Four Childhood Heroes For Her? Fine, I Cut Off The Four Who Betrayed Me Chapter 02

Four Childhood Heroes For Her? Fine, I Cut Off The Four Who Betrayed Me Chapter 02

Ethan’s words were echoed by the other three childhood friends.

One after another, they accused me of being petty and ungrateful.

“You’ve been useless at taking care of yourself since you were a kid. You rely on everyone else for everything.”

“You were eight and still couldn’t sleep alone. At fifteen, you were terrified of taking the school bus. Even for Ava’s graduation trip that she looked forward to for months, you insisted the four of us accompany you twenty-four hours a day.”

“Come on, Emma. You’re twenty-three years old, not three. Do you really need to act like an unweaned child, expecting the entire world to revolve around you all the time?”

Their harsh words left me helpless and overwhelmed.

I wanted to explain, but I didn’t even know where to begin.

After all, I had been slow since I was little.

Yet I wasn’t always like this.

When I was eight, my four childhood friends were kidnapped. My parents found a clue and rushed to save them before the police could arrive.

The four boys were saved, but my parents were brutally murdered right in front of my eyes.

From that day on, I suffered from severe psychological trauma.

I couldn’t stand being alone. I couldn’t speak to strangers. Whenever I entered an unfamiliar environment, I would tremble violently with panic.

It was these four boys who stayed by my side through my rehabilitation, slowly bringing me back to normal life.

Once, someone made a joke about me being overly delicate, and the four of them reported the student until he was expelled.

The phrase they used to say most often was, “Emma’s parents died saving us. We owe her everything.”

“As long as we are here, it doesn’t matter if Emma remains a helpless princess for the rest of her life.”

Everyone envied my luck, saying that while every princess has only one knight, I had four.

I used to believe that too.

Until college applications, when Ava Monroe, an orphan like me, transferred into our class.

Her background struck a compassionate chord in me, and I naturally looked out for her.

At first, my childhood friends said they couldn’t verify her background and warned me to keep my distance.

When did they start changing their attitude toward her?

Was it when they secretly changed my college application preferences during senior year just to help Ava pursue her design dream?

Was it after graduation when they threatened a collective resignation to force me into giving her a full-time position at my parents’ company?

Or was it during this trip, when they staged a car accident just to give her a solo photo shoot, intentionally leaving me stranded on a foreign street to face police questioning alone?

I didn’t know.

Taking a deep breath, I asked Ethan, “Fine. Even if you four paid for that bracelet yourselves.”

“Since you went to the police station, why didn’t you clarify to the officers that the person behind the wheel was Ava, not me?”

His response came without a second of hesitation.

“Under French law, driving without a license and leaving the scene of an accident carries a sentence of up to six years. Ava just graduated. Her life would be completely ruined if she got wrapped up in a criminal case like that.”

My heart went completely cold. I had assumed Ethan didn’t understand the local laws, or that he truly believed he was helping me become independent.

He knew everything all along.

I asked him in a raspy voice, “What about me? Did you ever stop to think about what would happen to me?”

The other three friends took over the conversation.

“Stop being dramatic. We already told you that you weren’t the driver, so nothing will happen to you.”

“Even if something did, you’re slow anyway. Spending a few years locked up wouldn’t make a difference to a life like yours.”

Listening to their mockery, I held back my pain and asked Ethan, “Do you think so too?”

He didn’t answer directly, saying only, “Stop throwing a tantrum. Aren’t you completely fine right now?”

“Tonight is the graduation gala. We need to help Ava pick out her evening gown. We don’t have time to deal with your mood swings.”

Before I could remind him that tonight was my graduation gala too, Ethan hung up the phone.

The attorney beside me looked at me with sympathetic eyes. “Ms. Sterling, should I book a flight back to New York for you?”

New York was over three thousand miles away, and even the fastest direct flight would take nearly eight hours.

By the time I landed, the graduation ceremony would be long over.

I swallowed back my tears and declined his offer.

“No need. Please help me draft a formal lawsuit instead.”