Chapter 9

Heather's POV:
I felt my heart slam violently in my chest, and the shock in my eyes had turned to panic. I then realized that Tina had been disguising herself just to set me up at a time like this, and how stupid I had been.
I felt so angry that I wanted to speak the truth out loud. But I also felt scared, after all, the stuff was now on me.
In the interval of my hesitation, Tina had already taken the lead and she continued to say to her boss, "You don't need to look for it anymore, I've looked for it many times, someone must have stolen it."
The boss frowned seriously and said with some anger, "Then call the police and let them handle it."
"It's okay." Tina said casually, sweeping her eyes over the people around her, "There can be a lot of sin in prison, I advise you to hurry up and hand over your things, apologize to me and I'll let it go."
I knew she was speaking to me with this statement.
"Whoever stole something and left it here, I'd better call the police." The boss said and walked to the phone and picked up the receiver.
"Wait!" I shouted, dense beads of sweat breaking out on my forehead. All of a sudden, everyone's eyes were on me, I swallowed hard a few mouthfuls of saliva, looked at Tina, barely pulled out a smile: "Tina, you're kidding right? You were the one who asked me to give this to Edwyn for you."
I took out the paper-wrapped brooch from my pocket, my hand still trembling a bit, "You gave it to me yourself, did you forget?"
Tina looked at me in surprise, with a dumbfounded look, "I really didn't think, Heather, that it would be you ......"
"No, not me, you gave this to me yourself." I was so anxious I was on the verge of tears.
"Why should I give it to you? Who saw me give it to you? Since you've already taken the stuff out, seeing as you're my classmate, I can forgive you even if you don't apologize, but you can't accuse me falsely." Tina frowned at me with that reproachful look as if I had really stolen something from her.
"I ......" I opened my mouth to explain, but I didn't know how to explain, so I could only repeat: "You gave it to me, you gave it to me yourself, and you asked me to give it to Edwyn for you."
"If you insist on saying that, I'll have to call the police to deal with it." Tina said indifferently.
"Heather, you hurry up and apologize, how did I recruit an employee like you!" The boss pushed me hard.
The floor was a bit slippery and I was almost pushed, but Edwyn held me up. I grabbed Edwyn's arm with my backhand and shoved the brooch into his hand: "This is really from Tina, do you believe me, Edwyn?"
Edwyn frowned at me, then turned her head to Tina, "Could this be a misunderstanding?"
"What the hell are you doing now?" Tina came over and pushed me away, raised her hand and slapped me, "Heather, you really disgust me, even if you don't want to apologize, you're still trying to act pathetic!"
"That's enough, Tina, don't go too far." Edwyn stepped forward and pulled her in, "Let's go when you find something, don't hold up other people's business."
"Heather, this isn't over, just you wait, thief!" Tina said viciously, pointing at me, before being pulled away by Edwyn.
I sat frozen on the floor, my mind buzzing, and by the time I recovered, they were gone and the other guests were taking pictures of me with their phones. I jerked up off the floor and hid my face in the kitchen.
"Take your clothes off, get out, don't come back, look at the trouble you're causing me!" The boss followed me in and tugged hard on my clothes.
"I didn't steal anything." I covered my face with one hand and pulled at my clothes with the other.
"I don't care if you're a thief or not, but you're a big pain in the ass, and whoever made you unlucky enough to mess with that bitch, I don't want her coming to my place every day to cause trouble." The boss said indifferently.
"Sorry, boss." I said sincerely.
The boss grunted coldly and waved his hand impatiently, "All right, hurry up and go!"
"Okay." I looked at him timidly and whispered, "Please give me my pay for the past few days."
"You still want your salary!" The boss raised his arm and said menacingly, "Want to get another slap?!"
I took a step back in fear and craned my neck, still not leaving, insisting, "I deserve this, I worked here for three days, you should pay me $20."
"Come here, you guys, throw this thief to the police station!" The boss shouted angrily behind him, and three men with tall kitchen figures came toward me.
I cried and backed up, but I ran before they could reach out and grab me. Tears kept slipping from my eyes as I ran through the streets like a fugitive, but I was not the one who made the mistake.
I didn't stop to catch my breath until I couldn't run anymore. Before me were streets that seemed to grow endlessly, with ginkgo trees planted on both sides, and I had no idea where I was going.
I thought about going home. People want to go home when they are hurt, but when I realized that it was not my real home, but another prison cell, I was lost again.
Feeling isolated, I once again came to the fir forest. Only here could I get a moment of peace in my heart. I suddenly felt that the big black wolf was not scary at all, because humans were much scarier than the big black wolf, and I even expected to be eaten by it.
What is the point of living for someone as stupid and cowardly as me, and without the ability to fight back?
No one in this world will love me at all!
I finally couldn't hold back the sourness in my heart and sat down on the floor and cried bitterly. Here no one will laugh at me, no one will accuse me, I can vent my grievances at will.
Only no one came to accept these aggressions, and no one would come to comfort me.
After crying enough, my emotions gradually became somewhat numb and I just felt tired. My eyes were so swollen that I couldn't open them, so I simply closed them and fell asleep.
When I opened my eyes again, I was still in this fir forest. My mind was a little foggy and it was so dark around me that I couldn't tell if it was night or early morning.
After venting, I felt much better, and again felt that this life could last a little longer. But when I was about to walk out, there was a sudden movement next to me. I subconsciously looked over and saw nothing.
But to my surprise, the fish I had tied to the trunk was gone! There was a new thing on it, and I curiously went closer to look at it and found that it was a beautiful gift box.
Is this something that was given to me in exchange? I looked around and there was only a breeze blowing through the weeds. Hesitating for a moment, I took the box off.
I carefully opened the gift box, looked inside, and subconsciously stared at the contents.
--An inky blue sarong embellished with pearls.