4. Fired

A waitress named Mimi asked Lucia to clean up the dirty plates and glasses on several tables. She reluctantly agreed, even though she felt very forced to do a job that she shouldn't be doing. 

There were many workers there, but why should Lucia be the one to help with the waiters' tasks? Lucia's innocence, kindness, and age—the youngest of all Queen Fortune's workers—were often taken advantage of. The waiters don't even hesitate to order Lucia around when she's finished with a guest. 

As Lucia was about to carry the dirty cutlery to the back, she felt a warm hand on her arm. She found a man drunk and hiccuping. 

"Toilet, I want to vomit," said the man in the black shirt, stammering with hiccups. 

"Well, sir, just wait a moment. I'll be back as soon as I finish putting these things away." Lucia said as she turned her attention to the man clinging to her arm in a slight panic.

"Sweetie, just a minute. I've even been eyeing you since a week ago." 

The words that came out of the drunk man's mouth made Lucia's hair stand on end. The word eyeing could have a negative meaning. Lucia thought the man just wanted to ask her to take him to the toilet to empty his stomach.

"Wait a minute, I'm busy," Lucia argued as she tried to remove the burly man's grip from her arm. 

But as if not letting his prey go, the man tugged on Lucia's feminine waist, causing her to startle and almost jump, missing her grip on the glass cutlery. The sound of the floor clashing with the glass was so loud that it caught people's attention. 

"Sweetie, I've been eyeing you for a week. I just want you to sleep with me tonight. Please, just tonight," said the man who pulled Lucia's body into a hug.

No matter how hard Lucia rebelled, the man's embrace grew stronger. She had no choice but to cry out for help from anyone who would help her. Even though she knew the abuse she was currently receiving would only bring laughter to her fellow waitresses,. 

"Let go! I told you, let me go!" screamed Lucia as she slammed the tray she was carrying against the man's handsome face.

Lucia thought a few punches would make the man succumb to his drunken stupor, but she was wrong. The man's eyes were red and bulging with an obvious flash of anger, as if he had just had a piece of shit thrown in his face. 

The man pushed Lucia to the floor. The girl's tiny lips were cut, and when she felt something fishy dripping from her inner lips, Lucia touched it with her palm. Now the girl's fingers were red from the fresh blood that oozed from Lucia's lips.

With a seductive look, the man began to reach for the girl's long legs. Lucia's screams seemed to increase his enthusiasm to continue disturbing the girl. 

So, what were the people doing there? They just glanced at her, reluctant to dip their hands into the glass of someone else's life. Moreover, the man was the head of a highly respected motorcycle gang, a man named Anthony Reid. 

"Your screams are ringing in my ears, missy," Anthony cupped the cheeks of Lucia, who was sitting on the floor with both hands. He almost kissed the lips of Lucia, who seemed to be avoiding getting close to him.

Suddenly, Anthony fell to the floor and fainted after someone smashed a chair against his back. 

Lucia's heartbeat slowed slightly as the man lay on the floor, but at the same time, anxiety invaded her mind. What if her boss found out that she had just caused a scene at his place of business? It was not impossible that Queen Fortune's boss would dismiss the girl from her current job. 

"Ah, you're stirring up trouble here again," said one of the girls in the hostess group. They had come only to find Lucia's guilty look. They couldn't wait to see her kicked out of her job at the cafe. 

Ronald, a stocky 50-year-old man, came to his place of business as soon as he heard that one of the hostesses in his cafe was beating up customers, and that was for the second time in two days. 

"Sorry, Boss, I can explain," Lucia said nervously. Her lips repeatedly opened and closed without a word coming out of her tiny lips. The girl was at a loss for words as all her colleagues' hateful glances stared at Lucia as if she were the cause of the commotion at the cafe for the second day in a row.

"I understood yesterday, but not today. I'm going to have to ask you to quit this job." Ronald said, pointing at the main door. Anger flickered across the stocky man's face. 

Lucia's forehead furrowed in question. 

"Boss, I'm a victim! Am I supposed to keep quiet when someone tries to harass me?" growled Lucia, who couldn't believe that her boss didn't give her any protection at all. She was clearly the victim. 

Amidst the tension, Eryk pulled a smile from one corner of his lips. This was a chance to melt the girl's heart again. 

As if he didn't want to hear any explanation from Lucia, Ronald seemed to shake his head with both hands pressed to the sides of his ears. 

Lucia stared wide-eyed at everyone who had witnessed her dishonorable discharge from work. Some of them smiled sweetly, but it was full of hatred and glee as the girl went back to wiping the tears from her cheeks. 

Realizing her words would no longer be heard, Lucia turned around and slowly left the place.

The girl walked unsteadily out of the cafe. A series of questions hit her head. She had been receiving income from the tips given by customers and from every drink sold on the day she worked. 

But where would she get the money after this? Lucia sighed and took a deep breath. 

The girl decided to sit in the front seat of the cafe with a feeling of melancholy. Staring wistfully at everyone who threw questioning looks at her unrelenting tears. 

Lucia's gaze was drawn to a man who had just come from the direction she had just traveled. 

The girl quickly wiped away the tears. She didn't want to show the man crying in front of her. 

Lucia turned her face the other way to avoid making eye contact with the man. 

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have hit him earlier. But seeing you being treated like a slut made me angry." Eryk showed a guilty look to attract the girl's attention. 

Instantly, Lucia's lips smiled faintly at the man's sincere words.

"You're not guilty. In fact, I'm grateful that you saved me again today." Lucia seemed to deliberately avoid the man's gaze.

"What can I do to make up for my guilt?" Eryk walked closer with both hands tucked into his pants pockets. 

"How many times do I have to tell you, you're completely innocent of this?" Lucia looked up to see the handsome face of the man in front of her.

The man locked eyes with her. But the vibration of the cell phone seemed to attract Lucia's attention far more than lingering on the handsome face of the man in front of her.

Lucia's palms were drenched in sweat when the number that reached her was that of the hospital where her father was being treated. 

"Hello," she said softly to the person on the other end of the line. 

"Hello, good evening. We just wanted to let you know that your father needs to undergo dialysis immediately," said a woman on the other end in a voice that was as calm as possible. There was a sense of compassion from the woman on the other side of the line, as she often found Lucia asking for dispensation for her father's medical bills.

Instantly, Lucia placed one free hand in front of her proud lips. Her eyes heated up; they seemed to be racing to release another round of tears. Having just lost her job, she was now faced with a problem that she found quite complicated. She needed money to pay for her father's treatment, who had to undergo an urgent dialysis procedure. What should Lucia pay with? 

Lucia lifted her face to the sky. Her world seemed to collapse at that moment. Who could she lean on? 

Because the silence lasted too long, the woman on the other line repeated the same sentence, so Lucia said, "Okay, I'll go there right away and pay some money for my father's treatment."