Penthouse

The breakfast she had prepared, along with the lunchbox for school, was set on the dining table.

She was busy in the kitchen, but Charlotte knew her eyes were always on her through the glass door.

Charlotte didn’t say a word to her, nor did she pick up the lunchbox. She left the house, leaving behind only the sound of a loud slam.

The elevator was transparent. The city in the early morning sun was coming to life in an orderly fashion. Charlotte watched this scene expressionlessly, until she stepped out of the elevator and saw Samuel deliberately waiting for her in the lobby.

Samuel saw her too, but he didn’t speak to her. They just walked one after the other until the next block, where Samuel quickened his pace to catch up with her.

At fifteen, he was already able to sense the hidden secrets behind the adults’ evasive words. Yet, his young heart drove him closer to the warmth he longed for. He tentatively grabbed her hand; she didn’t resist, and their fingers intertwined tightly.

“Did you do yesterday’s homework for me?” Samuel asked.

“I did, and I wrote it in your handwriting,” Charlotte replied.

Samuel smiled, his eyes brighter than the rising sun. “That’s great. According to our deal, I’ll be responsible for your lunch this week.”

Charlotte knew he did this to help her as much as he could without hurting her pride. She stopped, stood on her tiptoes, and kissed the corner of his mouth.

He quickly responded to the kiss. Their soft lips met, and so did their hearts.

The next corner was their school. They quickly separated, pretending not to know each other.

This was the most expensive high school in the city center, where teachers served the parents more than the students. They knew their relationship must not be discovered by Samuel’s parents.

Charlotte went to her seat. She felt something strange in the class today. Wherever she went, silence followed. She tried to talk to her friends, but they only gave her awkward smiles and changed the subject.

Charlotte was completely ignored. Yet, when she focused on her own tasks, she could always feel her classmates’ eyes on her.

At lunch, she understood what was going on.

Feeling uneasy all morning, she chose to wait until everyone left the classroom before heading out. In the hallway, a boy she didn’t know at all rudely stopped her.

He looked uneasy, but clearly determined to come to her. “How much?” He said.

Charlotte looked at him puzzled.

“For how much can I sleep with you?” His face was as red as a tomato, but his eyes were highly obscene.

In response to his harrassment, Charlotte slapped him in his face.

Charlotte’s mother, Anna, is a high end prostitute. She had hair as stunning as the moonlight, her eyes were as blue as a frozen Lake during winter. When she looks at you, it feels as if all the world’s sorrow converged into a stream in her gaze. She is the most beautiful woman Charlotte had ever seen, yet her beauty did not match a life as radiant as gold.

Her husband brought her from Russia to America after a business trip, placing her in a luxurious penthouse, adorning her with jewels and silk. From eighteen to twenty-eight, he treated her like a delicate flower in an oxygen tent, fragile and pampered.

It wasn’t until his real wife sent lawyers and thugs that they first realized the harsh winter outside their garden.

He was a man who had risen to wealth through his wife Susan’s family and was deeply afraid of her. If Susan hadn’t discovered him quietly transferring assets, that formidable woman would’ve never paid any attention to Anna.

“Madam is very merciful. She won’t burden you with the debt of a despicable man and will allow you to stay here so you won’t have to go back home,” Susan’s lawyer said with a smile to the mother and daughter, knowing Susan was skilled in humiliating such weak women.

Living in the cities most expensive high-rise , every breath there cost money. Yet, Anna barely spoke English—her man, Charlottre’s father, never needed her to communicate with him. He only needed a beautiful, obedient, and entertaining toy. How could she possibly survive here alone?

It was the neighbors who came to console her that taught her how to survive.

These men, once the polite gentlemen of dinner parties and Charlotte’s dear uncles, easily used small favors to save her. Anna was reluctant to leave the apartment that symbolized a decade of luxurious and proud dreams, and she began to rebuild her life.

Initially, she and those men knew to avoid Charlotte. But later, even when Anna begged, those men would shamelessly make advances on her right in the living room.

From then on, Charlotte never spoke to her again. But just as she had inherited her beauty, perhaps Charlotte also inherited her cowardice and vanity. Charlotte, too, was unwilling to leave the apartment and give up the food and fine clothes her mother exchanged her body for with men.

Of course, such scandals can’t be hidden forever.

Just like the boy in front of her now. After being hit by Charlotte, his anger overtook any remaining sense of shame. He hit her back, causing Charlotte to stumble and fall to the ground. He straddled her, continuing to strike her face. “You filthy slut, how dare you slap me? You are a whore who can be bought for pennies, with a face like a tramp, just like your mother!”

Charlotte, pinned down, couldn’t get up, but she fought back with all her strength, kicking and scratching his face with her nails. She didn’t scream; she just gritted her teeth and resisted silently.

With a loud thud, the boy suddenly collapsed, revealing an enraged Samuel behind him. Samuel had hit him on the head with a backpack full dictionaries.

Because he hadn’t seen Charlotte at lunch, he came back to look for her, only to witness this scene. It doesn’t take much to ignite the emotions of a young man, especially when it involves the girl hes into, being harrassed.

He draped his jacket over the trembling Charlotte, their hands tightly clasped together. They decided to face whatever punishment might come together, feeling as though no external force could tear them apart.

The hallway surveillance only showed Charlotte suddenly slapping the boy, then the two of them grappling, and finally, Samuel knocking him out. The boy had already been taken to the hospital, leaving Charlotte and Samuel waiting in the principal’s office, along with Samuel’s mother. Anna was nowhere to be found.

In front of the principal, Samuel’s mother stood by Charlotte’s side, fully defending her son’s rightful stance in protecting Charlotte. But once outside, the elegant lady dragged Charlotte into her car and slapped her with the back of her ring-adorned hand.

Samuel, almost jumping in his agitation, shielded the bruised Charlotte behind him: “Mom, what are you doing!”

His mother laughed angrily: “If it weren’t for this bitch, would you have made your hands dirty? Or are you already becoming like your father at such a young age?”

“Mom, what are you talking about?" Samuel asked, confused.

Knowing she had said something she shouldn’t have, the lady’s expression shifted several times before she finally spoke bluntly, “Ask her yourself what her wonderful mother has done.”

Silent until now, Charlotte pushed Samuel away and growled at the woman like a cornered beast, “My mother, she never... with your husband…”

“Oh, really?” The lady laughed loudly, “Then let’s go see for ourselves.”

The trip back was only a couple of blocks, but it felt like an hour for Charlotte and Samuel. When they arrived, Charlotte easily opened the home’s passcode lock—the door was only locked when “guests” were over. Anna hadn’t told Charlotte the code, as it was her last attempt to shield her daughter from shame. Charlotte knew the code anyway but never came home when the door was locked. They didn’t even need to enter; they could already hear unspeakable sounds escaping from inside.

The floor felt like it was giving way beneath Charlotte, and everything she saw seemed to glow white. Yet, she steadied herself and rushed into the bedroom.

Anna was completely naked, straddling a man who was none other than Samuel’s father.

Anna screamed and covered herself with a blanket, but the truth was laid bare for all to see.

Samuel, devastated, left in a daze. Charlotte tried to stop him but was harshly pushed away. She couldn’t make out the argument between Samuel’s mother and father, nor Anna’s crying and pleading. All the sounds exploded in her mind, and she drifted into a stupor, somehow making it to school the next day. That day, Anna didn’t prepare her lunch.

At school, Charlotte’s desk was covered in obscene graffiti, and yesterday’s whispered discussions and glances turned into blatant mockery.

“This isn’t a brothel; it’s no place for you.” A bucket of trash was dumped on her while she was alone in the restroom. Celine, who lived in the same building, was among the girls behind it.

So that's how it was. Charlotte understood everything. She recalled previously overlooked details: at every dinner party in the building, whenever she and Samuel quietly slipped away, a pair of eyes would always follow them.

Charlotte left school, and on the way, she ran into Samuel. He merely turned his head away in disgust. She found a step to sit on and stared blankly at the blue sky, which, despite being sunny, felt cold and unwelcoming. As more and more unfriendly eyes focused on her, Charlotte finally chose to leave.

But where could she go?

She wandered back to the apartment building, where the usually quiet penthouse was unusually noisy.

Several women were dragging Anna out by her clothes, spewing vulgar insults. Anna looked so pitiful as she was beaten, that Charlotte, feeling a surge of anger, rushed in and started hitting the women who were attacking Anna.

Seeing Charlotte being overpowered and beaten, Anna showed a side of herself like a lioness for the first time. While tears streamed down her face, she fiercely bit and clawed at Celine’s mother and the women she had brought.

Security quickly arrived to rescue the mother and daughter, followed by the police.

It turned out Anna had gone to the school during the day.

She had always been a delicate and timid flower, never daring to face any unknown situation alone. Brought here when she was still immature and imprisoned by a luxurious life for fifteen years, she didn’t even dare attend parent-teacher conferences. But after the events of the previous day, upon hearing that her daughter had skipped school, she dared to go to the school alone.

Late at night, the police brought the mother and daughter back home. Because of the tension and fear, Anna kept her daughter tightly in her arms, her face pale.

“You mean you pinched her?” Charlotte felt like she was meeting Anna for the first time. Instead of going upstairs, they found a bench to sit on.

Anna, looking more disheveled than ever but with bright eyes, said, “I watched the surveillance footage and then called them all to the principal’s office. There, I did nothing but tell them not to bully other students. Then I waited for Celine after school and secretly pinched her.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you.” As she spoke, she began to cry.

“If you can’t protect yourself, how can you protect me?” Charlotte hesitated, but then hugged Anna.

“It’s okay now, just don’t do this again. If Celine’s mother hadn’t reported you and then personally attacked you, making their own faults more obvious, they wouldn’t have let you go even without evidence.” Charlotte said softly, then hesitated before adding, “Those men can give you benefits, but they won’t protect you when something goes wrong.”

This was the first conversation the mother and daughter had had in a year. Charlotte thought she had become cold-hearted, but in the end, she was just a child who needed her mother’s protection, not the other way around. “I’m sorry, Mom. I shouldn’t have ignored you or treated you like an outsider.” Charlotte also started crying. She had always blamed Anna, but wasn’t she also enjoying the easy wealth that Anna had traded her body for?

Anna arranged for Charlotte to take a break from school; they needed time to heal and recover. They finally decided to move away from there, but looking out at the view from the window, their hearts were filled with endless sorrow.

“Mom will do her best to take care of you,” Anna promised Charlotte. Despite the years, her face bore no signs of age, and her eyes remained as innocent as a child’s. “I worked in a store during high school. I know how to work.”

“I’ll also find a job to support us.” Charlotte held Anna’s hand firmly, her tone resolute. “From now on, we’ll share the responsibility of the household together.”

Embracing each other, they left all the rumors and gossip behind in the penthouse. Though uncertain of what fate held for them, they were filled with hope, believing that their future would be bright.