After Tormenting Him, I Saw Comments and Fled

Chapter 3

It was the third day without Ethan.

Business at my stall was dead quiet. Bob, the butcher from the neighboring stand, wandered over and glanced at the empty spot where my helper used to work.

"So the kid's gone? I figured as much. A guy who looks like that was never gonna spend his whole life gutting fish at a market."

I didn't answer. I bent down to lift a crate of frozen sea bass.

After struggling twice and barely moving it an inch, I finally realized just how much I'd gotten used to having him around. He used to do all the heavy lifting without me ever needing to ask.

The floating comments flashed again.

A: [Mr. Stone is back! His voice has been fixed! The Hall family's daughter personally came to clean up the mess!]

Before I could even process that, a commotion erupted near the south entrance of Jade Market.

The roar of engines rolled through the market, making the stainless steel basins on my stall vibrate.

A procession swept through the aisle. Two bodyguards taller than the sign above the beef vendor's stand cleared the way.

Then a woman stepped forward.

She looked about twenty-four or twenty-five, dressed impeccably, every strand of hair in place. She wore sky-high stilettos and climbed onto the wet concrete platform in front of my stall as if she were walking a runway.

One heel landed right on my chopping block. I recognized the red sole instantly. I'd only ever seen shoes like that on TV.

She looked down at me, chin tilted arrogantly upward, lazily waving a check between her fingers.

"Faye Ward?"

I raised my head.

She flicked the check into a puddle in front of me.

"Five million. That's enough money for you to kill fish for the rest of your life. Take it, leave Pearlgate, and never appear in Ethan's line of sight again."

By then, nearly everyone in the market had gathered around us. People stared openly, mouths hanging wider than the fish laid out on my counter.

I looked down at the check. Five million dollars.

Grandma's heart bypass surgery had been estimated at two million six hundred thousand. The rest would be enough to buy a small storefront and a house back in my hometown.

I bent down, picked the check up from the puddle, wiped it clean on my apron, then walked over to Bob's butcher stand and borrowed his counterfeit detector.

I checked it twice. It was real.

Carefully, I folded the check and tucked it into my apron pocket. Then I looked back at her.

"Add another million. I'll leave tonight. Middle-of-the-night train."

She blinked. Then she laughed. Tilting her head slightly, she looked at me with the same expression people used for dead fish laid out on a cutting board.

"Six million dollars to buy out a fish seller. The Stone family really likes wasting money."

She pulled out another check from her purse and tossed it onto the ground.

"Take it. Poor people really have no shame."

I bent over, picked it up, shook the water droplets off, folded it neatly, and slipped it into my pocket with the other one.

"Thank you, Miss Hall."

She turned and left. As she passed by, she deliberately kicked over one of my crates.

Sea bass and chunks of ice scattered all over the floor.

A few neighbors defended me, but more people whispered behind my back.

"She took the money fast. Not a shred of dignity."

I crouched down and quietly picked the fish up one by one.

That afternoon, I went straight to the hospital and paid for Grandma's surgery.

The moment the final number flashed across the payment screen, I stared at the thin receipt in my hands. My fingers trembled uncontrollably.

Grandma's surgery was scheduled for the day after tomorrow. Once she recovered, I'd take her back to Carmel Seaside Village.

At the station outside the hospital, I bought two tickets departing three days later.

Destination was Carmel Seaside Village.