The room went silent.

Every eye landed on Samuel.

Even Thomas and Carissa were frowning at him now, and there was something cold in their stares.

The little maid, too, kept her terrified eyes fixed on Samuel.

The truth was, she wanted to look at me. She was terrified precisely because she understood better than anyone that she wanted to smear me and simply couldn't control it.

But she couldn't fix on me, so her gaze drifted naturally to the nearest target instead. Samuel.

Which made it look, to everyone else, like she was afraid Samuel would take his revenge.

Samuel was no fool. Even cornered like this, he stayed remarkably calm. “This, this…… Mandy, are you possessed or something?”

He'd wanted to keep the maid slandering me a while longer, but he'd sensed how wrong this was, and didn't dare let her run her mouth anymore.

Carissa was the superstitious type, and with the maid acting this strangely, she said at once, “She's definitely possessed. Get her to a hospital first, then find someone who can look at her properly!”

Thomas wasn't superstitious, but he wanted to turn this page just as badly, and quickly agreed. “Somebody, get this possessed girl out of here!”

Then he turned to the guests. :

“My apologies, everyone. It seems someone in the household has been possessed!”

“With something like this happening, let's call the reunion here for tonight!”

Not one of them believed the maid was truly possessed, but no one called it out. They exchanged a few pleasantries and left, one after another.

Soon there were no outsiders left in the mansion.

I sat on the sofa. Across from me were Thomas and Carissa, their faces livid, furious.

Samuel stood off to the side, crying without stopping, explaining without stopping.

“Dad, Mom, I never said any of those things!”

“I think, I think Mandy must have been forced by someone.”

As he spoke he turned his eyes toward me, trying to steer our parents into suspecting me.

But that malice-filled stare of his slid right past me and landed on my mother instead.

Thomas and I looked at Carissa, our eyes full of scrutiny.

Carissa jabbed a finger at her own nose. “Why are you looking at me? Samuel, what are you saying? Are you telling me I forced that maid to frame the two of you?”

I said, angry, :

“Samuel, Mom treats you better than she treats me, her own son. How dare you suspect her?”

“And Mom has no motive for it. What would she gain from forcing someone to frame you and Dad?”

Thomas frowned, thinking it over, as if trying to find a motive for Carissa to have done such a thing.

“Mom, that's not what I meant.”

Samuel was frantic and wanted to explain right away, but what came out of his mouth was something else entirely. :

“My brother grew up out there, he's seen nothing of the world, he's easy to handle!”

“My sister's adopted, and she'll be married off sooner or later, so she's no threat!”

“Get rid of me and Dad, and that vile woman Carissa gets her hands on the whole Swanson fortune, and can funnel it all to her own relatives!”

Thomas and Carissa's faces couldn't have looked worse, staring at Samuel in utter disbelief.

I feigned shock. “Mom's been this good to you, and you go making up vicious things about her, and calling her a vile woman on top of it?”

"I think Samuel's possessed too!"

Carissa spat the words through her teeth, and every trace of the doting she'd shown Samuel was gone from her eyes.

Samuel shot me a venomous look. What he really wanted was to keep glaring at me, but malice can never fix on me.

He didn't dare say anything more, afraid he'd start babbling nonsense again, so he just lowered his head and shut his mouth.

Carissa stood and said to my father, "Find some kind of exorcist to take a look at Samuel!"

Then she got up and left.

Thomas, though, lit a cigarette and suddenly said to Samuel, "Samuel, Dad knows you're not possessed. What you laid out just now, Dad agrees with every word of it. She's funneled plenty of money to her own family over the years!"

Samuel's eyes went wide, his whole face full of grievance, desperate to say he hadn't laid out anything at all.

But he was too afraid of misspeaking, so he could only keep his mouth shut.

Thomas didn't want to dwell on the subject. He turned to me instead.

"Your enrollment's already been transferred to Riverton High."

"Tomorrow morning, you'll go to school with Samuel."

"I know you don't care for studying, and I don't expect much from you. Just show up and coast. That's enough!"

With that, he stood and walked off.

It left just me and Samuel in the living room.

He said to me through gritted teeth, "Brother, when you get to school tomorrow, I've got a surprise for you!"

I nodded. "I'm looking forward to it."

Back in my room, I lay on the bed and couldn't sleep.

Before they found me, I'd had hopes for this family. Who doesn't want their real parents?

But in the days since I came back, these parents of mine treated their adopted son better, and I could understand that much. They'd raised him for close to twenty years.

But they were harsh with me, looked down on me from the bottom of their hearts, and were full of malice toward me...

If that was how it was, why bother finding me at all?

I've never been one to fight for anything. But if someone tries to hurt me, then sorry, I'll hit back with the worst malice I've got.

The next morning.

I finished breakfast, and when I got ready to head to school, I learned Samuel had already taken a car and gone.

And before he left, he'd sent out every car the house could spare.

Trying to leave me with no ride, so I'd be late?

I didn't dwell on it. I ordered an Uber and went to school.

No surprise, I was late.

But the moment I stepped into the classroom, the door was locked from the outside.

And there was only one girl inside.

She wore a white blouse with a black pleated skirt, black over-the-knee socks on her legs.

She had the kind of face that usually looked cold, but right now her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were hazy and inviting.

And the instant she saw me, she came running straight for me.

I thought of what Samuel had said last night. So this was the surprise he had for me?

This girl had obviously been drugged.

Meanwhile, Samuel and his lackeys were smoking in the stairwell.

One heavyset boy said, "Sam, that hick Lawrence just went in."

"Like you said, he's never seen anything of the world. Lucy's got the body, she's not bad-looking either. She'll get him for sure!"

"And then Lucy's whole nasty disease gets passed right to him!"

Samuel gave a cold laugh, then asked, "What about Kate Pruitt?"

The fat boy licked his lips and grinned.

"Locked in a classroom by us. Dosed too."

"Sam, before you go in, take your pill as well."

"After you and Kate get it done, we'll say Lawrence drugged the two of you to set you up."

"Once you and Kate are past the point of no return, you'll be the Pruitts' prized son-in-law, and that hick Lawrence takes the fall!"

"Heh heh heh, with how the Pruitts operate, Lawrence is a dead man!"

"That way the Swansons and the Pruitts both belong to you, Sam!"

Samuel took out a pink pill and swallowed it, walking toward one of the classrooms.

"A hick, and he thinks he can go up against me?"

"Even if he's the real young master, does he have my kind of planning?"

By the time he pushed the classroom door open, his mind was already going hazy, but he didn't forget to give an order.

"Fatty, just to be safe, pump some gas into Lawrence's classroom!"

"Make absolutely sure Lawrence sleeps with Lucy. Make absolutely sure he catches the disease!"

The heavyset boy nodded at once and pulled out a remote control, pressing it.

Inside the classroom just then, I had one hand braced against the cold-faced girl's forehead, my right hand swinging down hard.

Slap!

One heavy blow, and the cold-faced girl surfaced a little.

She looked at me, dazed. "You... who are you? Why did you hit me? I feel so dizzy..."

Seeing her about to fade out again, I slapped her once more. "Looks like someone drugged you..."

"What? Drugged?"

The girl gasped and gripped my arm. "My name's Kate. Help me, call my father..."

Hiss...

Right then, pink gas suddenly gushed out of the vent.

The moment I caught that sweet, cloying smell, my head went foggy fast.

5、

The pink gas hit hard.

My mind went to chaos almost at once.

But some of it still reached me. It felt like I was kissing someone, and because she wasn't practiced at it, she'd split my lip somehow. It stung, and there was the taste of blood.

Then warmth, softness, and a happiness I couldn't put into words.

When I came back to myself, there was a weight on my chest. I opened my eyes and it was the cool, aloof girl, lying against me.

And I seemed to be flat on my back across a desk.

Then I saw her wake up too.

She looked at me and blinked, dazed at first, and because her lashes were so long, the blinking was strangely lovely to watch.

Then her face twisted, as if she'd remembered something terrible.

Right before she could scream, I got out, “Someone set us up. We were drugged!”

The scream jammed in her throat. It was a wonder she managed to stay calm at all. “You, you, and I, so we, we did it?”

I steadied her upright and eased her off the desk as gently as I could.

She sat there with her legs drawn up, tears in her eyes, blood on her thighs.

She followed my gaze and saw the blood too, and the tears spilled all at once, in big heavy drops, her whole face crumpling with how wronged she was.

“There's nothing I can say except I'm sorry……”

I said it, sick with guilt. “And I'll find whoever did this to us. I'll get justice for you, and for myself!”

“But why would anyone hurt us for no reason?”

Kate cried until she couldn't get the words out.

Bang, bang, Bang! Before I could answer, someone was pounding on the door.

The next moment it was kicked open and a crowd surged in.

Thomas Swanson and Carissa Butler, a middle-aged couple, and a good number of people from the school packed the front of the classroom in an instant.

“Kate!”

The couple took one look at the state of her and rushed over. Her parents, they had to be.

Kate threw herself into her mother's arms and wept, wretched with it.

Mr. Pruitt shot me a furious look. “What did you do to my daughter?”

Narelle Pruitt screamed, “You even have to ask? He laid a hand on my daughter. He dies!”

Mr. Pruitt turned to Thomas Swanson. “Swanson. This is the son you raised. You deal with him. If he doesn't die, your company goes under.”

Thomas barely hesitated. “Rest assured, Mr. Pruitt. I'll see to it this animal dies!”

Carissa jumped in at once. “That's right, Mr. Pruitt. Yes, he's our own flesh and blood, but he was switched at birth as a baby. We never got to raise him or teach him a thing, so none of this is our fault!”