Bills fluttered to the ground, scattering across the floor.
Hester looked at me with a mocking half-smile.
"Oh, my bad. I forgot the etiquette for people in your line of work."
"You want money, don't you? I've got plenty. That should be enough to cover a shoe change, right?"
I lowered my gaze to the bills on the floor. Judging by the stack, it would be enough to cover Bella Manning's surgery fees.
My fingers dug into my sleeves until my knuckles ached. But slowly, I bent down and picked up the bills, one by one.
When I'd gathered them all, I walked over to Hester and sank to my knees on the cold tile floor.
Her lips curled into an undisguised smirk of triumph. She lifted her foot deliberately, pushing it so close it nearly grazed my face.
"Hurry up. Stop dragging your feet."
"Or was that not enough money for you?"
Footsteps around us stopped. Passersby gathered, whispering among themselves.
"Look at her. Selling her dignity for cash."
"She must be desperate. Nobody would put up with that otherwise. Pathetic."
I gently gripped the heel of her shoe, carefully slipping it off her foot. Then I picked up the new pair of heels beside her and eased them on, one strap at a time.
But the moment I finished, she wrinkled her nose in disgust.
"These don't feel right. Try those."
I said nothing. I picked up another pair and repeated the same motions.
One pair. Two pairs. Three.
Each time, she found something new to complain about. The heel was too high. The fit was off. The color clashed with her skin. Every objection was a little sharper, a little more deliberate.
The snickering around me grew louder. My knees had gone numb against the hard floor, pain radiating up through my legs, before she finally pursed her lips in satisfaction. She leaned down, bringing her mouth close to my ear, and whispered in a voice only I could hear, each word slow and precise:
"Ebony. For the rest of your life, this is all you'll ever be good for. Changing my shoes."
I raised my eyes. For the first time, I looked directly into hers.
"Maybe so. But the man you're clinging to with everything you've got? He's someone I got bored of a long time ago."
"That's going to sit like a thorn in your heart for the rest of your life."
Hester's expression darkened instantly, as if I'd driven a nail straight into a nerve. She let out a cold scoff and turned, hooking her arm through Mick's.
"Let's go, Mick. I'm not wasting another second on her."
She threw one last glance over her shoulder.
"We're not giving you a ride. Find your own way back."
Mick frowned, as though he wanted to say something, but Hester was already pulling him toward the exit. In the end, all he left me was the back of his head.
The onlookers, seeing the show was over, drifted away one by one until I was the only one left standing there.
I rose slowly, rubbing my knees where feeling was just beginning to return, and headed for the hospital.
The money was finally enough.
As long as Bella would be okay, every ounce of humiliation I'd swallowed today was worth it.
I practically sprinted through the hospital entrance to the billing counter. When the clerk printed out the payment receipt and placed it in my hands, the weight I'd been carrying in my chest finally lifted.
Bella was propped up against her pillows, still pale but with far more color in her cheeks than before. She held a storybook in her small hands, reading quietly. When she heard footsteps, she looked up. The moment she saw it was me, her eyes lit up and a gentle smile spread across her face.
"Ebony!"
My eyes burned. Tears spilled before I could stop them.
The little girl who had once lain in the ICU, tubes snaking from every part of her body, lifeless and still, was finally getting better.
My thoughts drifted back, years and years ago.
I was still at Manning Orphanage then. Mama Bridget Manning had been so good to me.
She was like a real mother. She braided my hair. She snuck me candy when no one was looking.
