in that past, demanding her affection and time as though they belonged exclusively to him.
But Shin seemed to read the thoughts forming in her mind.
Before she could even open her mouth, he continued.
"Don't start with me about logic, lessons, or emotional coercion. You know none of that will work on me. I don't care what reason you have in mind."
"You're being unreasonable," Yeri hissed.
"Did I say I'm not?" Shin replied.
Yeri "..."
Secretary Yun, on the other end, tried his best to somehow become invisible while holding his breath.
Although he was close enough to hear them, for some reason, he couldn't make out what the two were saying. And frankly, that was highly favorable for him.
Just as the silence between Shin and Yeri grew heavier, there was a knock on the door.
"The hearing is resuming."
Secretary Yun silently exhaled in relief. At least for now, the courtroom would be someone else's battlefield.
-
Before the judge could proceed with the verdict, both sides were given one final opportunity to present additional evidence or arguments.
Calin's legal team immediately insisted on emphasizing her current mental state.
They presented extensive medical records, psychiatric evaluations, and other documents in an attempt to establish that Calin was emotionally unstable and mentally unwell.
Their argument was clear: her actions should be viewed through the lens of her deteriorating psychological condition.
Shin's side, however, relied on something far more difficult to dispute.
Videos, photographs, audio recordings, and other irrefutable evidence.
One by one, the prosecution laid out footage showing Calin behaving with complete awareness and calculation while planning the attempted murder of Yeri, orchestrating schemes to destroy her reputation, and attempting to ruin Shin Keir as well.
Then, Shin's lawyer stood once again.
"Your Honor, I'd also like to present one final piece of evidence. This footage will help everyone judge for themselves what kind of person Miss Ricci truly is."
The video began playing.
Only a few seconds passed before all the color drained from Calin's face as she immediately recognized the location. "No..."
"Isn't this our home?" Madam Ricci muttered.
She was referring to the Ricci family's main residence, a massive villa that had since been seized by the bank.
Sergei, who had remained calm and indifferent throughout the entire hearing, suddenly stiffened.
For the first time, panic flashed across his face.
The footage was clearly taken from the villa's security surveillance system.
On the screen, Calin was pushing her father in a wheelchair...toward the edge of the villa's long staircase.
Then she bent down and whispered something into her father's ear.
No one could hear what she said.
Then, without hesitation, pushed him.
Master Ricci desperately grabbed onto the railing, fighting with everything he had to stop himself from falling.
But Calin showed no hesitation as she viciously kicked the back of the wheelchair, and Master Ricci was sent tumbling down the stairs.
Silence.
The entire courtroom was dumbfounded. It was so quiet that one could hear a pin drop.
"Fake!"
Sergei suddenly erupted, lunging toward the computer.
"This is fake! Turn it off! This has nothing to do with the case!"
Security immediately moved, but Sergei was already too late.
The footage continued, showing him appeared on the second floor.
He walked toward the staircase and calmly looked down.
There was no panic, horror, or any attempt to help.