Chapter 2

Chapter 2

High-pitched screams ripped through the hallway behind me, quickly followed by the sound of violent vomiting.

The surviving students collapsed onto the floor, their legs giving out completely.

The second-floor lab had been blown to smithereens.

They stared at the devastation in absolute horror, then turned their wide, traumatized eyes toward me.

Garrett stood frozen, his face as white as a sheet, his gaze flickering with sheer panic.

Frantic footsteps echoed up the stairwell, and a woman rushed onto the floor―my wife, Clara Mercer.

It was summer break, so the campus was largely empty except for Garrett's summer research team.

Thankfully, no other bystanders had been caught in the blast radius.

Clara rushed straight to Garrett's side without even glancing at me, her eyes filled with desperate concern.

"Garrett! Are you okay? Did you get hurt?"

Garrett could only shake his head in a daze.

"Call 911! Get an ambulance right now!" I bellowed.

A student snapped out of shock and fumbled for his pocket, only to realize all their phones were locked in the cubbies on the third floor.

Strict lab safety protocols prohibited personal devices inside chemical rooms to avoid accidental sparks.

Staring at the mutilated remains scattered across the floor, the kids broke down in tears and ran toward the upper exit.

That left just the three of us standing in the bloody corridor.

"Wait! No, don't call the police!"

Garrett suddenly snapped to his senses, shaking his head in frantic desperation.

"Garrett, your fraudulent data just blew a student to pieces!" I roared, my face darkening with fury. "Why the hell shouldn't we call the police and the paramedics?"

Before he could answer, Clara stepped forward to shield him.

"Nolan, what are you trying to pull?" she snapped indignantly. "You are the full professor here, so you should take the main responsibility for this accident!"

Seeing her stand between me and her lover felt like a sickening rerun of my past life.

Back then, when all eight students perished in the fire, she had shielded him in the exact same way and demanded that I take the blame.

And the second I told the press that I shared oversight responsibility, she and Garrett twisted everything, pinning the entire catastrophe solely on me.

I had been given no chance to defend myself before being nailed to the cross of public shame.

Fueled by relentless media smear campaigns, I was violently harassed online, and the police detained me based on my coerced statement.

The death of eight students sparked massive nationwide outrage.

Even though the university was reluctant to let go of an international award-winning researcher like me, public pressure forced them to terminate my contract.

Driven mad by grief and hatred, the victims' parents kidnapped me, doused me in gasoline, and set me ablaze.

As I lay dying on the ground, they strapped explosives to my charred body, blowing me into bloody fragments.

Because of my ruined reputation, my innocent daughter Maya was mercilessly tormented and bullied at school until she had to drop out.

She ended up passing away in total despair and isolation.

Meanwhile, Garrett Vance, the true culprit, stole my research, took over my position, and became the youngest tenured professor in the department.

My wife abandoned our daughter completely to play happy family with her precious golden boy.

Maya had been dead in her bed for an entire week before the neighbors noticed the awful smell.

Remembering that agony made my heart bleed; the little girl I had cherished like a treasure was thrown away like trash by her own mother.

Clara leaned close to Garrett, looking at me with cold calculation and thinly veiled threats.

"It was just a minor accident with only one casualty," she said casually. "You are a prestigious professor, so the board won't fire you―you'll just have to pay a fine."

"Garrett is only an adjunct instructor; a scandal like this will ruin his entire career!"

"The kid is already dead anyway. Are you really going to divorce your own wife over a dead stranger?"