Chapter 1: Kicked When I Was Down
The vending machine swallowed his last coin.
Jason Chen stared at the flickering screen, fists clenched. Nothing. Not even the cheap instant noodles popped out.
"Seriously?" he muttered. "Even you’re against me now?"
A gust of cold wind swept through the underground parking garage. His breath misted in the air. He shoved his hands into the thin pockets of his delivery uniform and trudged back to the corner where his mattress lay behind stacked cardboard boxes. This wasn’t even a storage unit—it was an abandoned spot near the boiler, where no one cared to look.
No one except her.
Emily.
Her name still hurt. Her perfume still haunted him. And tonight, like every other for the past two weeks, he couldn’t stop remembering what she’d said.
> "Jason, I can’t keep dating a loser. You have no future. My new boyfriend? At least he owns a car. You sleep beside rats."
She left him for his manager. Lucas Tang. That smug bastard with slick hair, a leased BMW, and zero soul. The same Lucas who fired him yesterday.
> "You’re a liability, Jason. No car, no growth. Plus... personal reasons," Lucas had said with a grin.
Yeah. "Personal reasons."