Chapter 5

Every inch of Tessa's body was in agony.

At first, she cried. Then, somehow, her sobs turned into laughter.

She'd been wrong.

Her entire life had been one terrible mistake.

Seeing the vacant look in her eyes and realizing she was no longer trying to kill herself, Beckett shoved her aside like a piece of trash.

He turned to the club manager standing nearby.

"Starting today, Tessa works here as a servant. Every single day!"

With that, he strode away.

Tessa was left at the club. She knew Beckett was keeping her close for one reason: to make it easier to torment her.

The club manager clearly understood that, too. He assigned her the most grueling jobs, making her work until the early hours of the morning. The only place she had to sleep was a filthy, cluttered storage room.

Within days, Tessa had grown even thinner.

One day, dressed in her cleaning uniform and carrying a mop and bucket, she stepped out of the restroom into the hallway.

She'd worked so late the night before that she could barely walk straight. Exhausted and unsteady, she failed to notice a group of well-dressed people approaching.

One of the women recognized her and deliberately bumped into her while she wasn't paying attention.

"Ow!" the woman cried dramatically.

Then she backhanded Tessa across the face.

"Are you blind? How dare you bump into me!"

The force of the slap sent Tessa sprawling to the floor. Her mop and bucket clattered down beside her.

"Look, everyone! It's Tessa Wrenford! She used to be Ravenport's most celebrated socialite, and now she's working as a cleaner? Hahaha!"

Tessa froze.

Clutching her left cheek, now bright red from the slap, she looked up to find seven or eight spoiled rich kids well known in Ravenport.

Some of them had even pursued her once.

She got to her feet numbly and lowered her head. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."

Her meek apology only made them laugh harder.

The woman who had deliberately bumped into her sneered.

"You think saying sorry is enough? Your filthy uniform touched my outfit right after you cleaned the toilets! How am I supposed to wear this now? So, what are you going to do about it?"

Tessa's face went pale.

"I can wash it for you..."

"With those filthy hands you used to clean toilets? That's disgusting!"

The woman refused to let it go.

Tessa knew perfectly well she was picking a fight. But she no longer had the power or the courage to stand up to any of them.

Keeping her head down, she asked meekly, "Then... what do you want me to do?"

Seeing how easily Tessa could be pushed around, the woman gave a nasty smile.

"Pay for it, obviously! A little money should be nothing to Miss Wrenford, right?

"Oh, wait. I forgot! Your family's already bankrupt, and your crippled parents jumped to their deaths because they couldn't take the humiliation!"

The group burst into laughter again.

Tessa kept her head down, silently enduring their mockery.

Once they'd had their fill of laughing, one of them spoke up.

"All right, we won't make this difficult for you. Get down on your knees and bang your forehead against the floor a few dozen times. Do that, and we'll call it even."

They all remembered how proud Tessa used to be. Once, they'd scrambled for her attention.

Now they wanted nothing more than to drag her down into the dirt themselves and watch her struggle and fight back, knowing it would all be for nothing.

But to their surprise, Tessa didn't resist.

She dropped to her knees almost immediately.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

She struck her forehead against the floor dozens of times.

By the time she lifted her head, her forehead was red and raw.

As if that weren't enough, she slapped herself hard across the face more than a dozen times.

"Is that enough?"

Her complete submission took all the fun out of it for them.

They looked at her with disgust, hurled a few more insults her way, and finally walked off.

Only then did Tessa stagger to her feet. She picked up her cleaning supplies and lowered her head, preparing to leave.

But someone was standing right in front of her.

She looked up.

It was Beckett!

"Tessa, look how low you've sunk!"

His voice was ice-cold.

He had clearly witnessed everything that had just happened.