Her Dirty SecretChapter 3

The next morning, I got a fine from code enforcement. Two thousand dollars. Jasmine's revenge was vicious. I emptied every last cent I had to my name to pay it.

Now I didn't even have money for painkillers, let alone what I owed Mrs. Gable.

My body was deteriorating by the day. Time was running out.

I turned down a waitress job a neighbor offered me. Instead, holding a flyer for a clinical research facility, I headed to the outskirts of the city.

The lab was stark and bare. The pay was five thousand dollars a session. Your life was your own risk.

I signed the contract and was led to a simple gurney. The needle in the doctor's hand gleamed under the fluorescent lights. I closed my eyes, one thought repeating in my mind.

Pay back Mrs. Gable, then go to hell with that monster. It's worth it. My broken, worthless life for my mother's happiness.

It's worth it.

"Annie!"

A vicious slap cracked across my face, so hard it sent me sprawling from the gurney to the floor. I coughed, blood sputtering from my lips.

Dazed, I looked up. My mother was standing over me, her eyes blazing with a fury and terror I had never seen before.

"Are you trying to kill yourself?!"

She grabbed my wrist to haul me up. The second her fingers touched my arm, she froze. Beneath the thin layer of skin, there was only sharp, unyielding bone. Like a dead branch in winter, ready to snap.

Her hand stayed there, suspended. After a moment, she looked at me, her lips trembling. "Why... why are you so thin?"

Her eyes reddened, but the flicker of sorrow was immediately consumed by a deeper rage. She threw my arm down, her voice shrill.

"Annie, look at you! Look at what you've become! You let them beat you, curse you, and you don't even fight back! And now you're here, selling your life for drug trials? Are you that pathetic?!"

She was breathing heavily, her chest heaving. "How could I have a daughter like you? I can't believe it. I, Tessa Lu, raised a daughter who would let herself live like this!"

Every word was a poisoned dart, striking me right in the heart.

I lowered my eyes as a single tear hit the floor.

Being scorned by my own mother... it hurt more than the cancer.

Jasmine's assistant had appeared in the doorway. He whispered something in her ear. Jasmine's eyes lit up. She hooked her arm through my mother's, her voice dripping with fake concern.

"Aunt Tessa, don't be angry. People like her aren't worth your energy." She looked down at me, her expression openly triumphant. "I bet you don't know how she's really been living all these years, do you, Aunt Tessa? By spreading her legs. Selling skewers by day, selling herself by night."

She pulled a stack of photos from her purse and threw them. They scattered across the linoleum floor.

They were pictures of me. In bed. With a series of different men.