Chapter 3

His beady eyes darted back and forth.

As if a sudden puzzle piece clicked in his head.

"No wonder Serena told me not to drop by here randomly! Turns out she actually registered your fingerprint!"

"What, you trying to play side piece here?!"

This was obviously an ultra-exclusive luxury neighborhood.

Brandon knew damn well that a supposed scrub like me couldn't possibly afford this place. The only logical explanation in his warped mind was that Serena had registered my fingerprint herself.

He actually thought I was trying to steal his girl?!

At that thought, rage shot straight to Brandon's head. He lunged forward and threw two hard punches straight at my face.

"And here I thought you were just a harmless loser, Cole! You really have the balls to steal another man's woman?! Living in my girl's villa?!"

"You shameless home-wrecking bitch!"

I was caught off guard by the sheer absurdity of it.

Steal his woman? Living in *his* woman's villa?

First of all, pulling out the marriage certificate would prove Serena and I were legally husband and wife.

Who was the actual homewrecker here wasn't even up for debate!

Second of all...

I bought this damn villa with my own money. The deed had my name on it. The biometric system was programmed with my fingerprint.

Was there an issue with that?

He was the delusional, illegitimate trespasser!

Looking at Brandon's righteous, arrogant confidence, I almost laughed out loud.

The other classmates looked back and forth with weird expressions. They glanced at me, then at Brandon, murmuring hesitantly:

"Brandon, could this be a misunderstanding? Look at Cole's scrawny, broke face. Who would ever look at him twice?"

"Yeah, I don't think your girl would have such terrible taste."

Brandon scoffed, grabbed my hand, and slammed my thumb against the scanner again. The door chimed with another successful recognition chime. He roared furiously:

"Serena told me she needed time before she could register my fingerprint!"

"And this bastard is already in the system! Goddammit, if he's not a side piece, what is he?! If he didn't seduce Serena, why the hell would she give him access?!"

The crowd was instantly convinced.

They turned on me with righteous indignation, swarming to corner me with pointed fingers. A couple of them even spat on the ground near my shoes in disgust.

"No wonder we couldn't reach him all these years. Turns out he's been hiding in the shadows being a kept boy!"

"Seducing a taken woman. Disgusting."

"Remember earlier at the airport? The second Brandon showed the photo, Cole blurted out her name. I thought it was weird back then..."

"He knew her all along and was actively homewrecking! Society is full of trash like you—that's why everything is so messed up!"

"Brandon!" I shoved off the hands grabbing at me, my eyes freezing over as I laid out the truth:

"This is *my* villa! It's *my* fingerprint!"

"You're the one who needs to get the hell out. You're the side piece!"

Hearing that, Brandon laughed out of pure fury.

He ordered two guys to shove me into the corner. His face twisted into a grotesque sneer, looking like he wanted to swallow me whole.

"Your villa?"

"Don't delude yourself into your own daydreams, you pathetic loser. Once a scrub, always a scrub."

"If this is really your villa, watch me smash it to pieces."

Brandon glanced around.

He picked up a few heavy stones from the landscaping and hurled them straight into the decorative glass paneling. Shattered shards rained down, leaving massive holes.

Then he stomped right over to the garden beds.

"I'm warning you—those are newly cultivated hybrid species worth tens of millions. You can't even buy them on the market..."

"Can you even afford to pay for that?!"

I glared daggers at Brandon as he raised his boot toward my prized, rare botanical collection.

"Oh, look at you!" Brandon sneered contemptuously, raising his chin to look down his nose at me with mocking pity. "Acting like it's real. You care about this place that much, huh?"

"Then I'm definitely trashing it!"

I quickly whipped out my phone, furiously dialing community security and property management. But before I could get two sentences out, someone snatched the phone from my hand.

Brandon waved a hand at the classmates. Taking their cue, they grabbed whatever tools, shovels, and metal rods they could find from the lawn and began gleefully tearing the front courtyard apart.

Several hands pinned me tightly against the wall.

I couldn't move an inch.

I had to watch helplessly as they completely destroyed my hard work.

Old classmates showed no mercy. Desperate to kiss Brandon's ass, they wrecked the courtyard with sick enthusiasm.

"Fucker actually claimed this was his house! Just a cheap gigolo spreading his legs, and you dare step on Brandon's toes?!"

"Serena must have been blinded by his lies. We need to help Brandon blow off some steam. We can't let this punk act so cocky!"

"You're all going to pay for this!" I snarled.

*Slap!*

Brandon struck me across the face, his patience completely gone.

"Who the hell do you think you are? Making me pay?!"

He pulled a permanent red marker from his pocket and scribbled large, crude letters right onto the stone pathway in front of the house:

*Cole is a cheap whore who seduces other men's wives.*

The bright red ink made the veins in my temples throb. I had never been anyone's side piece!