I rushed in front of him, spreading my arms to block his path：“What are you doing here?”
“Bringing a gift!”
A sugary voice rang out from behind my brother.
Celia Fox wore a look of pure innocence, all bright eyes and dimpled smile. In her hands was a cat, gutted, its chest cavity hollowed out, fur matted with blood.
I recognized it instantly. It was Chubby, the cat Mom had raised for six years.
A gift Dad had given her on their third wedding anniversary.
“Stupid thing. Its guts were already hanging out and it still tried to bite me!”
“It bit you?”
Liam grabbed her hand, his brow creased with concern, and turned her arm until he found a faint bite mark on her forearm.
“You should've had the servants handle it. Why would you do this yourself?”
“That animal scratched my mom. I had to skin it alive myself, or it wouldn't have been enough.”
“It didn't even hurt, though. It barely had any strength left. One little dying twitch, and I snapped its neck.”
Celia was beaming as she said it.
I lost it. I threw myself at her and we went down in a tangle of fists and nails：“That was Mom's baby! Die! Who said you could kill Chubby? You're evil! Die!”
We were still fighting when a slap cracked across my face so hard my head snapped sideways.
Liam wrenched me off and flung me aside, then carefully helped Celia to her feet：“Are you okay? That little psycho has completely lost her mind!”
Blood trickled from my nose. A servant hauled me up off the floor by my arm.
【Is this brat brain-dead? His own sister, his flesh and blood, and he sides with an outsider to bully her!】
【Like father, like son. Both of them ungrateful wolves.】
“Hit her!”
Liam's voice cut through the room like a whip.
One slap after another landed on my face, each one rougher than the last.
The noise was loud enough to wake Mom, who was still unconscious inside.
She came out bracing herself against the wall and shoved the servants away from me.
I fell to the floor the moment they let go.
“What are you doing?! Who gave you permission to barge in here?!”
“Your daughter hurt someone, Violet. Disciplining her is perfectly reasonable.”
Liam barely spared Mom a glance, his lip curled with contempt.
A sharp crack.
Mom gathered every last ounce of strength she had and, for the first time in her life, hit her own son.
“Get out! You're not my son. Get out! All of you, get out!”
“Now, now, Violet. Let's talk this through. No need to hit the children.”
Abner stood in the doorway with Eileen on his arm, then walked inside.
The second he saw the handprint blazing red across Liam's cheek, his expression darkened：“Have you completely lost your mind, Violet? He's your own son. You hit him over some brat whose father could be anyone?”
I was born one month before Dad's business collapsed.
After the photos of Mom going into a hotel with another man surfaced, everyone started wondering whether she had been seeing someone behind his back all along.
And I was the proof.
To verify who I really was, I was dragged through paternity test after paternity test.
Every single one confirmed I was his.
But after that, neither he nor Liam treated me the way they used to.
Even when rumors spread that I was illegitimate, they said nothing. They let the whispers grow.
I only understood later. They never actually doubted my blood. They were using me to punish Mom for her supposed betrayal.
Mom stepped in front of me and pointed at the blood on my lip：“Are you blind, Abner? Your daughter, beaten by servants right in front of you, and you don't see it?”
“Uncle, that's not what happened! She called my mom a homewrecker who deserved to never have children, said she'd always be a dirty mistress hiding in the shadows. I couldn't stand it, so I hit her first.”
Celia blurted it out, her voice cracking with rehearsed urgency.
Liam stiffened. Something flickered behind his eyes as he looked at her.
But when Abner's gaze turned to him, waiting, he nodded：“Yes, Father. It happened exactly the way Celia said.”
