There was only a single bed in the small room.
Ruby Grant was forced into a nearby chair.
Facing the camera, her eyes felt dry and strained.
She opened her mouth, but couldn’t get a single word out.
Vince Shaw stood with his arms crossed, a sneer on his face.
He was clearly growing impatient.
His posture was a clear threat: if she wanted to walk out of here, she had to do as she was told.
“Don’t know what to say, do you?
Just read from this!” He tossed a sheet of paper at her.
It was a script.
“I can’t read.”
She looked at him with vacant eyes.
“You think I’ll buy that?
Illiteracy was stamped out ages ago.
What century are you living in?
You got a death wish or something?
Think about your kid.”
Vince Shaw grinned menacingly.
Ruby Grant closed her eyes.
With stiff fingers, she slowly picked up the paper.
She stared at the words of gratitude on it, her lips opening and closing like a marionette’s.
“Mr.
Caleb Lawford, thank you for your kind heart…
for generously giving me a comfortable down jacket and a quilt.
In this cold weather, you’ve given me…
and my child a warm refuge.
Your…
immense kindness is something my child and I…
will never forget as long as we live.”
Ruby Grant stumbled through the words.
The script finally slipped from her fingertips and fell to the floor.
Her face was as pale as a ghost’s.
Vince Shaw, very satisfied, turned off the camera and walked over to her.
He stared at the sliver of fair skin peeking out from her collar and swallowed hard.
“Ruby, why don’t you make Vince happy for once, huh?”
…
BANG.
The door was kicked open.
“Oh dear, Supervisor Shaw, I’m so sorry!
The baby was crying her little lungs out, just wailing and wailing for her mama.”
“I just couldn’t calm her down, so I had to bring her over.
I hope I’m not interrupting anything important.”
Ms.
Pound barged in with several other women!
They saw Ruby Grant on the bed, her collar loose and clothes pulled down to her shoulder, revealing a wide expanse of pale skin.
She was clutching a blood-stained screwdriver she must have found somewhere…
Her eyes were bloodshot, and her whole body was trembling.
Opposite her, Vince Shaw was clutching a cut on his neck.
His belt was half-undone, and he was spewing curses.
“You bitch!
You got knocked up and popped out a kid, you’re just some cheap whore!
Who are you trying to fool with this virtuous act?”
When he turned and saw Ms.
Pound and the others, he looked utterly humiliated.
“She seduced me, you know?”
Seeing this, Ms.
Pound and the others understood everything perfectly.
But though they were furious, they didn’t dare say a word.
One of the women snatched the screwdriver away and tossed it aside, then shoved the baby into Ruby Grant’s arms and pulled her behind them.
“Ruby, you’ve got streets to sweep this afternoon.
What are you standing around in a daze for?
Go feed the baby, can’t you see how much she’s crying?”
“Supervisor Shaw, please calm down.
Ruby is a disfigured woman, how would she dare try to seduce you?”
“Ruby, Supervisor Shaw is in charge of several of our streets.
He doesn’t have time for your trivial problems.”
“You can’t be that impatient for a raise, can you?
Right, Supervisor Shaw?”
“That’s right, Supervisor Shaw!
If you’re giving Ruby a raise, don’t forget about us!
We could use a raise, too.
We’re all veterans on this street…”
Mobbed by the women, Vince Shaw’s expression was grim.
But with everyone watching, he was too embarrassed to press the issue.
Face flushed, he snorted coldly and stormed away.
Back in the room, Ruby Grant clutched Ceci tightly, and only then did a delayed tremor run through her entire body.
Ms.
Pound and the other women glanced outside.
Once they confirmed Vince Shaw was gone, they turned back to Ruby Grant with sympathetic eyes.
“Honey, are you all right?
He didn’t…
get to you, did he?” Ms.
Pound asked, carefully leaning in.
She wrapped her arms around both Ruby Grant and the baby, patting Ruby’s shoulder.
Leaning on Ms.
Pound’s shoulder, Ruby felt like a drowning person clutching a final piece of driftwood.
It was as if Ruby Grant had only just come back to life.
She bit her lip hard and shook her head.
Silent tears streamed down, falling onto the swaddling blanket around Ceci and soon soaking a large patch.
Ms.
Pound’s nose reddened, and she wiped at her own eyes, standing there, unsure how to offer comfort.
“Heavens, Ruby, how did you end up targeted by that bastard Vince Shaw?”
“It’s true, Ruby.
If anything, you’re just too pretty.
If it weren’t for that scar and the baby, I’d want to set you up with my nephew.”
“Maybe you should find a different job.
A young woman like you could do anything.
Why stick with us old gals as a cleaner?”
The women’s voices, intermittent and concerned, buzzed in her ears.
Ruby Grant held Ceci, feeling as though she were about to collapse.
Caleb Lawford…
‘You’ve been gone for so long…
Why are you back to disrupt my life with Ceci?’
“Sob…”
Ruby Grant pressed her face against Ceci’s cheek.
Looking at her daughter’s sweet, innocent face, she could no longer suppress her sobs.
“Goo…
goo…”
Ceci strained to reach out and touch her mother’s face, as if trying to comfort her.
“Ruby Grant, you won’t be getting paid this month.”
The next day, Fiona Halloway, the street supervisor, tossed a slip of paper in front of her with a look of contempt.
It was dawn, the sky just beginning to lighten.
The cold wind chapped her skin, and Ruby Grant could barely keep a grip on her broom.
At her words, she whipped her head around in shock.
“What did you say, Supervisor Halloway?
How is that possible?
Today’s only the second of the month!
I still have twenty-eight days of work left.
The month has barely started, how can my entire salary be gone?”
This wasn’t just three thousand—it was the money she and Ceci needed to survive!
Fiona Halloway was dressed in a stylish fur coat, eating a steaming hot roasted sweet potato.
She wore over-the-knee leather boots, and her eyes, framed with dramatic eyeliner, glanced sidelong at Ruby Grant.
“And you’re asking me why?”
“Someone lost a gold necklace in your section yesterday.
They filed a complaint against you.”
“How dare you pick up a gold necklace someone else dropped?
We don’t need petty thieves like you on our cleaning crew.”
“Just docking one month’s pay is me being generous.”
…
Ruby Grant’s pale lips trembled.
For a long moment, she couldn’t utter a single word.
She was furious.
After a moment, she forced herself to calm down.
She gently patted her daughter, who was squirming restlessly in the carrier on her chest, and said urgently,
“Supervisor Halloway, there must be a mistake.
I didn’t see any gold necklace, and I certainly didn’t pick one up!”
“And I’m just supposed to believe you because you say so?”
Fiona Halloway adjusted the cuffs of her coat.
‘Damn this cold wind.’
She lowered her head and took a large, noisy bite of her sweet potato.
‘So delicious.’
‘If it weren’t for you, would I be standing out here in the freezing wind?
I could be in my nice, warm, air-conditioned office.
This is such a pain.
I knew I shouldn’t have hired you in the first place.’
“Anyway, I’ve said my piece.
Get back to work.
And clean this spot up, too.”
At her feet lay the sweet potato peel, along with a few sticky, fallen crumbs that stood out starkly on the ground.
With that, Fiona Halloway turned to leave.
But Ruby Grant wouldn’t let her.
She grabbed Fiona Halloway.
“Are you saying I’m expected to sweep this entire section for the rest of the month and not get paid a single cent?”
“I want to see the security footage!
It will prove my innocence!”
Fiona Halloway’s face changed, and she shoved Ruby away.
“The cameras are broken!
There’s no footage of you!”
“Then you have even less reason to accuse me!
Without footage, how can you prove the necklace was dropped in my section, or that I was the one who picked it up?”
Ruby Grant immediately seized on the flaw in her story.
Fiona Halloway clicked her tongue.
“You’ve got a sharp mouth, don’t you, Ruby.
Me, accusing you falsely?
Go on, sue me if you have the guts.
This is such a damn nuisance!”
‘She’s certain this uneducated single mother is all talk.
Knows the law?
She must be bluffing!’
With a flick of her sleeves, she stalked off, her high heels clicking loudly on the pavement.
Ruby Grant stood frozen, feeling so weak she was about to faint.
Ruby Grant knew that even if she took this to court, the moment they brought up her prison record, the verdict would almost certainly go against her, regardless of the truth.
‘What am I going to do?’
‘Am I just supposed to let them walk all over me?’