4
“Seraphina, is it?”
Her voice dripped with contempt. “So pathetic. I guess poor people really have no shame.”
“Wasn’t leeching off him enough? You still have the audacity to ask for compensation?”
You women from fishing villages… you really know how to hook a man and reel in the cash, don’t you?”
My face burned with humiliation. I wanted to fight back, to say something, but my words caught in my throat, and tears started to fall.
How could she say that to me?
We had been dating for less than a year, and nearly every fight we ever had was because of her. The first time, he abandoned me on the side of
the road in the middle of the night because of her. I was terrified. We gave each other the silent treatment for two weeks, and I cried for two wee-
ks straight.
The second time, he flew off to Europe to chase her down and was unreachable for a week. I had decided then and there to break up with him. But
he came back a wreck and got into a minor car accident. His friends called me, over and over, telling me he wanted to see me. I saw him, and my
resolve melted.
The third time was my birthday. My face was almost permanently scarred. The doctor said if the cut had been half a centimeter over, I would have
lost my eye.
Didn’t they owe me for that?
“I’m just asking for what I’m owed,” I said, forcing the words through my sobs. “You’re the one who scarred my face.”
“But you’re not disfigured, are you?” Melina scoffed, then hung up with a sharp click.
A moment later, a notification popped up. A transfer of five thousand dollars from William’s account.
I clutched my phone, tears dripping onto the screen. In the end, out of a stubborn sense of pride, I refused the transfer.
Accepting that money would have been settling. I was a poor girl from a fishing village; I couldn’t win a fight against a prince and princess like
them.
But I swore to myself, one day, I would make Melina Vance pay for what she did.
