Chapter 4

The lively room fell silent at once. Every eye turned to me.

"Emmett, what proof do you have that the creep who hid in the girls' restroom filming people back then was Silas and not you?"

"Exactly! If you don't have hard evidence, stop shouting nonsense. I sure don't believe you took the fall for your brother."

My classmates clamored for me to show them proof. I turned to look at Corinne.

"Corinne can prove it," I said. "Because back then, she's the one who came down to the police station and bailed Silas and me out."

Back then, when Silas was caught filming a girl in the restroom, she called the police right away.

But before the police arrived, Silas shook off the girl who'd caught him and ran.

And because Silas and I looked exactly alike, the girl who'd called the police couldn't tell whether the boy she'd caught in the restroom was me or Silas.

So the police took both of us down to the station for questioning.

The police were good at their jobs. They quickly found the videos on Silas's phone.

Since Silas was already sixteen, and the police found a huge number of hidden-camera videos on his phone, the case was extremely serious. They were going to send him to juvenile detention for a year or two.

But then Corinne showed up and paid a large sum in bail to get Silas out.

Once he was out, Silas started playing the victim in front of me. He cried and said he had a police record now, and he didn't want our classmates looking down on him too. So he wanted me to take the blame for him.

Even Corinne said, "Emmett, just help Silas out. His health is already bad. If everyone at school finds out he did it and they freeze him out and bully him, won't that just make everything worse?"

She was worried about Silas being shunned and bullied. But if I took the blame, wouldn't I be shunned and bullied too?

Silas was a minor, so his police record would stay sealed. But I'd be branded for life.

Ten years had passed since then. I stared into Corinne's eyes, hoping she'd tell the truth.

If she still loved me even a little, she should tell the truth.

After all, I'd taken the blame for Silas for ten whole years...

When Corinne didn't answer, our classmates started pressing her. "Corinne, is Emmett telling the truth?"

Corinne smiled. She ignored the classmates pressing her and looked at me tenderly. "Emmett, I love you, but I can't lie and go against my conscience. You were obviously the one who filmed those girls in the restroom. Why are you trying to pin it on Silas?"

Her voice was gentle, but every word was a knife in my back.

The room exploded.

"Corinne is Emmett's wife! If even she won't take his side, then it was definitely Emmett who filmed those girls!"

"Emmett is so disgusting! Not only did he film girls in the bathroom, he's trying to frame his own brother for it!"

"That's it, I can't take this anymore! Emmett, you scumbag, you're an embarrassment to every man on the planet!"

With a furious curse, someone in the crowd hurled the glass in his hand straight at me.

Once one person started, everyone else followed. Wineglasses and plates came flying at me from every direction.

Glasses shattered, and red wine splashed across my face.

Plates hit me, and I was covered in food.

Even my face was cut by shards of broken glass. Everyone was against me, and they were all throwing things at me.

One furious girl even grabbed a bottle of wine and hurled it at me. "Die, you pervert!"

Her aim was perfect. The bottle struck me square in the forehead, and blood instantly poured from my head.

It ran down my forehead and dripped into my eyes. Through a haze of red, I saw Corinne frown in displeasure.

"Stop throwing things!" she snapped. "The flying glass cut Silas! Can't you see that?!"