Chapter 1

“Hey dream girl! your break is over. Time to get back to work" a loud voice sounded through the small break room, waking the lady who slept on the couch up.

She groaned as she realized that her little sleep session had come to an end, and the next time she will be sleeping in is at home late at night. Standing up, she rushed to wipe the beads of sweat on her forehead and pulled out a comb from her bag on the couch. She then proceeded to remove the sanitary hair net and re-comb her hair.

Pulling her hair into a firm bun, she reached for a box containing new hair nets and wore one. She walked up to the mirror and looked over her light green uniform, ensuring she was not out of place, she walked out to meet the owner of the voice who called her. She walked to the middle-aged woman who sat at the desk; the woman had a firm face that looked like she won’t tolerate nonsense.

“Miss Ashleigh Hartman, once again you have overslept” the woman said, giving her a judging look. Ashleigh ran up to grab her hands

“Ma’am Smith, I’m so sorry. I will take note next time" she apologized sweetly, placing her head on her shoulders. Mrs Smith raised her head and grabbed her nose in a teasing manner.

“Hmm, how many next times have you noted now? If I’m not your aunt, you would be back to the streets” she said, making Ashleigh pout.

“Now go, you have been assigned to the fourth floor. Go and start cleaning early enough so you can close” Mrs Smith said as she removed her hands from her shoulder and pushed her to leave. The girl stood up begrudgingly and walked out of the break room with a sigh, after the door closed Mrs Smith stared at the door as she pondered.

Ashleigh entered the elevator to the fourth floor and was on to the supply room to get some equipment for cleaning. She scrolled through her social media account as she waited, looking at her friend’s account; she stared at the picture of her friend at a dreamy location with the caption ‘vacation ‘underneath. Placing her phone back to her pocket, a mocking smile came on her lips. She could only see from a distance but could not experience that splendid lifestyle, she could barely afford to put food on her table at the moment. The elevator dinged open and she walked to the supply room, entering the room she looked to see the three girls who made her dread.

“Hey look who it is..... dream girl has finally decided to wake up from her sleep" Tyra, a dark-skinned girl spoke up as she walked to Ashleigh. Glancing at her hands on the doorknob, she pulled her in and closed the door, and signalled to the other girl to lock the door. Ashleigh struggled with Tyra’s grip as she saw they locked the door, Tyra instead pushed her to kneel on the floor and the girls held her down by her hands.

“Little miss out of this world, why haven’t we been seeing you around?” Tyra asked, Ashleigh refused to speak. The other girl grabbed her face roughly and lifted it to face her.

“Insolent girl, don’t you know you’re to look up and speak" she shouted in her ear, making Ashleigh cringe from the sound.

“What happened again tyra” she managed to force out, the force which they exerted on her jaw made it difficult for her to talk. Tyra’s eyes narrowed angrily and she gave her a slap.

“I don’t know dream girl, you just annoy me" she replied mockingly and Ashleigh rolled her eyes. Since she had started working here last two months, Tyra and her cronies has always been on her neck; making her work experience hell.

It was bad enough that she had to start working at such an early age, she went through hell because of Tyra’s antics. Tyra had a problem with her apparently for being favoured by Mrs Smith which she did not know was her aunt, and their supervisor. she knew the contract supervisor looked at her with sympathy on the day of the interview when she pleaded for this job and chose to give it to her, she had no other relationship with the man. They insisted that she had a special relationship which the contract supervisor, which makes her gain favour. She usually just pleads for a while and takes on their share of cleaning, but today Ashleigh was not in the mood to do any of that.

“What do you get from beating me up? No matter what you do to me, it won’t still change the fact that I have no relationship with Mr. Clark. And I will not be leaving this job as well" she grunted out.

Tyra looked at her in disdain, wondering what to do to make her break her pretty facade, she smiled in satisfaction as she saw her that the slap left a mark on her face. Mr Clark was Tyra’s work crush and Ashleigh barely knew him but since day Tyra saw them having a brief conversation she was livid. With the opinion that Ashleigh was trying to seduce her crush, she made a resolved to expose her for the whore she really is.

“You see pretty bitches like you annoy me. You don’t get it do you? I will continue to torture you until you decide to resign. Or better still, you have to admit to me that you have a relationship with Mr Clark and I’ll record it to let everyone know what a cheap girl you are" Tyra said in a condescending tone, but Ashleigh was still unmoving.

Tyra signaled the girls holding her down and they nodded in response. They immediately lifted her up and dragged her to the back of the supply room.

“Wait, what are you doing Tyra?” Ashleigh asked frantically, struggling to free herself from their grasp but it was too tight.

Tyra only walked ahead without saying a thing and this made her tremble in fear for the first time. Ashleigh knew they were mischievous but she did not think it would be to this extent. They finally dragged her to the back of the supply room and tied her hands to the shelves that stood there with her back facing them, they then brought out a wooden stick and gave it to Tyra. Tyra laughed loudly as she turned to face Ashleigh and ran her hands on her face. She look at her the features trembling in fear and smiled wickedly

“You see.... today’s the ultimatum. You will have to do what we say today or face the consequences” she explained calmly

“I have told you countless times Tyra, I have no other place to apply for a job right now. I cannot afford to leave this place” Ashleigh tried pleading again, going on deaf ears to Tyra. She just stood up, walked to her back and held the stick up.

“Well, since you said this is the only option you have for now and you’re not willing to confess your relationship with Mr Clark, you’ll naturally have to bear the consequences” she concluded, raising the stick up to swing but was stopped by a cold voice

“What is going on here"