Chapter 3

It must have been from the beating yesterday.

I turned on my heel and walked away without hesitation, pretending I saw nothing.

By the afternoon, when Toby was brought home, Brenda was the first to rush to the door to fuss over him.

Toby answered her patiently, but the scrape on his cheek was hard to ignore. "Toby, sweetie, your face..."

Brenda panicked, her voice laced with genuine terror.

"I just tripped and fell."

Toby didn't care. He knew that when you fall, you just get back up. It was no big deal.

But Brenda was hysterical. "How did you fall? Are you hurt anywhere else?"

She turned to me, her voice accusing. "Mrs. Vance, Toby is your child! How can you be so calm? Don't you care about him at all?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Kids fall and get scraped up all the time. He's not made of glass. Your own son gets hurt every single day, and I don't see you losing your mind over it."

Brenda snapped. "How can you compare Lucas to Toby? What is he even—"

Realizing what she was about to say, Brenda cut herself off, her voice turning timid. "Mrs. Vance, I'm sorry. Please don't mind what I just said.

I'm just so worried about Toby. What if some bully picked on him at preschool?

He's been raised so delicately. Lucas is built tough; he can't be compared to Toby."

Just then, Richard walked in and frowned. "If you gave Lucas even a fraction of the care you give Toby, he wouldn't look like a walking skeleton. Where is he anyway?"

"The boy was tired. He's fast asleep in his room. Should I go wake him up?"

Richard shook his head. "No, let him sleep."

Brenda grumbled, "He's just spoiled. Sleeping at this hour... he needs a good beating."

Before she could say more, Toby tugged on my hand. "Mom, I'm hungry."

Brenda immediately chimed in, "I'll go set the table right away!"

She had prepared dinner hours ago, anticipating Toby would be hungry after school. I didn't mind. I let her play the doting mother.

It was almost as if by jumping in, she could pretend Toby had been calling out to her.

After dinner, Brenda happily tucked Toby into bed.

The next morning, Lucas was still nowhere to be seen. I finally told Brenda to go check on him.

It turned out the boy had been burning with a high fever all night.

By the time the doctor arrived, the fever had been running for too long. The doctor warned us that the prolonged high fever had caused permanent brain damage. He would suffer from involuntary tremors and spasms for the rest of his life.

Brenda looked at Lucas with nothing but disgust.

I stood beside her, my face completely expressionless.

Why did I suddenly ask about Lucas? Because I wanted this game to become much more interesting, of course.

How could he leave the stage so early?

After that, Brenda continued to dote on Toby while her abuse of Lucas grew more frequent and severe.

Because of his neurological damage, Lucas often lost control of his bladder.

This accidents only earned him more brutal beatings from Brenda.

I watched Brenda look at Toby with eyes full of deep, obsessive love, and I couldn't help but smile.

Keep spoiling him, Brenda. I can't wait to see the end of this show.

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