Chapter 100

They gossiped about how much they envied them.

Latisha gnawed on a stale piece of bread and drank their leftover soup. Soon, she would have to go back to washing dishes.

After finishing the last bite, she stood up and returned to the kitchen to tackle the remaining piles. A couple of the female staff members glanced at her and started whispering.

"The new girl... I think she's a mute."

"How do you know?"

"Lily told me."

"Hey, they say that if someone's mute, they're usually deaf too. Is that true?"

"Really? I thought you only couldn't speak if you couldn't hear in the first place."

"Go try."

Latisha finished washing the last basket of plates and loaded them into the sanitizer. When she turned around, two of the women were standing there.

"Hey, can you hear us talking?"

"Are you a deaf-mute?"

They stared at her with open curiosity, as if she were a museum exhibit. It didn't seem to occur to them that their questions might be offensive.

Latisha just looked at them, not moving a muscle.

"Wow, she really can't hear."

"How pitiful."

Latisha hated that look-the pity, the sympathy. It was a constant reminder that she was incomplete, broken.

She walked past them and went to the break room, where they were allowed to rest during the afternoon lull. She was so exhausted she could barely lift her arms. She only managed to sleep for two hours before it was time to start again at five o'clock. This shift would last until eleven at night.

By the end of the day, the skin on her fingers felt like it was peeling off, and both of her arms ached deeply.

"Your pay. The stout woman

handed her a fifty-dollar bill. "You broke a plate, so you only get fifty for today if you can't handledt, you don't have to come back tomorrow."

Latisha stared at the crumpled bill in the woman's hand. After a long silence, she took the money.

She clutched the fifty dollars as she left the restaurant. The streets were dark and empty. She pulled out her phone and checked the map She was thirty kilometers from home.

A bitter smile touched her lips. It seemed Clifford was always trying to prove to her

that she couldn't survive without him.

And he was succeeding.

Standing there, lost and helpless, she didn't have enough for a cab, and the subways and buses had stopped running for the night. The thought of walking back was terrifying. All she could do was stand there, trapped. Every time she

imagined a future without him, it

looked like this bleak and

impossible. The thought of divorce,

which had been a flickering flame of

hope, began to die out.

Suddenly, a car sped past her, then screeched to a halt and reversed, stopping right in front of her.

Latisha looked up as the window rolled down, revealing Santino's face.

"Latisha? Is that really you? I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me." He got

out of the car, glancing around. "Were you having dinner here?”

Latisha shook her head and signed, *I work here.*

Santino looked surprised. "Work?"

She nodded.

"Is Clifford coming to pick you up?"

Again, she shook her head.

"Do you need a ride home?"

Latisha hesitated, her lips pressed together. She looked at him, and Clifford's

warning echoed in her mind. She started to back away.

But Santino just smiled gently. "Come on, get in. I'll take you."

Just as he finished speaking, another car pulled up and stopped in front of them.