Chapter 4

Three days later, the seal on the back of my hand was barely visible.

The door swung open. Mom strode into the room and slapped a document in front of me, saying, "It's an organ donation agreement. Sign it now."

"Are you sure that you're allowed to abuse your authority as a doctor to remove your son's kidney without his consent?" I asked with a smile.

Mom's eyes flashed. Meanwhile, Dad looked completely unbothered as he coldly said, "It doesn't matter even if you refuse to sign the agreement. It'll just be a little more troublesome for us.

"Things were supposed to be so simple. You could have helped Hayden by just giving up one of your kidneys. We could still have been a loving family in the future. You're the one who insisted on causing a fuss."

He clicked his tongue and shook his head, looking as if he was feeling regretful over how things turned out. "Now, we have no choice but to have you take the fall for Hayden even after removing one of your kidneys. It's to prevent you from stirring up trouble and making things more difficult for us."

Dad swept the organ donation agreement aside and pulled out another stack of papers from his briefcase. "You don't have the privilege of choice in this regard."

I looked down. The documents were forged evidence designed to force me to take the fall in Hayden's place. Someone had already forged my signature on the dotted line. It looked identical to my own. All that was left was my fingerprint.

I forced myself to laugh even as my throat tightened. "You really thought of everything in case I refused to sign, Dad."

Dad didn't bother responding to my jab. He stepped forward and grabbed my wrist, yanking it toward the table. He was exerting so much force that it was as if he wanted to throw me against it.

"Are you going to put your fingerprint on the documents?" he demanded.

I thrashed around wildly, curling my hand upward so it wouldn't touch the inkpad. "I refuse! I would rather die than be his scapegoat!"

The next second, a dull thud resounded across the room. Dad had kicked me to the floor. My vision went black for a split second when my back collided against the edge of the bed.

Dad hovered over me before I could catch my breath, stepping on my hand. His voice was completely devoid of emotion as he stood over me and asked, "Did you think that this was a discussion?"

The color had drained from Mom's face as she stood to the side. She averted her gaze and said, "Stop being so stubborn. Why don't you just make things easier for yourself by going along with our plans?"

I gritted my teeth and refused to make a sound.

Dad applied more force to my hand. Excruciating pain lanced through me as a sickening crunch resounded around the room. I couldn't feel my hand anymore.

Dad grabbed my broken hand and pressed my finger against the inkpad. He then pressed it to the forged evidence, leaving a string of wonky fingerprints in its wake.

He only let go of me when he was done, saying, "You could have saved us a lot of trouble if you had cooperated from the start."

I braced my good hand against the floor and slowly pushed myself back up to my feet. I pulled out my phone from my pocket and stopped the recording.

"You're right. You saved me a lot of trouble by dropping the act altogether. I've recorded everything you said when you tried to force me to sign the organ donation agreement and get my fingerprint on the forged evidence."

Hayden lunged at me and snatched my phone out of my hand. However, when he looked at the screen, he realized that I had already uploaded the recording to the cloud. I had also sent it to a few popular livestreamers I had contacted beforehand.

The color drained from his face in an instant. "He already sent the recording, Dad! What are we going to do now?"

Dad scoffed and said, "A recording that was done in secret doesn't have any legal merit. It'll just cause a few waves among the public. There's nothing for you to worry about!"

A smile broke across my face. "Is that so?"

The wails of police sirens cut through the air.

"What if the police witnessed everything firsthand?" I asked. "Do you have another trick up your sleeve, Mr. Adley?"

As I spoke, the sounds of the police forcing the lock open came from beyond the door. I glanced at the seal on the back of my hand. It was nearly gone.

The moment the police opened the door, I forced a pen into Hayden's hand before grabbing it. I then mustered all the strength I had left within me and ruthlessly stabbed the pen into the artery in my neck.