Chapter 4 No One Believed Her

• Mabel never got the mercy from Xavier she had hoped for.
• She stopped screaming, letting the punches and kicks rain down on her. All she could hear was the laughter ringing in her ears.
• She wasn't shouting for help because she feared the pain or the beating. It was because she still clung to a sliver of hope and fantasy in her heart.
• The women grew tired of hitting her and simply climbed back into their beds to sleep.
• Mabel lay on the floor in agony, her tears flowing down her face.
• She had never been bullied this way. All of this because she had fallen for a man she shouldn't have—Xavier.
• Just because something happened to Whitney, why do I have to bear the brunt of Xavier's fury and hatred?
• After Whitney's accident, Mabel explained to everyone, “I didn't hurt Whitney.”
• No matter how much effort she put into explaining, no one believed her.
• She desperately explained that it wasn't her who invited Whitney to Eclipse. It was Whitney's curiosity about bars that led her to invite Mabel to Eclipse.
• To everyone else, Mabel, the daughter of the Jennings family, was outspoken and reckless, while Whitney was pure, obedient, and timid. How could someone like Whitney have willingly asked to go to a bar, a place full of shady characters?
• She said her car broke down on the way, which was why she arrived late at Eclipse.
• Yet, no one believed her. They all said she was lying, that she had intentionally left Whitney alone at Eclipse, making it easier for the thugs she had bribed to humiliate Whitney and ruin her reputation.
• There was no need for her to do that, though. Whitney often told her, “Mabel, I don't have feelings for Xav.”
• If Whitney were Xavier's girlfriend, I would have stayed away from him, but Whitney didn't even like Xavier!
• To everyone else, Mabel was the scheming villain.
• After the incident, the thugs had fled, vanishing without a trace. No one knew where they had gone. In a country as vast as Corvaina, it wasn't unheard of for criminals to hide out in remote, deserted mountains for decades. No one wanted them caught more than Mabel did.
• Tears continued to flow down her face. From the moment of the incident until the very second she entered Seacastle Women's Prison, Mabel had believed she was innocent—that she had committed no crime.
• However, now, she understood. As long as Xavier believed she was guilty, she was doomed to a life of suffering, a fate she couldn't escape.
• And everything happening to her now—it was all Xavier's doing.
• Mabel didn't know that in the days to come, countless more of “Mr. Scott's orders” awaited her in this prison.
• She had lost the Jennings family, her records, her education, and was now sentenced to prison. Xavier had erased every trace of her existence. Mabel no longer had an identity—she was just prisoner number 926.
• Having figured it all out, Mabel curled up even tighter, hugging her knees. Xavier had completely erased all traces of my existence!
• In the morning...
• “Hey, wake up. Go clean the toilet...” A female inmate roughly pushed Mabel, then screamed in fear, “Ah! She's dead!”
• Another braver inmate rushed over, placing a finger under Mabel's nose. After a moment, she felt a faint breath. “She's alive! Stop yelling and call the corrections officer!”
• Mabel was lucky. They managed to save her. But that might not be a good thing. Endless humiliation, dark and unrelenting torment—it could drive someone insane. It could change a person entirely.
• Three years later, the gates of Seacastle Women's Prison opened.
• Before long, a woman slowly walked out.
• She was frighteningly thin, wearing the same white dress she had worn when she was brought into prison three years ago. Now, it hung on her like a sack.
• She walked very slowly, step by step, toward the bus stop over a hundred meters away. In her hand, she carried a black plastic bag, containing thirty-one in cash and fifty cents, and an ID card.
• The scorching summer heat made the sand-covered road shimmer with waves of heat. It was at least thirty-three or thirty-four degrees Celsius. Yet, as the woman walked under the blazing sun, her dry skin didn't produce a single drop of sweat.
• Her pale skin was marred with bruises and scars, even on her face. Near her hairline, a scar about three centimeters long stretched across her temple, stark and unsightly.
• The bus arrived. The woman boarded, carefully pulling out a coin from her black plastic bag and dropping it into the fare box. There weren't many people on the bus. The driver glanced at her and quickly averted his gaze with a look of disgust. After all, everyone who boarded there was a prisoner. Criminals, could they ever be good people?
• The woman seemed unfazed by the driver's look. She walked to the back of the bus, choosing the most inconspicuous corner.
• As the bus moved, she stared out the window. After three years, so much had changed.
• She let a faint smile curl on her lips. Yes, a lot had changed after three years. Not just the world outside of prison, but her too.
• When the bus reached a bustling part of town, she suddenly froze. Now that I'm out of prison, where am I supposed to go?
• In that instant, the harsh reality hit her—she had nowhere to go.