Susie clutched her reddened cheek, staring at Julie in disbelief. Her eyes quickly filled with tears. "Julie, you hit me?" Julie remained firm, her expression cold and unwavering. "You are never to say that again!" "Why should I?" Susie snapped. "You know what kind of person Arthur is! If he was even half as good as Zac, I wouldn’t have disowned him! Have you forgotten all the things he’s done?" Julie’s tone was sharp. "And what makes you so sure he actually did them? Do you have proof?" "Zac saw it with his own eyes! What more proof do we need!" Susie shrieked. Julie scoffed. "Zac… Zac said it, so it must be true? Have you ever considered the possibility that Zac has been lying this whole time?" "Impossible!" Susie shot back without hesitation. "Zac is such a good person! Why would he ever lie?" Julie’s expression turned ice-cold. "Julie, what did Arthur do to you? Did he brainwash you? Why are you defending him so much?" Susie spat bitterly. "No matter what, if he wants to come back, I’ll be the first to say no!" Julie let out a deep, exhausted breath before saying, "He doesn’t want to come back." Rosie, who had been silently watching, finally spoke. "He doesn’t want to come back? Why?" Julie hesitated. No matter how she answered, she knew they would twist it. They would find a way to make Arthur the villain again. Rosie, growing impatient, pressed further. "Julie, you said Arthur has a lot of injuries. Is that true?" Julie nodded. Her voice trembled as she spoke. "It’s true. Arthur took off his shirt and showed me. His entire body is covered in scars. Everywhere. He told me… Zac and his friends were the ones who did it. It started after Zac was adopted. For eight years—eight years—Arthur has lived under Zac’s bullying." A collective gasp filled the room. "That’s not possible!" Susie was the first to object. John, too, looked deeply unsettled. "This must be a misunderstanding. How could it all be Zac’s doing?"Even Raelynn, who had been quiet, finally spoke. "Arthur must have misunderstood. Eight years ago… Zac was only eight years old." Rosie hesitated. "But Zac said Arthur bribed the police…" She wanted to believe that. She needed to believe that. Because the alternative—that Zac had been tormenting Arthur for years—was simply too awful to accept. Julie cut in sharply. "From the age of eight, we stopped giving Arthur any money. He wasn’t allowed to reveal his identity outside. He had no resources, no power. Tell me, where would he have gotten the money to bribe the police?" Silence fell over the room. They had never thought about that. They had blindly accepted Zac’s words without questioning the logistics. Bribing the police wasn’t cheap. Even if they themselves wanted to pull strings, it would take significant money. Arthur had nothing. He could barely afford food, let alone a corrupt scheme against Zac. Deep down, they all knew the truth. They had wanted to believe Zac. They had wanted to see Arthur as the villain. Raelynn clung desperately to her last thread of denial. "But… but if Arthur was hurt so badly, why didn’t he tell us?" Julie’s chest tightened. "Because no matter what he said, we never believed him. We always believed Zac instead," she said, voice thick with self-loathing. She had always prided herself on being logical, shrewd, and discerning. Yet in her own home, she had been blind."I went to his dorm today," Julie continued. "His room has nothing. It’s barely better than the storage room he lived in here. But at least in the dorm, no one yells at him. No one accuses him. When I told him to come home, he shut the door in my face." Her voice cracked as she added, "He doesn’t want to come back… because of us." John and Raelynn looked away. Rosie’s face was pale. Julie took a shuddering breath and forced herself to say the final blow. "Before I came back home, I went to their old school. I asked around. It’s true—Zac was bullying him." The weight of her words pressed down on everyone in the room. No one spoke. They wanted to argue. They wanted to believe Zac was innocent. But this was Julie. Julie never spoke without being absolutely certain. And that certainty made it all the more unbearable. Julie clenched her fists, as if trying to hold herself together. "And one more thing," she said suddenly. "When Zac clutched his chest earlier… when Mom held him in her arms… I was standing in the doorway." She turned to Raelynn, her face grim. "I saw it," she whispered. "While he was in your arms… he was smiling."