From Humiliation To New York Queen

Anders

urrently unavailable. My heart clenched, a sudden, sharp pain piercing through my ches

t, Demetri?" Her voice was laced with a chilling sarcasm. "Your fiancée is currently being at

. My carefully constructed world, built on what I thought were pri

trailed off, unable to articulate the depth of my regret, the

bone, trying to pay off your parents' debts, trying to keep Bennie out of trouble. She moved into a rundown apartment in the city's worst neighborhood. She took a degrading job at a n

of my cutting words to her-it all came rushing back, a tidal wave of

udia publicly shamed Josie, and you just sat there, passive and indifferent? Josie was forced to apologize on her knees f

ph I had felt, believing she was finally facing consequences for her 'actions'-it was all a grotesque perversion of justice. My vision blurred, the

through my throat. "Please, Jordan. Tell m

her, Demetri. You never did." She turned, walking away without another word, leavi

stumbled to my car, the expensive leather of the seats feeling alien beneath me. I d

people, my eyes scanning, searching, frantic. I bumped into a group of laughing patro

f annoyance. "Demetri Anderson? What on earth are you doing here?" S

g her arm. "Where is she? I

of emotions in her eyes. "Josie? S

it me like a sledgehammer.

to pay off her debts and get her brother the medical help he needed. Funny, isn't it? You, the big l

Medical help? Bennie? Wh

ible job tonight, the one you witnessed, the one you judged her for, because she was desperate. She needed that money to save her brother from juvenile detention, the one you threatened him with." She paused, her voice laced with accusation. "She

because of me. Because of my blindness, my arrogance, my unwavering belief in Claudia's

ho in the vibrant, thumping club. I walked out, the sound

htly my knuckles were white. Where would she have go

king ridiculously out of place amidst the rusted sedans and beat-up trucks. I walked up the creaking sta

paint defaced the door and the wall beside it. Crude, hateful wor

fter I had cast her aside? The violent threats, the public shaming... while I was li

nd, aching so much I couldn't breathe. The guilt was a suff

g, and knocked on the door. It was a f