Chapter 3

In the end, despite my constant refusals, Mr. Guest dragged me to the shopping mall anyway to buy some clothes to keep me warm.

He treated me to the most satisfying meal I had eaten in three years, and before we parted ways, he also stocked me up on plenty of filling snacks and told me to reach out to him whenever I needed anything.

I felt an immense wave of bitterness washing over me as I watched his retreating figure. Delilah—the person closest to me—had punished me without any hesitation when Nathan had framed me back in school, yet Mr. Guest had chosen to believe me.

Three years ago, he had been the only person to show me any warmth. Ironically, three years later, he was still the only one who did.

I had fully intended to end my life, but a new thought suddenly struck me. I wanted to repay Mr. Guest's kindness just once before I passed away, to thank him for everything he had done.

After weighing my options, I settled on buying a bouquet of flowers. I had no money, and because my battered body couldn't handle real work, I resorted to gathering aluminum cans wherever I could find them to sell.

It was just that every single time I struggled and finally managed to gather half a bag, someone would ambush me, rip the bag away, and dump all the cans into the river.

I would run after that person, shouting a few curses, before turning back to listlessly start scavenging from scratch. I had finally managed to scrape together enough aluminum cans after going through this cycle of being robbed multiple times.

I went to cash them in immediately, terrified that something else would go wrong. I then used the money to buy a bouquet of flowers just as I had planned.

I had just dialed Mr. Guest's number when someone suddenly snatched the flowers from my hands, threw them onto the ground, and stomped on them repeatedly.

"What are you doing?" I roared, completely losing control as I lunged at him.

That burly man kicked me aside and sneered disdainfully. "That's what happens when you offend Ms. Sorrell. She paid top dollar for me to keep an eye on you, specifically to make sure you don't even get a single can!"

I froze as it suddenly hit me that Delilah had mentioned wanting to teach me another lesson. I still couldn't bring myself to believe that my own sister would do this to me. Did she truly intend to completely destroy me, all for Nathan's sake?

I felt my mind go blank for a second. Before I knew what I was doing, I grabbed a bike from a bike-share app and rode straight to the Sorrell residence. When I arrived, a grand graduation banquet for Nathan was already in full swing.

I ignored everything around me as I grabbed a glass of wine and threw it at Delilah. "Have I not been punished enough back in Northern Marovia?" I shouted.

In that instant, a sudden silence washed over the entire crowd.

"Is my death the only thing that will make you stop?"

Delilah turned to face me with a frown and spoke in a cold, offhand manner. "What is all this talk about dying and letting you go? I just wanted to teach you a lesson so that you would learn some humility, Bennett.

"It's Nathan's graduation celebration today, so I'll end your punishment tomorrow. I'll bring you home, then. I'll give you whatever you want after that, so there's no need to fuss over a few worthless cans, Bennett."

I was taken aback when she said that those were merely worthless cans. I looked around at the lavish graduation banquet and suddenly let out a laugh.

It seemed like any bottle of wine in this room could cost well over a thousand dollars, and putting together a single banquet like this could cost well over hundreds of thousands.

Meanwhile, all I had wanted was to collect enough cans to exchange for money and buy a bouquet of flowers worth a few dozen dollars. It turned out that something she completely wrote off as nothing was an impossible luxury for me.

Just then, Nathan walked over, looking dazzling in his suit. He considerately patted Delilah on the back to help calm her down, scanned me from head to toe, and sighed gently. "Delilah did all of this for your own good, Bennett. How can you not appreciate her good intentions?"