Chapter 245
Just as the atmosphere became awkwardly frozen, Jack snapped out of it and suddenly sprang to his feet, shouting at the top of his lungs, "You're lying! They don't like YOU! You're the bad kid! Everyone hates you!"
Milly stood beside me, her little hand tightly clutching the corner of my clothes. She pressed her lips together without saying a word, but her eyes stared straight at Jack without backing down one bit.
Watching him twist the situation so effortlessly, a low, humorless laugh escaped me.
It wasn’t loud, but in the quiet office, it struck like a slap, sharp, cutting, impossible to ignore.
I looked at Sarah, whose face had turned extremely unpleasant, my tone full of undisguised sarcasm, "The thief crying 'stop thief,' turning the tables on others, is this a family tradition of yours? You've passed it down pretty well."
Sarah's face instantly darkened.
From the moment she entered the office today, I had been keeping her on the defensive.
George's unusual attitude had caught her completely off guard, and the fire burning inside her had been growing stronger.
My jab pushed her right to the edge; her carefully maintained gentle façade cracked.
"Principal!" She suddenly turned to the principal, her voice slightly shrill with agitation, "Pull up all the surveillance footage from the past two weeks and let everyone see clearly who's really at fault! I believe Jack is innocent. He would never do those things!"
The principal blinked, startled by her outburst, discomfort quickly settling over her features, "Ms. Wilson, that's not really appropriate... The surveillance involves other children's privacy..."
"What's inappropriate about it?" Sarah cut her off sharply, chin lifting with confidence as if she’d already won, "Pull up the surveillance. It'll clear Jack's name and prevent certain people from making baseless accusations!"
Her gaze swept over me meaningfully, full of provocation.
"Yes, let's check the surveillance," I picked up where she left off, my voice cold as ice, "Let's see who's really the child who lies and bullies others."
Sarah looked at me with disdain, her tone even more certain, "Do it! Do it right now! I believe in my Jack. He's so well-behaved, so sensible. He would never lie, much less bully anyone!"
She didn’t realize the principal was now avoiding her gaze entirely. The woman’s troubled expression had taken on a new shade, one of quiet embarrassment.
It seemed the principal knew very well what kind of behavior Jack displayed at the kindergarten.
The principal didn't immediately agree but instinctively looked toward George, the only person present who could make the decision.
She asked cautiously, "Mr. Smith, what do you think about this..."
George's face still showed no expression. He didn't even look at Sarah or me, just calmly uttered a sentence, "Pull it up."
His tone was calm, yet final.
The principal's lips barely managed to form a smile as she nodded, "Then which time period should we check?"
Milly, who had been tightly hugging my leg, suddenly lifted her little head.
She looked at the principal, her voice not loud but every word clear, "I remember."
The soft but steady words made every eye in the room turn toward her.
Milly counted on her fingers and began listing them one by one, "Two weeks ago on Wednesday, after nap time, in the block area, he grabbed my blocks and pushed me."
"Last Monday, during snack time, he knocked over my milk. Last Thursday, in art class, he hid my drawing..."
"And today, he called my mom names, tore up my drawing, hit me..."
With each incident she recited, Jack’s face grew visibly paler, until it was practically drained of color.
Sarah’s confident expression cracked hard… but she quickly forced herself to hold steady.
But she quickly forced herself to hold it together, speaking to Milly in a tone that was both dismissive and slightly coaxing, "Milly, you're still young. Maybe you got the times mixed up? You can't completely trust what little kids say. But since you insist..."
She turned to the principal, her tone pressuring, "Principal, let's check those time periods she mentioned. I believe the kindergarten has backup surveillance, right?"
With these words, she both undermined Milly's credibility and implied that if the footage couldn't be retrieved or there were problems, it would be the kindergarten's responsibility.
The principal's forehead was already beading with sweat as she nodded repeatedly, "Yes, yes, we have backup surveillance..."
"My stomach hurts! It hurts so much!" Jack, who had been silent, suddenly clutched his stomach and collapsed on the floor, his little face scrunched up, moaning in pain.
"Jack, what's wrong?" Sarah was startled and immediately rushed over, nervously supporting him, "Where does it hurt? Tell me."
"My stomach... my stomach hurts..." Jack curled up, his acting exaggerated as he wailed, "It was Milly. She just kicked me in the stomach... It hurts so much..."
Milly immediately protested loudly, "I didn't kick him! He's lying! He must be afraid you'll see the truth in the surveillance, so he's pretending his stomach hurts!"
"You're lying!" Sarah looked up, glaring at Milly, her voice shrill, "Jack would never lie! He must have been injured earlier!"
Just as things were about to descend into another round of arguing and deflection, George, who had been silent, finally spoke again, "Sarah, take Jack to the hospital for a checkup."
He paused, his gaze sweeping over Milly and me before finally settling on the principal, "I'll go with them to the surveillance room."
It wasn't a suggestion, it was an order.
Sarah froze. She looked at George, then at Jack moaning in pain on the floor, opening her mouth as if wanting to object.
But George's unquestionable gaze made her swallow her words.
She knew that when George had truly made a decision, her acting cute and tears no longer worked.
"Fine." She bit her lip, reluctantly agreeing, bending down to help Jack up, "Jack, be good. Mommy will take you to the hospital."
Jack seemed to want to throw another tantrum, but when he met George's cold gaze, he shuddered and didn't dare make more trouble, obediently letting Sarah help him up and being led away with frequent backward glances.
The office immediately became much quieter.
"Everyone, please follow me." The principal, both relieved and somewhat anxious, led us to the surveillance room.
The surveillance room wasn't large, but there were many screens.
She instructed the security guard to pull up the time periods Milly had mentioned.
George stood to the side, his posture upright, silent as a statue.
Milly tightly held my hand, her little face tense, somewhat nervous yet somewhat expectant.
The screen lit up, fast-forwarding, locating.
The first time period, the block area after nap time.
In the footage, Milly was building with blocks by herself when Jack walked over with two little boys. Without a word, he knocked down the castle Milly had built and grabbed the biggest block from her hand.
When Milly stood up to talk back, Jack shoved her hard enough to make her fall.
A teacher nearby seemed to be organizing toys with her back turned to them, not seeing what happened.
The second time period, snack time.
Milly was carrying her milk to her seat when Jack suddenly ran past from the side, bumping into her. Milk spilled all over her.
Jack turned back, made a face, and ran off.
The third, the fourth...
Frame by frame, the images flashed by—clear, silent, yet more powerful than any words.
Jack leading the isolation of Milly, grabbing her things, deliberately destroying her work, pushing her, making faces at her with other children, whispering about her...
Various behaviors, one after another.
And Milly, most of the time, just quietly avoided them or cleaned up the mess with red-rimmed eyes. The few times she gathered courage to resist, she was met with even worse bullying.
I watched that small figure on the screen being excluded and bullied yet still stubbornly keeping her back straight, and I felt all the blood in my body gradually cooling down, freezing into ice.
It was as if something was squeezing my heart, crushing it, sending waves of dull, suffocating pain through my chest.