VHalfway through giving my statement, the landlord who’d heard the news showed up. He looked around at everything, then said to me with a grim expression: “I’m refunding your rent. I’m not leasing this place anymore.” The tears I’d just stopped started flowing again. I opened my mouth to say something, but in the end I could only agree helplessly. The landlord had a point, after all. I couldn’t guarantee I’d always be running a business here. If this kind of thing kept happening every few days, people would think the place was cursed or something. If I left, it would be really hard to rent out again. And even if someone did rent it, they wouldn’t pay much. Better to just cut losses now. With the police mediating, the landlord agreed to give me a few days to clean up. After he left, the officer continued questioning: “You really have no idea who might have had a motive to do this?” I knew exactly who. But I couldn’t tell him Victoria’s name. The Rockefeller family was loaded and powerful. Forget whether Alex would defend her once he knew everything–I couldn’t afford to mess with the Rockefellers alone. Plus, I hadn’t even seen Victoria face–to–face since coming back. If I just randomly accused her, she could easily sue me for defamation. noveldramaSo I had to swallow my grievances and hope the cops could find whoever Victoria had hired to do this through security footage. Maybe I could recover some of my losses that way. Shortly after the police left, Lucas showed up. He’d been checking on the restaurant regularly lately–Alex must have told him to help me out. Seeing the place trashed beyond recognition, Lucas frowned deeply: “Miss Morgan, did you call the police? What did they say?” What could they say? If the security cameras didn’t catch anything, I’d just have to suck it up and deal with it. Swallow this humiliation. “Mr. Winters‘ phone got water damage. When he saw you’d called several times this morning, he specifically sent me to check on the restaurant. e I really didn’t expect something like this to happen.” I had zero reaction to that explanation. I’d regretted calling Alex the moment I hung up.. What could he have done even if he’d answered? And if his phone really was water damaged, couldn’t he have borrowed someone else’s phone to call me back? Bottom line: Alex didn’t think I was worth the trouble. I told Lucas about the landlord’s demand to restore everything as much as possible: “Help me find some cleaning crews, okay? Let’s get this place back to whatever condition we can so no one can complain.” After working all day yesterday plus barely sleeping last night, I felt completely lightheaded. Every word took all my energy to get out. After explaining how to handle wrapping things up, I left without looking back at the place where I’d put all my hopes. I wandered aimlessly through the streets. Looking at the college campus nearby, at all those bright, energetic young faces, I suddenly remembered my own past that I’d buried deep in my memory. Before I met Alex, I was just an ordinary community college student. Unlike my classmates who ended up there because they’d slacked off or choked on their exams, community college was actually the best path I’d managed to carve out for myself after over a decade of hell. I was born in a rough part of town. I was the oldest of four kids. My dad was a complete mess–drugs, alcohol, you name it. When he got wasted, which was pretty much every night, we were his punching bags. As the eldest, everything fell on me. I worked whatever jobs I could find to keep food on the table and keep my three younger siblings fed and in school. འཇ་ཇ་ཉ Just like that show everyone used to watch–I was basically Fiona to my own dysfunctional family. So starting when I was five, I never got a full meal again. Chapter 8