chapter 4

I went back to the cramped apartment I had shared with Steve.

It was exactly as I had left it.

The moldy corners of the walls, the window with its crack, the split leather sofa, the space so small it could barely fit a bed and nothing else.

This room probably wasn't even as nice as a bathroom in the Jekylls' luxurious mansion.

I had paid the rent for all four years when we lived here. To afford it, I worked every day until midnight.

And all the while, the wealthy Mr. Jekyll pretended to be a poor boy from a single-parent home, watching me work myself to the bone.

If that was his idea of love, then all I wanted was to get as far away from such a vile man as possible!

I found my ID documents in the dim room.

Taking my bank card, I found a new rental apartment that very night.

As the first light of dawn broke, I sat on a bare mattress surrounded by all my belongings.

I was just a lone orphan girl. Facing a powerful family like the Jekylls, I couldn't fight them. To survive, I had to get away.

Watching the sunrise, I touched the scabbed-over wound on my thigh and decided I would focus on building a good life for myself.

I would treat the past as nothing more than a bad dream that was finally over.

The next day, I ran around to every store in the area with my resume, but not a single one would hire me.

Tired and starving, I nearly collapsed outside a pizza shop. The owner, a kind-hearted woman, helped me inside.

Her eyes filled with pity as she noticed the multitude of bruises and scars I accidentally revealed.

"Sweetie, do you need a job that badly?"

Under her gaze of genuine concern, I almost broke down in tears, biting my lip and nodding silently.

She was a good person and decided to hire me.

My wounds hadn't fully healed, and I was still a bit clumsy.

But she never got angry. Instead, she patiently taught me how to do everything and would chat with me during breaks.

She never asked where my injuries came from, only telling me that things would definitely get better in the future.

But that peace only lasted a month.

The day before I was supposed to get my first paycheck, I arrived at the shop full of anticipation.

Only to find a crowd gathered out front. A notice was plastered on the door: the property had been acquired by the Jekyll Group.

It wasn't an acquisition; it was a hostile takeover!

Staring at the notice, the owner's kind face flashed in my mind...

I had gotten her caught up in this.

Rage surged through me. What right did Steve have to do this?!

My phone buzzed. An unknown number sent me a video, filmed from a hidden angle.

It showed Steve with his buddies. What was playing on the screen in front of them made my blood run cold and my body tremble.

It was a video of me being exploited at the Eva Academy of Art. There was even...

Even a close-up photo of my face when I had been drugged with aphrodisiacs!

Steve's cousin, Sam, sneered lewdly.

"Look at the slut. Steve, you spoiled her. She's been used and passed around, and you don't even hold it against her, yet she still had the nerve to hit you!"

"Don't worry," Sam continued. "She's just being ungrateful. In a few days, she'll be crawling back to you like a dog!"

Their disgusting, grating laughter kept coming from my phone.

I collapsed to my knees on the pavement. My PTSD was triggered, making it hard for me to breathe. Cold sweat poured down my back, and the world spun around me.

When I finally managed to pull myself together, a circle of pedestrians had gathered around.

I felt like every single one of them was looking at me with those sick, knowing eyes.

Pulling my clothes tight around me, I pushed through the crowd and ran, desperate to get back to my tiny new home.

It was the only place I felt safe.

But when I finally ran all the way back, all I saw was a raging fire.

My phone had been trampled and broken in the panic. I screamed and begged people to call the fire department, but everyone around me just walked away indifferently.

My only sanctuary turned to ruins in the flames.

I tried to rush in, desperate to save something, anything.

But at that moment, men in black with sunglasses emerged from all directions and pinned me to the ground.

They ripped my clothes open, exposing all my scars, and called for the neighbors to come and look.

"Come see! Come see what a high-class whore who got passed around looks like!"

In a poor neighborhood like this, no one was going to stand up against a powerful family just for an orphan.

So, not a single person from the crowd stepped in to help; they just averted their eyes and stood there awkwardly.

I struggled wildly, using my arms to cover my exposed chest, my tears mixing with the soot and grime from the ground, streaking my face.

The lead thug laughed arrogantly, grinding his heel viciously into my wrist. Watching me writhe in pain only made him laugh harder.

"This is what you get for disrespecting our President Jekyll."

"Consider it a mercy we're letting you live, you bitch. You deserve this!"

Hatred, like fire, exploded and burned within me. My repressed fury erupted, and I struggled violently.

"What the hell did I do wrong?! Why does he get to play his rich-boy games, and I have to lose everything?!"

"Steve Jekyll is a piece of human garbage!"

Everyone froze for a split second, and then a barrage of fists rained down on me.

"It was an honor to be noticed by Mr. Jekyll!"

"You're just a cheap slut! A bitch! How dare you insult Mr. Jekyll!"

"Think you're so smart with your education? Break her hands! Let's see her hold a pen then!"

As my hands were crushed under their heels and my vision blurred with blood, I stared fixedly at a familiar face in a car parked on the next street over.

They were all Steve's lackeys, sent to teach a lesson on behalf of the esteemed Mr. Jekyll.

Blood trickled from the corner of my mouth. I wiped it away fiercely. I couldn't swallow this injustice. I refused to accept it!

I refused to accept that my sincere love was used, that I was played and humiliated!

Even more, I refused to accept that my choice to endure and walk away only made them escalate, pushing me to the brink!

If choosing to endure and retreat only brought me this kind of humiliation...

If they wouldn't let me live a normal life... Then I was done holding back.

I would send every single one of them who had wronged me straight to hell.