The class heartthrob just landed the heiress of the richest family in town and decided to throw a massive engagement party. Of course, he made a big announcement in our class group chat, but went out of his way to call me out specifically.

"Tomorrow I’ll be serving tea to Mr. Josh Wilson at our engagement banquet. Certain people with ulterior motives should stay away—no need to show up just to turn green with envy."

The audacity of it made my blood boil. After all, it all started when someone caught me lightly kissing Sandra Wilson’s forehead and calling her “my sweet girl.” That one innocent moment got twisted into a scandal. And guess who led the charge? That same heartthrob, turning the whole class against me and bullying me mercilessly for two years like I was some homewrecker.

Still, I kept my cool and replied calmly, “Can’t make it anyway. My family’s got a younger one getting engaged and I’m needed to oversee the event.”

The next day, I was enjoying a hearty meal at our own engagement banquet—until they showed up. A group of them surrounded me, shouting like madmen.

“You really don’t want to live, huh? Stealing someone’s girl and crashing her engagement banquet?!”

They weren’t just angry—they were savage. They killed my beloved cat, shattered both my arms and then poured chili oil between my legs before locking me up in a dog cage.

Later that night, that same class heartthrob knelt on the ground, holding a cup of tea with trembling hands. He waited, hoping for Grandpa Josh to accept the tea offering. But the seat reserved for Grandpa remained empty the entire night. He stayed kneeling until his legs gave out, sobbing and begging for Grandpa Josh to appear and accept the cup. Too bad for him... I wasn’t available. My arms were broken. I couldn’t drink that tea even if I wanted to.

——

The ever-cold and untouchable Sandra—usually the epitome of elegance—was now kneeling respectfully before me like a docile little kitten.

“My fiancé, Tommy Scott, is so thoughtful and obedient. I brought him here today so Great Uncle could meet him. We hope he earns your blessing to join the Wilson Family. We’ll both be at your service from now on.”

Obedient? Thoughtful? I remembered the awful things Tommy had said about me in the group chat. My brows furrowed. Her grandfather—his hair already silver from age—sensed my displeasure. He quickly dropped to his knees beside her.

“Even if the younger generation likes the new son-in-law, if you, Uncle Wilson, don’t approve, then he’s not worthy of marrying into the Wilson Family.”

In the Wilson Family—an aristocratic clan with a hundred-year legacy—rules were sacred. Even though I was the youngest, I ranked highest in the family hierarchy. That meant I held the power—every resource, every secret, every decision.

To the outside world, I was the venerable Grandpa Josh, feared and revered. But behind closed doors, everyone bowed to me.

I smirked and motioned for him to rise. “Relax. Let’s see how things unfold.”

You wanted to keep me from the engagement banquet, Tommy? Then I’ll enjoy watching you try to marry into the Wilson Family without my permission.

After the crowd respectfully left, a message popped up on my phone from a contact saved as Domineering Lady Meryl Streep.

[Hey handsome, when are we going public? If you keep hiding me, I might just show up uninvited and demand answers]

She wasn’t joking. Meryl wasn’t just anybody—she was the head of the elite council that ruled over Las Vegas’s Four Great Families, including ours. A woman known as the Jade-Faced Hell Lord. Feared by all, except when she got clingy and started acting all cutesy—it made your skin crawl.

I couldn’t help but tease back.

[Then come on over.]

After wrapping up my messages, my stomach grumbled. I picked up my chubby little cat, Oliver and wandered around the estate.

The banquet hall was already being prepped with engagement decorations. The evening event hadn’t started yet and guests were still arriving. People were bustling about in the side hall. But as I walked into the main hall, I noticed something strange—lunch was long past, yet the food hadn’t been cleared.

Then it hit me, no one dared to touch the meal until I had eaten. So I sat down and dug in. I had barely taken two bites when something slammed hard against the back of my head, almost dunking my face into the bowl.

A sharp, shrill voice screamed in my ear.

“You filthy beggar! Even I haven’t eaten yet and you’re already stealing food?!”

Clutching my aching head, I looked up—only to lock eyes with Tommy. There he stood in a tailored designer suit I had personally picked out, looking every bit the polished gentleman—yet his eyes were full of contempt.

“Danny Wilson, are you really this desperate? We told you not to come and yet here you are, sneaking in to freeload like a stray dog.”

The three cronies standing beside Tommy all looked at me with sneers of pure disdain.

“You know where you are, right? This is the Wilson Family estate—the richest family in the country. A broke hillbilly like you doesn’t belong here.”

“Look at that flashy outfit, like some male escort. Bet he came here to seduce Miss Wilson and ruin the engagement party on purpose.”

“Exactly! This piece of trash even had the nerve to call Miss Wilson his ‘sweet girl.’ She’s the most prized successor in the Wilson Family—who the hell do you think you are?!”

I clenched my jaw and snapped back. “Calling her ‘sweet girl’ was me doing her a favor. If she had any sense, she’d be grinning in her sleep from the honor.”

Truth was, back when she was desperate for my approval, Sandra tried everything to get on my good side. She played the perfect little angel, just to win my favor.

And when I was in a good mood, I treated her like a younger relative—affectionate, but distant. I kissed her on the forehead, like a proud older brother.

She was over the moon. She even posted it online to show off. But Tommy saw it... and decided I was trying to steal his girl. That’s when the nightmare began.

He started a two-year campaign of bullying. He planted thumbtacks in my basketball shoes, stuffed pornographic cards in my desk drawer and poured industrial glue on my chair. He even spread filthy rumors online—claiming I seduced middle-aged teachers for money, saying one of them scrubbed my back with a steel wool brush.

Thanks to him, my name at school was garbage. I reported it over and over again. But every time, the school brushed it off with a forced apology from him, like that would fix everything.

Then, he crossed the line—he brought the fight to my home.

“I’m Sandra’s great–grandf..”

I didn’t even get to finish the sentence.

Tommy grabbed the soup pot in front of me and poured it over my head.

“Ahhh!”

Boiling broth drenched my scalp with a sickening hiss. It felt like my skin was shriveling under the heat. Before I could even process the pain, Tommy yanked my hair and smashed my head into the table. BANG. BANG. BANG. My face slammed against the wood again and again, blood spilling from my nose and mouth, the taste of metal and bile flooding my throat.

Tommy laughed maniacally. “Hahaha! Look at this bastard scream. Bet you moan just like this when you’re serving that old hag too.”

His rage only grew. He barked orders to his cronies, who pinned me down hard. “You want to steal food? Fine. Then I’ll break your hands.”

I screamed in horror, “Tommy, don’t you dare!”

But it was too late. He raised the heavy soup pot and brought it crashing down on my hands. Pain shot through all ten fingers like bolts of lightning. I could only watch, helpless, as my fingers twisted and bent at grotesque angles. And then—like a flash of fury—Oliver leapt into the air.

Fur puffed, claws out, my cat launched itself at Tommy’s face and slashed at him.

“Agh! You little beast!” Tommy roared and kicked Oliver hard, sending the cat flying across the room.

“Oliver!” Through the blinding pain, I forced myself free and scrambled to protect my cat, shielding its tiny body with my own.

“Don’t touch my cat! If Sandra finds out, she’ll never let you off the hook!”

Oliver wasn’t just a pet. It was a living memory—something my grandmother left behind before she passed. It meant everything to me.

In fact, the last patriarch of the Wilson Family once stepped on Oliver by accident. I so much as frowned—and he was immediately stripped of his position by the elders for disrespecting the family senior. Now? He’s begging for scraps.

Sandra knew all this. That’s why she’d go out of her way to win Oliver over—walking the cat, cleaning up its litter, even catching its diarrhea with her bare hands just to earn my trust.

“Wait... I’ve seen that cat before,” someone muttered. “I swear I saw it on the news—belongs to the Wilson Family. Looks exactly the same.”

A flicker of doubt passed through the crowd. But Tommy’s face only twisted deeper in rage.

“Oh, so now this loser thinks he can scare me?”

“There are plenty of cats that look the same. Just like him—it’s a filthy stray. Even if it is the Wilson Family’s cat, so what?”

“You think Sandra would throw me under the bus for a damn cat?”

A cold smirk crept across Tommy’s face as he exchanged a glance with his lackeys.

“Kill that filthy beast. I’ll take full responsibility.”

Their crazed laughter echoed off the walls as several boots came down hard on my body. My face was smashed into the floor, pressed and twisted under their soles until I could barely recognize myself. I watched helplessly, eyes wide with horror, as Tommy raised his foot. And just like that—Oliver was gone.

“NOOO!”

My scream ripped through the room, raw and broken, as I watched my cat’s fragile body go limp. Tommy turned toward me, his face warped with venomous satisfaction.

“Little pest handled. Now it’s time for the bigger one.”

Without another word, he yanked off his belt and began lashing it across my face. Again and again, each strike landed with a brutal crack, his voice gleeful as he counted.

“One! Two! Three! Hahaha, look at him! His face is swelling up like a pig’s head!”

“Let me add in my ‘Pretty Boy Punches,” one of the cronies joked, landing slap after slap.

My lips split open, swollen and numb. I couldn’t even feel them anymore. Blood and broken teeth slid down my chin like water. The agony turned everything inside my head to static. I could barely make out their words.

Still, I forced my busted lips to move. Somehow, I managed to speak through the pain.

“I... am Wilson’s great-grandfather. If you treat me like this... the Wilson Family will never let you walk out of here alive.”

Tommy burst into laughter, spitting in my face.

“Just because your last name is Wilson, that makes you his great-grandfather? Then I must be the ancestor of the whole Wilson surname! Let me honor my ancestors by tearing that lying rat mouth of yours apart!”

Suddenly, a firm voice cut through the chaos. “Who’s causing this racket?”

Everyone froze. We turned to see a man in the Wilson Family steward’s uniform standing in the doorway, exuding authority and presence. My heart leapt. Hope sparked in my chest.

“Steward! It’s me! I’m Danny!”

For the first time, Tommy’s followers hesitated. Their grip loosened slightly.

“Wait… is he actually someone important?”

The steward looked me up and down, then scoffed.

“Some filthy beggar off the streets? I’ve never seen him before in my life.”

“Use your brains, will you? The Wilson Family’s great-grandfather would be what—eighty or ninety years old? This kid hasn’t even grown all his hair yet and you believe he’s that guy?”

Of course he didn’t recognize me. Only the innermost circle of the Wilson Family had ever seen my real face. This steward was new. A nobody. Hope crashed to the floor like shattered glass.

Tommy sneered, hocking up a glob of phlegm and spitting it straight into my face. Then he turned and gave the steward a thumbs-up. “Smart man. That’s my dad right there.”

And just like that, everything made sense. Tommy’s arrogance, his recklessness—he wasn’t acting alone. He was hiding behind the steward’s authority the whole time. A blaze of fury ignited in my gut. My vision turned red as I glared at the man who dared stand in my house like he owned it.

“You let a stranger into the Wilson estate without the master’s permission? You’ve got some nerve.”

SMACK! Another slap from Tommy. More blood, more teeth gone.

“I am the future master of the Wilson Family. I go where I want, when I want.”

“Now shut your damn mouth. You’re ruining the vibe.”

They tied me up again—tight this time. Duct tape wound around my mouth, layer after suffocating layer. I couldn’t move. My head was shoved down, humiliated beneath their crotches as they laughed and rubbed against my face like animals.

Then something caught Tommy’s eye. My phone. He picked it up from the floor and used my bloody fingertip to unlock it. His face twisted with disbelief as he opened the photo gallery.

“You’ve got some imagination, don’t you? You actually Photoshopped yourself into pictures with Sandra?! You’re fantasizing about her this hard?! Even I haven’t gotten this close to her and you made it look like you’re her boyfriend?”

“Wait, wait, look at this one—a whole family photo and this clown photoshopped himself in the center. Playing make-believe in his little billionaire fantasy!”

He swiped through more images, then turned the screen to his friends.

“Who knows how much other perverted crap he’s hiding in here. We have to teach this sick creep a lesson.”

The goons gathered around him, whispering, laughing under their breath. Planning something even worse.