Before I could retort, Adam looked at me admonishingly.

"Pierce, you grew up in a farming village from a young age, making you wretched and haggard-looking. You won't look good in a suit anyway.

"Besides, this is just a suit. Can't you let Charles have his way?"

After that, Adam dragged Charles away. "Our Charlie is so handsome! Charlie, if you ever get into a prestigious college, you'll definitely become the campus heartthrob!"

Adam had said such things in my previous life. But at that time, I still yearned for his love, so I didn't make out the underlying meaning in his words.

Only when the exam scores were released did I realize the actual truth.

At that moment, Genevieve glanced at her phone before piping up excitedly, "Mrs. Jackman and the others have arrived at the venue! Let's head out as well! Once the Jackmans find out that our family has produced a top scorer, it'll be easier to sort out the details of the marriage alliance with them!"

Then, Genevieve snuck a glance in my direction before continuing in a passive-aggressive manner, "But if Pierce's results are really bad, it'll be very humiliating for us."

I huffed coldly in return. Then, I shoved Charles away before saying, "Oh yeah, the McKinnons produce top scorers in every generation. But when it's Adam's generation, he didn't even get to study at a community college. That really is humiliating."

Adam's face turned bright red out of fury instantly. Before he could lash out at me, I quickly got into the Uber I had ordered.

"Let's leave."

I never wanted a man this useless and idiotic to be my father to begin with.

As soon as I walked into my high school, everyone began pointing at me while mumbling among themselves.

"Is that Pierce McKinnon, who claimed that he'd definitely get into a prestigious college?"

"Yup! It'll be hilarious if his scores say otherwise after he made that flashy declaration!"

I merely shrugged expressionlessly. I had already signed the admission letter anyway, so I wouldn't be the one who got humiliated later on.

Upon noticing my lack of reaction, everyone's expressions began to sour.

But when my parents entered the school grounds with Charles, everyone's expressions changed as they quickly flocked around them.

"Mr. Charles has inherited all of the McKinnons' good traits, that's for sure! Unlike a certain someone, who still puts on airs despite his ugliness!"

"That's right! Mr. Charles has good grades to begin with. I'm sure that his exam scores will make the McKinnons proud!"

"I'm so envious of you for having such an outstanding son, Mr. McKinnon!"

Adam continued smiling happily even though he heard those people making jabs at me.

When he reacted like that in my previous life, I wondered if I was his actual child. I even had a paternity test carried out behind his back.

In the end, as I stared at the report which confirmed my relationship with Adam, I finally understood that he was just biased against me the whole time.

Meanwhile, Charles walked toward me, looking as proud as a peacock. He asked loudly, "Pierce, if your previous grades are all fake, can you still get into a prestigious college?

"You already announced to the public that you'd be able to get into one. Do you realize how humiliating it will be for our family?

"How about this? We have 20 minutes until the scores are revealed. Why don't you apologize to the mass media and the entire Internet? Maybe everyone will still forgive you for your arrogance."

As soon as the other parents heard Charles, they shot to their feet instantly.

"His previous grades are all fake?"

"What's going on here? How could such a prestigious high school tolerate cheating?"

They got so agitated that they began lashing out at me. "How is this fair to our children?"

I was about to retort when a few students decided to join in on the slander.

"I can prove that Pierce often threatened the teachers using his status as a McKinnon scion and had them leak the exam questions to him!"

"Precisely! Ever since Pierce returned to the McKinnon family, he's been coming first in the entire school! Isn't this a little too hard to believe?"

Once again, I felt that my past self was incredibly foolish.

It was precisely due to the fact that I was accepted back into the McKinnon family that I pulled out all the stops when it came to studying.

In fact, I even skipped out on the opportunity to be admitted to a prestigious college right away without taking the college entrance exam just to prove to Adam that I was an outstanding student.

But I didn't expect to have such a nonsensical crime pinned on me because of my decision to take the entrance exam.

The reporters could tell that a hot topic was brewing, so they quickly surrounded me.

"Many students have claimed that you faked your previous grades. Are you really that confident that you will get into a prestigious college? Or did you make that declaration just to attract everyone's attention?"

"You shouldn't be that superficial. You can't just buy your way into a prestigious college, unlike high school."

I let out a soft chuckle before looking at Adam. My tone was filled with mockery as I said, "I will be receiving my admission letter today. As for Charles, the first thing he does is come up with rumors to slander me. He really is making the McKinnon family proud, huh?"

As soon as Adam heard my response, his expression darkened.

"What do you mean by 'slander'? Charlie has never been a liar!"

Charles guffawed in return. "Admission letter? The scores will only be revealed today! So where did this admission letter of yours come from, huh? I think you really have gone crazy!"

Genevieve's lips curled into a wide smile. "I know you've always been terribly jealous of Charlie this whole time, but that's no excuse for you to lie so blatantly.

"You should know that a live stream is being broadcast on national television today because of the exam scores. It's one thing for you to tarnish our family's reputation, but it's another for your high school to get dragged through the mud."

The Jackmans all frowned at her words.

Wendy walked past me immediately so that she could stand next to Charles. "Pierce has always been a poser. This act is nothing new."

Then, she turned to look at me in disdain. "As if you can get into a prestigious college! From the way I see it, it'll be good enough if you can get admitted into a regular community college!

"Here's a word of advice—you should just give up on fighting with Charlie for the chance to become the Jackmans' future son-in-law. I will never be attracted to someone like you."

Just as everyone thought that I'd grovel to Wendy just like I had done in my previous life, I laughed loudly in her face.

"You? Look down on me? How hilarious! Just how slow are you, huh? Don't you know how insignificant you actually are to me?"

"You little…" Wendy's eyes widened the moment she heard my insult. She was so furious that her face turned as red as a tomato.

Her mother, Emily Jenkins, was quick to berate me. "How dare a bastard child like you talk to my daughter so arrogantly?"

Snapping out of his trance, Adam shoved me in front of everyone. "You ingrate! Hurry up and apologize to the Jackmans right away!"

At that moment, my phone began buzzing.

Messages from Mom and Vanessa flooded my phone. It seemed that they had watched the live stream as well.

I was about to respond to the messages when Adam snatched my phone from me and hurled it to the ground.

"All you do is play on your phone at home! There's no way you can get into a prestigious college anyway!"

He then pointed at me, his voice starting to waver. "That day, when you claimed that you could get into a prestigious college, I was proud of you! But now, I want nothing more than to dig a hole and hide!

"The fact that the McKinnons have a pathetic descendant like you must be making all of our ancestors roll in their graves out of fury!"

As I stared at my phone, which had shattered into pieces, I let out a furious scoff.

"In that case, I'll revoke my identity as the McKinnons' so-called descendant. Hell, I can't wait to get rid of that label!"

As soon as my words fell, Adam slapped me hard across my face.

"How dare you talk back to me? There's a live stream going on today, right? Well, then I'll teach you a lesson in front of the entire Internet!"

Genevieve pretended to stop Adam from roughing me up more. In reality, she secretly stomped on my foot a few times with her high heels.

"Now, now, don't blame Pierce. He has an extremely rough upbringing, so it's completely normal for him to have developed such an awful personality.

"But Pierce, it's fine if you can't get into a prestigious college. At most, you can work as a driver at my company. I promise that you won't starve at all."

When I realized that Genevieve was about to stomp on my foot again, I kicked her in the side instantly, causing her to fall to the ground.

"You call yourself my mother? I don't have a mom like you!"

Charles was the first one to react by rushing toward Genevieve immediately. "Mom!"

Meanwhile, Adam drew a deep breath before attempting to slap me again. "You've gone overboard this time!"

My instincts kicked in, prompting me to sidestep the attack.

I had been spoiled and pampered by my adoptive family all my life. What made Adam think he had the right to lay a finger on me?

Realizing that he had missed his target, Adam was quick to put on a heartbroken expression.

"It seems that accepting you back into the family was a mistake! Since you never respected us and Charles, then you are no longer a son of the McKinnon family from now on!"

Wendy was the first one to applaud Adam's decision.

"Pierce has humiliated himself in front of the entire Internet. The Jackmans will never tolerate someone like him.

"Besides, everyone here knows that he has had a crush on me for the longest time ever. He's such a manipulative person to begin with. There's no telling what he'd do to Charlie in the future if we let him have his way!"

Her parents nodded as well.

At that moment, the huge monitor showed a countdown of ten seconds. Everyone quickly surrounded Charles, making him the star of the show.

"You'll definitely get into a prestigious college, Charlie!"

Charles glanced at me smugly. He then murmured, "See? Everything that belongs to you will soon be mine!"

But the moment the scores were shown on the monitor, everyone was stunned upon seeing Charles' single-digit score.

A look of disbelief took over Charles' features. He rushed forward to take a better look at his score.

"How could this be? This isn't my score at all!"

But he ended up triggering the hidden mechanism on the back of his pants, causing his pants to slide down his legs immediately. Just like that, his bare crotch was displayed for everyone to see.

At the same time, someone could be heard shouting from the outside.

"Which one of you is Pierce McKinnon? Your admission letter from Yarvyn College is here!"