Chapter1
“WHACK”
The sound of the slap echoed through the courtyard.
It was loud enough to bring heads about. so loud that it was enough to make people stop talking. High-pitched enough to paralyze Liana Brooks.
Her face jerked laterally, curls waving, her flesh aching long before the sensation became real.
For one suspended moment the campus was filled with silence.
Then the whispers started.
"Oh my God..."
"Did she just slap her?"
"Wow. In public like that?"
Liana was stunned, as she felt the taste of metal in her mouth. Her tote bag fell off her shoulder, falling on the pavement and notebooks started falling at her feet.
Nadia Collins, who was opposite her, with her designer sunglasses pushed into unruffled hair, with a contented smile on her lips. Nadia didn't look angry.
She looked entertained.
You are a real nerve-wreck, Nadia said, you rude person, and shook her hand in time with a kind of gesture that she wiped something nasty off. Like you are walking around this campus like you belong there.
Liana's chest tightened.
Laggards passed slowly by students. Phones lifted. Someone laughed.
Her hands shook; she stooped and picked up her books.
One of them was pushed by a guy with his sneaker.
"Careful," he said. College textbooks are not cheap. She probably stole them."
Laughter rippled.
Liana kept her head down. Crying here would finish her. She'd learned that already.
"Didn't you hear?" Raising her arms, Nadia went on. Unless you pay your fees before the end of the week, the administration will block your portal. Why do you continue to attend lectures then?
The word blocked, blocked, came to her ears.
Her hands were turned into fists.
"Move," Liana whispered.
Nadia leaned closer. "What?"
"I said move."
Gasps. Someone muttered, "She's brave."
Nadia gazed in surprise for half a second.
Then she laughed.
She had not yet answered, when the voice of some lecturer cut through the courtyard with a sharpness that startled the crowd, who suddenly started scattering, and were no longer interested. Nadia smoothed her bag as though there was nothing wrong and walked away, clicking on her heels.
Liana didn't wait.
She walked, no, she ran across campus, around the library, around the faculty building, till the tears eventually came out.
Twenty-one years old.
First year in college.
Already drowning.
I only need a job, she said with agony. Any job.
It was then that she saw the high black gate on the opposite side of the highway.
Sleek. Silent. Powerful.
A silver nameplate was gleaming in the afternoon sun:
CARTIER ESTATE
Liana hesitated.
Then she wiped her face, set her shoulders straight, and walked forward.
Justin Cartier glanced up at his phone as he was inside the glass-walled study.
His head of security told him that there was a young woman at the gate. She is inquiring whether there is any workaround.
Justin frowned. "Send her away."
"She looks... desperate."
Justin went to the window and peeped down.
She stood erectly holding her bag to her breast as a shield. Eyes red. Spine straight. Refusing to fall apart.
There was a movement within his chest.
"Bring her in," he said quietly.
Liana entered the mansion and her heart was racing.
Justin Cartier raised his face to meet her.
Tall. Sharp. It intimidated in a manner that made the room look smaller.
"I can clean," she said quickly. "Or organize. I'll do anything. I just need a job."
His eyes flicked to her face. Then he saw the red mark on of her cheek.
"How old are you?" he asked.
"Twenty-one."
"And you're in college."
"Yes."
Justin exhaled slowly.
"Sit down, Miss...?"
"Brooks. Liana Brooks."
He looked at her for a long time, and then he said these words, A which would never be forgotten:one-year-old college student is this desperate for money.
And when Liana started to talk, Justin Cartier was not even able to guess that he had just opened the door to a tempest that would rebrand the lives of both of them.
