Chapter 10

"Mom, don't be scared! "I'm a brave boy and I can protect you." Chris choked up as he embraced Madeleine, his small chubby hands wiping away the tears on her face. Upon hearing his words, Madeleine collapsed to the ground, clutching Chris in a hard embrace as she wept. At this moment, she felt that all the grievances she had suffered over the years were worth it because Chris was her only source of hope. "Mommy, don't cry. I will protect Mommy..." Chris nestled in Madeleine's arms, his babyish voice trying to soothe her emotions. Madeleine knew that Chris was an insecure child due to a lifelong lack of maternal love, but he resolutely declared his willingness to protect her. As she looked at her five-year-old son, who was mature beyond his years, her heart ached more. Holding Chris, she absentmindedly looked up and saw her reflection in the mirror. Her face was pale, her figure frail, and lips colorless, she seemed on the verge of a heart attack at any moment. Once, she competed in beauty and figure with the best of the socialites in Pinebrook. Now, she looked like a beggar on the street, just as Clinton had said. She had lost all resemblance to her previous self. Subsequently, she and Chris were thrown into a storage room by Clinton. Having not eaten for a long time, she felt faint. At that moment, Chris, who was also hungry, had his stomach rumbling. However, the well-behaved little one didn't fuss about being hungry. Instead, in a sweet and innocent voice, he expressed concern for Madeleine, saying, "Mommy, are you hungry?" Madeleine's heart warmed up, and she bit the corner of her lips, softly saying, "Honey, sleep for a while. Mommy will go find something for you to eat." Chris nodded his head, closed his eyes, and obediently fell into a peaceful sleep. Once he fell asleep, Madeleine got up to go outside, looking for something to eat. Clinton had to go to the hospital to see Abigail, so he didn't have time to keep an eye on her all the time, which allowed her some freedom. She cautiously stepped out of the yard. Upon seeing the nanny, she asked in a soft whisper, "Excuse me, is there... something to eat? My child is hungry." The nanny looked at her with disgust and sneered, "Do you want to eat?" Madeleine pursed her lips and nodded. Seeing this, the nanny rolled her eyes, turned her back and went into the kitchen, came out with two plates of food. Madeleine clung to the corner of her dress in panic, quickly thanked the nanny, and tentatively reached out her hand to take it. But to her surprise, the nanny walked straight out of the yard and poured the food into an iron basin by the roadside for stray dogs. Seeing this, Madeleine immediately avoided her gaze and didn't dare to make a sound. She bowed her head with slightly red eyes. She wasn't upset because of the nanny's deliberate difficulties, but because she couldn't get food for Chris. It didn't matter if she starved, but Chris was only a five-year-old child who couldn't stay hungry all the time. But now she didn't have a penny and had to find a way to get food for him. "Stop! Where are you going? " asked the nanny angrily, seeing that Madeleine was going out. "Don't worry, with Chris here, I won't run away. I'll go out for a while and then come back," Madeleine explained in a soft voice. The nanny snorted and didn't bother talking to her anymore. Abigail had privately instructed them not to feed Madeleine and even tried to figure out ways to drive Madeleine out of the Beach family. Once Madeleine left the villa, she rubbed her hands together to warm herself from the cold in thin clothes. The autumn in Pinebrook was chilling to the bone. On the streets of the affluent area, a sense of luxury was omnipresent. Yet, penniless as she was, she was in a quandary about how to find food for Chris. Out of desperation, she walked over to a trash bin, picking out a few plastic bottles with the thought that if she could collect some more, she could exchange them for money. With money, she could buy food for Chris. "Hey, Madeleine! Are you picking trash now?" At this moment, a sarcastic voice sounded from behind her. This was the luxury area, where most of Madeleine's classmates lived. Hearing the derisive voice, Madeleine recoiled in fear, meekly replying, "You... got the wrong person." One of the women, upon seeing Madeleine's evasive behavior, had no intention of letting her go. She advanced and pushed Madeleine to the ground. "Not long ago, Abigail mentioned that you were let out. I didn't believe her at first, but now you are here," the woman who pushed Madeleine was Charlotte Merritt, the second daughter from the Merritt family, also a classmate of Madeleine. Charlotte had been jealous since childhood. During school years, Madeleine tried not to provoke her, and now she dared not even more. Madeleine didn't dare to look up out of fear. However, Charlotte walked over to Madeleine with a smirk on her face, raised her foot, and forcefully stomped on Madeleine's ankle. "Ah, it hurts..." Madeleine cried out in pain, cold sweat seeping from her forehead as the force exerted seemed to want to crush her ankle. However, Charlotte didn't want to let Madeleine go, her face turning more and more vicious. "A beggar picking up trash has lived the life of Miss Landry for over twenty years. What a shameless and cheap woman.” As she finished speaking, with a swing of her hand, she slapped Madeleine heavily in the face. Madeleine’s ears immediately rang and she felt dizzy. But she displayed no resistance, only lowered her head with a wooden expression and remained silent. During five years in prison, she had lost count of how many times she had been slapped to this degree, almost as if she was already accustomed to it. "You actually dare to touch a trash picker. Don’t you think it's dirty? "Here, wipe your hand with a disinfectant wipe quickly." At this moment, another rich young lady took out a disinfectant wipe from her bag with a disgusted face and handed it to Charlotte. "Didn't you hear that? She slept with a man and unbelievably she even had an illegitimate child. This is really too disgusting. "Looking at her downtrodden appearance. God knows how many men she slept with outside. She probably contracted some dirty diseases on her body." Charlotte quickly took the disinfectant wipe to clean her hands, then threw the used wipe in Madeleine's face, swearing, "Damn, you make me sick." Even after cursing, she was not satisfied and lifted her leg to kick Madeleine in the chest. Madeleine fell to the ground, curling up her weak body, an intense pain straight into her heart. It was so painful that she couldn't breathe, and it felt worse than death... However, at the moment, she had no choice but to endure silently because she lacked the power to fight back. Any form of resistance now would be like a futile struggle before death, incapable of bringing about any change. It would only provoke further harm from those who persecuted her. She was clear that only finding a backer could change everything at present, to fight back against those who harmed her and Chris. In Pinebrook, the only person who could intimidate these powerful and wealthy people, save her from the fire and water, and enable her to survive, was Beckett.