Chapter 9
He sighed. “Do you really think I still need any of this?”
I didn’t answer.
“Ms. Palmer, instead of fussing with these things, maybe you should focus on fixing your hair. And… stop bugging me. It’s pointless.”
I watched him walk away in silence, his back retreating from my side. He really did have a temper and a blunt way of speaking.
But Ben…
He had called me Jen. He had pulled me to the ground when he was scared of thunder and insisted on holding me while we slept. He had waited for me to come home with a smile on his face.
He had started this.
He made me look at the chaos of my life and suddenly feel like there was something to look forward to.
Now, he was leaving without a word; he didn’t want me anymore.
I went to the salon and had my hair cut short.
The stylist told me that the way they cut it left my hair completely messy. So, even though I wanted a trim, they had to cut it extremely short–right above my ears.
The hair that had once reached my waist was now cut so short. It stung a little inside.
Afterward, I called my father to argue with him.
It was laughable, really. The first conversation we’d had in two years was an argument. He coldly told me, “It’s just hair. You’re grown up now. Why are you still concerned about that?”
I was so angry I almost threw my phone out the window.
But then I stopped myself. I didn’t have the money to replace it.
I’d bought that phone with my own money, so it wasn’t worth breaking it just to vent my frustration.
I needed to find a job, one that had no connection to my father’s company.
My resume was decent, but I was just like a fresh graduate who’d offended the business world’s old bosses.
Small companies didn’t dare to hire me, and big ones, considering my father’s connections, didn’t even spare me a glance.
How ridiculous. My father let my stepmother mess with me, then forced me to come back home and work for his
company.
After my sixth failure, I finally realized I was truly a stray with no home.
I once thought there was someone out there who, like me, had no place to call home. But when he left, I realized it was just me who had been abandoned all along.
