Chapter 2

2

When I walked through the front door, my father was pacing the living room with an anxious scowl.

Seeing me walk in alone, his face darkened instantly.

“Where’s Lauren? Why didn’t she come back with you?”

“It’s over.”

I tossed the words out casually and headed straight for the stairs.

My father froze for a second.

Then his face flushed bright red with fury.

“Over? What kind of nonsense are you spewing? How could it just be over out of nowhere?”

I stopped, turning back to cast a cold glance at him.

“She doesn’t love me, and I’m done wasting my time. That’s all.”

The moment the words left my mouth, my father grabbed a heavy crystal ashtray from the coffee table and hurled it at my head.

I dodged to the side, but he charged forward and seized me by the collar.

“Our families arranged this marriage twenty years ago! Do you think an alliance like this is a game? You think you can just break it off whenever you want?!”

“Lucas Crawford, are you trying to make our entire family the laughingstock of the city?!”

I let out a cold scoff and ripped his hands off me.

“The only reason you’re so desperate to marry me off into the Bennett family is because you gambled away over thirty million dollars of company funds! You’re just counting on Mr. Bennett to clean up your mess, aren’t you?”

“I am not your cash cow. Give it up!”

For the first time in my life, I openly defied my father.

Enraged, he lunged forward and kicked me hard in the chest.

“How did I raise such a useless piece of trash? You can’t even handle a woman! What right do you have to show your face here?!”

I stumbled backward, crashing into the glass cabinet behind me.

The glass shattered with a loud bang, and jagged shards pierced deep into my back.

Before I could catch my breath, my father grabbed a nearby wooden chair and swung it down at me with all his might.

The chair smashed to pieces across my forearm with a deafening crack.

My arm trembled uncontrollably.

If I hadn’t shielded my head in time, my skull would have been fractured.

Even so, my arm went completely limp―it was clearly broken.

My father had already grabbed a golf club from the corner.

He strode toward me, breathing heavily like a rabid dog.

“Lucas Crawford, I don’t care what it takes! You go bring Lauren back, or I’ll beat you to death right here, right now!”

I clutched my chest, every single breath feeling like a blade twisting in my lungs.

I spat out a mouthful of blood and glared back at him.

“Go ahead, Richard Crawford! Kill me! If you beat me to death, you won’t get a single penny from the Bennetts anyway!”

My father’s hand froze mid-air, the golf club hovering above his head.

He stared at me in disbelief, as if seeing his son clearly for the very first time.

Growing up, I was the obedient boy who never made a sound when he beat me with his leather belt.

I was the pathetic weakling who would kneel in the hallway all night without daring to move.

“You little bastard... You dare talk back to me?!”

I forced myself to stand up, the taste of metallic iron filling my mouth with every word.

“Richard! How did you drive my mother to her grave back then? Who was the one who gambled away thirty million dollars?”

“And now you want to sell your own son for cash? Tell me, which one of us is the real bastard?!”

My words struck him like daggers straight into his chest.

The golf club fell from his grip with a loud clatter.

His face turned pale, and his lips trembled, unable to form a coherent reply.

“Get... Get the hell out of my house!”

In the end, all he had left was impotent rage.

He roared at the top of his lungs and threw me out into the street.