Tyler sprang back to his feet, his face burning with anger.
“You just got lucky!”
He charged toward me again.
This time, I blocked him, pivoted away, and controlled his arm until he had no choice except to stop resisting.
“Let go of me!”
I kept my voice perfectly steady.
“Say you’ll leave the younger kids alone.”
His face turned bright red.
Then the classroom door suddenly swung open.
Our teacher froze when she saw the two of us.
Tyler immediately yelled, “She attacked me!”
I released his arm right away and stepped backward.
Before I could explain what had actually happened, a man standing behind our teacher fixed his eyes on me.
It was Tyler’s father.
But strangely, he wasn’t watching his son.
His attention was locked on the small martial arts patch that had fallen from my backpack.
Then the expression on his face changed completely.
He stared at the patch.
“Wait…”
Slowly, he bent down and picked it up.
For another moment, he simply studied it before looking back at me.
“You’re Lily Carter?”
I stayed silent.
He turned toward Tyler, and his voice lowered until it was barely more than a whisper.
“Son… do you have any idea who her father is?”
Tyler blinked. His anger flickered into confusion. “What? Dad, she just attacked me. She—”
“Be quiet.” The man’s voice was sharp. Not loud. Just sharp. The kind of sharp that cuts through everything else in a room.
He looked at me again. His eyes moved from my face to my stance to the way I was holding my hands. I hadn’t realized I was still in a ready position. I lowered my arms.
“You’re Daniel Carter’s daughter,” he said. It wasn’t a question.
I didn’t answer.
