Chapter 4

Shane's POV

Leveraging the attention surrounding Dad's case, I exposed everything Dawn and Felix had done and put their sordid affair online.

I let it ferment and spread across the Internet for nearly a week. For seven days, I blocked Dawn on every social media platform.

When I started packing my bags, I realized there was nothing for me to take at all. Dawn was right—I had nothing left.

My flight was booked for tomorrow.

Pushing my wheelchair, I made a final trip to the memorial park to visit Dad.

Dad was kind to everyone while he was around. When Dawn was still a broke student, he sponsored her college tuition and taught her everything he knew, and she climbed her way up the ranks just by riding on his reputation.

So, why did the kind people never seem to get a good ending?

When I snapped out of my thoughts and was about to leave the memorial park, a huge, aggressive mob barged in.

I recognized the man leading the charge. He was the losing party in a divorce case Dad had handled years ago.

"You're Shane Conway, Frank Conway's son, aren't you? Your old man sure thought he was a big shot, getting the bitch everything in court and making me walk away with nothing. Good riddance that he's dead now!"

The rest of the crowd were people who had lost cases against Dad, too. One after another, they started shouting.

"My son was just 20 years old, and your family's the reason he's in prison. Give me back my son!"

"I heard Frank fabricated evidence for years. How else could he have such a flawless win record?"

Dad had helped countless people throughout his career. While he was alive, he was revered, but the moment he died, he was baselessly slandered.

A wave of rage and hatred welled up in my chest.

"Where's proof for any of these accusations? Without proof, this is criminal defamation!"

The mob had clearly come to stir trouble. They lunged forward and flipped my wheelchair to send me crashing heavily onto the floor. The impact against my wounds made my vision go momentarily dark.

They brought shovels and chisels, screaming profanities.

"If our lives are going to be miserable, your old man isn't going to rest easy in hell either!"

Every time I tried to stop them, they would rain down brutal kicks and punches on me.

When Dawn and Felix heard the news, they rushed into the memorial park, closely trailed by a crowd of reporters thrusting microphones in their faces.

"Ms. Arnold, your scandal has been trending as one of the hottest topics for the past few days. Are these allegations regarding Frank fabricating evidence true?"

Felix stepped forward to drag me up the ground, but I shoved him away and grabbed the hem of Dawn's skirt tightly.

"Clear his name, Dawn. You're his student, so you know everything."

Dawn was Dad's student and held real standing in the legal world. If she spoke up, the public would naturally believe her.

Felix started feigning panic, too. "Please just explain to them, Dawn. Don't mind me…"

But all Dawn did was stare at me and say, "No one knows what your dad did while he was alive, Shane. How am I supposed to explain anything?

"Besides, Felix was attacked because of what you did. Why should I help you?"

Her words seemed to sever my last hope.

With that, she took Shane and led him away, triggering a frenzy among the mob.

Dad's urn was dug out and smashed onto the floor.

"Your old man is dead, so why don't you join him?"

A gust of wind swept through the park and scattered the ashes until nothing was left.

I didn't know how much time had passed before the crowd finally vented their rage and left the park.

Staring at the fragmented headstone and shattered shards of the urn, I laughed and dragged my body forward, pulling myself toward the railing of the memorial park.

Below lay a vast ocean.

When I threw myself over the edge, I heard a bloodcurdling scream.

"Shane! No!"