The Ex-Wife's Burning Elegance novel Chapter 360

Every day, they mocked him for having an embarrassing mother, and eventually, he just couldn’t take it anymore—he ended up fighting with the three of them.

But he was no match for them, not even close.

Afterward, their ridicule only got worse.

They even rallied other kids to join in, all ganging up to laugh at him together.

Back in his old preschool, there was nothing he dreaded more than running into those three boys.

And yet—unbelievably—they’d transferred here, too.

The boys swaggered over, quickly and expertly hemming Keen O’Brien in.

Panic flickered in Keen’s eyes.

The ringleader, Sheldon Ayers, fixed his beady gaze on Keen’s delicate, striking face, a hint of jealousy glinting beneath his scowl.

Sheldon had never liked Keen. In fact, he’d disliked him for as long as he could remember.

His mom was always comparing him to Keen, whether there was a reason to or not. Whenever Sheldon brought home a bad grade, she’d sigh, “Look at Keen—he aces every test. Why can’t you be more like him?”

“If you mess up basic addition and subtraction again, I’ll never understand how I ended up with such a hopeless son!”

“All you do is eat, eat, eat! Just like your father, who spends all his time chasing women instead of doing anything useful! At least your dad can run a business. Why couldn’t you inherit any of his brains?”

“Keen already speaks three foreign languages, and you can’t even string together a sentence in English!”

“Look at Keen, he solves Rubik’s cubes for fun, and you’re still playing with mud!”

At first, Sheldon had honestly admired how clever Keen was.

But that faded with time. Soon, all he felt was resentment.

If it weren’t for Keen, his mom wouldn’t be so hard on him!

When Keen transferred to a new preschool a while ago, Sheldon was thrilled.

Finally, his mom would stop using Keen as the gold standard.

Even now, being ostracized and left out, Marvin didn’t hold a grudge against Keen.

It didn’t really matter to him.

The whole world could ignore him, and he wouldn’t care.

As long as Stella didn’t ignore him, that was enough.

“Hey, you little pest, what are you staring at? This has nothing to do with you—get lost! Or you’ll get the same as him!” Sheldon barked, noticing Marvin’s gaze and putting on his nastiest scowl.

Marvin barely reacted, indifferently turning away and walking off without a word.

Seeing Marvin leave, Keen’s anxiety only grew.

That troublemaker might love to play the victim and get him in trouble, but Marvin had never actually hit anyone.

Keen disliked Marvin, but he wasn’t afraid of him.