Chapter 24
Violet's POV
Sienna, in her high heels, stormed up to me in a fury.
Her eyes were venomous as she raised her hand high, her sharp nails aimed at my cheek: "I'll show you right now what happens when you cross me!"
Just as her slap was about to land at this critical moment, an angry male voice suddenly came from the outer edge of the crowd.
"What the hell is going on?!"
The onlooking crowd instinctively cleared a path.
Ethan, wearing that familiar black leather jacket, strode in with long steps.
His brows were tightly furrowed, his gaze sweeping over the mess on the floor before finally settling on me being held down tightly, and on Sienna with her hand raised high.
Seeing Ethan appear, Sienna's hand suspended in mid-air instantly dropped.
Her face, originally twisted and vicious, instantly transformed into a pitiful, wronged expression.
Her eyes reddened, tears falling like broken beads as she threw herself directly into Ethan's arms.
"Ethan! You're finally here!" Sienna buried her face in his chest, crying pitifully, her voice full of aggrieved trembling, "Violet's gone crazy! I just kindly asked her about that photo on the forum, asked if she'd been deceived, and not only does she show no remorse, she got angry from shame and hit me! Look at my face..."
She lifted her head, revealing the half of her face that was red and swollen with the clear imprint of my fingers.
Ethan's expression instantly darkened.
He tenderly touched Sienna's face, then turned his head, staring at me with an extremely disgusted look, as if looking at some kind of stinking garbage.
"Violet, not only are you cheap, but you've become this much of a shrew?" Ethan's voice was cold as ice, "You did that kind of shameful, disgraceful thing, and when you get exposed you resort to hitting people? Sienna just wanted to teach you a lesson, to wake you up!"
"I didn't do anything disgraceful!" Being held down tightly by two girls, I lifted my head, my eyes red from extreme anger and humiliation, but I bit my teeth hard, not letting the tears fall, "Ethan, use your brain! I got into the orchestra because I passed Owen Sheldon's personal interview! That photo is completely baseless slander! Why would you rather believe this ridiculous defamation than believe I got in on merit?!"
"Merit?" Ethan laughed coldly as if he'd heard the biggest joke in the world. He released Sienna and walked up to me step by step, looking down at me from above, "You think I'll still believe your bullshit? A complete set of top-grade Bosnian maple violins, a special admission spot in the city symphony orchestra, you really think you're a once-in-a-century genius? With your resume of frying fries at a fast food restaurant?"
He bent down slightly, his eyes full of undisguised contempt and slut-shaming: "No wonder you acted so tough in front of me before, wouldn't even acknowledge the forty-five thousand dollar debt, turns out you'd already found your next meal ticket. So, is that old man's bed especially comfortable? Comfortable enough to make you abandon even basic shame?"
"Shut up! You bastard!" I was shaking all over with anger, tears finally falling uncontrollably.
The man I'd been in love with for three years was now standing in the center of the crowd, using the most vicious, most vulgar words to strip away my dignity completely in front of everyone.
The surrounding students watching the show burst into even louder laughter, those sounds like countless needles densely piercing into my eardrums.
I had become a complete joke, a vain gold-digger nailed to the pillar of shame.
"What? Got exposed, feeling embarrassed now?" Ethan looked at me crying, not only showing no sympathy, but thinking I was just being stubborn. He straightened up, adjusted the collar of his leather jacket, his tone becoming extremely cold and forceful.
"Violet, I don't have the patience to watch you act here." Ethan pointed at the tiles on the floor, his eyes sinister as he delivered his final ultimatum, "Now, kneel down immediately, kowtow to Sienna in apology, and then, tomorrow morning, go submit your resignation to the symphony orchestra yourself and give up that position that rightfully belongs to Sienna."
I stared at him hard, clenching my jaw: "And if I don't?"
"Don't?" Ethan sneered coldly, pulling out his phone from his pocket and waving it at the screen, "If you don't do as I say, I guarantee that before sunset today, the photos of you meeting with that Sugar Daddy, along with your 'wonderful story' of trading your body for an orchestra position, will appear on the front pages of all the gossip media in Manhattan and in classical music circles. Then we'll see if you can still survive in this circle!"
I stared hard at Ethan's arrogant face holding his phone, the surging anger in my chest suddenly and strangely subsided after reaching its peak.
In its place was a deathly gray coldness.
This was the person I once loved deeply.
Not only did he trample my dignity underfoot, now he wanted to use such lowly rumor-mongering tactics to destroy my future.
"Expose me?" I looked at him, the corner of my mouth pulling into an extremely ugly cold smile, even my voice carrying a desperate resolution, "Fine, go ahead and expose me, send those baseless photos to all the media, let all of Manhattan see! Ethan, you're really a blind fool who's lost his mind. You'd rather believe this groundless dirty water than use your grass-filled brain to think about whether the threshold of the city symphony orchestra can really be slept into?"
"You—" Ethan clearly hadn't expected me to dare talk back at this point, his face instantly turning livid.
"Ethan, forget it..." Just then, Sienna, who had been hiding in his arms, suddenly spoke up.
She gently tugged at Ethan's leather jacket sleeve, her eyes red, putting on an extremely magnanimous but false face. She turned her head and gave a look to the three lackeys holding me down tightly, "Let her go. This is the cafeteria, it's not good for anyone if this gets too ugly. Violet might just be confused for the moment, blinded by jealousy. I don't want to push things too far."
The three girls immediately let go. I staggered forward half a step from the momentum, my arms aching unbearably from the prolonged twisting.
Sienna, in her high heels, walked up to me with an air of compassion.
She extended her well-maintained hands, seemingly wanting to kindly support my arm, "Violet, are you okay? As long as you're willing to admit your mistake and return the orchestra position to me, I can really forgive..."
The moment her hand touched my forearm, her long, sharp French manicured nails, concealed by her body, dug viciously and mercilessly into the softest flesh on the inside of my arm.
She even maliciously twisted half a turn.
"Hiss—" The piercing pain instantly shot along my nerves straight to my brain. I gasped from the pain and instinctively raised my arm, forcefully shaking off her touch.
"Don't touch me!" I roared out loud.