Jenny stepped back after saying that.

Several men approached me and forced me to kneel down.

"How could a pet stand? It should be on all fours."

"Come on, bark twice."

I was furious and disgusted. I bit onto Jake's wrist and managed to bite off a piece of flesh. Jake let out a scream and slapped me in the face after breaking free. The slap split the corner of my mouth open.

Still unsatisfied with the slap, he straddled me and strangled my neck, punching me in the face with one punch after another. The pain overwhelmed all my senses, and blood stained everything in sight. I felt like I was about to be killed.

Someone seemed to open the door and push Jake away.

"Mom! Stop it! How could you do this to Aaron? He's my husband! Aaron! Aaron! Are you okay?"

Driven by rage, Jake kicked Winona away. "Get out of my way! How dare he bite off a piece of my flesh? I'm not a man if I don't kill him today!"

Jenny grabbed Winona too. "Why feel sorry for a vicious man who'd send your mother to jail? If you help him, I'll never forgive you!"

I weakly raised my head and looked at Jenny. I could not figure out why she hated me so much, even wanting me to die. After marrying Winona, I had even bought her quite a lot of gold and jewelry.

Even if I was going to die, I wanted to die knowing why. "Just because I didn't pay you 326 dollars for Christmas Eve dinner, you want me dead?"

Jenny raised her chin and said matter-of-factly, "Yes! It's all because you didn't pay for Christmas Eve dinner and tried to freeload! So what if you have money? Since you married my daughter, you have to follow the rules of the Zachary family!"

I suddenly realized that this really was not about the 326 dollars.

My mother-in-law had tried to intimidate me on Christmas Eve but failed and was humiliated, so she held onto it. She also believed that only a submissive son-in-law was good. Therefore, she wanted to break Winona and me up so that Winona could find her a more submissive son-in-law.

She could not tolerate anyone preventing her from asserting her authority.

Besides, Jenny finally felt she could exercise her rights as my mother-in-law. She was extremely arrogant as she ordered the men around, "Are you going to discipline this slave or not? If not, quickly strip him naked and throw him out! We'll see if any woman will want to marry him after this!"

When I resisted, the men became even more determined to teach me a lesson and forced me to kneel down.

I was outnumbered and already exhausted from the beating, so I was quickly pinned to the ground like a slave. My mouth was even pressed against his shoe. They humiliated me enough before stripping me naked to throw me out.

Winona looked conflicted, wanting to stop them, but afraid to intervene because of Jenny.

I completely gave up on her as I curled up in despair, covering my vital part.

Just as they were about to throw me out naked, the door was kicked open.

"Don't move! Police!"

Immediately afterward, my father rushed in and kicked Jake aside. "Don't be afraid. We're here!"