Evelyn retook the pile of bedclothes.

"Let me help you." I offer her, taking the load. "To where?"

"Thank you, Savi. Upstairs."

We both went up the stairs.

"I can barely keep up with everything anymore." She sighed.

"Don't you have someone to take care of the rooms?"

"I can't afford to hire anyone," she replied, unlocking one of the doors.

We went inside. She removed the dirty bedclothes, and I began to put the clean ones on. I wasn't very good at this type of work, but I tried to stretch the sheets well.

"Good thing Jayden is helping me. He doesn't ask for a penny for everything he does. I don't know how my husband handled it before. Everything has gone downhill since he passed away, and I took over full management of the motel. The expenses keep increasing. I can't understand why and what I'm not doing right..." She sat on the bed and looked at me with a desperate look. "There is no decline in work, and at the same time, I barely manage to break even."

"You know what?" I sat next to her. "I might be able to help you. Why don't you let me look over your papers? Proceeds, expenses, balances, reports—everything. We will find a way to optimize costs as much as possible."

"Can you do that?"

"I don't have experience in the field, but I have a degree in accounting and finance. I believe I can help you."

Evelyn took my hand in her palms. "But I can't pay you, Savi."

I remembered Jayden's words: "I don't think lending a hand to someone or helping them is heroic. That is normal and human."

That's not how business is done, Dominic would say, on the other hand. But human relationships are not built on material foundations—that was a truth I had recently realized the hard way.

"I don't want you to pay me, Evelyn. You gave me a big discount on the price of my room. I would love to do something for you in return."

"Thank you!"

"No need to thank me. Really."

After we finished cleaning the room, we both went downstairs again, and Evelyn gave me all the folders with the documents she had.

"That's all I have, Savi. I have no knowledge of any of this, but my husband's cousin offered to help me with the financial part after he passed away, so I got these documents from her."

"Okay," I answered her and went to my room.

I started going through the papers.

It took me many hours. But things were not looking good. In fact, they seemed very suspicious. There were no original invoices for expenses or a single original bill for electricity, water, etc. Everything was overbilled. And the amounts were unrealistically high.

"My God. This is insane," I muttered as I flipped through the documents scattered over my bed. "Someone is so obviously stealing from Evelyn." Could it be that her late husband's cousin was the culprit?

I started to feel that hateful pain again—the pain of betrayal. This time it was on someone else's behalf, but the emotion was so familiar to me.

Why do the people closest to us hurt us the most?

How was I supposed to tell Evelyn that her husband's cousin was lying to her in such a vile way?

But before I figured out how to tell her, I had to get hold of the original documents. I did not doubt that my suspicions were correct, but to accuse someone directly, I needed evidence.

My stomach churned again. A lump got stuck in my throat.

As I looked out the window, sadness came over me again—poor woman.

It was already evening, so I went to a nearby shop to get something to eat for dinner. I took a quick shower, dried my hair with the bathroom's small hair dryer, and lay in bed.

***

"Sav, turn around. I want to fuck you like this," Dominic commanded.

I tried to hug him. To kiss him. But he grabbed me roughly and turned my back to him. "I want you so."

"Please, Dom. Kiss me!"

I tried to break away from him. I turned around again. At that moment, Caroline and Hayley were standing on either side of him.

"Come on, Savi. Let's have some fun." Caroline winked at me, immediately sticking her tongue into Dominic's mouth while Haley's hand was under his boxers.

"What are you doing to my husband?" I screamed, but I couldn't reach them.

Hayley crouched down between his legs and began sucking his cock.

"Stop it! Get out!" I kept shouting.

But no one could hear me.

Dominic had sex with Caroline. Then with Haley. Then with Caroline again.

I stood and watched, unable to move.

"We don't need you, Savannah!" Hayley yelled at me.

In the next moment, Caroline stood next to me. I still couldn't move. She caressed my face with her fingers and walked around me. "You're not needed, Savi. He wants us."

Her hand moved slowly down my body.

I wanted to get out. I wanted to scream. But I couldn't. I had no voice.

Time felt like an eternity.

Eyes. In the distance. In the darkness. Beautiful, dirty face. And hands covered in black stains.

"Jayden! Help! Jaydeeen!"

I woke up covered in sweat, my pillow soaked with tears.

"Breathe. Breathe," I repeated to myself, trying to take a deep breath.

I looked at the clock. It was 1 a.m.

I needed air. I put on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and left the room. I walked around the motel several times until I felt that I had finally shaken off the damn nightmare.

Then I kept walking. Without even thinking about where I was going.

It wasn't long before I was standing outside Jayden's auto service.

"What am I doing?" I muttered to myself, but my feet continued to walk on.

Jayden, Carmen, and two other men sat outside the caravan, drinking beer and laughing.

As I hesitated whether to go to them or leave before they noticed me, Carmen called out, "Savi! Savi!"

Well, apparently, there wasn't anything more to wonder about.

I approached them.

Carmen stood up and hugged me. I hugged her back.

"Nice to see you, stranger," Jayden told me, setting his bottle down on the small table. He got up from his chair and nodded for me to sit there. "Do you want a beer?"

"No, thanks. I... I didn't want to bother you. I went for a little walk and don't know why I ended up here. But I should go."

Out of my peripheral vision, I caught the curious glances of the two boys sitting on chairs side by side with their legs stretched out on the opposite chairs.

"Nonsense!" Carmen said behind me. "Stay. We were just leaving." She lightly nudged one of the men's legs. "Come on, boys!"

She walked up to Jayden, gave him a big hug, and then kissed him on the lips. But a moment later, she turned to me. "Sorry. Bad habit. I won't do it again, I promise!" she told me, laughing.

Awkwardness ensued again. She was obviously trying to be tactful, but it was not working at all.

"I'm going to miss you, little one." Jayden put his arms around her neck and kissed her forehead. "Come back next weekend."

"Of course. As soon as I have a break," she told him.

The two boys said their goodbyes to Jayden, slapping each other's palms, then waved at me, and Carmen grabbed their arms and gave them a hasty yank.

"I must have spoiled your time with friends," I said after the company had already moved away.

"It was about time they left anyway. Well, what brings you here so late?"

As he spoke, he gathered up the scattered chairs, arranged them, one on top of the other, and set them to the side of the caravan.

"I couldn't sleep because of nightmares. But... I guess I'd better go too. You probably want to go to bed."

"Don't go." Jayden gave me a warm look.

After a few seconds, he walked into the caravan and returned with a blanket in hand. He sat in the chair and nodded at me. "Come here, stranger."

I settled between his legs and rested my back against his body. He threw the blanket over me; we both put our feet on the opposite chair, and he wrapped his arms around me.

I had lied before—to myself as well as to him. It wasn't true that I didn't know why I had come to his caravan. I had craved the comfort of his touch.

"Jayden?" I broke the silence after some time spent without talking. "Carmen mentioned that you came to this town a few years ago. What brought you here?"

I realized it wasn't entirely fair to ask him about his personal life since I wasn't willing to talk about mine myself, but I was curious to hear his story.

"I happened to pass through this town. I stayed at Evelyn's motel for one night. And I never left after that. Here I found the peace and solitude I needed."

"Have you always worked as a mechanic?"

"Yes. Back in my teenage years, I started repairing bikes. I bought old ones and turned them into new ones. Before coming here, I worked at Elite Auto Service—one of the largest auto repair shops in the state. But I had to return to my hometown when my mother's condition took a sharp turn for the worse. She passed away a little after that."

"I'm so sorry."

"It's okay. She had been seriously ill for years. It just became inevitable at some point."

"Why didn't you go back to your job at the Auto Service?"

Jayden took a deep breath. "I haven't thought about any of this in a long time..."

He adjusted the blanket that had slipped slightly as he spoke and hugged me tighter. "My work at Elite Auto Service was an interesting experience. The owner, Elliott Wright, is a wonderful person. He took care of me the way he didn't of any other of his employees. He was like a father to me." Jayden's smirked slightly. "The one I never had. He and his brother Clive Wright were very close, and the three of us spent a lot of time together."

"Clive Wright? Like Vice President Clive Wright?"

"The same one. But then, he was still a senator. Anyway, I spent some good years there. But when my mother died... Some things happened... I needed to be alone. And, as I told you, I ended up here. I made friends with wonderful people. I once repaired a neighbor's car. He was very pleased. People from the nearby towns started looking for me to repair their cars as well. So, I opened my auto service. I'm happy here. We are a small, close-knit community. Far from the big cities. Away from the noise of the world."

"I was captivated by this town also because of that. Arriving here was like being transported to another world."

"Then why are you in such a hurry to leave?"

"Actually..." I raised my head slightly. "I decided to stay a little longer."

Jayden said nothing, but I could swear I felt his heart jump.

I turned slightly to the side, rested my head on his chest, and placed my hands on his, which still tightly continued to hug me.

"Goodnight, stranger," I heard his muffled voice say as I drifted off into a sweet sleep.

❤️ A/N ❤️

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