Chapter 4

I raced back to the hospital. From down the hall, I could see a crowd swarming outside the room.

I shoved my way through. My elderly mother was shielding Chloe with her own body, surrounded by four or five grown men.

Leading the pack was Chloe’s homeroom teacher, pulling on my mother’s arm, trying to force her to sign a document.

"Get your hands off her!"

As they turned their heads, I grabbed an empty metal IV pole from the next bed and cracked it down over the nearest guy’s skull.

He dropped to the floor, howling in agony.

I swung the heavy pole through the air, creating a barrier of steel. Nobody dared to take a step forward.

Seeing their hesitation, I turned all my fury on the guy writhing on the ground, beating him mercilessly.

"Take one more step, and this is what happens to you!"

Realizing they were dealing with a lunatic out for blood, the rest of the men scattered, scrambling toward the doorway.

Guilt written all over his face, the teacher hastily tried to tuck the settlement waiver behind his back. But I had already seen it.

"You bastard!"

I snatched the papers from his hands and tore them to shreds.

Backing toward the doorway, the teacher couldn't resist barking at me one last time.

"Why are you being so unreasonable?! This incident has severely damaged the school’s reputation!"

"If you just sign the agreement and drop all charges against the school and the other family, we can handle this quietly!"

"And now you tear it up? The kids don't know any better, but you're an adult! Do you still want your daughter to have a future in this district? Do you want to survive in this city at all?!"

I couldn't believe this was coming from someone who claimed to be an educator.

Trembling with lingering fear, my mother cried out,

"They just don't want to take responsibility! They wouldn't let the doctors examine Chloe, and they snatched my phone so I couldn't reach you!"

"I begged them to give it back, but they ignored me. If someone hadn't threatened to call 911, they would have thrown an old woman and a sick child out into the street!"

The teacher sneered, completely indifferent.

Shaking with rage, I grabbed him by the collar, winding up and slapping him twice across the face with everything I had.

If hospital security hadn't tackled me back, I would have dragged him into the bathroom and shoved his head down a toilet.

Late into the night.

Traumatized by the chaos, Chloe had slipped back into unconsciousness.

When she finally woke up, tears rolled down her cheeks before she could even utter a word.

Her tiny, fragile hand weakly gripped my thumb.

"Chloe, it's Mommy. I'm right here."

"Mommy..."

Hearing her fragile whimper, my heart shattered into a million pieces.

"Don't be scared, baby. Mommy is protecting you."

"Mommy..."

"They kept hitting me."

My fists clenched until my knuckles turned white.

Those two monsters had been verbally and physically abusing Chloe for months. No reason. Just for their own sick entertainment.

Chloe had tried to fight back, but she was outmatched and outnumbered.

Once, she tried to run away. When they caught her, they forced her to eat...

I couldn't bear to hear another word.

After rocking my daughter to sleep, I walked up to the rooftop alone.

I slapped myself repeatedly across the face, screaming inside, asking what the hell I had been doing with my life.

Because I grew up enduring grueling martial arts training, I promised myself that once I had Chloe, I would protect her like a princess.

Yet Chloe never acted spoiled.

Whenever I was away, she cleaned the house on her own and stayed on top of her schoolwork without me ever having to nag her.

After my divorce, wanting to give Chloe the best education possible, I enrolled her in the most prestigious private academy in town.

To afford the steep tuition, I worked as a long-haul trucker, staying on the road for days at a time.

Her grandmother would stop by to drop off groceries, but Chloe was alone most of the time. I could only FaceTime her at night.

Every single time I returned from a haul, Chloe would greet me with her sweet, delicate voice: "Mommy, you worked so hard. Welcome home."

And now, she didn't even have the strength left to cry...