Chapter 3

"The boss?"

Seeing my blank expression, the floor manager looked confused too. "The boss is Mr. Kramer. He's the one who set you up selling drinks in the first place. Still, you came out the other side of it, and he definitely won't shortchange you now."

Only then did it finally click. Five years ago, I'd refused the marriage my father had arranged for me and stormed out of the Cameron house on my own, out of spite. That same act of running away was how I'd met Eric Kramer.

He thought I was a country girl who'd fled an arranged marriage because her family had worked her to the bone. I thought he was a down-on-his-luck nobody who hadn't caught a single break. We decided to build something together and make it big together.

The first time he told me he needed startup capital, he had me quit my nine-to-five job and got me a spot pouring drinks at the club instead. He said the commission was excellent, that if I put in the effort, I'd make two or three times what a normal job paid.

I believed him. Every day, I lowered myself to flatter customers and put up with their wandering hands, while he spent his days and nights burning through money, all in the name of "networking" for the business.

"It really was a bit much, what Eric put you through. Some of the rich boys who used to hang around with him would even pretend to be customers sometimes, just to grope you.

"It was all because Eric was worried you couldn't resist temptation. Making it through that test, that's a small miracle in itself."

Making it through the test. A small miracle. How ironic.

The person who'd dragged me through four miserable years was Eric. The person who'd stood by and watched me get groped was Eric. The person who'd had his friends pretend to be customers just to toy with me, to manufacture my misery, that was Eric too.

He knew perfectly well that I sometimes let customers pour drink after drink down my throat for the money, until my stomach bled. And still, he'd sit there in his private booth at the club with his pack of good-for-nothing friends, watching them string me along like a puppet.

Just thinking about it, I nearly laughed until I cried.

I turned to leave, the floor manager still calling after me. I just pulled out my phone and called my father again. "Dad, I want to come home right now. Will you come get me?"

I hadn't expected that he'd be away on a business trip overseas. "Don't worry, Liv. Just tell me where you are, and I'll send someone to pick you up."

I'd just sent him my location when I heard a woman's mocking voice behind me. "If it isn't the cocktail waitress, Liv Cameron. Instead of selling your wine, what are you doing standing around here like an idiot?"

It was Donna. She stood there with her arms crossed, looking down her nose at me, raking me up and down with contempt before curling her lips into a smirk. "As it happens, our booth needs more wine. Go grab a few good bottles and bring them over.

"Whether you can actually sell them or not, well, that's up to your luck."

I could see the malice in her eyes and knew perfectly well they'd use buying wine as an excuse to make trouble for me. But I wasn't interested in being the Liv who let people push her around anymore, and I certainly wasn't going to keep worrying about their moods.

I answered coldly. "I'm sorry, I've quit. If you want to buy wine, you'll have to find someone else."

I turned to leave, only to be yanked back by a hand grabbing me from behind. Eric glared at me, his face furious.

"Liv, you quit? Why didn't you talk to me about it first? You owe Donna money. Are you trying to skip out on the debt?"

I owed Donna money? He had some nerve saying that out loud.

The clearer I saw who Eric really was, the more I wondered just how blind I'd been through five years of living side by side with him. The friends trailing behind him started muttering snide little comments at me.

"Owes someone money and now she's trying to quit and run."

"Eric, man, your girlfriend is really something else."

"A shameless woman like her doesn't even deserve Eric. Good thing he never made things official with her..."