On my first day after passing the prosecutor’s office background check, my sister-in-law Lester’s daughter Amy died horribly in my room. When she was found, her lower body was covered in filth, and she had suffered a prolapsed uterus. Lester had a mental breakdown and jumped from the top floor. My adopted brother Liam stabbed me through the kidney with blood-red eyes. My wife Kaya denounced me as a depraved murderer, immediately filed for divorce, and then turned around and married Liam. To make amends to him, my police chief father pulled strings to skip the investigation and directly charged me with rape. My CEO mother took it upon herself to give all my assets to Liam, helping him become a billionaire philanthropist in New York. Unable to defend myself, I was sent to prison for eight years. On the day of my release, my whole family met me at the prison gates. I laughed coldly. Back then, it was they who forged evidence and pushed me into hell. They broke both my legs and injected me with neurotoxins to paralyze my brain so I couldn’t appeal. And all of this was just to cover up the truth that Liam was the real killer!
I raised my hand to wipe the filth from my eyes. Limping, I walked toward the edge of the crowd. “Daniel!” My mother’s voice rang out behind me, trembling with disbelief. “Where are you going?” I didn’t look back and kept walking forward. My ex-wife Kaya quickly stepped forward to block me, pressing her lips tightly together. “Daniel, come home with us first. Stop making a scene.” My steps paused. I dragged my half-crippled legs toward them. The voice rolling from my throat was like sandpaper scraping: “Home? Do I still have a home?” My gaze fixed on my father’s face. “Dad, you were the one who pointed at my nose and called me a bastard, said I didn’t deserve the Williams name.” My father’s face suddenly froze. I looked at my mother and gave a crooked smile. “Mom, when you handed over everything I had to someone else, did I still have a home?” My mother looked away. “Daniel Williams!” Kaya grabbed my arm, her nails digging into my flesh. “Can’t you just talk nicely?” I shook her off like I was shaking off something filthy. “Almost forgot about you.” “Congratulations. So happy you two finally got together. By the way, Liam went to great lengths to marry you—killed his own daughter, then drove his wife to death…” “Kaya, when you and Liam are having sex in bed, I bet their mother-daughter souls are right there beside you, faces covered in bloody tears, watching!” Slap— My father’s palm struck me so hard my head snapped to the side, my ears ringing. “Bastard!” My father’s face flushed red with rage, his whole body trembling. “You committed the crime yourself, and now you’re pinning the blame on Liam and Kaya. You’re nothing but a vicious bastard!” My mother chimed in shrilly. “Daniel, what kind of attitude is this! Kaya married Liam to atone for your sins. What right do you have to slander them?” “It’s bad enough you’re rotting in the gutter yourself, but you want to drag them down too. What a poisonous heart you have!” Kaya’s eyes reddened: “Daniel, Liam and I really aren’t what you think…” “When Liam lost two family members, he drank himself into gastric cancer day and night. I only married him to take care of him.” She stepped forward to touch my face: “I married Liam as a temporary measure. Now that you’re back, we can go back to how things were.” I used every ounce of strength to slap her hard across the face. My voice trembled but carried bone-chilling coldness: “Go back to how things were?” “Kaya, you disgust me!” “What makes you think I’d want a woman who’s been screwed rotten? I want to vomit just touching you!” My father’s hand veins bulged as he grabbed my throat and roared: “Daniel, you’re insane! Shut your mouth!” Talk nicely? “What did I do wrong?” I stared into each of their eyes, word by word. “From beginning to end, what exactly did I do wrong?” “Liam is the real culprit!” “You held him in the palm of your hand but couldn’t wait to grind me into the dirt, threw me in prison without reason, and ruined my life!” My mother snarled. “What real culprit! Watch your filthy mouth!” That man charged at me again, a steel pipe smashing viciously onto my already crippled legs. The dull sound of bone shattering. I collapsed to the ground, cold sweat instantly soaking my entire body. “How dare you slander Mr. McKenzie’s reputation! I think you’re tired of living!” My ruined legs took hit after hit, the pain making me tremble uncontrollably. Kaya looked at my twisted legs, her face showing reluctance. “Daniel, come home with us. Whatever you want, I’ll compensate you.” I spat a mouthful of blood on her face. “You’re all so hypocritical! Get lost! I feel sick just looking at you!” My father flew into a rage, pointing at my nose and cursing: “Daniel, I’m giving you one last chance. Apologize to Liam and Kaya!” “Otherwise… get out of this family and never come back!”
Liam had somehow arrived at the scene. He pushed through the crowd and suddenly spoke: “Dad, don’t do this. Daniel is your son after all.” Everyone’s attention instantly shifted as Mom and Dad surrounded him. My mother grabbed his hand lovingly: “Didn’t we tell you not to come?” “Right, you’re so busy with work. There’s no need to make the trip, especially when it just reminds you of sad memories.” My father also said hurriedly. Even Kaya pressed close to him, standing between Liam and me, as if afraid I might harm him. My eyes grew even drier. Once upon a time, I too had received such tender care. That was when I was eighteen, before Liam was adopted by my parents. I was kidnapped in retaliation by my father’s enemy. It was he who fought the criminals alone and accidentally fell from the fifth floor. He suffered comminuted fractures all over his body and lay in the hospital for a whole year. Even though it hurt terribly, he held my hand and comforted me: “It’s okay. This is Dad’s badge for protecting you. It doesn’t hurt at all.” And Kaya—when we were dating, even if it was my fault that drew curses from passersby, she would stop at nothing to drive that person out of New York. The love in my memories was as warm as ocean waves, but the reality before my eyes was like a bucket of cold water, completely waking me up. While no one was paying attention to me, the thug who had beaten me earlier charged over with several others. Someone pinned down my limbs, preventing me from moving. My right palm bones shattered with a sound. Extreme agony shot to the top of my skull, my vision turning blood red. They actually used an iron hammer to crush my right hand! “Destroying this hand so you can never be normal again! Let’s see how you harm people now!” “Rapist! I’m going to break your dick!” The blade flashed cold light, slashing toward my lower body. Eight years in prison had taught me to struggle. I used all my strength to kick one person away and scrambled backward. The rough ground tore up my palms, the pain nearly making me pass out. From the corner of my eye, Kaya was nestled in Liam’s arms, smiling sweetly. That expression was a tenderness I had never seen before. When Mom and Dad glanced toward me after hearing my cries of pain, their faces showed only disgust. And Liam seemed to just notice the situation, shouting loudly: “What are you doing!” He chased away those thugs and bent down to help me up, his face full of concern. “Daniel, are you okay?” His leather shoe landed squarely on my mangled right hand,without impartiality. He pressed down hard. A wheezing gasp escaped my throat as I curled up in agony. He leaned down, his breath spraying in my ear, soft as a viper’s hiss: “So what if you’re back? I’ll take everything from you—not just your assets, but your family and wife too…” Looking up, he resumed that anxious, flustered appearance: “Sorry, I didn’t mean to…” But my father kicked me hard in the chest. I fell to the ground, my internal organs shifting out of place. “How long are you going to keep up this act?!” He ground his shoe sole against my face. “Liam kindly tried to help you up, and you put on this pathetic show for who? Trying to frame him again?!” As if finding an outlet, he kicked my legs viciously, one foot after another. My legs, which had been broken and healed dozens of times over eight years, fractured again. I curled into a ball, darkness clouding my vision. “You’re a rotten person who wants to drag everyone else down with you! Remember this! I could send you to prison once, I can send you there countless times!” “Dad! Stop hitting him!” Kaya grabbed him, her voice breaking: “Dad, Daniel is your son…” “Son? I don’t have a bastard son like him!” “Eight years ago, my only son became Liam!”
Kaya looked at the furious father, then at me barely clinging to life. In the end, she walked toward me: “Your hand… Let me take you to the hospital to treat your wounds.” As soon as she finished speaking, Liam bent over clutching his stomach, his voice weak: “Kaya, my stomach doesn’t feel good.” “Don’t worry, I’ll take you to the hospital right now.” Kaya carefully supported him. From start to finish, she didn’t spare me even a glance. My father’s voice was like a poisoned blade as he ordered the bodyguards: “Clean this up. Don’t let certain people have a chance to harm Liam!” After speaking, they quickly followed, escorting Liam to the hospital. The chaotic scene was suddenly left with only me. “See? Who would like a rapist?” The man from earlier squatted down, his nails digging into the wound on my hand. “Weren’t you pretty good at dodging just now? Why aren’t you dodging now?” Another spat in my face: “Rapists should be nailed to the pillory!” They tied me spread-eagle to a pillar, then pulled out a box of needle and thread from a bag. “Since he likes throwing dirt on others, let’s sew his mouth shut!” “And those hands—destroy them all!” I struggled desperately, only to receive over a hundred slaps in return. A bodyguard nearby couldn’t bear watching anymore and called my father. “Sir, Daniel is being assaulted by passersby right now. What should we…” “You’re calling me over something this trivial?” My father impatiently cut him off. Through the phone came the sounds of Kaya and my mother fussing over Liam. After a long while, my father added in an icy tone: “Today, I won’t allow anything that damages Liam’s reputation to get out.” “As for that bastard, let them do whatever they want. As long as he’s breathing.” Those thugs overheard the conversation and doubled over laughing: “Hear that? You’re at our mercy!” When the needle pierced my lip, the taste of rust filled my mouth. One stitch, two stitches—the thread pulled at the flesh, sewing my screams back into my throat. The steel needle shuttled back and forth between my upper and lower lips. After just a few passes, my mouth was full of blood. Then they raised the iron hammer, lifting and dropping it. The bones in my wrists and ankles shattered completely. But what came from my throat wasn’t screaming—it was broken whimpering. I don’t know how long they tortured me. Finally bored, they threw me into the icy river water. Rain poured down mercilessly, the cold making even the bone fragments in my joints scream. I bit through my back molars and used my chin to brace against the riverbank, dragging my body up inch by inch. My phone screen glowed dimly in the rain. When I pressed those numbers, the stitched lips tore open again, blood dripping on the screen. This number had mysteriously appeared on my bedside during my imprisonment. He said that if I agreed to cooperate, all my grievances could be cleared. “Hello?” I opened my mouth, letting blood and rain flow together into my throat: “I agree to cooperate.” My voice was so hoarse it didn’t sound human. “Name any condition. I want them all to go to hell!” This was my last chance!
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