Chapter 32: Where Is She

Chapter 32: Where Is She

But then, the woman gave her another surprise by taking the gown from her hands and placing it carefully on a chair nearby.

Then she turned back to Lucy and gently held her shoulders. “It’s okay, don’t cry,” she murmured and gave her a hug.

Was she crying? Lucy did not even know when her tears started falling. They just came out of their own volition. She didn’t want to cry but she was crying again.

The woman’s scent enveloped her. A mix of vanilla and fresh rain. Now, she had even started hallucinating about her mother.

“It’s okay, everything’s going to be alright,” the woman whispered again while patting her back.

After breaking from the hug, Lucy wiped her tears and sniffed. The woman did not ask her more questions and Lucy felt greatful for that. She must have sensed that it was a hot topic. And Lucy was also not ready to divulge it, if the woman knew, she might change her view of her.

Looking down at her bare feet which had turned red, the woman sighed again.

“Come.” She took Lucy’s hands and led her back to the store. After sitting her on a couch, she went inside another door and returned with a large bowl of water.

Lucy thanked her and dipped her feet into the lukewarm water.

“Where are you headed to, Dear?” The woman asked, while studying her.

Lucy could sense the worry in her tone and she told her the truth. Her next plan was finding somewhere to pass the night. Maybe even a motel. She would sell her purse and her phone as well. Then the next morning, she would look for one of her friends, they might be willing to help her.

Her next move would be leaving the city and flying to City X, where her cousin lived. She would live with Vivian before her father, hopefully, cooled down.

She didn’t reveal the last parts of her plan but only stopped at where she would sleep.

“You are so young and pretty. Who would allow a family member out here at this time of the night?”

Because she had committed a great sin. Lucy lowered her head and she wondered how the woman had come up with that assumption. But she was right. As it was plausibly among the top reasons she would be in this state. However, she had never seen that kind of fury from her father and never expected things to turn out like this.

“You know what?” The woman started. “It’s not fair that I take your dress as a compensation for these clothes. But I’ll keep it. Whenever you have the money, you can pay me and have it back… I won’t also allow you to sleep in a motel, my apartment is upstairs, you can spend your night here.”

Lucy’s lips parted at the woman’s words. So people like her truly existed in this world. Even though she knew she had to do it, she was truly scared to also wander in the night. And she had heard every horrible story there was about motels.

Her eyes tinged and the woman squeezed her hands.

“Promise me that you’ll go back home tomorrow and resolve any issue you have with your family.”

Lucy sighed and nodded.

After that, the woman took her upstairs and gave her food as her stomach kept grumbling.

Her apartment was small but cozy. She said something about having two daughters who were currently at school, then asked her to sleep at their room.

The night was long and despite being exhausted being exhaust, Lucy kept turning and tossing on the bed. Many images kept flashing in her mind. Her parents furious faces, her brothers shocked expressions, those strong hands that held her in a tight grip, and then the cold lips against hers.

She couldn’t seem to get him out of her mind.

The Next Morning

A commotion from the living room pulled Greg out of his sleep. He sat on the bed with a groan and rubbed his eyes. What was his brother doing here this morning? Was he here to blow his horn just because he had won the bet?

Greg ran a hand through his hair thinking about how hectic his life was going to be from now. Even though taking care of the chairman’s position was not a lot of work, his parents had without doubt increased the workload, surpassing even the CEO’S.

The boring meetings and decisions were the last thing he needed to add to his every day schedule. Not to mention that he had to let go of a lot of fun due to that. The only perk that came with the position was getting to put a lot of people in their places, especially those shareholders. And he surely would. Those bunch of greedy old hags who only knew how to extort money out of you and would jump at any chance to criticize how you handle their shares.

He decided to ignore the noise and buried his head under the pillow. A lot of work lay ahead and he needed a long good sleep.

Greg was halfway to his dream land again when the door opened with a bang. And before he could register anything, a figure pounced on his back and yanked away the pillow.

Enraged by the sudden action, he wondered who had the guts and he flipped to his side. But seeing who it was, his eyes widened before a deep chuckle escaped his throat. “What a great morning surprise.”

Gina who had ended up on his side used that opportunity to strangle his neck. “You have the gut to call it a good morning, where did you keep her?”

Her eyes darted across the room, lingering on the bathroom’s door but there wasn’t any sign of her friend.

Gina’s heart sank at the discovery of that. Since yesterday she had been looking for the girl after going to her house and finding out what happened from the maids. When she went to her brothers’ houses, everyone had pointed her to this place. Then where was she?