Chapter 4

"Emily, are you insane?"

Lily stared at me in disbelief as I knelt in front of the school gate.

"I'm leaving the livestream to you." I handed her my phone.

"But—"

"Lily." I took a deep breath. "My dad's in the hospital with two broken legs. My mom's been threatened multiple times because of me. Every single school has shut its doors on me. I have nothing left but myself."

Lily took the phone.

It was two in the afternoon. The sun was blazing.

I knelt at the school gate, with five large red words laid out in front of me: "GIVE ME BACK MY HONOR."

At first, only a few dozen people were watching. The comments were sparse.

[Who's this?]

[The one who ranked 32nd in the state? Didn't she fail her security clearance?]

[Wait, is this for real? Even if she does this, it's not gonna help, right?]

An hour later, viewership climbed to three thousand.

[That's Emily Wertheimer! The one from that trending post!]

[Holy crap, what's she trying to do?]

A security guard came over to talk to me once.

"Miss, you're disrupting the order at the school entrance—"

"I'm not going inside. This is public property."

The guard called the dean.

The dean stood in front of me with a complicated expression.

"Emily, why are you doing this? If you have a grievance, you can go through the proper channels—"

"I have no other way. Not a single path is open to me. I've tried everything."

I looked up at him.

"Sir, tell me honestly—do the proper channels actually work?"

The dean let out a long sigh. In the end, he said nothing and walked away.

The livestream numbers kept climbing, and the comments started flooding in.

[Is there a reporter here? Someone needs to expose this!]

[This poor girl has been pushed this far? There's no way she's lying, right?]

[What if it's all for attention?]

By nightfall, my knees were raw and bleeding.

Lily tried to bring me food and water. I refused everything.

I just stayed there, kneeling—no food, no water, no rest.

"Emily, at least go home and sleep—"

"No."

Night fell. A passing woman left some fruit for me. A delivery rider set a bottle of water beside me.

I never turned off the livestream. The numbers kept rising.

Before dawn the next day, a group of thugs showed up out of nowhere.

They wore masks, bypassed everyone else, and headed straight for me.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!"

Lily immediately realized they were here to cause trouble. She rushed to block them—she hadn't slept all night either. But they shoved her aside without a second thought.

"Get the hell out of my way!"

Lily lost her balance and hit the ground hard.

"Help! Someone help! Please, anyone—they're here to silence her! It's got to be someone behind this!"

It was too early—barely anyone was around. The few onlookers averted their eyes. No one wanted to be the first to step in.

"You're Emily Wertheimer, right? I'm giving you ten seconds to pack up and get lost. Or else."

I ignored him. My eyes stayed fixed on the school gates.

"Ten… nine… eight…"

The leader counted down. I didn't flinch.

"Three… two…!

"You're really not leaving, are you?!"

Still no response.

"Get her!"

He punched me square in the face, and I hit the ground.

For a moment, everything went black. But I couldn't stay down. I forced myself back up on my knees and kept staring ahead, ignoring them completely.

"Beat her until she begs!"

The rest of them swarmed in, kicking and punching. I curled up, protecting my head, and didn't utter a single word of mercy.

"Are you leaving or not?!"

The leader saw I wasn't responding and drove his foot into my face.

The livestream viewer count skyrocketed. The chat exploded with fury.

[Someone call the police! Where is this?!]

[Is there no law anymore? This is assault in public!]

[Someone's clearly guilty and doesn't want her streaming! Is anyone near Apex University? Get over there now!]

[We're going to find out the truth!]

The entire internet was losing it. People started mobilizing.

"Stop! Right now!"

A student from Apex University with glasses was the first to step forward. Then several more students from Apex University rushed in.

The crowd kept growing. With someone taking the lead, more people surged forward.

The thugs panicked at the sight and tried to flee. But the crowd had seen enough—they weren't letting them get away. They beat them down and pinned them all to the ground.

They tried to help me up, but even though I was covered in bruises and blood was pooling beneath me, I stayed kneeling. I didn't move an inch.

Half an hour later, the police arrived. Local and state reporters showed up too.

"Ms. Wertheimer, the whole country is watching now. We'll make sure you get justice—please, get up!"

"The person I need to see hasn't come yet!"

The livestream broke a million viewers. The hashtag hit number one nationwide.

At 5 PM, as public pressure grew louder, several cars pulled up at the school gate.

The principal and the head of admissions arrived. City officials came too.

I turned my head. Miriam stepped out from behind them.

"Since Emily insists on making such a scene, I suppose I'll have to cooperate."

She opened a folder and pulled out documents.

"This is the record pulled directly from the police system. Emily's biological father, Allan Wertheimer, was wanted in 2004 for cross-border smuggling and aggravated assault. Here's the official stamp and official seal."

Her smile never wavered as she walked over and reached out to help me up.

"Emily, I know you're a good kid. But you can't change what your father did, can you?"

I knew this was the moment I'd been waiting for.

I pulled out a bloodstained file pouch from inside my jacket.

I took out the top two documents and held them up for everyone to see.

One was an Orphan Adoption Certificate.

The other was a Certificate of Martyr's Family Status.