The Secret Cut

Zara POV.

My hands shook as I pushed the door to the changing room shut and flipped the heavy sliding deadbolt. I collapsed back against the cool solid wood, dragging in sharp, unsteady breaths. Room Three was behind me, but the ghost of the Frost King’s gaze still burned hot on my sweating skin. I dumped my leather bag onto the scarred vanity bench. The girl staring back at me from the illuminated mirror looked like a terrified stranger. My dark eyeliner was smudged deep into the corners of my eyes. My bottom lip was flushed and swollen red, as if I had spent the last hour biting it in pure panic.

Peeling off the seductive Raven costume felt mechanical and cold. I unclasped the tight corset, letting the stiff fabric drop and pool onto the tiled floor. I pulled my faded blue jeans up my thighs, threw on my oversized worn black t-shirt, and laced up my scuffed white sneakers. Stripping away the stage fantasy should have brought me instant relief. Instead, an empty, hollow ache settled deep into the center of my chest. Walking away from that mysterious stranger felt wrong. It felt as though a vital piece of my soul remained locked inside that dark VIP room, sitting right beside him on that velvet couch.

I sat on the edge of the flimsy wooden bench. My numb, tingling fingers dug down into the bottom of my bag to pull out the thick stacks of cash. One hundred. Two hundred. Five hundred. A thousand. The piles grew fast. I carefully counted the bills one by one, forcing my racing brain to register the crisp green paper sliding through my hands.

Thirteen thousand dollars.

My heart hammered against my ribs like a trapped bird hitting a cage. I stared blindly at the neat, organized stacks resting heavy on my lap. Twelve thousand was the maximum limit. Frost had handed me an extra thousand on top of everything. Maybe it was a reward. Maybe it was a twisted form of arrogant pity. The reason did not matter in the slightest. The only truth staring back at me was the cold, hard cash. I finally had enough money to save my sister.

Lily needed ten thousand for her hospital surgery deposit. That left three thousand leftover. Three thousand was more than enough cash to appease Don. The VIP room had no security cameras hidden in the corners. There were no bouncers standing guard in the shadows. No witnesses existed to verify the exact amount exchanged between Frost and me tonight. Don would remain blissfully ignorant.

A sickening, chaotic mix of suffocating guilt and raw adrenaline flooded my veins. I had never stolen a single penny from the club in my life. I gathered the ten thousand dollars. I folded the thick stack tight and shoved it deep inside my jacket pocket, zipping the fabric shut with trembling, frantic fingers. I tossed the remaining three grand back into my shoulder bag. I rolled my shoulders back, forced my chin high into the air, and walked out into the neon-lit hallway.

The walk to Don's back office felt like a suffocating march to an execution block. I balled my hand into a fist and knocked twice on the peeling paint of his door.

"Get in here." The muffled, gravelly bark echoed from within.

I pushed the heavy door open. A suffocating, toxic cloud of stale cigarette smoke and cheap, overpowering cologne slammed into my face. Don slouched in his creaking leather chair, his swollen stomach pressing hard against the edge of the wood desk. A half-eaten greasy burger rested on a napkin near his elbow. His predatory, greedy eyes locked onto my face the second I crossed the threshold.

"Tell me the numbers. How much did the Frost King drop on you?"

I did not speak. I marched straight up to his messy desk, reached into my bag, and slapped the three thousand dollars down into a neat pile.

Don let out a low, impressed, breathy whistle. He sat up fast. His stubby hands snatched the cash and flicked through the bills with alarming, practiced speed.

"Not bad for one night, Raven. You really know how to put on a damn good show."

He pulled open his bottom drawer and shoved the bulk of the cash inside. Without missing a single beat, he peeled off five crisp hundred-dollar bills and threw them across the dirty desk. The paper fluttered and landed near my white knuckles.

"That is your official cut. Take it. And listen up. Frost already booked you again for tomorrow. Same exact time. Same exact room."

My stomach dropped straight to the floor.

Don leaned back in his chair and let a skin-crawling, victorious grin stretch across his oily face. "Whatever dirty little tricks you pulled in there, the man loved it. You keep him happy, understand? A client spending that kind of cash gets whatever he wants."

"I understand. I will keep him happy." I forced a stiff nod, swallowing the mounting dread gathering hard in my sore throat.

I turned around and practically sprinted out of the suffocating office. The thumping bass of the club rattled my teeth as I hurried toward the main entrance. Dora barely glanced up from filing her nails as she slid a thin white envelope containing my regular shift pay across the front counter. I snatched the envelope, shoved it deep into my jeans, and burst through the heavy front double doors into the freezing night.

The icy wind whipped through my thin jacket as I stepped down off the curb. A yellow cab rolled down the deserted neon street, and I immediately waved my arms. I slid into the cracked leather backseat, rattling off the hospital address to the silent driver. The ride stretched on for an eternal nightmare. The city lights blurred into long streaks of yellow and red outside the smudged passenger window. I kept my palm pressed flat against the zippered pocket of my jacket. The firm wedge of cash pressed holding strong against my ribs. I had actually done it. Ten thousand dollars secured. Lily finally had a real fighting chance.

The cab jerked to a sudden halt beneath the glaring white fluorescent lights of the hospital emergency entrance. I tossed a wad of cash at the driver, not waiting for change, and bolted through the automatic sliding glass doors. The harsh, bitter smell of medical antiseptic burned the inside of my nose. My sneakers squeaked loud against the polished linoleum floors as I sprinted down the silent, empty corridor. I skidded to a dead halt in front of the billing office. A dim overhead light filtered through the frosted safety glass. I knocked hard on the frame.

The heavy wooden door clicked open. A tired woman in wrinkled green scrubs peeked her head out, clutching a half-empty coffee cup in both hands.

"I need to make a massive deposit right now. My sister Lily is scheduled for an urgent surgery early tomorrow." I spoke fast, struggling to catch my desperate breath.

The clerk sighed loud and gestured for me to step inside. I dropped down into the hard plastic chair across from her cluttered desk. My fingers shook slightly as I unzipped my jacket pocket and pulled out the thick, massive stack of stolen bills. I placed the ten thousand dollars squarely in the exact center of her wooden desk.

She set her coffee aside and grabbed the money with bored hands. She fed the crisp hundreds through a black electronic counting machine, one neat stack at a time. The plastic machine whirred and beeped in a fast, rhythmic drone. My beating heart jumped into my throat with every single electronic flash. What if Frost slipped me fake cash? What if the machine rejected the stolen money and the clerk immediately called security? I held my breath, gripping the plastic armrests until my knuckles turned blinding white.

Every single bill came back clean. The machine flashed a bright, solid green approval light.

The tired clerk typed the final numbers into her bulky computer screen. The loud clacking of her keyboard felt like a victory march echoing in my ears.

"Ten thousand dollars received. The surgery deposit has been paid in full."

The clerk printed a shockingly long white receipt and ripped it clean from the machine. Her exhausted lined face softened into a warm, genuine smile. "Lily will be moved to the pre-op ward first thing in the morning to prepare. She is incredibly lucky to have a sister like you fighting for her life."

A bone-deep wave of pure relief crashed over my body. The crushing weight I carried on my shoulders for grueling months evaporated into thin air. I clutched the paper receipt to my chest like a solid gold prize.

"Thank you. Thank you so much for everything you do." I choked out the words, desperately fighting back the hot wet tears stinging the corners of my eyes.

I rushed out of the billing office and navigated the quiet, twisted maze of the hospital to reach Lily’s secure room. The overhead lights were dimmed low. Steady, rhythmic beeps from the heart monitor echoed in the dark space. I tiptoed closer to the metal bed. Lily looked so small and fragile beneath the thin white institutional blankets. I watched her small chest rise and fall in a peaceful, even rhythm. The dark purple circles under her closed resting eyes broke my heart, but hope blossomed warm and bright in my chest.

"I did it, Lily. The money is paid. You are going to be okay." I whispered the promise into the dark, quiet room.

A passing night nurse tapped politely on the open doorframe, quietly reminding me that hospital visiting hours concluded long ago. I kissed Lily’s forehead, turned around, and walked out into the chilly night air.

The late-night local cab ride back to my rundown apartment felt agonizingly slow. I leaned my heavy head against the frozen glass window. Tomorrow. Frost booked me again for tomorrow. My weary mind raced with the magnitude of what I had just done. Stealing thousands of dollars from the club right under Don's greedy nose was a death sentence if I got caught. I had shattered every single rule I created to survive in this city tonight.

But I could fix this. I stared blankly at the dark shifting streets passing by and formulated a desperate plan. If Frost kept returning to the busy club and asking for me, I could skim a little bit off the top every single time he paid. I would slowly gather enough cash to pay the club back in utter secret. Don would never figure out the missing cash. I just needed to survive tomorrow night.

My raw eyes stung with deep exhaustion. My tight muscles ached with a dull, throbbing pain. I just wanted to strip off my tight clothes, collapse into my soft mattress, and sleep through the weekend.

The cab dropped me off at my crumbling apartment complex. I trudged up the three steep flights of chipped concrete stairs. My sore legs felt like weights dragging on the ground. I dug my silver keys from my bag, shoved the metal hard into the lock, and pushed the scarred front door open.

I dropped my keys onto the kitchen counter. Before I could shrug my heavy jacket off my tight shoulders, a jarring, disgusting sound slammed into me like a physical blow to the stomach.

A deliberate, rhythmic creaking echoed loud down the narrow hallway. The loud smack of wet flesh slapping hard against flesh bounced off the thin dry walls.

My breath hitched.

A high-pitched, breathless woman's moan pierced the heavy silence. It was immediately followed by a low, rough grunt. I knew that rough grunt. I heard it in my ear every single morning. It belonged to Kyle, my loving boyfriend of two solid years.

My heart stalled dead in my chest. My scattered mind screamed at me to turn around and sprint back down the stairs. I needed to run out the front door and pretend I never heard a thing. But my cold feet moved on strange, numb autopilot.

I crept down the dark hallway. Each step felt like wading through thick mud. The wooden floorboards groaned beneath my sneakers. The bedroom door stood half open at the very end of the hall. The pale yellow light from the bedside lamp spilled out across the rough carpet.

I reached out and pushed the wooden door wider.

The scene inside carved a bleeding hole straight through my chest.

Kyle was stark naked on our mattress. His broad, sweat-slicked back flexed as he drove his hips down with brutal, unforgiving force. His hard, stiff cock plunged deep and wet into the woman spread wide beneath him. Her bare legs hooked over his shoulders, pulling his sweating chest closer as she gasped his name. I knew this woman. I recognized her face the second the yellow light caught her flushed, moaning features.

It was his sister. The same sweet, innocent woman Kyle had introduced me to three months ago at a cheap diner. The woman who hugged me tight in the parking lot and called me family.

They were so wrapped up in their passionate affair they did not even hear the door creak open. Kyle gripped her hips, buried himself deep to the hilt, and let out a loud guttural shout of dirty pleasure.

My blood turned to pure ice. The world tilted on its axis, spinning fast out of control.

The paper envelope containing my hard-earned five hundred dollars slipped from my shaking, frozen fingers. It smacked flat against the hardwood floor.