Chapter 2

I hurried to explain myself. "So that's how it was…"

The police officer listened quietly, nodded once, and then spoke in an even tone. "Since you're all witnesses, you'll need to come back with us to assist in the investigation."

Before long, we were taken to the police station.

The school principal arrived soon after. Then, my parents followed.

Finally, Valerie's parents arrived.

The moment they stepped inside, Lucas suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Principal! Uncle Harry! Uncle Victor!"

"If Marcus hadn't just stood there and done nothing, Valerie wouldn't have been hurt at all!"

"Mr. Lancaster!" the principal barked furiously. "Is this what the school taught you?"

"Marcus, are you trying to disgrace me completely?!"

My father jabbed a finger at my face, his voice sharp with rage as he hurled the words at me like a curse.

"You're cold-blooded, selfish, and heartless," he continued, his eyes burning with disgust. "Sometimes I really wonder if you're even my son. Why don't you just go die?"

"If anything happens to my daughter, I'll take your life!" Valerie's father, Victor Hale, strode forward and slapped me hard across the face.

Behind the crowd, Lucas shrank back and flashed me a dark, mocking grin.

When I was struck, my parents did not lift a finger to stop it. Instead, their faces were filled with nothing but disgust and contempt.

"How could I give birth to such a beast who watches someone die without lifting a finger?"

My mother stepped forward and slapped me as well.

Grinding her teeth, she leaned close and hissed venomously into my ear, "Your father has another woman because you're useless. You embarrassed him, so he despises me. And now you've made him lose face again. You really deserve to die."

My father roughly yanked my mother aside, raised his leg, and kicked me square in the face. I was sitting on a chair when the blow sent me flying backwards, and I crashed hard onto the floor.

Those two.

My father cheated openly, yet told my mother it was her failure to discipline me, my making him lose face, which disappointed him and drove him to seek other women.

My mother, willingly reduced to nothing more than a man's ornament, knew perfectly well that I excelled both academically and morally, and that I had every chance of being recommended to the top universities at home or abroad. Yet she still chose to humiliate and abuse me, to please my father.

It had been the same in my past life.

And this life was no different.

"So you're saying Lucas's words are something you all believe without question?"

I struggled to my feet, wiped the blood from my face, and let out a cold laugh.

"I went to save her. I fell down. My leg still hurts right now," I said flatly. "And none of you even asked what happened before you started beating me?"

Lucas looked briefly flustered, as if he might be blamed.

But in truth, he was not worried at all.

"You fell just trying to save someone?" my father sneered, his lips curling in contempt.

He looked me up and down as if I were something filthy beneath his feet. "Are you a useless piece of trash?"

Then, my father's voice grew sharper as he pressed on, every word meant to humiliate. "I paid for you to study self-defense. Did you only learn how to fall?"

He did not care whether I was injured. All he cared about was that I had embarrassed him.

"Who knows if he really fell?" My mother suddenly cut in. "Maybe he was too scared to save her, so he pretended to fall!"

"That's absolutely despicable!"

The principal stabbed a finger in my direction, his voice ringing through the room with righteous fury.

"Is this what our school taught you?" he demanded. "To be selfish, cold-blooded, and deceitful?"

"You kept pursuing my daughter and got rejected every time," Valerie's father snarled. "You must've held a grudge, so you refused to save her!"

He kicked me again.

I hit the ground once more.

This time, Valerie's parents did not stop there. They rushed forward and began punching and kicking me without restraint.

My parents stood by coldly, watching, almost as if they were eager to join in and beat me again themselves.

Lucas laughed when he saw the scene. It seemed even he had not expected his words to work this well.

Dazed and on the verge of losing consciousness, I barely registered what was happening until a female police officer rushed in and dragged me out of the chaos.

"The case hasn't been investigated yet!" she shouted sharply. "Who gave you permission to lay hands on him?!"

"Officer, don't interfere!" my father roared. "I'm his father! He stood by and watched someone suffer. He deserves to be beaten!"

My mother immediately echoed him. "That's right. Anyone who stands by and does nothing deserves to be beaten!"