Chapter 5

The stage lights were so bright that Jack could barely keep his eyes open.

“Jack, because of you, I was in the hospital for two days, and I’ve fallen behind on my studies. I’m under a lot of pressure right now with the college entrance exam,” Matthew said as he twirled a pocket knife in a carefree manner, sitting in the front row of the auditorium.

“I heard that your sickly father needs a family member’s signature to resuscitate him. How about this? As the funny guy in school, I will let you go if you can make me laugh. What do you say?”

“Are you insane? My father’s life is in danger, and you want me to tell you jokes to make you laugh?”

Jack was frantic with anxiety. Once his eyes adjusted to the light, he glared at Matthew.

At that moment, a figure appeared at the entrance, backlit by the sun. Jack immediately thought that help was here.

“Lily, my father is in critical condition and needs a family member’s signature! Please tell Matthew to let me go. My father is running out of time!”

His eyes were bloodshot, and he spoke in a frantic, incoherent manner.

Lily stayed silent for a moment. Then, she sneered. “That’s your father. What does that have to do with me?”

Jack’s breath hitched. “How can you say such a thing? Have you forgotten how he used to make you delicious food and bring you surprises when we were kids?”

“Enough!” Lily suddenly flew into a rage. “When you posted the incident of my mother jumping off a building onto the internet as a joke, did you ever consider that my mother also loved you like a son?”

Her chest heaved as her furious voice echoed through the empty auditorium.

Jack froze, remembering how Matthew had told him about creating a fake account to impersonate him online.

However, no matter how Jack tried to explain, Lily refused to believe him. Instead, she sat down next to Matthew and began flirting with him.

“Haven’t I stood up for you? Are you not satisfied with that?”

“Of course not. Revenge must be taken personally to be satisfying. What? You can’t bear to see him like that?”

“Are you jealous?”

“Yes, I am jealous.”

The next second, Lily grabbed Matthew by the collar and kissed him!

Jack turned pale. While Ian was on the brink of death, Lily not only refused to help him, but she even… It felt as though a large hole had been gouged into his heart, and the excruciating pain made it difficult for him to breathe.

Just then, the hospital called again. Before he could answer it, the thugs snatched his phone away.

He shouted in anger and desperation, but no one paid him any attention. Ultimately, for the sake of Ian’s life, he had no choice but to compromise.

Jack stood on the stage, enduring the humiliation, frantically telling jokes while filled with anxiety. However, Matthew clearly intended to make things difficult for Jack, and nothing could satisfy him. He even had men bring out a pile of foul-smelling clothes and cheap cosmetics.

“Put those on. As long as you dress yourself up to look disgusting enough, I will consider it a pass.”

There was no clock in the theater, so Jack had no idea how much time had passed. All he knew was that Ian was waiting for him to save his life!

Without much thought, he began pulling those clothes over his body, dry-heaving from the stench. While he haphazardly smeared eye shadows of various colors across his face, Lily sat there coldly, admiring his pathetic state.

Finally, after he had put on a bunch of layers, Matthew pointed his phone at him and snapped pictures for a long time before smiling and saying that it was truly disgusting. Satisfied, he wrapped his arm around Lily’s shoulders and walked out with the gang of thugs.

Jack did not dare waste another second. He picked up his phone from the floor and sprinted toward the hospital like a madman. He did not even have the time to take off those clothes.

He ran with all his strength, praying over and over that Ian would hang on! However, when he finally rushed to Ian’s hospital room, he saw the nurse covering Ian’s face with a white bedsheet.

Suddenly, the world fell silent. All he could hear was his own heavy breathing, and his feet felt heavy.

With trembling hands, Jack slowly lifted the white sheet. Ian’s eyes were closed, looking as though he were asleep. Yet, when he took Ian’s hand, it was ice-cold.

His father was dead.

“Dad!” A desolate and hopeless wail tore through his throat.

He sat motionless outside the mortuary until daybreak. In the reflective glass, the various hues on his face blended together, and paired with his hollow eyes, he looked exceptionally terrifying.

He had placed countless phone calls to Sarah, but none went through. It was not until another call was rejected that a text message arrived from her.

[Your father’s passed away, that’s all. It’s not a big deal. Just take the corpse to the crematorium. Quentin and I are going to get married right after we spend some quality time together, so do not bring us bad luck.]

Jack stared fixedly at that text message.

Ian was dead, yet Sarah claimed it was not a big deal and told him to cremate the body as he pleased. She just could not wait to marry another man so soon.

The hand gripping the phone suddenly went limp. After that, he returned home in silence and washed himself clean.

Jack spent an entire day handling Ian’s funeral arrangements. Caressing Ian’s tombstone, he realized that in just three more days, he would have been able to take Ian away from this place. Now, however, he would be leaving alone.

He sat leaning against the tombstone for a long time until he received a text message from his homeroom teacher, Miss Clara, requesting to see him at school, after which he rose to his feet numbly.