Chapter 3

“Are you hungry?”

His dark eyes studied her and he tilted his head. “What?”

When he still didn’t reply, she wrung her hands together. “I’ll get you something to eat.”

Grace moved to the tiny stove and threw some noodles and eggs into the pot to make a simple bowl of noodles for him. She didn’t have any meat, but she chopped what vegetables she had and added them too.

She set the tiny table and poured them both a glass of water from the sink. He moved cautiously to take a seat when she set the bowls down.

“Eat, but don’t eat too fast. It’s quite hot,” she said.

She didn’t mean to treat him like a child, but his presence made her nervous even as there was something incredibly calming about him.

He lowered his head and ate his noodles quietly. Grace also stared at him in silence.

Normally, she’d come home and hate the feeling of being alone, confined in a tiny space. For some reason, the loneliness that she’d usually feel seemed to have disappeared. Could it be due to the presence of another person in the room?

After he had finished eating, Grace cleaned up the plates. “I usually sleep with the lights on. I hope you don’t mind,” she said. Ever since she was released from prison, she had gotten into the habit.

“That’s fine.”

Grace took her pajamas into the bathroom and shut the door to brush her teeth and change. Was it weird having a man alone beside where she’d sleep? Yeah. Probably.

But she didn’t feel triggered by his presence of fearful.

If he’d wanted to hurt her, he wouldn’t have defended her on the street.

When she exited and lay down on the bed, he took his position on the floor.

The room was silent save for the sound of the heater. If she listened hard enough, she could hear each breath he took.

It was a steady rhythm, peaceful even.

Grace closed her eyes and focused on sleeping. This was her routine every night because it was almost impossible for her to relax. Even being out of jail, at night she would always dream of her time in prison.

She would be beaten, shamed, and abused… and every finger would burn with the pain of being broken and the nails being torn off…

She’d wake up screaming, fingers curled, terrified, and heart pounding.

However, oddly, that didn’t happen tonight.

She slept until sunrise and was not visited by her usual nightmares.

As she awakened, she rolled over to look at the figure lying on the ground beside her bed.

Still here.

she

she had gotten out of bed, squatted down, and placed her hand on his cheek. Her hand

was real, and not

taken a strange

was already awake. His beautiful eyes were fixed on

If you don’t have anywhere to go, you can

after she had said

widened with a trace of

I

he spoke

some other man,

mean his presence here. She didn’t read any ambiguity into

her, and a smile

Although it was

***

she left money on the table for him to buy

the room

space. He rolled up the quilt that he’d slept on and then washed out

look around, maybe snoop a bit. But he didn’t want to intrude

apartment, there were

they respectfully

go,” Jason

been many years since someone had given him money like this. On the contrary, for as long

worker of the Sanitation Service Center. She started renting her current residence here a month ago, and was just

“Prison?”

Cummins. She’s the ex-girlfriend of Sean of the Stevens family. She was convicted of reckless driving and killing Jennifer Atkinson. She was sentenced to three

kept his expression bland. “Grace…” he whispered.

that she was also a good political marriage candidate, he thought that if he had

would end up

Grace knew about his past relationship

that twenty-dollar

had someone cared for him? Taken his hand, brought him into her home, and said

I want all the information you can find on Grace Cummins

are

***

her to go home. He said that since she had been released from prison, she should go home to pay her

when she

remarried only a few months after mom died, and her

her being sent to live with her maternal grandmother in the countryside. Grace’s

been in college and at the top of her class, her father finally warmed to her. He eventually started to show off

well-being, even if only out of pretense. Even her half sister tried to get on her good side—something that had never happened before.

made her worthy of love in her family’s eyes. She knew it was only because he was the heir of the Stevens Corporation. However, at that time, she still couldn’t help but long

To be loved.

the car accident, she realized that

home, she stepped

Pictures of the three of them. Not a single photo of her

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