He Framed Me as a Fake, Yet I Could Not Be Chosen by Evil

For as long as I can remember, malice has never been able to choose me.

When someone tries to pin something on me, it always lands on somebody else instead.

At the family reunion banquet, the young housemaid was violated.

The false heir stood beside me and sneered. "Lawrence Swanson, so what if you're the real son? I just have to buy off some little maid, and I can bury you in prison."

I smiled. I really wanted to tell him that malice couldn't choose me.

That was when my mother rushed forward and asked the maid, "No matter who hurt you, the Swanson family will never shelter a monster. Be brave and say it out loud."

Under the eyes of every guest, the girl lifted a tear-streaked face and reached out her hand. She meant to point at me, but her finger swung past me on its own and landed on my father. "It was him. He's the one who violated me!"

1.

Everyone of any standing in Riverton had come to the family reunion banquet.

Just as my parents brought me up onto the stage, about to introduce me to the room, someone dropped from the floor above and slammed to the ground right in front of us.

She was barely covered, her clothes torn open, blood between her legs, her legs bent at wrong angles from the fall. It was a wretched sight.

And that ruined uniform of hers was one of our household's maid uniforms.

"Mandy Griffin?"

The false heir, Samuel Swanson, ran over, gentleman that he was, and pulled off his own suit jacket to drape over her.

"Master Samuel, I, I, I... I don't want to live anymore!"

The girl cried harder and harder, her eyes settling on me, then jerking away in fear, over and over again.

"Mandy, why are you looking at my brother?"

Samuel asked, feigning confusion.

Every other eye turned to me too.

My parents had always been cold toward me, and now the way they looked at me was worse than cold.

As for the guests, they were already murmuring.

"Isn't it obvious? It has to be that real son the Swansons just found. He violated the poor girl."

"I heard that real son barely goes to school. Spends all day running around with the wrong crowd."

"Poor thing, that little maid. Violated, and the only way she could get justice was to try to end her own life."

Thomas Swanson, my father, drove his furious glare into me like a hammer.

"You animal. You've been back a few days and you do something like this!"

"You disgrace. You should have died out there!"

He hadn't asked me a single question. He'd already convicted me.

Carissa Butler, my mother, spoke to me with grief written all over her face.

"Lawrence, how could you do something so beneath an animal?"

"You've disappointed me so much. I never expected you to be as remarkable as Samuel, but you can't go breaking the law!"

She looked disappointed, but what she was really hiding in her eyes was disgust for me.

Honestly, I wanted to ask them, if they didn't want to accept me, why had they gone looking for me at all?

Samuel came to stand in front of me, his face covered in tears.

"Brother, I know. You did this because of me."

"You blame me for taking your life from you. It isn't fair, so you're taking it out on someone else!"

"But brother, she's innocent. I can't let anyone get hurt because of me. I'll leave the Swanson family!"

With that, he turned to walk away.

Carissa immediately caught Samuel and pulled him into her arms, then rounded on me, eyes blazing.

"Lawrence, can you really not stand to have Samuel around?"

"I raised Samuel for seventeen years. He may not be my flesh and blood, but he's the same as if he were!"

"And you, even though you are my flesh and blood, if you keep hurting Samuel, I can send you away anytime I want!"

I watched them quietly, and once they had nothing more to say, I finally spoke.

"From the moment this maid jumped, I haven't said a single word."

"Even this maid never said it was me who violated her."

"And the two of you, as my parents, convicted me without asking a thing?"

Thomas snapped back.

"In this whole family, everyone but you is a person of decency!"

"So there's no need to ask. We already know it was you!"

I walked over to Thomas, my eyes settling on the maid. "So then, who violated you?"

Even as she cried, the malice for me sat clear in her eyes. She stretched out her hand, meaning to point it at me, but it went past me and landed on Thomas. "It was him. He's the one who violated me!"