Chapter 11
+25 BONUS
He didn’t even acknowledge me. Instead, he was urging the repairman to hurry up and fix the elevator. Unable to stand, I leaned against the elevator wall, hugging my knees. For some inexplicable reason, my nose started to sting.
Ben wasn’t like this before. The old Ben… was so much kinder.
“Are there no other companies hiring? Why did you have to join mine?”
His voice came from above. It sounded like he was standing right in front of me.
“Because of my dad, no one else wants me,” I replied, though it was something I wouldn’t usually talk about. “Why did your dad come to me, calling you the daughter of a mistress and telling my brother not to hire you?” In the dark, I heard him say, in a calm, measured tone, everything my father and stepmother had said about me.
What kind of father would call his own daughter the child of a mistress when my mother was his legitimate wife?
No, maybe in his heart, my mother really was the mistress.
Even though she had married him first, even though she didn’t even know about his first love.
“Are you seriously crying?”
It wasn’t until he spoke that I realized I’d been sniffing, holding back tears.
The elevator lights flickered, and I looked at the man before me, his eyes lowered as he stared at me. His expression was indifferent, as though he couldn’t care less.
Yeah, why should it matter to him?
I think there was a time when I had really fallen for Ben.
There were moments when I desperately hoped he would come to rescue me, to pull me out of the hell I was stuck
- in.
I wiped my tears away.
Then, in the next second, I slapped him.
The sound was sharp and loud. My palm went numb from the impact. He probably didn’t expect it at all, and he just stood there, taking the hit.
The timing, however, was perfect–the repairman had just finished fixing the elevator.
The elevator door slowly slid open.
After slapping him, I was met with the gazes of four or five pairs of eyes on the other side.
It was dead silent.
It might appear like I had done something terrible to Ben in the elevator, but I was too focused on escaping to care.
