2
After sending the text, my heart felt like it was suspended over an ice cave.
Ten minutes later, the screen lit up with just one brief line: "8 PM tomorrow, Crown Club in Midtown."
No extra words. It was Alex's usual concise style.
The next day, I ran around the streets, trying to find a job that could provide a "stable income flow."
But once employers looked up my background, no one was willing to hire me.
It wasn't until 8 PM that I stood punctually before the brass doors of the Crown Club.
I thought this was a private meeting.
But when the doors opened, the glaring crystal chandeliers and symphony music almost blinded me.
Inside, it was actually an upper-class high-society party.
I stepped inside wearing a filthy winter puffer jacket. The surrounding champagne-sipping VIPs abruptly stopped talking as they got a clear look at my face.
"My god, isn't that Elena?"
"I recall she just got released from prison yesterday, and she's already running over here to find Alex?"
"Look at how shabby and broke she is now. Disgusting..."
The crowd parted automatically down the middle.
Alex, holding a wine glass, was clustered in the center by several business tycoons like stars surrounding the moon.
He lifted his head. The moment his gaze touched mine, a blatant flicker of surprise crossed those otherwise nonchalant eyes, quickly succeeded by a freezing layer of revulsion.
"Who let her in?" His voice wasn't loud, but it carried a bone-chilling coldness.
Madeline was clinging to his arm, looking absolutely radiant.
Seeing me, a mocking gleam swiftly flashed through her eyes, but on the surface, she gasped and shrunk back into Alex's embrace.
"Alex... weren't you the one who texted me to come?" I asked, slightly bewildered.
"I texted you?" Alex scoffed coldly. "On your very first day out of prison, you look up my private schedule and even make up such a clumsy excuse to sneak into my private party. Elena, it's been three years. How has your utterly despicable, stalking behavior not changed one bit?"
I froze in place, looking at him in disbelief.
My gaze landed on his cold, disdainful eyes, then swept over Madeline, who harbored a smirk on her lips next to him. That faint glimmer of hope in my mind was ruthlessly shattered.
Did he intentionally use that text to trick me into coming here, just to publicly humiliate me in this setting?
Or rather... did Madeline mess with his phone?
None of it mattered anymore. Leo's medical fees were the most important thing!
"I'm not here to pester you. I just need to borrow a sum of money. Five hundred thousand," I pinched my palms tightly, forcing myself to swallow down all the grievance and shock.
"Leo is undergoing matching in the hematology department. His thrombosis has gotten worse. All I need is five hundred thousand to sign the intervention consent form and lock in his schedule..."
"Shut up!" Alex interrupted me violently, the disgust in his eyes striking my face almost like a physical slap. "To hustle money from me, you'd even use the illness of some bastard child belonging to god-knows-who as a bargaining chip. Do you think I'm still going to be sickened by you the way I used to be?"
"Alex, don't be mad," Madeline smoothed his chest with perfect timing, and then turned to the crowd, speaking in a gentle tone. "Everyone, don't blame Elena. She just got out of prison, with no money and no job. Driven to a dead end, she had no choice but to pester Alex like this."
Her affected, hypocritical words instantly ignited a collective sense of justice among the onlookers.
"Does having no money mean you can just come here and scam people?"
"So shameless! To even use a child's illness to con people!"
"Madeline is so kind-hearted! Back then, Elena almost killed her, and yet she can still speak up for her."
Everyone pulled out their phones, pointing their cameras at me. The disdain and verbal abuse flooded toward me like a tidal wave.
My pride was once again pulverized, but for Leo's sake, I endured it and stayed, just looking at Alex with red-rimmed eyes.
"You want money, right?" Alex sneered. He took out a checkbook from his inner pocket, but instead of handing it to me, he turned and pointed to the red carpet at his feet.
"Since you love money so much, why don't we see if you're willing to trade your once high-and-mighty dignity for it?" Alex's tone was indifferent.
"Bark like a dog. One bark, one crawl on the floor, and I'll give you ten thousand dollars. Crawling to the end of this red carpet is exactly fifty steps."
The crowd erupted into a burst of excited, mocking laughter.
Someone whistled, the front row intentionally parted to make a wide path, and countless camera flashes glared into my face.
"Crawl! Wasn't the ex-vicious woman pretty arrogant?"
"Hurry up, hurry up! I can't wait to record this on video!"
Fifty steps. Five hundred thousand.
Enough money to buy Leo's life back.
My mind was filled with the image of Leo with the IV needle, shrinking in the corner of his hospital bed, crying and saying others were bullying him.
I closed my eyes slowly, shattering my dignity beneath my teeth. Under the gaze of countless dress shoes and high heels, I slowly bent my knees—the knees that once would rather break than bow—and braced my hands and knees against the cold, hard floor.
"Woof."
I let out a dry, raspy bark and moved my knees forward one step.
"Too quiet! Do it again!" someone in the crowd yelled, dumping half a glass of iced sparkling wine straight over the top of my head.
The freezing liquid mixed with the unstitched blood scabs on my forehead and leaked into my eyes, bringing an excruciating sting.
I bit my lip hard, right until I tasted blood.
"Woof."
I raised my voice and crawled one more step forward.
"Woof."
Step three.
Click—Click—
Camera flashes and shutter sounds went off frantically in my ears like a continuous storm.
Amidst the jeering, whistling, and verbal abuse of the crowd, I crawled on the glamorous red carpet like a real bitch dog.
Ten steps... Twenty-five steps... Forty steps...
With every step I crawled, a humiliated bark was forced out of my throat.
The skin on my knees was scraped raw by the coarse carpet. My palms pressed over the shattered glass someone had intentionally dropped on the floor, dripping with blood, but I didn't stop, nor did I look up.
Only by gathering the five hundred thousand could my Leo survive.
"Woof."
The fiftieth step.
I collapsed heavily at the end of the red carpet, my entire body on the verge of breakdown.
The room fell into a dead silence for two seconds, followed by an even louder explosion of mockery.
Alex walked up to me, the tip of his leather shoe stepping onto my fingers.
Looking down at me from above, he flicked the signed check onto my face, which was covered in dirty water and blood. "Take it and get out. Such a cheap display. It really kills my appetite."
With my trembling, blood-mangled hands, I picked up the check from the floor. I stumbled over to push open the grand doors, tumbling out into the blizzard outside. I could no longer suppress the cramps in my stomach. Leaning against a trash can on the street corner, I vomited a massive mouthful of sour bile.
The night wind was incredibly cold.
The phone in my pocket suddenly vibrated, its screen lighting up with a dim glow.
It was a pop-up push notification for a local New York gossip headline.
A high-definition photo of me kneeling on the ground, crawling like a dog, was plastered onto the front page.
The headline was garish and blood-red:
[#ExConSellsOutForMoney# Once-Wealthy Vixen Acts Like a Dog in Public with Zero Dignity for $500k on First Day Out of Prison]
I looked at myself on the screen as the heavy snow finally covered my vision.
