Chapter 3

“His leg is already swollen from the fall,” the female police officer said firmly as she stepped forward to defend me. “Even if he weren’t a student, if it were me in his condition, I wouldn’t be able to save anyone either.”

“Officer, you’ve been fooled by him!” my mother immediately cut in. “He did it on purpose! He deliberately broke his leg because he didn’t want to save anyone!”

“Marcus!” My father pointed straight at me and roared. “From now on, you have nothing to do with the Lancasters! You have nothing to do with the Lancaster Group either!”

Just then, another police officer rushed into the room.

“The street punks have turned themselves in,” he reported. “They said that Marcus Lancaster paid them.”

In an instant, every pair of eyes turned toward me.

Sure enough.

Whether I had saved her or not, they would still come forward to confess.

Not long after that, several street punks were brought in.

The moment they saw me, they pointed straight at me and immediately began their performance.

“Marcus gave me $5,000 and told me to help him deal with someone,” one of them said. “I didn’t know he was going to force himself on anyone.”

“He gave you $5,000?” another chimed in hurriedly. “Then why did I only get $3,000? Anyway, Officer, I really thought it was to scare someone. I didn’t expect him to assault that girl.”

“She was crying so badly, but he still wouldn’t stop,” a third added.

“We tried to stop him,” yet another said, feigning righteousness.

“But he hit us instead. He’s the heir of the Lancaster Group. We didn’t dare fight back. All we could do was watch him force himself on that girl.”

As their words fell, the expressions of everyone present darkened even further.

“You punk!” My father suddenly lunged forward and kicked me hard, sending me crashing to the floor once again.

My mother rushed over, grabbed my hair, and slapped me again and again.

Valerie’s parents joined in as well, beating me without restraint.

The female police officer froze for only a split second. Then she rushed forward to shield me, even though she could not pull them away. More than half of the blows meant for me landed on her instead.

Even so, she wrapped her arms tightly around me, protecting me beneath her body as she whispered, “Don’t be afraid… don’t be afraid…”

Soon, other officers rushed in and forcibly dragged them away.

I saw that the female officer’s face was streaked with blood, her body covered in shoe prints. Even then, she refused to leave.

“This isn’t right!” She raised her voice sharply. “The statements say that Lucas Turner claimed Marcus Lancaster never entered the alley at any point! But now these people who turned themselves in are saying Marcus assaulted Valerie. This doesn’t add up!”

“Officer, stay out of this!”

My father clenched his teeth and turned toward Valerie’s parents.

“We’ll settle this privately. This matter cannot get out. We can’t afford this disgrace!”

“How do you plan to settle it privately?” Valerie’s father asked coldly. “Didn’t your family want that piece of land on the west side of the city?”

“I’ll give it to you,” my father replied. “But on the condition that this matter is never made public.”

“Fine,” Valerie’s father agreed. “But he must kneel and apologize to my daughter.”

Not long after that, I was left alone in the mediation room.

They had all gone to negotiate the terms of reconciliation.

I had nowhere to go.

I sat in a chair, charging my phone, completely motionless, like a corpse.

After a while, the door to the mediation room opened.

Lucas walked in.

I glanced at him indifferently, then slipped my phone back into my shirt pocket without saying a word.

“Marcus… Marcus,” Lucas said as he sat down across from me, a dark smile slowly spreading across his face.

“You never expected things to turn out like this, did you?”

“The evidence isn’t solid,” I said suddenly.

Lucas shot me a sharp glare. Then he laughed.

Without warning, he reached out and scratched my arm hard, using all his strength.

It was already very late.