The Day They Looked For Me, I Had Already Forgotten Them Chapter 02

The Day They Looked For Me, I Had Already Forgotten Them Chapter 02

I stopped and turned back to look at her.

Olivia folded her arms and ordered, “Go to the Sterling estate tomorrow and call off the engagement.”

“Julian was completely disappointed in you yesterday. He doesn’t want you anymore.”

Only then did Julian deign to look at me.

“Maya, I used to think you and Olivia simply didn’t get along—that it was nothing more than normal friction between sisters. I never imagined you could sink this low. You threw scalding water on her and played manipulative games. Someone as disgusting as you doesn’t deserve to be my fiancée.”

I blinked twice, confused.

Even though I had already forgotten so much, the news made my heart ache for reasons I couldn’t explain, and tears spilled down my face.

I must have loved Julian very much before I started losing my memories.

Now, however, I could barely remember anything about our past. Whenever I tried, all I could see was him with his back to me, cold and distant.

I wiped my tears away with the back of my hand and nodded.

“Okay. I understand.”

Then I turned away and wrote in my notebook:

[3. Call off my engagement to Julian tomorrow.]

I closed my journal and was about to ask the driver to drop me at the nearest bus stop when Mom barked at me.

“Stop right there! Olivia is going shopping this afternoon. Find your own way if you want to go out.”

“If you take the car in this heat, what is Olivia supposed to use?”

I wanted to argue.

I wanted to ask Mom why she couldn’t show even the slightest kindness to her own biological daughter.

But when I turned around, I saw all of them standing together, happy and at ease.

Olivia was nestled between Mom and Dad, with Julian beside them. They looked like a real family.

The words died in my throat.

Without saying anything, I pulled a wide-brimmed sun hat from my bag and stepped out into the blazing sun.

Behind me, I could still hear Mom mutter, “Maybe this will teach her a lesson.”

Then Julian added quietly, “She deserves it.”

There was no public transit inside the gated community, and the nearest bus stop was a thirty-minute walk away.

Even with the hat shading my face, waves of heat rose from the pavement. By the time I reached the bus stop, my clothes were plastered to my back, my head was spinning, and I could barely stay upright.

After an hour on a packed bus, I rushed into the coffee shop, changed into my uniform, and took over the drink station.

It was hot, and with school out for summer, the shop was packed.

I barely had a chance to stand still, and after preparing custom iced drinks nonstop, my hands had gone numb.

The rush finally began to ease sometime between three and four in the afternoon.

My empty stomach was cramping painfully. I was about to duck into a corner and take a few bites of bread when Olivia’s voice sounded above me.

She waved a black credit card in her hand, her smile smug and taunting.

“Maya, what kind of employee slacks off on the clock?”

“Make me five hundred custom iced drinks, and I want the most complicated ones on the menu.”

A kind coworker stepped in to explain.

“Ma’am, she hasn’t eaten yet. You can place the order at the register, and we’ll have another employee help you.”

Olivia spun around and glared at them.

“Did anyone ask you? I want her to make them.”

“If she doesn’t finish, I’ll complain to corporate and make sure every one of you gets written up.”

I didn’t want my coworker dragged into this.

I set down the bread without taking a single bite and forced myself back to my feet, even as my vision went dark around the edges.

There were five hundred drinks to make.

I couldn’t finish that many even if I worked until dawn.

When I looked up, I saw Julian standing behind Olivia with both hands in his pockets.

He watched with cold indifference as she deliberately made things difficult for me.

I had nowhere else to turn, so I asked him for help.

“Julian, could you please talk to Olivia? Five hundred drinks…”

He cut me off before I could finish.

“Maya, drop the martyr act. The Bennetts don’t need the tiny amount of money you make here. You came out in this heat to make yourself suffer so you could play the victim later and claim Olivia was bullying you.”

“What’s wrong? Can’t keep the performance going?”

I couldn’t understand where Julian’s accusations came from.

I was only working to save up the few thousand dollars I needed for college tuition.

I was about to explain when Olivia snapped impatiently, “Are you going to make them or not?”

“Do you want me to call corporate right now?”

All I could do was grit my teeth and work from three in the afternoon until nine at night.

I barely managed a few sips of water. My stomach cramped and churned violently.

One of my coworkers tried to prepare a few drinks for me in secret, but Olivia snapped at them and made them stop.

“Anyone who helps her gets reported too.”

And so I kept going, hour after hour, from three until nine, without even managing a proper drink of water.

Julian looked at my deathly pale face with contempt.

He thought I was acting again.

When he told his assistant to oversee the pickup of all five hundred drinks, he still made sure to mock me.

“Maya, I really underestimated you.”

“You don’t just know how to play dumb. You’re quite the actress too. You’re so desperate to make me feel sorry for you that you’d work yourself to death.”

I was too exhausted to speak, and I had no desire to answer him.

At ten thirty that night, I dragged my aching legs onto the last bus home.

My stomach had long since gone numb with hunger, and my vision kept going dark.

At least my manager gave me an extra hundred dollars for handling Olivia’s five-hundred-drink order.

That was good.

It would be enough for a week of decent meals at the campus dining hall once I started college.

I had barely stepped through the front door and hadn’t even taken off my shoes when a slap cracked across my face and knocked me to the floor.