On the third day I was brought back to my family, the fake heir, Christopher Parker, gets into a car crash in order to frame me as the mastermind. His mental state has deteriorated to one belonging to an eight-year-old.

My older sister, Eliza Parker, thinks that I'm the one who hired someone to hit Christopher with a car. Because of that, she hates my guts and torments me endlessly.

In order to take care of Christopher, Eliza eats with him and sleeps beside him every day. As for me, I'm used as the human mat that they can step on anytime they want.

I'm arranged to take care of Christopher so that I can atone for my sins. As long as Christopher reveals an aggrieved expression, I'll get whipped ten times regardless of the cause.

I thought Eliza would find out the truth sooner or later. But in her haste to cure Christopher, she actually decides to send me to an underground lab as a test subject for their experiments just because the doctors there claim that the medication can help restore Christopher's mental state.

Five years later, Eliza finally comes to pick me up. A mocking smile is etched onto her face as she sees how haggard I am.

"You should recognize your faults by now. It's been five years, after all. If you dare lay a finger on Christopher after coming home with me, I'll definitely send you back here."

I raise my head hazily, tears soon seeping out of my eyes due to how bright the light is.

Then, I mutter softly, "There won't be a next time…"

Eliza won't have to worry about me seizing a chance to hurt her beloved Christopher.

After all, the drug experiments conducted on me for the past five years have already ruined my body. There are only seven days left in my life span.

Eliza Parker brought her brother, Christopher Parker, along when she came to pick me up.

The dim basement was brighter than it had ever been in five years.

When she saw the tears glistening on my face in the sunlight, Eliza thought I was trying to win sympathy, and her expression immediately turned to disgust.

"Don't think putting on that look will make me feel sorry for you. You deserve all of this. If you hadn't hired someone to hit Christopher back then, he wouldn't be like this now."

Whenever she recalled what had happened, Eliza still felt her blood boil. She slapped me hard across the face, and my already battered face gained yet another wound.

Humiliated, I lowered my head and swallowed the bitter blood pooling in my throat.

Seeing that I wasn't resisting, Eliza frowned and turned to the staff member nearby.

"Christopher has been in this demented, foolish state for five years. Isn't the medicine you promised me ready yet?"

As she spoke, she tenderly stroked Christopher's face.

Christopher looked at me smugly, a shrewd glint flickering in his eyes from time to time.

That familiar look instantly dragged me back into the past. Every time he wore that expression, it meant I was about to be whipped.

At the thought of the pain from those days, I flinched.

Christopher smiled with satisfaction.

Meanwhile, the researcher of the basement laboratory, Gene Harding, chuckled at Eliza's words and cast a meaningful glance over Christopher.

"I told you that as long as you handed Sutton Parker over to me for five years, Christopher would definitely recover. Here's the medicine—take it home with you. After seven days, Christopher will be back to normal."

Eliza's eyes widened in surprise and delight as she reached out to take the medicine from Dr. Harding's hand.

However, he pulled back slightly at that moment and said meaningfully, "It's just that Sutton might—"

"Might what?" Eliza had no intention of listening. She simply snatched the medicine from Dr. Harding's hand and left with Christopher in tow.

Just then, Dr. Harding called out to her.

Eliza turned back with an annoyed expression.

Dr. Harding pointed at me, sprawled on the ground, and asked mockingly, "Aren't you planning to take him back with you?"

Eliza paused for a moment, then mercilessly grabbed my arm and yanked me to my feet. But after just a few staggering steps, I stumbled and fell to the ground again.

Years of drug testing had long since deformed the bones throughout my body, and my skin and flesh were close to rotting away. Every single step was an immense torment to me.

I was in so much pain that I broke out in a cold sweat, and a whimper escaped my lips.

Seeing this, Christopher crouched down beside me with feigned innocence. A moment later, he suddenly burst into loud sobs.

"Eliza, Sutton bit me!"

Eliza's expression immediately darkened.

"Sutton, five years have passed, and you still refuse to mend your ways?"

"My teeth were pulled out a long time ago," I replied with great difficulty.

So, how could I possibly bite Christopher?

Over the course of five years, I was tortured repeatedly—my limbs broken and reset, my flesh sliced open, and my body completely ruined.

In order to survive, I was reduced to fighting dogs for food.

When I truly felt I could barely hold on any longer, I went to great lengths to steal Dr. Harding's phone. I tried to get Eliza to bring me home, but what I got in return was her immediate refusal.

"You must pay the price for what you've done. Just stay there and be the test subject for Christopher's drugs. And quit plotting to come back and replace him!"

When I heard those words, I finally gave up all hope. Perhaps it would have been better for me if I had never been found and brought back in the first place.

Afraid that I might sneak out, Eliza even called Dr. Harding.

From then on, Dr. Harding became even stricter on his surveillance over me.

To punish me for my disobedience, he even pulled out my teeth, leaving me able to survive only by lapping up liquid food.

I never imagined that the punishment from back then would now become the very proof to clear my name.

A complicated expression flickered across Eliza's face as she looked at me and reached out to help me up.

But behind her, Christopher raised his arm and burst into loud wails.

"Sutton is lying! I was clearly bitten! It hurts so much!"

At this, Eliza's gaze toward me turned icy once more.

"Sutton, Christopher has already been reduced to a demented fool, so how could he possibly lie? It seems you still feel no remorse. I was planning to let you stay in a room upstairs, but now, it seems you're only fit to be locked in the basement. Only then can you be kept from hurting Christopher."

Hearing this, I became like a lifeless slab of meat, losing all strength to struggle.

"When we get back, you'll go straight to the basement and stay there like a good little prisoner. Don't even think about coming out until Christopher recovers."

Dr. Harding looked at me with pity and said in a low voice, "It seems it's simply your fate to spend the final seven days of your life in the basement."

No one heard Dr. Harding's words except for me, lying on the floor.

The moment we arrived back at the house, Eliza couldn't wait to hand me over to the butler, Jeremy Bowen.

"Lock Sutton in the basement. Don't let him out until Christopher has recovered," she ordered icily.

Jeremy nodded repeatedly. Once Eliza had left, he looked at me with utter disgust.

"You're hard to kill, I'll give you that. Even after five years, you're still not dead. And you even managed to come back. To think you could do this to someone as kind as Mr. Christopher—you're worse than an animal!"

The corner of my mouth lifted slightly. His contempt came as no surprise to me.

From the very moment I was found and brought back, I knew full well that no one in the Parker family liked me. To them, Christopher was the true heir of this house.

Jeremy threw me roughly into the basement.

I curled up into a ball. Under Jeremy's merciless handling, several more of my bones had snapped.

The pain left me trembling uncontrollably. I dragged myself with great difficulty onto the familiar bed and pulled the last few painkillers I had from my pocket. Then, I popped them into my mouth.

Looking at the familiar scene before me, I couldn't help but laugh.

The Parker family possessed vast wealth, and Eliza was even renowned as the richest person in Stoneham.

Christopher spent all his years in the Parker family getting whatever he wanted and was raised in the lap of luxury. And yet I, the biological brother who had been found and brought back, lived in this cold, damp basement.

When I was first brought back, I had a room of my own too.

But all it took was for Christopher to say pitifully, "Eliza, I don't want Sutton near me. Are you going to send me away now?" for Eliza to lock me up in the basement.

After Christopher got into a car accident while trying to frame me, things went from bad to worse. I became nothing more than a penitent slave, branded a sinner by the Parker family.

When Eliza learned that Christopher's brain had been damaged in the crash and that he was left with only the intelligence of an eight-year-old, she didn't hesitate to carry out the family punishment and had me flogged 99 times.

I was still barely clinging to life when she dumped me onto Dr. Harding, all because he said he could cure Christopher.

And so, I was tormented year after year.

The pain of the memories made me tremble uncontrollably. I clutched the painkillers in my hand and let myself imagine that I had never returned to this family.

Just then, someone suddenly reached out from beside me and slapped my hand hard, snatching the painkillers away.

I looked up in horror and saw Christopher's vicious face. His eyes were perfectly clear, brimming with mockery as he looked at me.

"Painkillers?"

Finding they were nothing more than painkillers, Christopher instantly lost interest.

"Give them back!" I roared hoarsely.

Seeing the desperation written all over my face, Christopher smirked cruelly.

"Are you in pain? Well, that makes sense. I did instruct Dr. Harding to use triple the dosage of every drug on you. Looks like he followed through. But why are you so hard to kill? How is it you're still alive after all that? I really didn't expect you'd survive and make it back to this rat hole."

With that, he threw the painkillers at his feet and gave a scornful sneer. Then, he crushed them one by one beneath his shoe.

"No!" I lunged at him desperately.

But with just a light shove from Christopher, I went crashing heavily into the corner of the wall.

With a sickening splat, I retched up a mouthful of blood.

Still not satisfied, Christopher kicked me viciously, his face twisted with malice.

"You jerk! Why did you have to be found and brought back? If you hadn't shown up, I would be the heir of this family! You made me play a fool for five years! You good-for-nothing loser!"

I was kicked back and forth like a sack.

Just as I thought I was going to die right there, a sound suddenly came from the doorway.

A ruthless glint flashed in Christopher's eyes, and he threw himself straight into the wall. In an instant, a fresh gash appeared on his head.

"Sutton, I only wanted to play with you! Why did you push me into the wall?" Christopher cried out, his expression turning childlike once more.

A terrible sense of foreboding washed over me. Ever since I had been brought back, Christopher had used tricks like this a thousand times over.

Sure enough, I was slapped viciously on the face in the next second.

"Sutton, I would have thought five years would teach you to behave, but it turns out you're just inherently wicked. Christopher is just a child right now, and yet you still had the heart to hurt him! If I had known it could come to this, I should never have brought you back!"

I collapsed onto the ground and looked at Eliza with bitter sarcasm.

"All four of my limbs have already been broken, so how could I possibly have dragged him into the wall?"

Eliza froze for a brief moment, a flicker of hesitation appearing in her eyes.

But beside her, Christopher refused to let go. "It was him! He's the one who dragged me into the wall! Eliza, he was perfectly fine just a moment ago. He must be lying to you! It hurts so much, Eliza."

Amid Christopher's sobbing, whatever faint wavering Eliza might have felt disappeared once more.

"Sutton, you never change, do you? You're still just as vicious as ever!"

She slapped me so hard she ruptured my eardrum. Now, all I could hear was muffled sounds.

Disappointment and disgust clouded Eliza's eyes, just like the day she was told Christopher had been in a car crash.

She had never once believed me.

I could no longer speak. Helplessly, I curled myself into a ball, bracing against the pain that might come.

Eliza pried my hands apart and dragged me out into the sunlight.

Jeremy and the other household staff began pointing their fingers at me.

My hearing was completely gone now, so I could only stand there blankly, watching them look at me with disgust.

"I always knew Sutton was trouble. First day back, and he's already going for Mr. Christopher. What a monster! If Ms. Parker hadn't brought him back, he'd still be out there somewhere begging on the streets. He doesn't know the first thing about gratitude."

Even though I couldn't hear, those words still echoed in my mind.

Ever since I was brought back, these were the exact things I was made to face every time I was framed.

No one would ever believe me.

The next second, I was struck by a familiar pain.

Amid Christopher's gleeful clapping, Eliza brought the whip down on my back again and again.

Unable to hold on any longer, I collapsed to the ground and threw up mouthful after mouthful of blood.

Yet, Eliza didn't slow in the slightest.

Only after the 99th lash had fallen was I dragged back into the basement like a dead dog.

Eliza looked down at me, her eyes brimming with disgust.

"Once Christopher has fully recovered in six days, I'll find another villa for you. Don't ever show your face in front of us again. I'll deposit money into your account every month. Consider it a payment for severing our ties."

My back burned with searing pain. As I realized what Eliza had just said, I stared at her face, and the words slipped out as if by some strange compulsion.

"I bet you'd be much happier now if you had never found me and taken me back."