Chapter 1

Vanessa Morrison stood protectively in front of her daughter with a contemptuous gaze.

"Go ahead. Call in more of your sugar daddies to protect your bastard child!" she hissed. "Let everyone know about this scandal so the other students will spit on her!"

She deliberately raised her voice to draw in a crowd of students.

Lila Keats shrank behind me. Her hoarse voice made my heart clench. "I'm scared, Anna."

My throat felt tight as I squeezed her hand reassuringly. "Don't worry, I'm here. I'll make sure you get justice."

Seeing this, Melody Caldwell spoke with the same arrogant cadence as her mother.

"You call your mother by her name? Is that your guilty conscience speaking? So what if I hit you? You're not even legitimate. I'm doing the world a favor!"

Lila's entire family consisted of intelligence operatives. Her grandfather was a nuclear weapons expert under military protection. That was why her real surname wasn't reflected on her birth documents.

For her safety, Lila was given my last name. I never thought they'd assume that I, Anna Watson, a student of Josiah Keats, was a mistress and that Lila was born out of wedlock.

I looked at the homeroom teacher, Tara Marshall, and coldly said, "Ms. Marshall, did you hear what she said? Melody admitted to hurting my daughter. Tell your school's administration to sort this out immediately, or there will be severe consequences."

I wasn't trying to scare anyone. If the Intelligence Agency responsible for the safety of Josiah's family learned about this, they would send someone over.

By then, it would become an issue no apology could fix.

Before Tara could leave, Melody held up an application form and sneered. "Nobody has treated the Caldwells like this before!"

Lila's pupils contracted sharply as she cried, "That's my early admission application for Langston University!"

I was well aware of how much effort Lila had put into this application. She spent countless late nights competing for this hard-earned recommendation letter.

If it were destroyed, it'd undo all her hard work over the past three years of high school.

I lunged forward to grab the form, but Melody quickly ripped the document to shreds.

Melody scoffed. "She dares to compete with me? The scholarship is mine! Don't you even think of going to university! My mom told me that I can destroy anything that displeases me!"

Vanessa clapped gleefully. "Isn't she just bright? Melody knows how to put people in their place at such a young age. She's bound to make it big!"

I glared icily at Vanessa when I saw the ruined document. "Is this how you raise your children, Vanessa Caldwell?"

I'd long heard of this woman. She allowed her daughter to run rampant at school while hiding behind her husband, who worked for the Education Bureau. I'd never bothered with her because she had yet to cross me.

Yet, after today, I could no longer remain idle.