But seriously, I was a woman. I only cut my hair short to avoid being dragged into an arranged marriage. Why would I feel ashamed for supposedly “embarrassing all men”?
The tattooed guy’s eyes went bloodshot with rage. “Fine! Fine! You’re shameless! I can’t even argue with you! Then let’s call the police and let them decide!”
The moment he said that, Kiera rushed up and grabbed his arm. “No! You can’t! Calling the police will affect my husband’s job. I don’t want to cause him trouble!”
She turned to me with tear-filled eyes. “Please, just help me take care of the child, okay? I only came because I had nowhere else to go. I’ve met so many horrible bosses. They haven’t paid me in six months. I can’t even afford baby formula for my son anymore.”
Her tears were flowing nonstop, and the crowd began to soften. Soon enough, people around us started lecturing me.
“Be a decent human being. Take care of your son. That poor girl has already suffered enough after you assaulted her. Yet she didn’t ask for compensation. What more do you want?”
“If a kid just fell from the sky into my lap, I’d be celebrating for three days! So, why are you pretending you’re above all this? If you can’t afford to raise a kid, maybe don’t take off a woman’s clothes in the first place!”
Gwendolyn tried to defend me, but the more she talked, the worse it sounded. By the end, people were calling us a shameless couple, saying I handled the “dirty work,” and she cleaned up after me with hush money.
A vein in my temple throbbed so hard I thought it might explode. I held it in for as long as I could, then finally said, “I really am not an irresponsible person. But I need to make one thing very clear. I absolutely don't know you. I’m sorry for what you’ve been through. I really am. But has it occurred to you that you might be mistaking me for someone else?”
Gwendolyn immediately backed me up. “Exactly! You must have the wrong person! She would never do something like that. Besides, she literally can’t get you pregnant!”
The crowd snapped. “How would you know? Are you a worm living inside his stomach? Or are you two scheming together, so you know exactly which women he slept with?”
“Oh, I get it now. He cheats, and you know every detail. Maybe you’re the one pimping him out! How can you be so cheap?”
Gwendolyn lost it and charged forward to hit someone. But Kiera’s sharp yell stopped her cold.