Chapter 3

Cold sweat covered Nancy's forehead from the pain, yet she still forced out a faint smile.

"Samuel, Julian has never suffered a day in his life. He can’t even survive one lash.

"You’re different. You’ve made it through a hundred lashes before. You can handle nine."

When I didn’t move, her face darkened.

"If you cannot even help carry your wife's burdens, then you don’t deserve to raise our son."

The Scott family stood at the top of high society. The fading Carter family was no match for them.

Besides, the Carter family had long since stopped being my support.

I staggered back two steps and forced a smile that looked more like a grimace.

To keep them from taking Ethan away, I endured another nine lashes. I believed that if I kept giving in, I would eventually earn at least a little kindness. Instead, Nancy officially acknowledged Rory and accepted him into the Scott family.

I hated Nancy.

I hated that she had stopped loving me and trapped me in a situation with no way out.

I hated that, for Rory’s sake, she had turned our own baby, who was only a hundred days old, into the Scott family's biggest joke.

I stopped trying to protect my image as the Scott family's son-in-law and leaked the truth about Nancy and Julian to the media.

However, she had already planned to make their relationship public. My expose only made them even more shameless.

I became the laughingstock of our social circle.

Consumed by anger, I completely lost control.

I wrote a long post exposing how Julian and his father had driven my own father to his death.

Before I could publish it, Nancy intercepted it.

To punish me, she threw a lavish ceremony to officially welcome Rory into the Scott family.

Even my father-in-law had no objections to what she did.

On the day of the ceremony, I stayed home with Ethan and locked the doors.

For Ethan's sake, I did not want to cause any more trouble. However, Julian refused to leave me alone.

He sent me a video. In it, Nancy was tightly wrapped in his arms as they kissed passionately.

Their heavy breathing echoed through the speakers.

"Nancy said that even if you two get divorced someday, I’ll never have to hold myself back in front of her father again."

My fists clenched so tightly my nails dug into my palms. What had all the humiliation I endured been for?

A moment later, he sent another photo.

The last thread of self-control I had fought so hard to hold onto finally snapped.

My family pendant hung around Rory’s neck.

My father had custom-made it for me with his own hands.

Years later, I had personally fastened it around Ethan’s neck.

I rushed all the way to the Scott family's welcome banquet for that child.

Ignoring every mocking smile and every look of contempt around me, I walked straight toward Nancy.

The moment she saw me, satisfaction flashed across her face.

"Samuel, so you've finally come to your—"

"Give me back my family pendant," I cut her off, my voice trembling. "It was the last thing my father left me. What gives you the right to hand it to someone else?"

I could barely keep my emotions under control.

After my father died, Julian had stolen my family pendant once before.

I refused to give it to him.

My mother beat me mercilessly for it. Then she locked me in a dark storage room without food for an entire day and night.

When Nancy found out, she was not even twelve years old. She stormed into my house and set it on fire.

Using her age as protection, she stabbed my mother three times.

After taking back my family pendant, she pointed at Julian and warned him fiercely, "If you ever steal Samuel's things again, I'll stab you!"

Julian was older than she was. Even so, he was so terrified that he fainted on the spot.

Now, eighteen years had passed. Julian had not only stolen her away from me, but all he had to do was ask, and she would take anything of mine that he wanted.

Nancy stepped in front of Julian and Rory, shielding them behind her.

She stared at me coldly.

"It’s only a family pendant. What difference does it make who wears it?

"Besides, Rory can call you Dad too. What’s wrong with giving it to him?"

Her matter-of-fact tone shattered the last of my restraint.

"I’m not his father. And I will never give my belongings to an illegitimate child."

Just then, the boy charged at me. His little fists slammed into the injuries from my car accident that had still not fully healed.

The pain was so intense that I instinctively raised my hand.

However, before I even touched him, Nancy shoved me with all her strength.

I fell backward.

The back of my head crashed into the sharp corner of a table. Blinding pain exploded through my skull.

Just before everything went dark, I heard Nancy scream my name in terror.