Chapter 48
Chapter 48
EZ 65 vouchers
After being sharply rebuked by Kayla, Marianna flushed instantly, as if she’d been slapped. Her face was full of grievance, with tears starting to pool in her eyes.
She cried. “I’m just telling the truth, but you swore at me because your shame turned to anger. Tania’s your deskmate, not your servant. How can you boss her around?
“Do you think a rich family background gives you the right to humiliate others however you please?” As she spoke, Marianna reached out to take Tania’s hand with exaggerated sympathy, her eyes softening as if she were gazing at a bullied stray dog.
Marianna said, “Tania, you don’t have to be afraid of Kayla. We all know you’re being wronged. The fact that Kayla comes from a wealthy family doesn’t mean she can order you around this way.
“We’ll stand up for you and see that she apologizes to you in front of the whole class!”
Tania’s lips twitched awkwardly. She secretly cursed Marianna for being such a troublemaker, actually trying to stop her from making money. Afraid others would misunderstand Kayla, she quickly pulled her hand out of Marianna’s grip.
She hurried to explain, “This is just between Kay and me. Stay out of it! Besides, I volunteered to run errands for her. She never bossed me around.”
If anything, Tania wished she could work for Kayla. Marianna knew nothing about her situation.
Tania’s family didn’t treat her well. Despite getting into high school, Tania relied entirely on scholarships to pay her tuition, and her parents were incredibly stingy when it came to her living costs. They wouldn’t spare a single extra penny for her.
She used to have to take part–time jobs to earn her keep, but the academic pressure was already overwhelming. Her part- time job pulled her grades down, and she even ended up losing her scholarship. Worse still, the part–time jobs barely earned her any money.
At her poorest, she couldn’t even afford a meal. She’d stand by and watch her classmates head to the cafeteria, then slip over quietly to get some soup just to fill her stomach.
There were times when she was so hungry and desperate that she’d even have to pick through her classmates‘ leftover food.
Once, Kayla had accidentally caught her doing that. Tania had thought this arrogant young lady would laugh at her and mock her for being so humble.
But Kayla hadn’t. She’d even offered 650 dollars, asking Tania to buy her a beef burger from a stall outside the school’s west gate and keep the change as errand money.
650 dollars was a large sum. After buying the burger, there was still over 600 left–enough to cover her living expenses for more than three months. With that money, she’d never had to rummage through leftovers for food.
For a moment, Tania felt like her eyes were practically glowing green as she looked at the money.
Back then, she was terrified of poverty and hunger, so she agreed without hesitation.
She knew it was spineless, but pride and self–respect meant far less than just getting by. Survival was the only way for her to keep going with her studies, gain admission to college through her efforts, and ultimately escape from her hellish family.
She’d even braced herself for the worst, because she thought Kayla would later laugh at her, mock her, order her around, treat her like a servant, or even threaten her. But Kayla had acted like nothing had happened, never mentioning it again.
Several months later, by the time Tania had nearly spent down that 400 dollars, Kayla took out another 650 dollars and
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Chapter 48
65 vouchers
asked her to do another errand for her.
In that moment, Tania had mixed feelings. She’d thought Kayla had only given her money out of pity.
Her pride still stung, but she couldn’t say no, not if she wanted to keep going. Yet she couldn’t just take it for granted, either. So she’d looked at Kayla and sincerely said, “Thank you.”
