Vernon watched Chloe's back as she walked through the kitchen and went downstairs.
She looked sad from behind, with her shoulder slightly drooped, and how she dragged her legs to leave. Vernon knew that Chloe still had a lot to argue with him, but he quickly destroyed all of her arguments before this argument turned into a big fight between them.
He stayed in the same position for a while, even after Chloe had left the penthouse almost thirty minutes ago. He tried to let everything seep in.
"Of course, I can't keep saying yes to her, right?" Vernon tried to rationalize all the things he had said just now. "I know she often lets her emotions take control of herself. It might be good for some situations, but something like this—if I let emotion take control over my judgment, everyone including Mackie will literally be dead meat the moment Vincent knows everything about us!"
Vernon understood really well what kind of person Chloe was. She was very kind and forgiving. After all, it took a huge courage to forgive someone as horrible as Dorothea and give her a second chance while also daring enough to face his rage.
Chloe persevered against all odds until Vernon had no choice but to at least tolerate Dorothea's presence in this apartment.
"But not everyone can be given the same second chance," Vernon murmured. "I know that Chelsea and Judith are her family, but they have done nothing to help her. They don't see her as a family, they see her as a walking bank instead."
Vernon wanted to say that Chelsea was a horrible woman that deserved no second chance or forgiveness, but Chloe wouldn't take it well.
"Ugh, this is frustrating," Vernon complained. "What should I do to make her understand her family deserves what they got for all the shitty things they did?"
Finding no answer to his own question, Vernon returned to his room, taking a hot shower before lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling silently for a while.
His heart was aching right now. He felt weak whenever he saw Chloe looking sad or discouraged over something. There was tremendous pressure on himself to just give up everything and cater to Chloe's needs, no questions asked.
"But I have to endure this. I want the best for her, for my small family," Vernon murmured. "I'm sorry, my love. I promise I will do something for those boys, but not now."
**
"You can clock out now. You've done your shift," the manager said to Priscilla as she had just finished handling the last customer for the night.
She checked the time and then nodded, "Thanks, Boss."
Priscilla went to the staff room and took off the blue vest she used while working. She stared at her blue vest for a while. There was a Walmart logo complete with her name tag on it.
It had been two months since she worked in Walmart to survive.
She was in a huge shock when she got fired by Vincent. She was at a loss since she got used to relying on Vincent for everything, and she thought it would last forever since Vincent loved her.
She tried to get into modeling, but you needed more than just a pretty face to earn money from it.
She then tried to become a Secretary, just like her old job, but she couldn't survive that too. They said that she wasn't good at her job.
Though she got fired not because of that but because she tried to hook the CEO to sleep with her. She didn't expect that to be offensive and got her fired.
'Well, don't blame me that my only experience is with Vincent. I thought all CEOs want to have sex with their secretaries.'
She had never saved her salary before because she thought she'd eventually be Priscilla Gray anyway, so it didn't matter if she spent every dollar she had. Those fifty thousand dollars he gave for compensation were drained in less than a month because she thought she'd eventually get a similar job with similar payment.
"And here I am," Priscilla said. She looked around the empty staff room where those people she often called lowlives used to chat and rest. To say that she was disappointed was an understatement. She felt so worthless right now because she always thought working in retail like this was only for the desperate.
She was on top of the hill with Vincent before. Then he pushed her down until she landed with these lowlives and had to work with them daily, "Ugh, just imagining about them already makes me want to vomit."
Priscilla shoved her blue vest into the locker and grabbed her bag. She went to the Train station not far from her workplace, entered the dirty and piss-smelled train, and stood far from the other people. She didn't even dare to sit on the train seat because she was afraid it might be contaminated by those dirty homeless.
Priscilla's eyes darted at a homeless man sleeping on the corner, taking a row of seats. She frowned and took a few steps back, complaining that New York was filled with so many dirty homeless.
'I would never take this train when I was with Vincent before. He would always pick me up, or told his driver to pick me up first before we were going somewhere together. It was such an amazing time.'
Priscilla couldn't help but reminisce about her life with Vincent before. All the glamor and shiny things he brought into her life, and how he became her dream, her future that she couldn't let go of.
In fact, the only thing that stopped her from exposing Vincent in the public was how she—deep down—still wished that Vincent would eventually realize how important she was in her life.
She wished that Vincent would beg for her to come back, because nobody in this world was better than her, not even her stupid and ugly wife, Chloe Gray.
She was also scared that Vincent would kill her and her family if she dared to expose him.
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