Florence sat alone in the room, with only a computer and some miscellaneous junk left. It all felt like garbage now.
As the time approached, Florence quickly packed her belongings and went to the front desk downstairs. She didn’t have much money left.
She had been waiting for Beatrice to help her, but there had been no response.
“I want to check out.” Florence wore a mask, covering herself completely so that no one could recognize her.
Fortunately, this hotel didn’t require ID registration; otherwise, she would be exposed.
“Hello, you still need to pay a total of 500 dollars.” The front desk staff laid out all the bills in front of her.
The cleaning staff had checked the room earlier and found that the room door was damaged, and there were also instances of damaged items. All these charges were listed together.
Florence looked at her bank card balance and realized that it was not enough. A few days ago, she was in a bad mood and had indeed vented her frustration on the door and bathroom.
“Even if I damaged something, you can’t charge me so much!” Florence’s voice was low, afraid of being overheard by a third person.
“I’m sorry, miss, we have a detailed breakdown. You stayed for about two weeks, and during those two weeks, there were disturbances and damages to the property. We require compensation accordingly.”
The front desk staff showed no mercy.
Florence almost took off her mask, wanting to show them if she was really worth 500 dollars.
After all, she had never used facial recognition before.
But now she was plagued by rumors; otherwise, she would have used this tactic long ago.
“Can I give you an IOU? I’ll bring the money in a few days!”
Florence spoke in a much lower voice, sounding very humble.
The front desk sneered and called a few more staff members who stood in a line, looking Florence up and down.
“Do you think this is a shelter? We are running a business here. If you don’t want to compensate, you shouldn’t have damaged things in the first place.”
Florence felt powerless. In the end, she handed over her remaining 300 dollars to them.
“I really have nothing left. If you don’t believe me, look at my bank card.”
Then Florence showed them her bank card, realizing that there was not a single penny left inside.
After discussing among themselves, the front desk staff told her, “If you have no money, why are you staying in a hotel? Fine, fine, this time, we’ll consider ourselves unlucky. Just leave.”
With that, they ushered Florence away.
After leaving the hotel, she had nowhere to go, no place to call home.
Jane’s spies were everywhere.
And so, she spent two days wandering, spending the nights in parks, enduring a life she had never experienced before.
She buried her deep-seated resentment in her heart.
Then she entered a store, luckily it was a large mall, and she was covered up well, with no one suspecting her identity.
Entering the restroom, she realized that she hadn’t washed her face in a long time. She removed her headscarf and mask, revealing a pale, sickly face.
Florence gently touched her rough skin. Just a month ago, she didn’t look like this.
But now, how had she fallen to such a state?
The thought filled her with regret, and she blamed Jane for all her grievances.
Taking advantage of the sparse crowd in the mall, Florence quickly washed her face.
At that moment, a cleaning staff member walked in, looking at Florence with a strange gaze.
“What are you looking at!” She despised that sympathetic look and yelled at the cleaning staff.
“Such a good girl, how did she end up like this?” The older cleaning staff member didn’t argue with her.
This was the first caring words Florence had heard in a long time, and they unexpectedly came from a stranger’s mouth.
Florence’s last line of defense in her heart was shattered, and she squatted on the ground, holding her pile of clothes, crying uncontrollably.
The cleaning staff approached and gently comforted her, “Young lady, no matter what difficulties you encounter, you have to face them on your own. People need to move forward, not backward.”
Upon hearing these words, Florence waved her hand and buried her head deeper.
At that moment, a group of young girls entered and pointed and whispered at her.
Florence couldn’t stand being treated like this by others; it was a traumatic experience for her.
She stood up, wiped away her tears, and quickly put on her mask.
“Aren’t you the…”
The girls started to recognize her.
“I remember now, you’re Alex, the popular star from a few days ago.”
Upon hearing this, Florence instinctively shook her head, disguising herself completely, and quickly prepared to run.
The girls blocked her path.
“I can’t believe you have the audacity to show up after what you did!”
“It was you who made Jane suffer so much, and you even pretended to be someone else. I wonder if you have a heart at all.”
The girls discussed Florence’s actions, completely siding with Jane.
“What do you know? Don’t talk nonsense if you don’t understand the whole story,” Florence couldn’t help but argue back.
“Jane explained everything clearly at the press conference. She even left you with some dignity. I never expected you to be so shameless, taking advantage of her sympathy like this.”
The girls surrounded Florence, criticizing her as if she were a hated rat.
“What do you want? You’ve already pushed me to this point, what else do you want?” Florence couldn’t hold back her tears from the anger.
“Just apologize directly to Jane.”
The girls became even more fervent, criticizing Florence from head to toe.
Even the nearby cleaning staff couldn’t bear to watch.
“You’re all young people, learn to forgive and forget.”
Florence bowed deeply to the cleaning staff, then hastily left the scene.
She quickly found a place with no one around and hid herself.
These rumors were truly terrifying, almost burying her completely.
She never expected to be able to face these words calmly.
Thinking about the past few days without any contact with Beatrice, the more she thought about it, the angrier she became.
Once again, she dialed Beatrice’s number.
But nobody answered on the other end. Helpless, she called her friends overseas.
She asked them to help contact Beatrice and see if they could find her.
Florence sat alone on a park bench, like a homeless wanderer.
And so, she waited for the entire afternoon, until finally, she received an answer.
Her friends from overseas told her that they couldn’t find Beatrice at all.