chapter 3

Chapter 3

When Lucy woke up from the hospital, she had no recollection of how she reached there. She only remembered leaving Josh’s mansion so heartbroken and anything that happened after that was just a blur.

Since she had no money to pay the bill and she had no idea who had brought her to the hospital, she ran away the moment the nurse left the room.

Her life had already been destroyed and she did not want to add to her problems by staying in the hospital that appeared to be costly.

Although her legs were painful to the point if being numb, she gritted her teeth and sprinted away as fast as she could.

She flagged a taxi and headed to her father’s house. As far as she was concerned, she had been a filial daughter to her parents so they would understand her situation.

“You, why are you back? Is there a problem?” Catherine, Lucy’s stepmother asked the moment she saw her.

Lucy ran to her with tears in her eyes and just as she was about to hug her, Catherine pushed her away and her face was filled with disgust.

Lucy was stunned as she looked at her mother in shock, “Mom, what are you doing? Why did you push me away?”

Cathy scoffed upon hearing that. She looked at Lucy as if she was looking at an insignificant ant before she spoke in contempt, “Who is your mother?”

Lucy was flabbergasted as she looked at Cathy as if she was seeing her for the first time.

Her mind was flooded with confusion to the point that she almost passed out.

“What is going on? Why are you treating me like this?”

Suddenly, the sound of someone clapping was heard and when Lucy looked over, she saw Michelle descend the stairs gracefully. She was wearing a body hugging tiny black dress that revealed her long legs.

“Wow, Lucy, wow… I have never met someone as dumb as you. Who do you think you are to address my mom as your mom?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh my! I thought that you were the genius Lucy, how comes you cannot understand something so simple?”

Lucy “…”

“Let me make it clear. I am back to finally take back what belongs to me. You have had enough fun for the past three years and now it is my turn.” Michelle declared.

“What are you talking about Michelle?”

“Just wait and see.”

Lucy did not know how she reached her bedroom. She had not been back for the past three years but she was glad that her room was still intact and it had not been touched.

She fell asleep the moment her head touched the pillow. Her head was heavy as if she had not slept for days.

When she woke up, it was close to evening. Lucy headed to the shower and after taking a long bath, she felt refreshed. Looking at herself in the mirror, she recalled everything that had happened before and after she got married, and realized that it had been an elaborate plan by her enemies. The same people she had considered her family not long ago.

So, Josh never loved her for a moment, and Michelle who pretended not to like Josh was actually in love with him.

And her mother, no, her stepmother, she had been pretending to like her all these years , encouraging her to hate her own mother and yet she has never considered her as her daughter.

“Haha, Michelle was right. I am the biggest fool. How could I have trusted them so blindly.”

…

At Carlos bar…

Lucy was never one to indulge in alcohol but after the loss she had suffered a few days ago, she had been coming to this place almost every day.

It had been a few days of being carefree and without giving a damn about anything and she actually starting to enjoy her new found freedom.

All her life, she never felt that she could actually do anything for herself. Every single time she had to do something, she always had to put her family and her loved ones into consideration. But now that she had seen them for who they really are, she did not have to care about someone’s feelings.

Now, she could not wait to divorce that scumbag and get back into the game again.

She had been coming to this bar for the past few days and she seemed to have attracted the attention of a few customers. Although she had always minded her business and she rarely engaged anyone in any conversation, today she seemed to have invited problems for herself.

A woman who looked like she was in her late twenties approached her with a group of girls following from behind. They seemed to be on the verge of worshiping the woman as they fawned at her.

When she reached Lucy’s table, the woman stopped in her tracks and looked at her as if she was the queen looking down on her subjects.

Lucy did not pay them any attention as she continued to sip on her drink.

The woman felt offended that Lucy was ignoring her. She scoffed before she spoke in a cold but mocking tone, “So, this is the thing that has taken Mr. Lee’s attention from me?”

“Yes, Val. For the few days you have not been around, Mr. Lee has only been staring at this woman. We could not take it anymore so we decided to call you back.”

The woman called Val looked at Lucy and slapped her hand hard on the table, “You witch, who do you think that you are to even have your eyes on my Mr. Lee. I assure you that I am going to have your eyes gauged out today. You have no idea whom you have just messed with.”

“Yes, Val, you have to teach her a lesson. Everyone knows that Mr. Lee belongs to you. I guess that this woman just invited death to her doorstep.”

Lucy, who was unaware of what all the noise was about, looked at the group of ladies with a confused look on her face. She could not help but ask, “What is all the noise about?”

Val became angrier when she heard that. “What do you mean, you slut?”

Although Lucy was an easy-going person, she could not stand it when someone insulted her for no reason. She had been minding her business ever since she entered the bar, but it seemed that trouble always followed her.

She stood up and looked at Val without any fear. Raising her chin slightly, she spoke in an emotionless voice, “You, mind your tongue.”

Val was stunned that Lucy actually stood up against her. Even the ladies who were following her were stunned. No one dared to speak so rudely to Val. Lucy was probably the first person to do so.

“The audacity this bitch has to speak to our dearest Val like that.”

“I think that she might not know who exactly Val is.”

“I bet you are right. If she really knew who she was messing with, I guess that she would be on her knees right now begging for forgiveness.”

Lucy was about to say something when she caught a wine bottle flying towards her from the corner of her eyes.

She quickly shifted her body slightly and the bottle whizzed past her, almost chopping her ear off.

Her heart was thumping hard and before she could come back to her senses, a cold voice was heard from behind her as someone pulled her in his warm embrace with his powerful arms.

“Are you hurt?”  A strange voice asked, making Lucy’s heart to thump even harder.

Lucy answered almost instinctively, “No… I… I am fine. I am not hurt.”

“Good.”

Mr. Lee, who had walked over when he saw that things were about to get out of hand, and he was ready to play the hero to save Lucy, was surprised when he saw Castro. His face turned pale almost instantly when he recognized him.

Castro did not let go of Lucy as he threw the wine bottle that he had just caught a moment ago on the floor. He looked at Val and the group of rowdy ladies that were following her and coldness flashed through his eyes.

“What is going on here?”

The manager who had rushed over was sweating profusely when he saw Castro. His big boss rarely visited this place. He never imagined that something like that would happen the day that his boss came over.

“Bo… boss.”

Castro sent the manager a chilling gaze. He had always kept his identity a secret and he was not about to let it be revealed just like that.

When Val saw Castro, her heart thumped hard and her fierce expression just a moment ago turned into that of a domesticated cat.

She quickly adjusted her hair and straightened her small dress before she looked at Castro with an infatuated gaze.

But seeing how the man was protecting Lucy as if he could not allow any harm to come to her, her expression changed.

She opened her purse and took out all the money and credit cards and threw them at Lucy.

“Bitch, take this and leave this place this instant. This is more than you are paid on a normal night.”

When the women saw what Val was doing, they were stunned. They were so jealous that they wanted to tear Lucy into pieces.

“Bitch, today must be your lucky day!” They murmured. “Just take this money and leave immediately.” They continued.

…

Outside the hotel…