Chapter 2

My breath stopped cold, and my heartbeat skipped.

"Done. Complaint filed!"

Janice waved her phone in the air, smug, staring the delivery driver down through the doorway.

"The platform's going to dock your pay any second now. Enjoy getting your account banned!"

The delivery driver finally moved.

He raised his head slowly, and I finally saw the lower half of his face.

A black mask covered his mouth. The brim of his hood hid his eyes.

"Take it back."

His voice was raw, scraped down to almost nothing.

Janice froze for a second, then let out a scoff and crossed her arms.

"You tell me to take it back and I just do it? Who do you think you are?"

"Scared now? Too late!"

"Janice, I'm begging you, please just withdraw the complaint!"

I was nearly crying, clutching her arm with everything I had.

"If you can't let it go, I'll apologize to you for him!"

She slapped my hand away and looked at me like I was insane.

"Glenda, he screwed up. Why the hell are you the one apologizing?"

"Keep taking his side like this and I swear I'll start on you too!"

I stared at her, out of hope.

The driver's right hand started sliding out of his pocket.

"Hey! Sir!"

I lunged forward and threw my body between them, blocking Janice from the driver.

I fumbled my own phone out.

Fingers shaking, I pulled up the payment scanner and shoved it almost into his face.

"Sir, there's something wrong with her, seriously, she's been clinically diagnosed with a manic disorder!"

"Pull up your payment code. How much does that one-star cost you? Is five hundred enough? A thousand?"

"Whatever you want, I'll send it right now!"

The driver's hand stopped halfway out.

He looked at the phone I was holding out, hesitating for a couple of seconds.

Then he pulled his hand the rest of the way free.

What he was holding was an old phone with a shattered screen.

Not the weapon I'd imagined at all.

My heart dropped back into my chest, and my legs nearly buckled under me.

As long as he hadn't drawn a weapon, this could still be salvaged.

But before I could even breathe out, Janice behind me completely lost it.

"Glenda, what garbage are you spewing? Who's manic? You're the one with mental problems!"

"You'd curse me like that over some stranger?"

She grabbed my shoulder and shoved me aside, hard.

She charged straight to the threshold and, with one sharp crack, knocked the old phone clean out of the driver's hand.

It hit the concrete with a heavy thud.

"What are you looking at? You feel wronged now?"

Janice jabbed a finger right in his face and let loose.

"Yeah, I'm coming for you specifically today! You delivery types, not one of you is worth anything!"

"My ex was a delivery guy. Cheated on me and stole my money on top of it!"

"You're all bottom-of-the-barrel trash. You deserve to spend your whole lives baking in the sun!"

It was over.

Janice hadn't just smashed his phone. She'd gone straight for the throat, insulting him and everyone like him.

The driver didn't spare a glance at the phone on the ground.

Those eyes, sunk in shadow, locked dead onto Janice.

His chest heaved harder and harder, his breathing turning thick and heavy, like an animal pushed past its limit.

He took one step forward.

That mud-caked shoe came down hard on the welcome mat by our door, the one stitched with "Blessings at the Door."

The second his foot landed.

My phone screen lit up again, a blinding new pop-up flashing across it.

【Woman Provokes Delivery Rider With Vicious Insults, Blood Spills On The Spot!】