Out of recognition for my achievements in the medical field, I've been made a member of the prestigious International Medical Institute.

I return to the country after that. Yet, on my very first day at work, my niece, Angie Judd, ends up dying tragically in my ward.

When she's found, the lower half of her body is covered in a sticky substance, and part of her uterus has dropped down.

Her mother, Melanie Larson, has an emotional breakdown and jumps to her death.

Her father, my adopted younger brother, Cody Judd, furiously stabs me in the abdomen.

My wife, Serena Thompson, calls me a monster and immediately files for divorce. She ends up marrying Cody the moment the divorce is finalized.

To make it up to Cody, my father, the police commissioner, uses his connections to forgo a proper investigation and have me imprisoned for sexual assault.

My mother, the CEO of a company, takes it upon herself to transfer all of my assets to Cody. She also helps him become a renowned billionaire philanthropist in Crestbay.

With no way of defending myself, I end up spending eight years in prison.

The day I finally get released from prison, the entire family shows up at the prison entrance to wait for me.

Serena, who's now my ex-wife, approaches with reddened eyes to hug me, but the look of concern on her face seems so fake to me.

"All that matters is you've come back to us now, Hector. From now on, I'll always be by your side."

The moment she finishes speaking, the nearby civilians swarm all around me.

"Hector Judd! You got lucky with just an eight-year sentence! You should've been castrated and shot to death!"

"That's right! To think you even hurt your own niece! You're a monster!"

The endless torture and abuse I'd suffered in prison have left me feeling rather dazed.

Eventually, a man who had once received financial aid from Cody rushes up and throws a bucket of sewage water at my face.

"You monster! Mr. Judd even had to cancel his celebration party today just to welcome you home after your release from prison! You killed his wife and daughter, ruining his family, and now, you're even stealing the rest of the only family he still has? Go to hell!"

Inhaling the putrid stench, I let out a sneer.

They were the ones who falsified the evidence to throw me in prison back then. They broke my legs and injected me with a neurotoxic drug that addled my brain, making it impossible for me to protest.

They did all of those things just to cover up the fact that Cody is the real murderer!

I raised my hand and wiped the filth from my eyes before limping my way out of the crowd.

"Hector!" Mom's voice rang out behind me, trembling in disbelief. "Where are you going?"

I kept walking without turning back.

Serena Thompson, who was now my ex-wife, quickly came over to block my path, her lips pursed. "Stop causing a scene, Hector. Just come home with us first."

Stopping in my tracks, I dragged my half-broken legs across the ground to stand before them. The voice that escaped my throat sounded like it'd been scraped with sandpaper. "Home? Do I still have a home?"

My gaze fixed on Dad's face. "Dad, you were the one who called me a monster and said I didn't deserve to be a Judd."

His expression instantly stiffened.

I looked at Mom next, my lips twitching. "Do I still have a home when you've already given everything of mine over to someone else, Mom?"

She averted her eyes.

"Hector!" Serena snapped as she grabbed my arm, her nails digging into my skin. "Must you take this attitude with us?"

I flung her hand off like I was getting rid of something disgusting.

"I almost forgot about you," I said. "Congratulations. You and Cody finally get to have your happily ever after. I heard he went to great lengths to marry you. Not only did he kill his own daughter, but he even forced his wife to die…

"You know what, Serena? I bet his dead wife and daughter roll in their graves every time you and Cody get it on in bed."

A loud smack rang out. Dad's palm struck my face, snapping my head to the side. My ears started ringing.

"You bastard!" His face was now red with rage, his whole body trembling. "You're the one who did all those vile things, yet you're trying to make it sound like Cody and Serena are the ones at fault! You're worse than a monster!"

Mom also chimed in sharply, "What's with your attitude, Hector? Serena only married Cody to make up for what you did. What gives you the right to slander them!

"It's one thing for you to rot in the gutter like the vermin you are, but how dare you try to drag their reputations through the mud? You're evil!"

Serena's eyes reddened. "Hector, my relationship with Cody is not what you think… At the time, Cody had just lost two close family members. He drowned himself in alcohol every night and ended up with stomach cancer. I only married him to take care of him."

She reached out to touch my face, adding, "I swear I married Cody just as a temporary measure. Now that you're back, we can go back to how things were."

I slapped her hard across the face with all my strength. Even though my voice was shaky, it was stone cold as I growled, "Go back to how things were? You disgust me, Serena! What makes you think I'd want to get back together with a slut like you? Just having the slightest contact with you is enough to make me sick!"

The veins along Dad's arm bulged as he grabbed me by the throat and roared, "Hector! Are you out of your mind? Shut your filthy mouth!"

Why should I show them any courtesy?

"What did I do wrong?" I snarled, each word sharp as I stared them all down. "What did I ever do wrong? Cody Judd's the real criminal! Yet you all lavished your affection on him and chose to trample me into the ground instead.

"You had me thrown in prison without even bothering to get your facts straight. You chose to ruin my life!"

"What criminal!" Mom snapped at me. "You watch your mouth!"

The man who'd splashed sewage water at me rushed forward again, slamming a steel pipe hard against my already crippled legs. The dull crack of a bone breaking rang out.

I collapsed to my knees, cold sweat instantly soaking through me.

"How dare you try to slander Mr. Judd? You've got a death wish, don't you!"

I couldn't keep a running count of how many times my crippled legs got hit. The pain made my body shake uncontrollably.

As Serena stared at my deformed legs, her eyes flickered with a twinge of sympathy.

"Just come home with us, Hector. No matter what you ask for, I'll give it to you to make it up to you."

But I simply spat blood-stained saliva at her face. "Don't give me those crocodile tears. Get lost! All of you disgust me!"

Dad flew into a rage again, jabbing a finger at me as he bellowed, "I'm giving you one last chance, Hector. You're going to get on your knees and apologize to Cody and Serena. Otherwise, get the hell out of the Judd family and don't ever come back!"

At some point, Cody had arrived. He pushed through the crowd and suddenly called out, "Dad, don't do that. No matter what, Hector is still your son."

Everyone's attention instantly shifted, and my parents rushed over to him at once.

Holding his hand, Mom said affectionately, "Didn't we tell you that you didn't need to come over?"

"Your mom's right," Dad hurriedly chimed in. "Work keeps you busy, so there's no need for you to make the trip. It'll only bring back painful memories for you."

Even Serena pressed close to Cody and stood between him and me, as if afraid I might do something to him.

My eyes stung. There had been a time in my life when I'd received such tender care as well.

When I was 18, before my parents adopted Cody, Dad's enemies had abducted me to take revenge on him. He single-handedly fought those criminals and even fell from the fifth floor in the process.

Having sustained multiple compound fractures from the fall, he had to spend an entire year in the hospital. Despite the agonizing pain, however, he took my hand and assured me, "It's fine. It's my responsibility to protect you. It doesn't hurt at all."

And when Serena and I had been dating, a passerby had berated me for accidentally bumping into him. She proceeded to do everything in her power to have that person driven out of the city of Crestbay.

The love and warmth I received in those memories came flooding back, but the sight before me felt like a bucket of icy water, giving me a rude awakening.

Now that no one was paying any attention to me, the thug who'd attacked me earlier swarmed me with a few other men. Some of them held down all four of my limbs, so that I couldn't move.

A sharp crack rang out, and my right metacarpal bone shattered. The pain shot straight to my head, and my vision turned red.

They'd smashed my right hand with a hammer!

"Let's see how you're going to hurt others once we break both your hands. You can never be a doctor again!"

"You filthy rapist! I'm going to castrate you!"

The gleaming blade came barreling toward my lower region.

However, eight years in prison had taught me how to fight back. I used all my strength to kick one of them away before dragging myself backward. The rough ground tore at my palms, the pain so intense that I was on the verge of blacking out.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Serena nestled in Cody's arms with a sweet smile on her face. Not once had I ever seen her show such a gentle and tender expression toward me.

Meanwhile, despite glancing over after hearing my pained groans, Mom and Dad only looked put off by the sight of me.

As if only having just noticed the situation, Cody shouted, "What are you doing!"

He drove those thugs away and bent down as if to help me up, his face full of concern. "Are you okay, Hector?"

His leather shoe pressed down—precisely and ruthlessly—on my mangled right hand. He even ground it down hard without mercy.

A hoarse, wrangled cry of pain escaped my throat as I curled up in agony.

Cody leaned down, his breath brushing my ear as he hissed like a venomous snake, "So what if you got out of prison? I'm going to take everything from you—your money, your family, your wife…"

Then he lifted his head and put on a nervous, helpless expression. "I'm so sorry, Hector! I didn't mean to…"

But Dad gave me a hard kick in the chest. My body flipped over, scraping hard on the ground. It felt as if all my organs had shifted out of place.

"How long are you going to keep this act up, huh?" he snarled as he stepped on my face with his shoe. "Who do you think you're fooling with this stunt? Cody was kind enough to help you up, yet you're trying to frame him again?"

As if he'd finally found an outlet, Dad began kicking both my legs, each kick harder than the last. The legs that had been broken and healed dozens of times over eight years shattered again.

I curled into a ball, my vision going dark.

"Just because you're human garbage, you want to drag everyone else down with you. Well, don't you dare forget this—if I can have you thrown in prison once, I can do it as many times as necessary!"

"Dad! Stop kicking him!" Serena held Dad back, her voice tearful. "Hector is still your son, Dad…"

"My son? I don't have a monster like him for a son! Ever since that day eight years ago, Cody became the only son I recognize!"

Serena looked between Dad, who was fuming mad, and me, who was barely breathing.

In the end, she still walked toward me and said, "Your hand… I'll take you to the hospital first to get it treated."

The moment she finished speaking, Cody immediately bent over, clutching his stomach, his voice weak and strained as he cried out, "Serena… my stomach hurts."

"What? Don't be scared, Cody. I'll take you to the hospital right away!"

Serena carefully helped him up without sparing me another glance.

In a vicious, hostile voice, Dad instructed his bodyguards, "Deal with this. Don't let a certain monster get another chance to hurt Cody!"

With that, he and Mom quickly left, rushing to escort Cody to the hospital. In the blink of an eye, I was the only one left in this chaotic spectacle.

"See that? Who would ever care about a rapist?" The man from earlier crouched down, his fingernails digging into the wound on the back of my hand. "You did a pretty good job dodging earlier, didn't you? Why aren't you dodging now?"

Another man spat on my face. "A rapist like you should be hung up and lynched!"

They tied me to a wooden post in a splayed-out position before pulling out some needles and thread.

"Since he likes slandering people with that filthy mouth of his, we'll sew it shut for him! As for those hands, we'll crush every bone and destroy them completely!"

I resisted with all my might, only for them to slap me repeatedly in the face—at least 100 times.

One of the bodyguards felt so bad for me that he made a call to Dad.

"Sir, the civilians are currently assaulting Mr. Hector. Should we—"

"Why are you even calling me over something as unimportant as that?" Dad interrupted impatiently.

Serena and Mom's concerned voices came through the speaker. They were both fussing over Cody.

After a long pause, Dad added coldly, "I don't want to see a single article that damages Cody's reputation being released today. Let them do whatever they want to that monster. Just make sure he remains alive."

The thugs burst into laughter when they heard what Dad said.

"You heard that right, guys? We can do whatever we want!"

When the needle pierced through my lips, the metallic taste of blood filled my mouth. Stitch by stitch, the thread dragged through my flesh, forcing my screams back down my throat. The steel needle moved back and forth across my upper and lower lips. In just a few passes, my mouth was filled with blood.

Then they raised a hammer again. Up and down it went until all the bones in my wrists and ankles were shattered.

But I couldn't even scream now. The only sounds that escaped were broken, muffled groans.

I don't know how long the torture lasted before they finally got bored and threw me into the freezing river. The rain was pouring, and the cold seeped deep into my bones.

I gritted my teeth until my molars cracked, pressed my chin against the riverbank, and dragged my body upward, inch by inch.

The phone screen glowed faintly in the rain. As I pressed the numbers to make a call, my stitched-up lips split open again, and blood dripped onto the screen.

One day, when I was in prison, that phone number appeared on my bed seemingly out of nowhere. It belonged to a man who said that as long as I agreed to work with him, I could clear my name.

"Hello?" I opened my mouth, letting blood and rain flow down my throat together. "I'm taking your offer."

My voice was so hoarse it no longer sounded like it came from a human.

"Name your terms. I want to send them straight to hell."