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."