04

Bitterness mixed with various feelings, shattering her emotions as if it were a glass cup at the edge of a table. Well, she was no longer near the edge, but worse still, lying shattered on the floor.

"All right, I'll go pack my things and get out of here. I'm going to leave your life forever, and I swear I will never come back to you for the rest of my life. I don't want to ever see you again. I thank you for what you did, even if you forced yourself to act nicely, because I can already see you aren't the person I thought you were all this time. You're evil, you're... I can't even pronounce the word. What I do know is that you don't deserve anyone to love you because you don't even know how to do it, and you've dared to play with those feelings all these years." She paused briefly to take breath; she needed it to circulate back into her system or she would lose her voice. Everything hurt, absolutely everything. "I hope you don't regret acting in such a wicked way because I am not willing to forgive you. Goodbye, Marie."

Then she walked roughly toward her bedroom, stepping briskly up every single step leading to her room. The upstairs walk had never felt so eternal before. Once she was inside the bedroom, she began searching her closet for a few things she would need, like clothes. She would have liked not to take a single piece of clothing from what she had in there, since everything had been bought by them. Even so, she would regret it later because she had nothing, not even a penny in her pocket to buy food. She didn't even know where she was going now that her aunt had kicked her out of the house. It was insane to think something like this could happen to her, which was why she hadn't bothered to save any of her salary from the past week, leaving her with nothing and no one. She was lost.

She couldn't help crying while packing a large suitcase and filling it with her clothes. Tears fell fiercely, rolling down her cheeks and landing in cold drops on the fabric of a shirt or dress she didn't even bother to fold because she didn't have the energy for it. She just wanted to get out of there and not look those two in the face. It didn't matter that she didn't have a fixed destination. She would figure out what to do; she would probably have to turn to a friend—one she actually had. Besides, she was a millionaire. But she felt too ashamed to go to Alicia and ask for help. It was preposterous to go to her and ask if she could stay at her house. On top of that, there was the fact that she lived with her father, a rather wealthy and serious man. To be honest, she wasn't sure about anything.

She didn't have many options; it was simply something she had to do, come hell or high water. Perhaps the best thing was to talk to her and propose a loan. Her face burned with shame as she imagined living alongside that man who had seemed quite handsome the first time she saw him. She couldn't picture being so close to him in that gorgeous mansion she had visited several times—one she had fallen in love with not just for its royal palace-like surroundings, but because of its owner, who during her best friend's eighteenth birthday party had stared at her in such a strange way. Now that she thought about it, asking or requesting lodging there didn't seem like a good idea.

She didn't know what to do anymore. She had to go somewhere, never quedarse like a homeless person on the street—a thought that alone sent shivers down her entire body and filled her with the fear of some misfortune befalling her.

She sighed deeply. If life threw her this curveball, she would throw back harder. Everything was difficult and strange now—a drastic turn she would accept with optimism.

Yes, of course she would talk to Alicia, or maybe it was best to call Ashton...

When she was about to knock on the door of that mansion, she felt the urge to give up and run away from there with her suitcase in hand. However, she had knocked without thinking much about it, and shortly after, a young green-eyed woman greeted her. From her uniform, she already knew she was the maid—a very kind woman she had the privilege of knowing beforehand from her visits to the house, though it had been a long time since she last came. But she was back there again with another intention—one she was afraid to voice because it might be taken as an abuse, even if she genuinely needed help.

In reality, her options had never run out when there was only one left: go to the house—no, to Alicia's huge mansion—and talk to her about staying for a while until she figured out how to pay for a room elsewhere.

"Hello, how can I help you? But come in, don't stand out there," the maid immediately stepped aside. She already knew her.

"Do you remember me?"

"Of course."

"Thank you."

She smiled slightly.

"Well, you're Alicia's friend; how could I forget you? She's not here right now, she went out. I don't know if you were looking for her, but I don't think it will take her long to return; it was a quick and unexpected trip. How can I help you? Perhaps the master can assist you; he is here right now, he didn't go to work," she informed the young woman. Hearing that he was there made her entire body start trembling instantly, and she couldn't help feeling extremely nervous. Little by little, she began to lose the courage with which she had arrived.

She already wanted to leave.

"Oh, I see. Do you think I could speak with him? I'd really appreciate it," she practically begged.

There was no turning back.

She sighed deeply.

The woman nodded with a smile on her face. The first time she saw the girl, she thought she was good and kind, and she had liked her very much ever since. So she would do her that favor, especially since her intuition told her something was wrong; the moment she cast her gaze down and locked her eyes on the suitcase, she more or less figured out what was going on. Then she left her there. The maid stepped away to tell her boss about the young girl's arrival—that she needed to speak with him for reasons she didn't know, though something told her it had to do with staying for a few days, or even a while, there.