Chapter 2No Way Back to Summer

I stared at their retreating backs, lowered my head, and laughed until the laughter turned into tears. They slid down and dripped onto the floor with my blood, and my heart throbbed with a sharp, stabbing ache.

In my past life, once Tobias had been revealed as the real heir, Mom and Dad were so heartbroken over him that they would have given their own lives to make it up to him.

Even when I was burning with a 104-degree fever and close to dying, they did not hesitate to take him to the Solmera Islands for a night of fun.

It was Marisa who booked a red-eye flight home from a business meeting overseas and took me to the hospital. After that, even when I went to community college, she never left my side. Every week, she made time to work part-time jobs with me to help pay my tuition.

The year I turned 20, she lit up the entire Halverton sky with fireworks and proposed to me.

"Ezra Kerr! You're the one I've chosen for the rest of my life."

I had not even come down from the joy of that proposal when a massive truck plowed into me as I was walking along the road and crushed my leg. After that, it had to be amputated.

The news shattered my world and left me on the edge of despair. The gap between Marisa and me was already enormous, and my insecurity drove me to break up with her. She fought desperately to keep me for a whole year and, after that, she came to hate me completely.

After the amputation, every day was a living hell. I often dragged my ruined leg all the way to her office in secret, just to catch a glimpse of her.

It was only at the very end that I learned everything she had done for me came down to one thing, and that was guilt.

Now, I numbly bandaged my wound and took a cab to a coffee shop nearby. Sitting across from me was an admissions officer from Wexley University, Paul Whitcombe.

"Ezra, we'd be thrilled to welcome a talent like you to Wexley!"

I nodded politely. "Mr. Whitcombe, before I accept, I'd like the university to keep my admission confidential."

He agreed without hesitation. Afterward, I made a trip to a DNA testing center and submitted the materials for a paternity comparison.

"The results will be ready in three days," the staff member told me. "We'll send you a notification."

Whether Tobias was truly a Kerr or not, we would find out soon enough.

When I got home, Tobias smirked and tossed a document at me.

"This is Grandpa's inheritance transfer agreement. Hurry up and sign it for me, Ezra!

"Oh, right. Mom says you have to give me Grandpa's pair of heirloom pocket watches too!"

I glared at his smug, arrogant face, and my heart ached for the person I had been in my past life.

Back then, after Tobias came home, guilt ate at me so badly that I bent over backward for him. Whatever he wanted, he got. Everyone else saw him as the poor kid from the farm, but only I knew how low I had groveled before him.

When he asked for Grandpa's inheritance and heirlooms, I agonized over it before finally handing them over. In less than a month, he had blown through the entire inheritance by partying.

With that in mind, I looked him dead in the eye. "I'm not signing."

His eyes went wide.

"Who do you think you are to tell me no? Don't push it, Ezra!"

However, the moment Marisa walked over, his whole demeanor changed.

"Mari, Mom wants Ezra to sign over Grandpa's inheritance, but he doesn't seem to want to..."

Marisa frowned. "What are you making a fuss about now? The inheritance was always meant for your grandpa's real grandson. Ez, do you even understand where you stand anymore?"

I could not be bothered to argue with her, so I turned and went to the kitchen to cook myself a meal.

Marisa's lips twitched with suspicion. "Since when did you know how to cook? Copying Tobias is one thing, but there's a limit. He had to chop firewood to cook back in the countryside. Who are you putting on a show for, rich boy?"

Anger spread through my entire body. In my past life, when I worked part-time washing dishes and waiting tables, Marisa would always rub lotion into my hands with such tenderness.

However, she had only done it to make up for what Tobias had done. The thought turned my stomach.

After I finished eating and washing the dishes, I went to put Grandpa's heirlooms away somewhere safe. Tobias's scream drilled into my ears.

Then Marisa carried over a box of smashed pocket watches and threw it down in front of me.

"Ezra! You'd rather break the heirlooms and frame Tobias than give them to him?"

I froze. Then my head snapped up, my eyes bloodshot, and I slapped Tobias.

"Tobias, I told you. Grandpa is off-limits!"

His eyes went red, and he dropped to his knees, begging me. "Ezra, I'm sorry, please don't hit me..."

I was about to keep arguing with him when Mom grabbed my arm and slapped me.

"Ezra! Those were your grandfather's heirlooms! He treated you like the apple of his eye, yet you just smashed them?"

Dad roared at me in fury. "It's bad enough that you broke them, but you have the nerve to frame your brother! What more do you want from this family?"

Every word from Mom and Dad chilled me to the bone. I had not said a single thing, yet they had already decided it was me.

Marisa looked down at me with disdain. "Mr. Kerr, doesn't this family have rules for people who do things like this?"

A wave of unease hit me, and I struggled to back away.

Dad let out a disappointed sigh. "Stanley, bring me my belt!"