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.

Because she

it, she had gotten out of bed, squatted down, and placed

and not

night, she really had taken a strange

she found that he was already awake. His

with embarrassment. “I… I just… that… If you

in a hurry, but after

eyes widened with a trace of

pretend I didn’t say anything,”

opened and he

this had been said by some other man, it would’ve sounded like

words came from him, it was like he was just asking a simple question of “want” or “don’t want” and she assumed he meant it to mean his presence here. She didn’t read any

a smile

smile. Although it was very

***

to work. When she left money on the table for him to

the room was eerily

somewhat nervous energy filled the space. He rolled up the quilt that he’d

he’d be tempted to look around, maybe snoop a bit. But he didn’t want to intrude on her

finally left the apartment, there were already people

come out, they respectfully greeted

go,” Jason

was parked in front of him. Jason got into it and looked at the twenty-dollar bill in his hand. It had been many years since someone had given him money like this. On the contrary, for as long as he

night is a contract worker of the Sanitation Service Center. She started

“Prison?”

and killing Jennifer Atkinson. She was sentenced

“Grace…”

how Jennifer Atkinson had been set on marrying him and that she was also a good political marriage candidate, he thought that if he had to marry someone, then she wouldn’t

would

about his past relationship with Jennifer, how

considered that

hand, brought him into her home, and said

want all the information you can find on Grace Cummins on

are you interested in

***

a call from her father asking her to go home. He said that since she had

died when

only a few months after mom died, and her stepmother gave birth to

maternal grandmother in the countryside. Grace’s grandmother cared for her until third grade, but had to leave her. Fortunately, her paternal grandfather stepped

at the top of her class, her father finally warmed to her. He eventually started to

the best it had ever been. Her father regarded her as an honor, and her stepmother cared about her 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.

had finally 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.

accident, she realized that everything was just her

she stepped into her father’s

same. Pictures of the three of them. Not

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