I've Been There Before (Grace and Caden) novel Chapter 21

 

When a person has fallen down to a certain degree, the baseline is just to be alive.

 

Grace looked at Ruby. Ruby's young and soft face, and her promising and colorful life, had all been beyond her reach her whole life.

 

“Grace! How can you just stand there and laugh?” Ruby stamped her feet, “Grace, I am telling you, no matter how much money you earn, it's all useless because everyone thinks so low of you! The female models in the P.R. departments with their sugar daddies are better than you! What you did... you don't even have any self-respect! Who would respect you?”

 

Having finished saying what she wanted, Ruby snorted, not even looking at Grace anymore. Grace stood there quietly for a long time before going back to her bedroom. Tiredness was evident on her face and Ruby's words... I only came here to earn some money for tuition and living expenses. I would never do anything like that for money like you.

 

Grace smiled... She too, just worked here to earn some living expenses, to have this place to shelter her from the rain and wind. .Just so she could eat enough and not have to beg on the streets. Who wanted that kind of money?

 

lf she had known that, at that time, in the 606 room, her concern about Ruby and what the others were doing to her would cause her this much trouble today; if she was allowed again to choose between stepping in or ignoring... would she do the same?

 

Grace fell asleep thinking about it.

 

She woke up to find herself in the hospital.

 

"You are awake"

 

Grace opened her eyes and called out in a low voice, “Gloria, where am I?" Her throat hurt when she spoke.

 

"Hospital." Gloria replied as she peeled an apple and cut it into small pieces. She picked up a piece with a toothpick and fed it to Grace, "Eat something first and then talk."

 

Grace was a little flustered at the sudden care, but she still accepted the fruit and ate it, 'Gloria, why am I in the hospital?"

 

Hearing this, Gloria felt angry.

 

She pulled a long face, "You don't know why you are in the hospital? I want to ask you, for how many days have you had a high fever?" If it wasn't for the fact that she didn't see Grace come to work last night and decided to check up on her because she was worried, Grace might have died of a high fever in the staff dormitory.

 

"I didn't see you in Royal Club last night, so Í went to your place to see if you were alright. Your temperature was so high that l could even have fried eggs on you. l called 120 in a hurry. When I sent you to the hospital, your fever was already around 42 degrees, and you were severely dehydrated. Even the doctor said that if I was even a little bit late in sending you here, no doctor on earth would have been able to save you.'

 

Saying this, Gloria who was still in shock from what happened, added, “Didn't you tell your roommates when you had high fever? You tried to act strong, alas, but you almost ended up losing your life!”

 

Grace listened to Gloria ramble on and on. Although Gloria sounded really fierce, she could hear her concern through her anger. Her heart felt warm and bitter. Her eyes that had not shed tears for many years became tingly and moist. Glorias care somehow became the only window in her entire life in darkness, through which a ray of light came in.

 

However, she was more worried about gaining and losing, for ¡f she gained nothing then there would be nothing to lose and no pain of losing.

 

By this point, Grace had already had a very deep understanding of this through her experiences.

 

“...Why?" After a long time, Grace finally summoned up the courage to ask in a trembling voice.

Why are you so nice to me?

 

A piece of apple was stuffed into Grace s mouth again. Gloria gave her a complex look and said, "There is no one in the world that is nice to you. lf even l don't treat you nicely, then who else will love you?” Gloria saw her past self in Grace; maybe what she said to her in that moment was for her past self too.

 

The world is not good to you. lf even l treat you badly then who would ever love you, Idiot!

 

To love Grace was also a way of loving her past self.

 

They both were similar kind of people.