I shut my eyes, pointing at the nearby surveillance camera. “Aren’t you afraid of the law?”
Sophia laughed like she’d heard a joke. “You really think I’d be here without Dad knowing? Emily, you’re just like your name—extra, useless trash. Your mom seduced a man and died in a Car Accident. Dad can’t even look at you without disgust. No one will ever love you.”
Tears burned my eyes. I yanked her hair, screaming, “My mom wasn’t like that! Don’t you dare insult her!”
“What are you waiting for? Pull her off me!”
The thugs swarmed me, fists and kicks raining down. My face and nose bled, but I refused to let go.
My mother had saved a man from a mismatched marriage and wasted her life for him, yet never regretted it.
The liar wasn’t my mom.
It wasn’t me.
It was Sophia and her mother.
They killed my mom and smeared her name!
Someone swung a baseball bat, striking my head.
A roar filled my skull, my knees buckled, and I collapsed.
Sophia grabbed my hair, slapping me twice across the face.
Her ugly, twisted face—Dad had probably never seen it like this.
But I had, countless times.
She raised her foot to kick me again, when suddenly, a terrified scream rang out.
Then chaos erupted.
“Where did this crazy dog come from? Kill it!”
A familiar warmth pressed against my face. Through blood-soaked eyes, I saw Lucky, standing in front of me with fierce determination.
Baring his teeth, he lunged at Sophia.
Sophia froze. She remembered—Lucky was the puppy Dad had once given her, the one she’d scorned and thrown away to me.
I didn’t know how such a timid dog had crossed half the city to find me. I wanted to shout for him to run.
But brakes screeched at the alley’s entrance, followed by heavy footsteps.
When Sophia saw Richard, she burst into tears, “Dad, help me! She’s letting her dog kill me!”
Two trained bodyguards rushed forward with clubs.
I struggled to rise but was pinned to the ground, forced to watch as Lucky was beaten down again and again.
His blood stained the ground, yet he still tried to crawl toward me, eyes wet and pleading.
Sophia hid in Richard’s arms, crying out in fear. “Dad, he’s still trying to bite me. I’m scared.”
Richard patted her back soothingly, then personally snatched a club from a bodyguard’s hand.
“Dad, no! Please don’t—”
In the eight years he had abandoned me, I hadn’t cried when I was starving and digging through trash, or freezing on a park bench, or bullied by Sophia’s lies.