Chapter 3

“Are you hungry?”

His dark eyes studied her and he tilted his head. “What?”

When he still didn’t reply, she wrung her hands together. “I’ll get you something to eat.”

Grace moved to the tiny stove and threw some noodles and eggs into the pot to make a simple bowl of noodles for him. She didn’t have any meat, but she chopped what vegetables she had and added them too.

She set the tiny table and poured them both a glass of water from the sink. He moved cautiously to take a seat when she set the bowls down.

“Eat, but don’t eat too fast. It’s quite hot,” she said.

She didn’t mean to treat him like a child, but his presence made her nervous even as there was something incredibly calming about him.

He lowered his head and ate his noodles quietly. Grace also stared at him in silence.

Normally, she’d come home and hate the feeling of being alone, confined in a tiny space. For some reason, the loneliness that she’d usually feel seemed to have disappeared. Could it be due to the presence of another person in the room?

After he had finished eating, Grace cleaned up the plates. “I usually sleep with the lights on. I hope you don’t mind,” she said. Ever since she was released from prison, she had gotten into the habit.

“That’s fine.”

Grace took her pajamas into the bathroom and shut the door to brush her teeth and change. Was it weird having a man alone beside where she’d sleep? Yeah. Probably.

But she didn’t feel triggered by his presence of fearful.

If he’d wanted to hurt her, he wouldn’t have defended her on the street.

When she exited and lay down on the bed, he took his position on the floor.

The room was silent save for the sound of the heater. If she listened hard enough, she could hear each breath he took.

It was a steady rhythm, peaceful even.

Grace closed her eyes and focused on sleeping. This was her routine every night because it was almost impossible for her to relax. Even being out of jail, at night she would always dream of her time in prison.

She would be beaten, shamed, and abused… and every finger would burn with the pain of being broken and the nails being torn off…

She’d wake up screaming, fingers curled, terrified, and heart pounding.

However, oddly, that didn’t happen tonight.

She slept until sunrise and was not visited by her usual nightmares.

As she awakened, she rolled over to look at the figure lying on the ground beside her bed.

Still here.

Was it because of him? Because she was no longer alone in this room?

of bed, squatted down,

was real, and not something from her

had taken a strange man

came to herself, she found that he was already awake. His beautiful

embarrassment. “I… I just… that… If you don’t have anywhere to go, you

in a hurry, but after she had

widened with

just pretend I didn’t say anything,” she

he spoke

by some other man, it would’ve sounded like they were

of “want” or “don’t want” and she assumed he meant it to mean his presence here. She didn’t read any ambiguity into his words, even if there had been,

at her, and a smile slowly formed on his lips.

had seen him smile. Although it was very light… it looked

***

Grace got ready to go back to work. When she left money on the table for him to buy himself some food, he sat staring at

gone, the room was eerily

somewhat nervous energy filled the space. He rolled up the quilt that he’d slept on and then

around, maybe snoop a bit. But he didn’t want

there were already people waiting for

they

Jason responded

It had been many years since someone had given him money like this.

the Sanitation Service Center. She started renting her

“Prison?”

ex-girlfriend of Sean of the Stevens family. She was convicted of reckless driving and killing Jennifer Atkinson. She was

“Grace…” he whispered. “Well, this

and that she was also a good political marriage candidate,

Jennifer would

his past relationship with

considered that twenty-dollar bill

hand, brought him into her home, and said she’d wanted him—just

I want all the information you can find on Grace Cummins

sir.” Then… “Sir, are you

***

call from her father asking her to go home. He said that since she had been

died when she was

remarried only a few months after mom died, and her stepmother gave birth to another

her maternal grandmother in the countryside. Grace’s grandmother cared for her until third grade, but had to leave her. Fortunately, her paternal grandfather stepped in

father finally warmed

the best it had ever been. Her father regarded her as an honor, and her stepmother cared about her well-being, even if only out of pretense. Even her half sister tried to get on her good side—something that had never happened before. From the moment Evelyn

one act that had finally made her worthy of love in her family’s eyes. She knew it was only because he was

To be loved.

she realized that everything

home, she stepped into

the same. Pictures of the three

Same couches and tables.

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