No More Yielding Chapter 07
A violent pounding suddenly echoed from the door outside.
Margaret barged in, dragging Isla behind her.
Margaret’s hair was a disheveled mess, completely stripped of her usual fragile and understanding demeanor.
“Arthur! You must give Isla an explanation today!
“The early decision admission slot is gone, and Isla’s illness has worsened. Can you bear this responsibility?!”
Arthur slowly raised his head, staring at her with bloodshot eyes.
“Her illness?”
Right at that moment, the phone in Arthur’s pocket rang.
It was the director of the Army Discipline Investigation Division, his tone piercingly severe.
“Colonel Pendelton, you’ve lost your mind!
“Someone filed a real-name report that Margaret bribed a psychiatrist to forge Isla’s severe depression medical records!
“We have verified it. Isla is not sick at all!
“The doctor involved has already been suspended!
“Now you are suspected of abusing your power and illegally transferring the Permanent Academic Record. A formal investigation has been launched!”
With a clatter, the phone dropped to the floor.
Arthur glared fixedly at the pale, bloodless faces of Margaret and Isla.
“Not sick? You’ve been lying to me this whole time?”
Margaret fell to her knees with a thud, frantically grabbing at Arthur’s trouser legs.
“Arthur, I was wrong!
“Isla’s grades were just too poor, I had no other choice!
“Robert died to save you; you can’t just abandon her!”
“Robert died to save me!”
Arthur kicked Margaret away, his eyes nearly splitting with rage.
“So to repay that debt, I drove my own biological daughter to a dead end! I destroyed my own family with my bare hands!”
Terrified by Arthur’s ferocious expression, Isla screamed and scrambled away.
Heavy, synchronized footsteps echoed from outside the door.
Personnel from the Army Military Prosecutor’s Office pushed the door open and marched straight in.
The man leading them had a cold, stern face and pulled out an official notice.
“Arthur, you are suspected of abuse of power, unauthorized transfer of a permanent student record, and involvement in a medical fraud case.
“By decision of our superiors, you are now suspended and placed under isolated investigation. Please come with us.”
Arthur did not resist.
Like a soulless walking corpse, he allowed the Internal Affairs Division to strip him of his service weapon and rank insignias.
The moment he stepped out the door, he looked back at the empty house.
It was the home he had buried with his own hands.
Over the next three months.
Every day felt like a year for Arthur in the interrogation room.
All his pride, status, and honor crumbled to dust in the face of ironclad evidence.
After the investigation concluded, he was dishonorably discharged and underwent a civilian sector transition to an idle logistics department.
The once high-and-mighty Colonel Pendelton became a laughingstock in everyone’s eyes.
Margaret was sentenced to two years in prison for bribery and forging official documents.
Carrying the stain of fraud, Isla could only take odd jobs at an underground sweatshop.
They suffered the ultimate backlash.
But Arthur’s heart was completely hollowed out.
Every day, he returned to that cold, lifeless house.
In the dead of night, he would lock himself inside the cramped wardrobe where Lily used to hide during her panic attacks.
He would shut the door tight, leaving not a single sliver of light.
In the darkness, he experienced the same suffocating terror his daughter had once felt.
Drenched in cold sweat, he clutched his own throat, dry-heaving madly, overwhelmed by an agonizing pain worse than death.
Yet, no matter what he did, he could never earn a single word of forgiveness.
He hired private investigators, searching abroad like a madman for my and Lily’s whereabouts.
But Boston was so vast.
We had left so resolutely, without leaving even the slightest trace behind.
He could only live like a stray dog, consumed by endless regret and longing.