Then I moved forward and slid into the back seat.
The leather met my palms—warm, smooth, recently used.
The space smelled faintly of clean upholstery... and something familiar.
But I couldn’t place it.
The door closed behind me with a solid, controlledthunk.
Sealing me inside.
The driver settled behind the wheel with a quiet efficiency that didn’t match the chaos I had just left behind.
The engine turned over smoothly.
A moment later, the car eased into motion, merging into traffic with a precision that spoke of experience rather than habit.
I leaned forward slightly in my seat.
Careful not to draw attention.
“I saw the way those women treated you.”
His voice broke through the silence smoothly, low and controlled, yet carrying something colder beneath it. “A rather pathetic display.”
My spine straightened instinctively at the realization that hit me a second later.
He had been there earlier.
Watching.
He must have seen everything that happened outside the company building—the insults, the humiliation, the way they circled me like vultures because they knew I couldn’t see.
“They’re pathetic monsters,” I replied quietly, bitterness slipping through before I could stop it. “Honestly... who bullies a blind woman?”
The words tasted ugly in my mouth, but not nearly as ugly as the memory itself.
“People were passing by too,” I continued after a pause. “I could hear them if I focused enough. Footsteps. Conversations. Life continuing normally around me while it happened.”
My fingers tightened slightly around my cane.
“And yet no one stepped in. No one tried to help. They just...” I swallowed. “Kept walking.”
Heavy silence followed.
“They didn’t even bother calling the police,” I said, anger beginning to sharpen my voice now. “Not one person cared enough to do even that much. They couldn’t even pretend to care.”
I exhaled slowly afterward, suddenly aware of how much I had said.
I didn’t understand why I was rambling like this to a man who was practically still a stranger to me.
But the driver remained silent throughout it all.
Listening.
Seeing that he still wasn’t saying anything, I continued speaking, the words leaving my mouth before I could stop them, as though his silence kept pulling more truth out of me than I intended to give.
“I honestly think the world would be better without men,” I said at last, quieter now, though no less bitter. “Far better. Most of them are selfish predators hiding behind power and entitlement.”
