All Chapters of Training Me to Be the Perfect Mistress: Chapter 1 - Chapter 8

The next day, someone uploaded the video online. The faces were blurred, but it wasn't hard to tell the woman in it was me.The comments exploded."I heard she's supposed to be a perfumer. Guess she went from blending scents to blending into some guy's bed.""Mother and daughter, same playbook. One mixes perfume, and the other mixes with rich men.""She's barely grown and already playing someone's dirty little secret."They didn't just come for me. They came for my mother too. I fired back at a few of them, but all it earned me was more hatred pouring in.I hadn't even put my phone down when the doorbell rang. I opened the door to find a man in his late 50s standing outside with two others behind him, backs straight and silent."Ms. Sherwood, he'd like to see you."I knew exactly who the guy meant. He was referring to my father, a man I could count on one hand the number of times I'd met.I changed into something clean.Soon, the car stopped outside a mansion halfway up the h

Silas was about to say something else when his phone rang and cut him off. I caught a glimpse of the screen. It was Natalie.I could hear her crying on the other end, saying something I couldn't make out while Silas scrambled to comfort her. I stood there and watched him.When he hung up, his face carried a trace of apology. "Natalie needs me right now. You—"I nodded and finished the sentence for him, "I'll get home on my own. You don't have to see me off. Go be with her."Silas looked taken aback, like he couldn't figure out why I was being so agreeable. But he didn't have time to think about it. He told me I was being good, and then he was gone.I watched his back as he rushed off to be with another woman. Then, I lowered my head and started the slow walk home alone. In a love story with no future, maybe it was time to walk away.Back at the apartment, I pulled out a suitcase that had been collecting dust for ages. This was supposed to be my home, but the things that actually

Spring came late in Auvienne. The day I arrived at the company, the plane tree outside my apartment building hadn't even started to bud.For the first six months, I barely spoke to anyone. I buried myself in blending fragrances and shut the world out completely.Six months later, at a company mixer, a man sitting diagonally across from me introduced himself. "Kieran Halston. Top notes team."His face looked familiar, but I couldn't place him.Then, one day, I knocked over a mug in the break room. I was crouching down to clean up the mess when someone beat me to it, reaching down and sweeping up the pieces before I could.I looked up, and it was Kieran."It's been a while."And then I remembered. He was the one who stepped out of the crowd outside the copy shop that day. I had been too panicked to get a good look at his face, and I never imagined I would run into him all the way out in Auvienne.The next morning, when I walked into the lab, I noticed a small glass on the windows

Victor tried to say something else, but I cut him off. In the end, all he could do was sigh and let it go.After I went back to Auvienne, I threw myself into work again. Silas had made a large donation to a children's education fund in my name, and I found out from the news.A month later, I received a letter written in neat, careful handwriting."Dear Ms. Sherwood, our school got the books and desks and chairs you donated. I used to have to walk two hours to get home after school, but now, I can stay in the classroom and do my homework until it gets dark."My teacher says you're a perfumer, and I don't really know what that is. But she says your nose can tell apart tons of different smells, even ones the rest of us can't pick up, and that's really cool!"I want to be cool like you someday. Thank you."On the back of the letter was a drawing in wobbly pencil lines. It was a house with a little stick figure standing in front of it and a flower floating above its head.The innocen