Chapter 185

Valerie had come to see Jade, the other woman who had been dragged onto the trending lists and pilloried online. Since the attacks began, Jade had become public enemy number one. She had been hospitalized with severe injuries, but as the medical bill mounted, the Collier family could no longer afford her care. The Woodward family paid a settlement intended to silence them, but by the time it filtered down through layers of middlemen, only 200 thousand dollars remained. Faced with the bill that kept growing, relatives who had once defended Jade slipped away to avoid the trouble. Jade's father left her two thousand dollars, then disappeared with his wife, sons, and a whole train car's worth of relatives, after buying tickets home. The compensation the Woodward family had paid went with him. In the ward, Jade lay listless in bed. With bills unpaid, her IV had been reduced from eight bags a day to two—one for infection, and one to keep her barely alive. Valerie's arrival surprised h