Allie's POV
“Go take a good look at yourself in a puddle—aren’t you ashamed?” the man sharply said.
Earnest, I shook my head and replied, “Nope. Not at all.”
He laughed in disbelief from anger.
But seriously, I was a woman. I only cut my hair short to avoid being dragged into an arranged marriage. Why would I feel ashamed for supposedly “embarrassing all men”?
The tattooed guy’s eyes went bloodshot with rage. “Fine! Fine! You’re shameless! I can’t even argue with you! Then let’s call the police and let them decide!”
The moment he said that, Kiera rushed up and grabbed his arm. “No! You can’t! Calling the police will affect my husband’s job. I don’t want to cause him trouble!”
She turned to me with tear-filled eyes. “Please, just help me take care of the child, okay? I only came because I had nowhere else to go. I’ve met so many horrible bosses. They haven’t paid me in six months. I can’t even afford baby formula for my son anymore.”
Her tears were flowing nonstop, and the crowd began to soften. Soon enough, people around us started lecturing me.
“Be a decent human being. Take care of your son. That poor girl has already suffered enough after you assaulted her. Yet she didn’t ask for compensation. What more do you want?”
“If a kid just fell from the sky into my lap, I’d be celebrating for three days! So, why are you pretending you’re above all this? If you can’t afford to raise a kid, maybe don’t take off a woman’s clothes in the first place!”
Gwendolyn tried to defend me, but the more she talked, the worse it sounded. By the end, people were calling us a shameless couple, saying I handled the “dirty work,” and she cleaned up after me with hush money.
A vein in my temple throbbed so hard I thought it might explode. I held it in for as long as I could, then finally said, “I really am not an irresponsible person. But I need to make one thing very clear. I absolutely don't know you. I’m sorry for what you’ve been through. I really am. But has it occurred to you that you might be mistaking me for someone else?”
Gwendolyn immediately backed me up. “Exactly! You must have the wrong person! She would never do something like that. Besides, she literally can’t get you pregnant!”
The crowd snapped. “How would you know? Are you a worm living inside his stomach? Or are you two scheming together, so you know exactly which women he slept with?”
“Oh, I get it now. He cheats, and you know every detail. Maybe you’re the one pimping him out! How can you be so cheap?”
Gwendolyn lost it and charged forward to hit someone. But Kiera’s sharp yell stopped her cold.
“Allie! That's your name, isn’t it?”
I froze. She actually knew my name.
“The night you took me to that hotel, I was drunk. But I got one look at your ID, so I remember your name. For three years, not a day, not a night have I forgotten you! Allie, you ruined my life. Why do you get to walk away without paying anything?”
Her cries were so raw that the crowd exploded again.
“And here I was thinking she got the wrong person, turns out the name matches! What else is there to say?”
“You slept with her, just admit it! Don’t act like some delicate maiden!”
“Look at you panicking now. But the night you booked that room, you knew exactly what you were doing!”
I stared straight into her eyes, watching them flicker and dodge.
“If you saw my name, then you should know it well,” I said slowly. “So, write it down. Right here. In front of everyone.”
A bead of sweat slid down her forehead. “Why should I write it when I already told you? You did what you did. Why are you doubting me now?”
“I never said I doubted you,” I replied calmly. “I just want to confirm whether it was really me that night. It’s just a name; it won’t take long. Unless you’re afraid to write it?”
