I struggled to my feet, wiped the blood from my face, and let out a cold laugh.
"I went to save her. I fell down. My leg still hurts right now," I said flatly. "And none of you even asked what happened before you started beating me?"
Lucas looked briefly flustered, as if he might be blamed.
But in truth, he was not worried at all.
"You fell just trying to save someone?" my father sneered, his lips curling in contempt.
He looked me up and down as if I were something filthy beneath his feet. "Are you a useless piece of trash?"
Then, my father's voice grew sharper as he pressed on, every word meant to humiliate. "I paid for you to study self-defense. Did you only learn how to fall?"
He did not care whether I was injured. All he cared about was that I had embarrassed him.
"Who knows if he really fell?" My mother suddenly cut in. "Maybe he was too scared to save her, so he pretended to fall!"
"That's absolutely despicable!"
The principal stabbed a finger in my direction, his voice ringing through the room with righteous fury.
"Is this what our school taught you?" he demanded. "To be selfish, cold-blooded, and deceitful?"