Five Years as the Impostor's Lab Rat

Over the course of five years, I was tortured repeatedly—my limbs broken and reset, my flesh sliced open, and my body completely ruined.

In order to survive, I was reduced to fighting dogs for food.

When I truly felt I could barely hold on any longer, I went to great lengths to steal Dr. Harding's phone. I tried to get Eliza to bring me home, but what I got in return was her immediate refusal.

"You must pay the price for what you've done. Just stay there and be the test subject for Christopher's drugs. And quit plotting to come back and replace him!"

When I heard those words, I finally gave up all hope. Perhaps it would have been better for me if I had never been found and brought back in the first place.

Afraid that I might sneak out, Eliza even called Dr. Harding.

From then on, Dr. Harding became even stricter on his surveillance over me.

To punish me for my disobedience, he even pulled out my teeth, leaving me able to survive only by lapping up liquid food.

I never imagined that the punishment from back then would now become the very proof to clear my name.

A complicated expression flickered across Eliza's face as she looked at me and reached out to help me up.

But behind her, Christopher raised his arm and burst into loud wails.

"Sutton is lying! I was clearly bitten! It hurts so much!"

At this, Eliza's gaze toward me turned icy once more.

"Sutton, Christopher has already been reduced to a demented fool, so how could he possibly lie? It seems you still feel no remorse. I was planning to let you stay in a room upstairs, but now, it seems you're only fit to be locked in the basement. Only then can you be kept from hurting Christopher."

Hearing this, I became like a lifeless slab of meat, losing all strength to struggle.

"When we get back, you'll go straight to the basement and stay there like a good little prisoner. Don't even think about coming out until Christopher recovers."

Dr. Harding looked at me with pity and said in a low voice, "It seems it's simply your fate to spend the final seven days of your life in the basement."

No one heard Dr. Harding's words except for me, lying on the floor.

The moment we arrived back at the house, Eliza couldn't wait to hand me over to the butler, Jeremy Bowen.

"Lock Sutton in the basement. Don't let him out until Christopher has recovered," she ordered icily.

Jeremy nodded repeatedly. Once Eliza had left, he looked at me with utter disgust.

"You're hard to kill, I'll give you that. Even after five years, you're still not dead. And you even managed to come back. To think you could do this to someone as kind as Mr. Christopher—you're worse than an animal!"

The corner of my mouth lifted slightly. His contempt came as no surprise to me.

From the very moment I was found and brought back, I knew full well that no one in the Parker family liked me. To them, Christopher was the true heir of this house.

Jeremy threw me roughly into the basement.

I curled up into a ball. Under Jeremy's merciless handling, several more of my bones had snapped.

The pain left me trembling uncontrollably. I dragged myself with great difficulty onto the familiar bed and pulled the last few painkillers I had from my pocket. Then, I popped them into my mouth.

Looking at the familiar scene before me, I couldn't help but laugh.

The Parker family possessed vast wealth, and Eliza was even renowned as the richest person in Stoneham.

Christopher spent all his years in the Parker family getting whatever he wanted and was raised in the lap of luxury. And yet I, the biological brother who had been found and brought back, lived in this cold, damp basement.

When I was first brought back, I had a room of my own too.

But all it took was for Christopher to say pitifully, "Eliza, I don't want Sutton near me. Are you going to send me away now?" for Eliza to lock me up in the basement.

After Christopher got into a car accident while trying to frame me, things went from bad to worse. I became nothing more than a penitent slave, branded a sinner by the Parker family.

When Eliza learned that Christopher's brain had been damaged in the crash and that he was left with only the intelligence of an eight-year-old, she didn't hesitate to carry out the family punishment and had me flogged 99 times.

I was still barely clinging to life when she dumped me onto Dr. Harding, all because he said he could cure Christopher.

And so, I was tormented year after year.

The pain of the memories made me tremble uncontrollably. I clutched the painkillers in my hand and let myself imagine that I had never returned to this family.

Just then, someone suddenly reached out from beside me and slapped my hand hard, snatching the painkillers away.