I had always been obedient and compliant. I never dared to disobey others' instructions.

The day my wealthy biological parents brought me home, my adoptive brother leaned close to my ear and sneered arrogantly, "The position of the Spencer family's heir belongs to me. If you know what's good for you, get lost on your own."

I nodded obediently.

Then I turned around and threw myself straight into rush-hour traffic on the highway.

My parents nearly lost their minds. Panicked and trembling, they dragged me back into the car, their faces drained white with terror.

My sister's expression darkened as she warned me coldly in my ear, "If you pull another stunt for attention, believe me, I'll throw you right back into the doghouse you came from."

I obediently listened.

That very night, I locked myself inside a dog crate.

My sister froze in complete shock. Gritting her teeth, she yanked me out, staring at me like she'd seen a ghost.

Later, when my adoptive brother pretended to be sick, my sister forced me to donate blood for him.

I obediently took the knife.

Without the slightest hesitation, I slashed straight through the artery in my wrist.

By the time my parents rushed over, blood had just begun spraying out.

They screamed in horror and lunged forward to press against my wound. "Somebody call 911! Now!!!"

My sister had gone just as pale. After a long moment of stunned silence, she finally stammered, "Mom, Dad… I only told him to donate a little blood to Eric. I never told him to slit his wrist…"

I blinked.

My sister wasn't lying. She really hadn't taught me that.

It was something the traffickers taught me during the five years my family personally handed me over to them—to "learn obedience."

The frantic rescue effort lasted three full hours. Only then did the heartbeat monitor—so close to becoming a flat line—finally begin to rise and fall again.

Seeing the grim, ashen expressions on my parents' faces, even Eric Spencer found it hard to keep pretending to be sick anymore.

"This really has nothing to do with me… He suddenly slit his own wrist. I was scared too."

Desperate to clear himself, his voice even carried a trembling sob.

The moment my sister, Alicia Spencer, saw that, she hurried forward and shielded Eric behind her as she spoke with absolute certainty.

"Mom, Dad, this is obviously one of Ronnie's pathetic little self-directed acts! If he really wanted to die, why didn't he stab himself through the throat? He cut his wrist because he knew he could still be saved! I think he calculated everything perfectly!"

I had just forced my eyes open through the lingering haze of dizziness when those words reached my ears.

Slowly, I moved toward a corner no one was paying attention to.

Obediently, I picked up the knife that still hadn't been taken away.

Deep in my memory, those sticky, revolting laughs and the tearing agony circled endlessly in my mind…

I fought to suppress the trembling running through my body and forced out a pleading smile.

"Alicia, Eric, I'll listen to whatever you say."

As I spoke, I pressed the knife against my neck and drove it down hard.

The instant the family heard my weak voice and turned around, the color drained from their faces.

The room exploded into chaos in an instant—screams, frantic scrambling, utter disorder.

My parents coaxed and pleaded before finally managing to wrestle the knife from my hands.

Alicia still wanted to say something, but the moment she opened her mouth, Dad cut her off with a thunderous slap against the table.

"That's enough!"

He hurled the knife to the floor with a violent clang.

His trembling finger pointed at Eric, then swung toward Alicia.

"Have you ever seen anyone seek attention like this?! Look at him! Look at what you've driven Ronnie into!"

The moment those words fell, both Eric and Alicia widened their eyes in disbelief. Eric's eyes reddened with anger, his face full of resentment. Meanwhile, Alicia glared at me darkly through gritted teeth.

"Ronnie, just you wait! If you make Eric upset, I'll never forgive you!"

Shrinking back behind Mother, I cautiously peeked my head out, my eyes filled with fear. My body reacted before my mind could. I gently tugged on Alicia's sleeve, my voice weak and submissive.

"Alicia, I'm sorry. It's my fault. I shouldn't have upset Eric… I'll apologize to him right now."

Before any of them realized what I was about to do, I had already slowly moved to the window.

I pushed it open. Then, under everyone's horrified gaze, I jumped.

The world fell silent for one second.

A moment later, a shrill scream tore through the room.

"Ronnie!!"

My parents staggered toward the window.

Mom only looked down once before collapsing to the floor, fainting on the spot from sheer terror.

Dad scrambled out in panic to find a doctor, stumbling so badly he nearly fell several times.

Alicia and Eric stood frozen where they were, completely dumbfounded.

The wind roared past my ears. Warm wetness spread beneath me, followed by shattering pain.

As my consciousness slowly faded, I gently closed my eyes.

That very night, Dad hurled the fake medical report viciously at Eric's feet.

There was no longer any hiding the truth—that Eric had faked his illness, and that Alicia had forced me to donate blood.

Tears came to Eric instantly. Choking on sobs, he could barely catch his breath.

"Mom, Dad, I'm sorry. I was just too scared. After the way Ronnie treated me before, I didn't know if he had really changed. I just… wanted to test him. I truly didn't mean to pretend to be sick."

As he spoke, he stumbled toward the wardrobe, sobbing while stuffing clothes recklessly into a suitcase.

"I know I was wrong. I'll move out right now. I won't trouble you anymore…"

Alicia immediately rushed over and pressed down on the suitcase, her voice rising sharply.

"Mom, Dad! Did you hear that? Eric's just insecure! You know better than anyone how badly Ronnie bullied him back then!"

She glanced toward my room, her tone growing even more agitated.

"Have you forgotten what Ronnie used to be like? Arrogant, overbearing, completely out of control! And after 'learning manners' for five years, he's suddenly a completely different person? Who would believe that?

"What kind of normal person slits his wrists and jumps off a building over a few words? If he can be this ruthless to himself, imagine how calculating he really is! If you ask me, he's just gotten better at acting…"

"Enough!"

Dad's furious shout cut her off cold.

My parents shot her a harsh glare, but in the end, they still let her words sink in.

From that night onward, everyone looked at me with suspicion in their eyes.

With my parents silently allowing it, Eric's "tests" gradually became more extreme.

When he deliberately dumped an entire glass of ice water over my head, I stood there without moving. I even tilted my head up and gave him a pleasing smile.

When he intentionally placed seafood into my bowl, I softly thanked him and obediently ate every bite.

As angry red rashes rapidly spread across my neck, Eric finally lost his patience completely.

Furious, he grabbed a handful of sleeping pills and violently shoved them into my mouth.

"Swallow them! Aren't you supposed to be obedient?! Let's see how long you can keep pretending!"

Dad hesitated, as though he wanted to speak.

Mother slowly lowered the hand she had instinctively reached out with and eventually turned her face away.

Alicia crossed her arms nearby, openly watching the scene like entertainment.

They were all waiting for the once arrogant and unruly Ronnie to finally explode in anger and cause a scene. Even Eric himself had unconsciously tensed up.

But I didn't resist at all. I simply opened my mouth obediently and forced myself to swallow every single pill.

Eric froze in shock for a second.

When he realized I was serious, the color drained from his face instantly. He lunged at me frantically, jamming his fingers into my mouth.

"Are you insane?! Spit them out! Hurry and spit them out! Ronnie! Those are sleeping pills! If you take too many, you'll really die! Are you trying to make me a murderer?!"

By the time the family doctor arrived, the struggle had rubbed the corners of my mouth raw, streaks of blood already seeping out.

The induced vomiting process was long and humiliating.

Curled up on the couch, I trembled uncontrollably.

Dad draped his jacket over my shoulders with shaking hands, his reddened eyes glaring viciously at Alicia and Eric.

"This is all because of your stupid idea! Are you satisfied now?!"

Mother threw herself at me and broke down sobbing in my arms.

"Ronnie… my poor Ronnie! What happened to you? What's happened to my son?!"

But I only stared blankly at the light on the ceiling above me without the slightest response.

After I fainted that day, I had a long nightmare.

In the dream, Eric would always scratch his own arms whenever my parents walked by, then throw himself into their embrace and sob, "Ronnie hit me again…"

Whenever he saw my sister approaching, he would hurl himself down the stairs without hesitation. Then, with tear-filled eyes, he would point at me and say, "Ronnie pushed me."

Every time even the slightest hesitation appeared on my family's faces, his eyes would redden as he choked back tears.

"If Ronnie still can't accept me, then I'll leave. It's fine if I have to fend for myself."

And in that dream, I was still the old Ronnie—the one who couldn't bear even the slightest injustice.

Every time I was framed, I would only cry and scream in defense of myself. After it happened enough times, I was the one who started to look insane… until the very last time.

To frame me, Eric locked himself inside a room and started a fire. After he was rescued, he insisted that I was the one who had set it.

I completely lost control and threw myself at him, fighting him desperately.

And at that moment, my family finally ran out of patience with me.

Unable to endure it any longer, they refused to listen to another word of explanation and personally handed me over to those traffickers.

Under their manipulation and brainwashing, my family quickly came to believe the lie about "learning discipline."

The contract they signed in place of parental supervision lasted five full years.

When I jolted awake from the nightmare, the first thing I saw was the magnified face of the psychologist.

Faced with the doctor my parents had hired, I cooperated unexpectedly well.

Seeing that I was awake, she softened her voice gently.

"Ronnie, can you tell me why, no matter what people do to you, you never resist? Why do you even hurt yourself?"

I blinked, my tone perfectly natural.

"Because only obedient children don't get beaten."

Those clubs… those torn clothes… those pitch-black cellars…

I had already experienced enough of the price of disobedience.

The doctor stared at me, wanting to speak but stopping herself.

After a long pause, she carefully tried to guide me.

"But you're home now, Ronnie. There are people here who love you. No one will hit you or hurt you anymore."

Curiously, I tilted my head.

"No one hurts me? Then does Eric dumping water over my head and forcing pills into my mouth not count as bullying? Does Alicia forcing me to donate blood not count either?

"Or maybe… even Mom and Dad…"

I leaned slightly closer to her and asked softly, "One second they're holding me and crying, but the next second, even after seeing everything Eric did, they still stand by and watch because they're afraid I'm acting. They even think I'm sick and brought you here… Doesn't that count as bullying either?"

I stared at her.

"Doctor, disobedient people die. I used to have several companions just like me. But now they're all gone. Because they weren't obedient enough… they were beaten to death."

The doctor's hand froze in midair, the color draining instantly from her face.

Later, she repeated every single word I had said to my parents without leaving out a thing.

The final diagnosis was severe post-traumatic stress disorder, accompanied by extreme submissive behavior and emotional detachment.

After the psychologist left, my parents locked themselves inside the study for an entire day.

That was, until Alicia kicked the door open.