Chapter 119

---- Chapter 119 The place felt like it existed outside the world. For Giselle, it offered a brief escape from the chaos beyond its walls, from the tangled mess of people and events that scarred her. Here, she found a temporary sense of peace. In the days that followed, she actually began to enjoy the routine. She didn't struggle with insomnia anymore. She could eat, sleep, and drink normally. Her interactions with the other women in the shared dorm were pleasant enough.

It was almost as if she had reconnected with the version of herself who once knew how to feel joy. At one point, she even wished the time could be longer - six months or a year-just to live here quietly, with discipline , cut off from all the things that had hurt her. She might've lost her freedom, but she had also left behind a world of pain. However, when a person started to feel at ease, time seemed to pass quickly. Five days passed in the blink of an eye.

When Giselle was released from the detention center, Vivienne was already waiting outside to pick her up. The moment she stepped out and felt the sun on her skin, breathing in the open air, it felt surreal, like she had just ---- returned from another lifetime. "Seriously, what's wrong with you?" Vivienne said as she drove. "How the hell do you manage to get detained over acar accident?

Some people literally kill pedestrians and don't even get held!" "] didn't expect to run into that kind of walking disaster," Giselle muttered. She slouched in the passenger seat, exhausted, and gave Vivienne a brief account of what had happened on the road that day. "That asshole.

What kind of background does he have if he can use connections to throw you into holding over something that minor?" She thought of Gideon's nondescript face and his outrageously expensive car-four or five million dollars -and her mind reeled. She didn't want to think about it anymore, so she gave a lazy, sarcastic answer. "No idea what his background is. Doesn't seem like a CEO or a spoiled rich kid. He looks pretty slick though. Maybe he's a high-end escort." Vivienne burst out laughing.

"An escort who drives an Aston Martin? Damn, his business must be booming! He must be really good-looking." "Maybe just the type of old rich women like," Giselle muttered, instantly losing her appetite at the thought of ---- his arrogant face. The worst part was that she still had to pay for his car repairs. Who knew how much he'd try to squeeze out of her? Her bank account had less than a million dollars left, and most of her storefronts were running at a loss.

At her current spending rate, she could last only a few more months. Later that day, she and Vivienne had a big dinner at the mall. Vivienne kept pressing her for all the gritty details of her time in detention. They spent the meal trading jokes and complaints , and it wasn't until after 9:00 pm that they finally went their separate ways.