The Diary That Held The Votes Against Me Chapter 03

The next morning, I showed up on time for my dishwashing shift at the restaurant.

I washed dishes from ten in the morning until eight at night.

The summer heat turned the kitchen into an oven. Sweat kept running into my eyes until they stung so badly I could barely keep them open.

After the state merit exam, I’d been working whatever part-time jobs I could find to save for my graduation trip with Julian.

When I’d first applied to be a server, the manager had looked me up and down with open disgust.

“You’ve got a nice figure, but look at that scar on your face. How am I supposed to put you in front of customers? What if you scare them? You’re better off in the kitchen washing dishes.”

I swallowed every ounce of humiliation and kept working, even when my hands turned pale and pruned from hours in the water.

But now I’d canceled the trip with Julian.

Didn’t that mean I was finally allowed to rest?

I was on my way to tell the manager I was quitting when one of the food runners stopped me, looking uncomfortable, and asked if I could take a dish out for him.

Before I could refuse, he clutched his stomach and bolted for the restroom.

The moment I opened the door to the private dining room, both people inside froze.

Julian recovered first. He grabbed my arm and started pulling me back into the hall.

“Nora? What are you doing here?”

In the struggle, scalding soup splashed across my hand, turning a wide patch of skin angry red.

I bit back the pain and carefully set the dish down on the service station beside us.

When I didn’t answer, Julian grew even more agitated.

“Did you hear Sloane bombed the merit exam and come here just to laugh at her?”

I looked up at him. The burn hurt so badly that my eyes had started watering.

“Is that really who you think I am?”

He paused, then irritably wiped the tears from beneath my eyes with his fingertips.

“Then why are you here?”

“Come on, stop crying. Sloane bombed the merit exam and scored way below expectations. She’s already upset enough.”

“Her parents only brought her out for a meal to cheer her up. Just stay out of her sight.”

Then he pulled a plain white box from his pocket and handed it to me.

“This is for you. Graduation present.”

For one brief second, a flicker of hope stirred in my battered heart.

I carefully opened the box.

Inside was a pen that felt cheap in my hand, worth maybe twenty dollars at most.

The next second, Sloane came bouncing toward Julian.

There wasn’t the slightest trace of sadness on her face over bombing the exam.

She was holding a ticket to one of the biggest pop stars around, and she slipped her arm through Julian’s.

“Julian, thank you! His tickets are so hard to get! I’ve tried so many times to grab one the second they went on sale, and I never managed to!”

I tightened my fingers around the cheap pen.

That tiny flicker of hope died instantly.

I turned toward the door.

Julian hurried after me.

“Nora, don’t read into it. I just happened to get a ticket for her.”

He just happened to get one?

Sloane had literally just said how hard those tickets were to get.

He was lying to my face now without even caring whether the lie made sense.

“Oh, right. Have we decided where we’re going for our graduation trip? If we have, I’ll book the tickets.”

I stared at him in disbelief.

So the itinerary I’d spent several sleepless nights putting together had never even been opened.

A bone-deep exhaustion settled over me.

I lowered my head, fighting back tears.

“Julian, about our graduation trip, I think we should—”

I hadn’t gotten the words “cancel it” out before Sloane stepped close enough that only I could hear her.

“Nora, do you like my necklace?”

“If Dad hadn’t told me you were always saving money, I never would’ve guessed that little piggy bank you kept hidden in your walk-in closet could hold so much.”

I looked up sharply, my eyes locking on the pearl necklace around her neck.

The pearls were perfectly round with a rich luster. One look was enough to know they hadn’t been cheap.

“This pearl alone was two grand. With the whole necklace, it came to twenty-five hundred—ah!”

My hand moved before I could stop myself.

I slapped her hard across the face.

Sloane stumbled to the floor, clutching her cheek as her wide eyes stared up at me in disbelief.

“You hit me? What gives you the right to hit me?”

I rounded on Julian, trembling with rage.

He knew.

I’d spent years saving the money in that piggy bank so I could finally get treatment for my scar after graduation.

“Did you bring her into my house? You’re the only one who knows the code!”

“What right did you have to take her into my house? That’s my home!”

Julian frowned. “I didn’t.”

The door opened again.

Mrs. Bennett’s horrified scream cut through the room.

“Sloane! What happened?”

A second later, Mr. Bennett slapped me hard across the face.

As he stared down at me in disgust, all I could see was the night thirteen years ago when he’d abandoned me.

“I even went to your house this morning to pick you up so we could eat together. So much for trying to do something nice!”

“Sloane only used a little of your money. Was that really worth hitting her over? Twenty-five hundred dollars isn’t even enough to buy one of her handbags!”

I knew perfectly well that this man—my biological father—didn’t care about me.

Even so, hearing those words still hurt.

My chest ached so badly I could barely breathe.

The whole scene finally ended after the manager apologized profusely.

Once they were gone, he jabbed a finger in my face and screamed at me for half an hour.

Because the Bennetts had complained, he also withheld every cent of the two weeks’ wages I’d earned.

Then he shoved me out of the restaurant.

At that exact moment, a departure reminder for my flight appeared on my phone.

I wiped away my tears and used the last few dollars I had left to call a rideshare to the airport.

There was no one left here worth loving.

It was time to go chase a future that belonged to me.