Chapter 4

"I'm telling you, there's no way Mom and Dad will bring you home. The livestream won't stop either! You deserve to stay in that rotten, dark rental apartment and waste your life away so everyone can laugh and make fun of you!"

Archer clutched my hair while kicking me. My face twisted in extreme agony, and I couldn't help but find him scary. In just six years, the boy who used to be gentle and kind had turned into a monster.

As if still unsatisfied, he made a gesture and signaled the students behind him to step forward and start bashing me. At one point, they even ripped off my clothes.

Archer pulled out his phone and began filming me. "After all the kicking and punching, you barely made a sound. I guess we weren't doing it hard enough. Don't blame me. I just don't want to fall behind Mom and Dad in how they treated you."

He instructed his friends, "Kick him harder and strip him naked!"

Archer laughed maniacally. I whimpered, forcing myself not to cry. The more I cried, the more excited he would become.

After what felt like forever, Archer finally seemed satisfied and left with the others. I was soaked through and crouched on the floor, shivering from the cold.

I was glad he was laughing now because who knew if he would be able to later?

…

That night, Mom surprisingly came home with a bunch of food. "Hey, Adam. I got lucky today and bought some treats for you."

She pulled snacks out of the bags, many of which were imported. I surmised they came from the villa. They were probably things Archer didn't want, so Mom gave them to me as handouts.

She stood in front of me, like she had something to say. Just as I opened my mouth, she suddenly started crying. "I'm sorry, Adam… I… I just found out I have cancer. I don't have much time left."

Cancer? Seriously?

Before I could even say a word, Mom grabbed my hand and continued, "I don't want to die, Adam. You must help me. I have some money here, and between what you've got on you and Grandma's bracelet, we can sell it and use it for my treatment!"

The moment she mentioned Grandma's bracelet, I snapped to attention. "I can give you the money, but not the bracelet."

The bracelet was the last thing Grandma left me. I had lived in this apartment for six years, and for three of them, she was there with me.

Indeed, even she had been deceived into believing that her daughter's life after the divorce had spiraled out of control. Mom was so ruthless that she even lied to her mother. The thought of Grandma suffering alongside me despite her age made my heart break.

I furrowed my brows and glared at Mom. "Are you actually sick, though? Or is this just another trick to take my money and Grandma's bracelet to gamble?"

Mom's eyes flickered nervously for a moment before she pulled out a stack of medical reports from her bag. "It's true. Look at these results. Why would I lie about something like this?"

I gave her the chance to confess, but she chose to be dishonest and continued deceiving me. The moment I glanced at those medical reports, I knew they were fake. She didn't even bother to make them look real.

Honestly, I was extremely disappointed.

Faced with my hard stance and realizing she couldn't get the bracelet from me, she finally gave up and resorted to a pitiful act. "Fine. I'll figure out something else. I made you a cup of warm milk, so drink it while it's hot. You've been studying hard."

I drank the milk and went to sleep, carefully putting the bracelet back on my wrist so she couldn't steal it. That night, I slept like a log.

The next morning, I woke up to find my wrist bare. The bracelet was gone.

Panicked, I pulled up the livestream and replayed last night's footage. Mom had slipped a sleeping pill into my milk while I wasn't paying attention. Once I was asleep, she stole the bracelet from my wrist and returned to the villa.

No wonder I hadn't noticed a thing. I had been drugged.

On the livestream chat, someone wrote, "This is insane. That bracelet was a gift from his grandmother. She just stole it like that."