Chapter 4

I was directly knocked out of my wheelchair and onto the floor.

Lying on the ground, I looked helplessly at Evan as he screamed at me.

“I know you hate me, Adrian.”

“I know you can’t stand me because I stole your childhood sweetheart, your sister, and even your lover.”

“But the child is innocent!”

“How old is he?”

“How could he withstand a fall like that?”

“How can you be so cruel?”

“How could you bring yourself to do that?”

At that moment, Claire, Vivian, and Mia, who had heard the commotion, had already rushed over from different directions.

Claire’s face was livid, and she rushed forward in one stride.

First, she crouched down and quickly checked Lucas’s condition.

Then she suddenly raised her head, her hate-filled eyes locking onto me.

She roared at me.

“Adrian Gray, what did you do?”

“You’ve only just come back and you’re already causing trouble.”

“Do you want me to send you back?”

My sister also rushed over.

She looked at her nephew sobbing on the floor and at Evan accusing me nonstop.

Then she looked at me, anger in her eyes too.

“Adrian, how could you hurt such a small child?”

Vivian handed Lucas to the medical staff behind her.

She didn’t speak.

She only kept glaring at me with fierce, cold eyes.

It seemed…

I had been wronged again.

It seemed no different from the countless times I had been wronged over the past three years.

The steward accused me of stealing, and when I said I hadn’t, I was whipped even harder.

A servant framed me for seducing a maid, and when I defended myself, I was stripped and humiliated in public.

Claire believed slander saying I wanted to escape, and what waited for me was confinement in the water dungeon.

I originally wanted to explain.

I wanted to say it wasn’t true.

I wanted to say I didn’t do it.

I wanted to say so many things.

But in the end, I stayed silent, because no one would believe me.

Just like countless times before, explaining would only bring harsher malice and punishment.

I could only curl up on the floor and apologize weakly.

“I’m sorry…”

Evan rushed forward.

“You’re sorry?”

“You think one apology is enough?”

“I’ll beat you to death, you filthy bastard!”

Then he punched and kicked me wildly while the three of them watched in silence.

I didn’t know who said it.

“Don’t kick his stomach.”

“That could cause problems.”

After that, there was nothing else.

No one stopped him.

They only stood by and watched, just like before.

Fists and shoe tips smashed into my body and face again and again.

It hurt.

It hurt as if all the flesh on my body was about to burst open.

In my daze, I saw the numbers before my eyes dropping violently.

【24:27:43】

【20:13:05】

【15:39:17】

……

At some point, someone finally pulled Evan back, and he stopped.

The time stopped at 【4:01:25】.

Claire slowly walked up to me and looked down at me from above.

“Do you know what you did wrong?”

“Why can’t you ever learn?”

The bloody taste in my throat made me cough twice.

I didn’t answer.

I only grabbed the hem of Claire’s pants and asked her one final question.

“Didn’t you say…”

“That here, no one would ever hurt me again?”

Claire fell silent.

She coldly moved her leg away, pulling her pant leg out of my hand.

“But you made a mistake.”

“If you make a mistake, you deserve to be punished.”

“That’s the rule.”

“Lock him in the storage room.”

“When Lucas’s checkup shows he’s fine, I’ll let you out.”

But I didn’t want to be locked up again.

I had already been locked up for three years.

I didn’t want the final four hours of my life to be spent penned up like livestock.

I still wanted to beg again, but Claire had already turned her back.

I could only look at my sister.

She looked away and softly comforted the emotional Evan.

Vivian had already left quickly to check on Lucas.

As expected, no one was willing to save me.

I stopped struggling.

I let the staff drag me away and roughly throw me onto the floor of the storage room.

I counted my heartbeats and watched time slowly pass.

I didn’t know what would happen when everything reached zero.

But to the current me, the worst outcome was only death.

And that was already freedom.

【00:00:00】

When the numbers reached zero, I closed my eyes, and my heartbeat disappeared.

Beneath me, large pools of dark red blood silently spread out.

A staff member came in half an hour later to deliver food.

A moment later, a terrified scream rang through the entire manor.

That staff member practically crawled and stumbled all the way to Claire, screaming.

“Ah—”

“Someone’s dead!”

“Mr. Gray is dead!”

“There’s blood all over the floor!”