LOGINChapter 44Lisa’s POV. I woke up with my eyes swollen and my cheek still tender from the slap, the empty pizza box on the nightstand which was proof that I had spent the night doing exactly what I always did when everything went to hell. I ate the last cold slice while I sat on the edge of the bed and stared at my phone, ignoring the group chat Mira was probably laughing in. My crush had called me a pig in front of half the campus. He had stood there and watched them tear me apart and then joined in like it was nothing. I had told myself for months that one day I would sign up for the gym and stop postponing it. Today felt like the day I either did it or admitted I was never going to.I showered, pulled my hair into a messy ponytail, and dug out the only pair of leggings that still fit. They were tight across my stomach and thighs, but they covered what they needed to cover. I told myself I was going to become that girl. The one who walked into rooms without flinching. The one who di
Chapter 43Lisa’s POV. I dragged myself towards campus already knowing the day would probably suck, but I kept trying to talk myself out of it. The sky was too bright and my thighs were already rubbing by the time I hit the main path, but I told myself maybe nobody would notice the new pimples if I kept my head down. Maybe Mira would be too busy being perfect to look at me twice. We were twins, which people loved to point out like it was some kind of joke the universe had written just for them. Same birthday, same parents, same last name on the attendance sheet, and that was where the similarities ended.Mira had perfect hair that stayed where she put it. Straight teeth she flashed every time she laughed. Grades that made professors nod like she was doing them a favor by showing up. She walked into rooms and people rearranged themselves around her without even thinking about it.I had the opposite of all of that. I was fat in every place my clothes tried to hide, glasses that slid d
Chapter 42Gina’s POVAnna didn’t speak to me when we got to the car. She sat on the far side with her arms crossed and her face turned to the window the whole way back. When the driver stopped at the corner near my building she opened her purse, pulled out a handful of notes and some coins, and dropped them on the seat between us.“Find your way home,” she said. Then she got out and slammed the door shut.I sat there for a minute with his cum still sticky on my thighs and the money in my lap. The driver didn’t look at me. I picked up the notes, got out, and walked.At home I stood under the shower until the water ran cold. I washed between my legs twice. Then I lay on the bed in a clean T-shirt and stared at the ceiling. My wrists still had faint marks from the cuffs. My cheek still felt the slap. I kept hearing her voice saying I was nothing but a toy, and I kept hearing myself answer. Somewhere between the mill and the shower I had stopped recognizing the girl who used to come home
Chapter 41Gina’s POVWhen we got to the place, the VIP room was way smaller than I expected and darker. There were low couches, one wide chair in the middle and a tray of things I didn’t look at too long. Anna walked in like she owned the air. She had that smile back, the one from the office when she thought the scarf and the threats were enough.“See?” she said, shutting the door behind us. “No desk. No invoices. No place for you to flip me and act like you run anything. Tonight you take what you’re given.”“You keep saying that,” I said. “Then you end up being the one dripping on your own furniture. What’s different here?”“Everything.” She stepped close and tugged the thin straps of the dress she’d told me to wear. “Hands behind your back.”I didn’t move fast enough. She nodded at the door. It opened and two men came in, then a third. They didn’t speak to me. One took my wrists and crossed them. Soft cuffs, not silk this time. Another pulled the dress down to my waist so the air h
Chapter 40Gina’s POVLuke’s fever broke a little before sunrise. I sat in that hard clinic chair and watched his chest rise and fall until the nurse touched my shoulder and said the drip had done its job. The envelope Anna left on the desk covered the deposit. I hated that it did. I hated more that I folded the receipt into my bag like it was a normal thing to carry.I slept two hours, washed the night off my skin, and put on the black skirt she had sent to the apartment. It fit too well. By the time I walked into her office, she was already perched on the edge of the desk, knees apart, skirt pushed high. Nothing under it. A small dark shine sat on the wood between her thighs, and she didn’t even pretend to close her legs when I stopped in the doorway.“You’re late,” she said.“I was at the clinic. You know that. You paid for it.”“I paid so you would be here. Inbox is open. Read the mails out loud. Start with the boring ones. I want your voice in the room.”I sat in the chair across
Chapter 39Gina’s POVShe turned the chair, and the juice woman looked at me like I had walked into her house with dirt on my shoes.Same mouth. Same smooth hair. The white blouse was now gone and replaced by something black and fitted, but I knew the diamonds and I knew the voice. My hand was still on the door. For a second I thought about opening it again and running, except Luke was in a sick bay with a fever and this place paid weekly.“Ms. Anna Marvel,” she said. “In case you’ve forgotten the woman you soaked.”“I didn’t forget. You slapped me first.”“And you poured a drink down my chest in front of a room full of people. Sit, or stand, I don’t care. Just close the door like I told you.”I closed it. The click sounded too loud. She watched my wrinkled skirt, the red mark on my cheek, the sticky spot near my hem, and she smiled with only one side of her mouth.“You applied to mop my floors.”“I applied because the flyer said weekly. I have a brother. He’s sick tonight. If this is







