Chapter 3

When we met again, Kaylee's parents had calmed down significantly.

The police informed them that pressing assault charges would require formal procedures, and since Kaylee was the one who initiated the severe bullying, making a scene wouldn't do them any favors.

The couple who had been screaming for my head were now glaring at me with nothing but bitter resentment.

Even if they couldn't send me to jail, they still demanded fifteen thousand dollars to settle out of court.

"Fifteen grand? How about I burn it for you in hell?"

Kaylee's mother sneered, her face twisting into a hideous scowl.

"Listen to me, you ungrateful bitch. Fifteen thousand is doing you a favor! Look at what you did to my family!"

Perhaps moved by a mother's instinct, a female officer standing nearby finally snapped.

"What about her daughter? Her little girl is still lying in a hospital bed, fighting for her life!"

But the words that came out of those vile parents' mouths next triggered another all-out brawl.

"Kids have fights all the time! They would've been fine in a few days! Why the hell did a grown woman have to stick her nose into it? Besides, there are so many girls in that class. Why did they only pick on her daughter? Her kid must have done something disgusting to provoke it."

"Exactly! She had it coming! My daughter taught her a lesson she deserved!"

To hell with consequences. Even if this was a police station, right in front of the cops, I was going to tear the skin off their faces.

I lunged forward, grabbing the woman's hair and yanking her down, using my momentum to plant a brutal front kick squarely into the man's gut.

The woman clawed and flailed, so I gripped her hair tighter, driving her head toward the wall.

The man scrambled to his feet, lunging to wrap his arms around me from behind. I bent my knees, dropped my center of gravity, and executed a textbook shoulder throw.

The man slammed hard against the floor with a sickening thud. I followed up with two heavy stomps to his ribs.

Kaylee's mother sprawled on the ground, shrieking hysterically at the cops. "What are you standing there for?! Arrest her! Arrest this crazy psycho!"

She scrambled toward me, grabbing my arms like a feral beast, baring her teeth to bite me. I ripped my arm back violently, shaking her off.

I looked down at my forearm—deep, bloody scratch marks. Pure adrenaline spiked in my veins.

Turning around, my eyes landed on a heavy wooden pen holder on the desk. I snatched it up, ready to cave the husband's skull in.

"Stop her! Restrain her now!"

The officers rushed in, finally pulling us apart. Looking at her husband lying there half-dead, Kaylee's mother screeched at the officers, her face red with fury.

"What the hell is wrong with you people?! You just stood there and watched her beat us! Are you in on this with her?!"

An officer gave her a cold look, glancing from the man on the floor to the raw, bleeding gouges on my arms.

"It was two against one. You didn't win, but this is clearly mutual combat."

Kaylee's mother completely lost her mind.

"I'm suing every single one of you!"

Nobody paid any attention to her hysterical ranting.

"You dare treat me like this? Do you have any idea who I am?!"

She kept screaming until she noticed the officers' faces darkening with sheer disgust, realizing she had crossed the line.

It wasn't until late afternoon that the police finally let us go.

Kaylee's mother supported her limping husband, leading a bloody-faced Kaylee out of the precinct.

Before leaving, she turned back and hissed at me, "Donna Miller, you just wait. This isn't over."

Seeing her still acting like hot shit, I grabbed a loose brick from the curb and tailed right behind them.

I had completely lost my mind. My only thought was one brick to each of their skulls, ending them once and for all.

My daughter was already broken. As long as I could get revenge for her, I didn't care if I spent the rest of my life in a cell.

Just then, my phone buzzed. It was my mother.

The background was deafeningly noisy, but one sentence pierced through loud and clear.

"Chloe's awake!"