Chapter 2

2

Another hour walking, my leg was throbbing.

Finally, I made it home, only to hear a party going on inside.

"Yeah, Scott's done so well. Lucky we adopted him, or who knows what we'd do."

"Don't mention Chad! These past years, because of what he did, we haven't had a good night's sleep. Scott's been in so much pain, keeps saying he should have taken the blame for his brother."

I knocked on the door.

Mom answered, her smile vanishing when she saw me.

"What are you doing here? Get out! We have guests, don't embarrass us!"

She slammed the door, and I heard her telling her relatives, "It's okay, just a guy collecting cans in the alley."

Later, I was allowed in, but Dad slapped me so hard I fell.

"Knowing it's Scott's big day, you still come back to ruin it for everyone! One more day in there would have killed you? If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't be the laughingstock of the town!"

Mom eyed me with disgust, quickly snatching Scott's trophy away, like I'd contaminate it.

"He's probably just trying to ruin it for Scott. Scott's had such a tough life, and he has to bully him? Why couldn't they have given him a longer sentence?"

Since Scott had moved in, I don't know how many times I had heard these words, I was used to it a long time ago.

I watched my parents with cold eyes, "Have you deceived people so much that you have deceived yourself? Don't forget that it was Scott who really killed people!"

As soon as I finished speaking, there was a sound of heavy objects falling behind me.

Seeing this, my parents immediately rushed to Scott and comforted him, "Don't listen to his nonsense, Scott. The incident that year was just an accident and has nothing to do with you."

"Besides, if Chad had told you earlier that mountain climbing was so dangerous, how could you have risked taking those three children there? I think Chad just wanted to see something happen to you, and he has harmed you more than once or twice."

"Why don't you hurry over and apologize to Scott!"

Mandy also looked at me with displeasure and said coldly, "Chad, what you just said was really too much!"

Seeing Mandy walking towards me, Scott quickly held her hand and looked at her aggrievedly.

"Mom and Dad, Mandy, don't blame my brother, maybe he is just unhappy when he just came out of it and saw me win the award. But brother, I really won this award with my own ability, not based on the things you left behind."

"As long as it makes you feel better, I don't want this trophy! I can also leave this house so you don't feel annoyed."

As Scott said that, he directly took the trophy in his mother's hand and smashed it heavily on the ground, and then rushed out of the house.

"Scott!"

Mandy pushed me away and chased after him anxiously. I fell on the fragments of the trophy in front of me. The broken glass pierced my skin, causing me to gasp in pain.

But just after I stood up, my father kicked my leg, and I knelt on the broken glass again, with unbearable pain in my knees.

The ground was soon stained red with blood, but my parents seemed to have not seen it. Not only did they not care at all, but they also took out glue and threw it in front of me.

"Get up when you glue the trophy, otherwise just think we never had you as a son!"

Hearing this, I didn't have any fluctuations in my heart, because from the moment Scott entered this house, their whole hearts had been biased towards him.

After Scott's biological parents were arrested for crimes, he was sent to an orphanage. Because of his good grades and sweet talk, my parents, who had been funding orphans, decided to take him home the first time they saw him.

At first, I also felt sorry for this younger brother with a special experience.

Until the second night he returned home, he deliberately cut my hand with a knife and poured glue on my wound.

When my parents came, he took the lead and cried and threw himself into their arms.

"I'm sorry Mom and Dad, I just saw my brother's hand was injured and wanted to help him heal it. It's all my fault. It's right for my brother to be angry and beat me, don't blame him, okay?"

The wound on my hand was burning hot. I held up my hand and explained the course of events to my parents, but they didn't believe it at all. They also believed that I wanted to hurt Scott and accidentally injured myself.

From that day on, whenever something happened between me and Scott, my parents would think it was my fault.

Even that year, when my parents took Scott out to play, the brakes failed and they almost had a car accident. They also thought that I had secretly made trouble.

I struggled to get up from the ground to deal with the wound, but when I passed my parents' room, I heard them talking.

"The trophy is broken like that, it's useless to let him glue it. He really got a bargain!"

"Gluing the trophy is just an excuse. I'm afraid he will go out and disturb Scott and Mandy's relationship. Do you really want to see Mandy marry Chad?"

"Of course not. I wish he could stay in there for the rest of his life, anyway, he will only make Scott sad if he comes out!"