Chapter 4

4.

The grip on my arm loosened, and I finally got a thin scrap of air.

Then someone else blocked my way.

Adam Dickerson slid a bill across the table toward me.

"This is the list of everything damaged tonight. Settle it before you go."

On the list, along with the shattered cups and glasses, was the entire tab from Raymond's room.

I pushed the bill back and pointed at the line for the room charges.

"I'm not paying for that part."

"You should go to Raymond for it."

Adam slammed a hand down on the table.

"If you hadn't gotten Mr. James worked up, why would he have walked out without paying?"

"And now you want me to go collect from Mr. James? You're trying to send me straight into his line of fire!"

Adam played it out to the bitter end. He dragged it into the dead of night, forced me to pay, and only then let me leave.

The moment I stepped out the door, the hospital called.

"Is this a family member of Gertrude Whitney?"

"The patient's condition has changed. She needs emergency surgery!"

I thought of Raymond's threat and clenched the phone hard.

"I'm on my way right now!"

I got to the hospital as fast as I could, but Grandma's surgery didn't start.

The staff's tone left no room.

"You'll need to pay five hundred thousand first, or the surgery can't begin."

"Five hundred thousand?"

I repeated it, unable to believe it.

I'd just been forced to pay that fine. All I had left on me was two hundred dollars.

"Please, I'm begging you, work with me. Start the surgery first, and I'll borrow the money right away—"

"I won't hold back on the money, this is a person's life, I'm begging you—"

My pleading was cut off, cold.

"Pay first, then surgery. That's the new rule the higher-ups set an hour ago."

"So stop making this hard for me."

I borrowed from every lending platform I could find, and I was still fifty thousand short.

The fine I'd paid half an hour ago was exactly fifty thousand.

The nurse kept pressing me, and I stared in silence at the four hundred fifty thousand on my phone.

A passerby in a face mask went by and pressed a card into my hand.

Looking at the few large words on it, my fingertips went white where they gripped it.

After a few seconds of hesitation, I made up my mind.

With shaking hands, I dialed the number on the card.

The other end used a voice changer, a faint hum of static passing through my ear.

I found a room, and following his instructions, numbly took off my clothes one piece at a time.

I chose the photos, hesitated for a beat, and still pressed send.

Fifty thousand landed quickly.

I took the money and rushed to pay off the surgery fees in full.

The moment my strung-tight nerves went slack, something felt wrong.

I opened the transaction record and found that the fifty thousand transfer had come from a private account.

Raymond's warning rang in my ears again.

But I couldn't afford to think about any of that. I only prayed Grandma's surgery would go smoothly.

The red light over the operating room stayed on for a long time, and in the end they wheeled out a stretcher draped in white cloth.

"We did everything we could to save her, but the surgery started too late—"

I couldn't hold it in, and the sob broke out of me.

"No, this can't be—"

A few people walked past, and the way they looked at me was strange.

They didn't bother to hide the contempt in their eyes.

"Isn't that the woman from online—"

"If it were just the audio, I'd still believe she got tricked, but now even the photos are out—"

"Right! A woman who takes those kinds of photos on her own, what kind of decent person could she be?"

I turned toward the sound, confused, and the muttering only grew louder.

"Her grandma didn't drop dead from the shock of seeing those shameless photos, did she?"

Raymond stepped out of the crowd.

"Nothing's confirmed yet. Don't rush to conclusions."

"After all, she just lost her grandmother. She's in a very bad state."

The words looked like he was defending me, but they read more like him quietly confirming every rumor.

I rushed at him and shoved him hard.

"You killed my grandmother!"

Raymond pushed my hand aside, smiling.

"Miss Sullivan, you shouldn't say things like that."

He leaned close to my ear and lowered his voice.

"Bianca, who do you think gets their comeuppance faster, you or me?"

Before I could answer, a slap landed across my face.

Natalie came in like a storm.

"A born whore, of course. You got your own family killed and you still have it in you to seduce other men!"

Raymond stood there without moving, and didn't explain.

He let Natalie grab my hair and drag me into the center of the crowd.

The slaps came one after another, the sound growing crisper each time.

The onlookers got worked up and started grabbing whatever was in their hands to throw at me.

My hair hung loose over my face, and with the swelling, my vision blurred more and more.

Until that familiar face appeared, shielding me from the front.

I thought Raymond had finally softened.

The next second, I heard his voice ring out a few meters away.

"Who are you? What's your relationship to Bianca?"