Chapter 1

My daughter was beaten into a coma. The scars all over her body were terrifying.

The monster who did it stood there smirking, showing zero remorse.

Her parents even had the nerve to claim my daughter started it—that their precious child was just acting in self-defense.

My daughter's homeroom teacher kept pressuring me to sign a settlement, telling me not to ruin the school's reputation over such a "minor incident."

A minor incident? I stared at the human trash standing before me.

Since it’s just a minor incident, none of you need to get involved.

I’ll collect this blood debt myself!

By the time I rushed to the hospital, Chloe was lying in bed, completely unconscious.

I couldn't believe my eyes. Underneath the stark white blanket was my little girl’s battered, bruised body.

Just this morning, she had waved goodbye to me with the sweetest smile before walking through the school gates.

Now, she was lying on blood-stained sheets, tangled in tubes, wearing an oxygen mask, lingering between life and death.

The doctor told me her injuries were severe: a perforated eardrum and signs of blunt force trauma to the head.

He also said that the CT scan revealed a shard of glass embedded near her heart.

Before he could even finish, my legs gave out, and I collapsed onto the floor.

"Doctor... can you get it out?"

He frowned, looking grim.

"I can't make any promises."

"Her condition is extremely critical right now."

I nearly blacked out. It took a nurse pulling me up by the arm for me to stay on my feet.

After more than five agonizing hours of emergency surgery, the doctor finally came out in the early morning. He told me the shard near her heart had been removed.

The surgery was a success, but tiny glass fragments were still lodged around the surrounding tissue.

She would need more operations down the line.

During this time, the police showed me a video.

It captured every single second of Chloe being bullied.

On the screen, Chloe’s clothes were violently torn. She was curled up in a corner, trembling with pure terror.

A girl walked up to her, grabbed a trash can, and dumped it directly over her head. Filthy garbage showered Chloe from head to toe.

Chloe tried to push the trash away, only to take a vicious kick to the chest.

The camera shifted. Chloe was on the floor, clutching her stomach and writhing in agony.

Then, a pair of hands grabbed her by the hair, yanking her up.

Slap! Slap! Slap!

A relentless barrage of slaps rained down on her, accompanied by vile laughter. She couldn't fight back; she could only take it.

"What a pathetic bitch. Does whatever we tell her to do."

"Right? Always playing the victim. Look at her—she definitely knows how to lead guys on."

The vile filth spewing from their mouths went on and on.

In the shaky footage, Chloe’s face became swollen and bruised until she finally collapsed, completely limp on the floor.

Yet those monsters still weren't finished.

At the very end of the video, a girl picked up a jagged piece of broken glass from the floor and drove it into Chloe’s back, aiming right for her heart.

Blood and glass shards splattered everywhere. Chloe lay there silently, the screen cutting to a chilling, suffocating stillness.

The video ended. I only had one thought left in my mind.

I’m going to kill them.

What they did was completely inhumane.

Shoving glass toward a person's heart without a single shred of hesitation...

My poor Chloe had grown completely numb to their abuse. This was clearly not the first time she had suffered this kind of torment.

Right then, the homeroom teacher called, urging me to get to the school immediately.

When I arrived, I saw the two little monsters. They were standing there, giggling and chatting like nothing had happened.

I recognized one of them. She was the one who had stabbed Chloe with the glass.

Her name was Kaylee, and she sat right behind Chloe in class.

Sitting next to the teacher was a middle-aged couple. When I walked in, they merely shot me a glance before turning back to talk to the school administrators.

The father kept repeating the same tired excuses.

"They're just kids messing around." "We're so busy with work, we can't watch her every second..."

Rage surged through me, but what came next made my blood boil completely.

The two monsters admitted they beat my daughter in the classroom. Their reason? Simple: she just annoyed them.

"Sorry."

The hollow, careless apology only made it worse.

"What kind of attitude is that? Kaylee, apologize properly to the lady and tell her you won't do it again."

Kaylee looked up, rolling her eyes with pure disgust. "I said sorry, alright?"

Then she turned to the police officer standing nearby.

"Which hospital is that little bitch in, anyway? I didn't even get to slap her today!"

The veins on my forehead bulged. I snapped, lunging straight at Kaylee. I kicked her clean off her feet. She slammed hard into the wall, and I followed up with a vicious kick straight to her head.

Blow after blow, kick after kick—my mind was consumed by the video of her slapping Chloe over and over again.