Chapter 4

When the video ended, my mind went completely blank.

How naive I had been.

I never imagined Jessica would go so far as to toss our daughter off the seventh floor just to please Mark Hayes.

Such cruelty. Such inhumanity.

How could people like them even dare to call themselves parents?

Furious, I stormed back home. When I opened the door, I found the three of them—Jessica, Mark, and his son Ethan—standing in the kitchen, happily making dumplings together.

They laughed at some joke, their heads leaning close to one another, the picture of a harmonious “family.”

My daughter had died a horrific death, and yet Jessica had the audacity to stand here joking and laughing with another man.

She didn’t even notice I’d come home.

The rage inside me erupted.

I marched over to Mark, grabbed his head, and slammed his face into a bowl of flour. Then I punched him square in the jaw.

“Keep making your damn dumplings!” I shouted.

Ethan saw his father being beaten and tried to intervene, but I slapped him so hard he stumbled backward.

My bloodshot eyes burned with fury as I turned my fists on both father and son.

Jessica stood frozen in shock.

It took her a moment to react, and then she screamed, “Gavin, are you insane?! How dare you lay a hand on Mark!”

But her voice was nothing more than noise to me at that point.

Mark cried out in pain as I pummeled him relentlessly. His smug face swelled up like a pig’s head.

Grabbing a handful of his hair, I slammed his head against the floor, over and over, until his body went limp.

Just as I turned my attention to Ethan, Jessica grabbed a ceramic bowl and smashed it against the back of my head.

The sharp, searing pain made me pause as blood trickled down my forehead.

I blinked, slowly turning to look at her.

I had almost forgotten—there was still one more guilty party in this house.

A twisted smile spread across my face as something dark and primal awoke inside me.

Jessica backed away in fear, but I lunged at her, pinning her to the floor. I slapped her hard across the face, the sound echoing through the room.

“Lily was your daughter! Your own flesh and blood! Why did you do this to her? Why?!” I roared, my voice breaking with anguish.

Even now, I couldn’t understand how Jessica could be so heartless, so monstrous toward her own child.

Jessica sobbed and wailed beneath me. “I didn’t do anything! She wouldn’t listen, so I disciplined her. What’s wrong with that?”

“She’s my daughter! I can do whatever I want with her!”

I couldn’t help but laugh bitterly.

“She was your daughter, Jessica! How could you turn her into a punching bag for someone else? She was only five years old, and now she’s dead because of you!”

“All because I slapped Ethan, you took your revenge on Lily? You let her die for that?”

Jessica’s expression twisted into hysteria as she screamed back at me.

“What else was I supposed to do?! Ethan is just a child! How could you be so cruel and knock out one of his teeth?”

“And besides,” she continued, her tone turning venomous, “Mark said it was fine to lock Lily in the box for a few hours. But now look at you—storming in here like a lunatic and beating us up. When you end up in jail, just wait and see what I’ll do to that little brat of yours.”

“She was just a lying little parasite! Always twisting the truth and tattling. So what if she’s dead? It’s not a big deal. Just bury her and be done with it!”

Her words shattered whatever was left of my spirit.

Even now, Jessica refused to acknowledge Lily’s death.

She continued to defend Mark and his son, as if their lives were worth more than our daughter’s.

In that moment, I realized everything—my trust, my love, my family—had been nothing more than a cruel joke.

Lily and I had both been nothing more than pawns in their twisted little game.