Chapter 3

The air seemed frozen.

The girl who understood sign language stood in the doorway, her face flushed red, but she still repeated word by word:

"I'm not making this up. My little brother is congenitally deaf and mute. I've learned some sign language since I was little. What she just signed really was 'I didn't.'"

The teacher pushed up his glasses, his tone clearly skeptical:

"Are you sure? This isn't something to joke about."

The girl lifted her head, her eyes firm.

"The hand gestures in sign language are fixed. I wouldn't mistake them. And... Alice has never spoken at school. Everyone knows that."

The office fell silent instantly. My parents' expressions changed.

Lucy looked at me, her lips moving as if she wanted to say something, a barely noticeable guilt flashing in her eyes.

But just then, Barbara suddenly sobbed a few times.

While wiping her tears, she spoke softly.

"Alice, even if you don't dare admit it, you can't get someone to act with you and pretend to be mute."

Her crying was like a sharp knife, instantly puncturing Lucy's fragile guilt.

Patterson's expression immediately darkened. He whipped his head toward me, the fury in his eyes almost burning me alive.

"Alice, you're something else! To avoid punishment, you'd even make up this kind of lie! You even found an accomplice to help you act—your heart is rotten to the core!"

With trembling hands, I pulled out the neatly folded disability certificate from my school uniform pocket, wanting to show it to them.

But the moment my hand touched that paper, Patterson snatched it away.

Without even looking at it, he tore it in half. That thin piece of paper instantly became fragments.

I stared at him blankly, tears finally spilling over.

"Keep acting! Keep it up!"

Patterson's voice was full of undisguised disgust.

"I think you need to be taught a lesson! Since you love acting so much, I'll have someone send you to juvenile detention. Let's see if you still dare to keep pretending to be mute after you see how tough the people there are!"

Lucy's expression changed immediately too. Holding Barbara, her eyes were full of contempt:

"Alice, we really misjudged you. We never thought you'd use such lowdown tactics to avoid responsibility. You've disappointed us so much!"

Barbara leaned in Lucy's arms, the corner of her mouth curling into a barely noticeable smile, yet she still cried like a pear blossom in the rain:

"Dad, Mom, don't treat Alice like this. Maybe Alice just had a momentary lapse in judgment. She didn't mean it..."

"A momentary lapse?"

Patterson laughed coldly.

"This is her true nature! This kind of malicious person will only bring disaster to our family if she stays! I'm calling John from the reform school right now to have him come take her away!"

The teacher stood to the side, his expression shifting uncertainly.

He looked at me, then at my parents, and finally sighed, waving at the girl in the doorway:

"You can go back now. We'll handle this."

The girl opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something more, but the teacher's gaze stopped her.

She looked at me deeply, her eyes full of sympathy and helplessness, but finally turned and left the office.

I stood there, looking at those torn paper fragments on the floor, and suddenly laughed.

So the innocence I'd tried so hard to prove was nothing more than a ridiculous performance in their eyes.

So I had never had any place in this family.

I slowly crouched down, picking up those paper fragments one by one.

My fingertips were cut by the sharp paper edges, but I couldn't feel the pain.

Compared to the pain in my heart, what did this little injury matter?