MY GORGEOUS WIFE IS AN EX-CONVICT

Part 4 Continue

Sometimes, the memories threatened to consume her.

She'd lost more than just her freedom in that accident.

Her future. Her boyfriend. Her grandpa.

Everyone and everything she'd cared about was gone in an instant.

Irish Beckett whom she'd accidentally killed was the daughter of one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in the country. What's more, she was the fiancée of  Everest Isaac Landford-the most powerful man in the city.

It's okay. You're okay.

Today is a new day.

You don't need anybody.

Claire finished mopping the room.

She was wearing the bright-colored work suit of a sanitation worker with her long hair tied into a simple ponytail.

She caught a glimpse of herself in a mirror on the wall. Her delicate face was slightly reddish due to the cold weather, and her mouth was pressed into a thin line.

If you were to only look at her face, you would think she was a student who had just graduated from college. But gone was that youthful ignorance.

She'd seen how cruel the world could be.

The eyes that stared back at her were old, far older, and duller than they should be.

She sighed and rolled the cleaning supplies toward the door.

Sitting down for a few minutes had been foolish.

She hadn't meant to drift off to sleep.

With an eye on the time, she moved quickly and efficiently to clean the rest of the building.

The life of a sanitation worker wasn't glamorous, but after she left prison, this was the only job she could find.

When she was about to leave, she heard a colleague watching the news on her mobile phone.

"Whoa! Audrey is engaged to Hendrix lewis Mayers! What a lucky girl Audrey is! As a superstar and a daughter of a rich and powerful family, now she is going to marry into the wealthy Mayers family too."

Claire shuddered, and then she hurried out of the Sanitation SC.

She took a deep breath. Then another.

She repeated her mantra and pushed the thoughts of her ex-boyfriend and his new fiancée far from her mind.

She swept the walkway as this was her routine.

This time of year, the cold winter wind blew and it pained her hands terribly.

She should've stopped to grab her coat, but she'd been too fixated on escaping her co-worker and any more 'good news' about the happy couple.

A couple that had stood by and watched as she was savagely beaten.

Suddenly, a Ferrari stopped in front of her.

Three men and a woman got out of the car; they were obviously drunk.

One of the men looked at Claire with a tipsy expression. He laughed cruelly. "I know you. What are the odds of finding Lewis's ex-girlfriend?"

Claire paled. She wasn't expecting to encounter anyone tonight, let alone someone she recognized.

The man in front of her was a trust fund baby that she had once cussed out when he'd made a pass at her back when she was dating Sean.

In hindsight, many of Levis's friends were elitist creeps. She should've paid more attention to that, after all, birds of a feather flock together.

"Aren't you a great lawyer? Why are you sweeping the road here?" jackson Peterson asked knowingly.

Another man stepped forward after Jackson. Claire didn't recognize him. "Can a woman who has been in prison be a lawyer again?" he questioned.

The woman laughed. "nah, a lawyer? Just a janitor now!"

Jackson stepped closer. "Surely there are better ways for you to make money. Come with me," he said. "I'll pay you for a night, beats sweeping the streets."

He held out his big, fat hand and the other three burst into laughter.

But Jackson wasn't asking, he was already moving in on Claire

Claire dodged, but the building was right behind her and there was nowhere to run. He grabbed her arms and pressed her against the wall at the side of the road.

It was late at night, and no one passed by this area.

She screamed but she knew her coworkers inside the building wouldn't hear.

Jackson's friends got back into the car. They didn't care what Jackson did to her.

He knocked her head back against the wall, and her vision dimmed.

The hand around her throat tightened and she clawed at it. "L-let me go..."

He used his free hand to pull at his belt, and Claire kicked him out hard, kneeling him in the groan.

"You bitch!"

He slap her so hard that her ears started to ring.

When she kicked again, he jumped backward, and it was just the chance she needed. Claire start running.

Jackson blocked the way to her building, so she had no choice but to run down the street.

Construction on the road limited the traffic and the late hour ensured there was no one to help her-or to hear her scream.

When the car roar to life and tires screeched, she knew he hadn't abandoned the chase. She stuck to the sidewalk thinking she could escape them, but when she turned down a side street, the car jumped the curb and followed.

When she came out the other side and circled back down the next street, thinking she could run back to the Sanitation Center for safety, the car cut around her and clipped her.