All Chapters of Shattered Mask: Chapter 51
- Chapter 60
82 chapters
CHAPTER 51
NO MORE BREAKFAST!!! Bernard, clutching his paper for job applications, looked toward the kitchen with a hopeful expression. "Mom, before we head out into town... what is for breakfast? I didn't see anything on the counter, and I am actually starving. It is hard to focus on writing these letters when my head is light."Linda turned to him, her eyes as cold as the morning frost on the windowpanes. She didn't move toward the kitchen. She didn't call for a maid. She simply crossed her arms."Breakfast is a luxury of the past, Bernard," she said, her voice devoid of any maternal softness. "There is no breakfast in this house anymore. If you are hungry, you can go into the wa
CHAPTER 52
The transition from the world of elite boardrooms to the world of black-and-white printer paper was a rough, painful one. The only sound was the scratch of ballpoint pens and the rhythmic, ticking clock that seemed to mock their sudden descent into the working class.Leslie stared at her blank page, her hand cramping. She was a woman who had spent her life signing for five-figure galas; now, she was trying to justify her existence to an HR manager who wouldn't know her from a stranger on the street."Where is your Porsche, Les?" Bernard asked casually, not looking up from his paper."I didn't see it in the driveway when I got home yesterday. I thought maybe you had it in for detailing." Benard asked.
Last Updated : 2026-04-03Read more
CHAPTER 53
DESCENT OF THE ELITEAfter Robert was finally done with arranging the food in the fridge, he returned to the table.“It’s already noon; get your letters and go out there and start applying for jobs. You should be back in the next three hours, so we prepare for the Catering event tomorrow. The company that will supply the goods will be here in the next three hours to deliver the goods. I will need you here to come offload the items.” Linda saidEach of them clutched their stack of handwritten applications like shields, their faces set in harsh expressions of forced determination. They were prepared for the humiliation of the city, the heat of the pavement, and the rejection of the masses.What they were not prepared for was the sight in the circular driveway.The space where Linda’s sleek, metallic-black Mercedes-Benz S-Class usually sat, a car that whispered of old money and quiet power, was empty. In its place sat a ghost.It was a boxy, battered Ford F-150, its white paint oxidise
CHAPTER 54
THE FIERCEST RIVAL"Get out," Linda commanded, tossing the heavy, worn key fob to Robert. It hit him in the chest, and he caught it with a clumsy, fumbling motion. "The fuel tank is half-full. Don't waste it. Find your jobs, and be back here for the 6:00 PM briefing. And Robert? If you scratch that truck, you are walking for the rest of the month." She threatenedThey walked out to the driveway in a funeral procession. The truck’s engine rumbled, a deep, thumping sound that seemed to vibrate in their bones. Robert climbed into the driver’s seat, a seat that was still moulded to the shape of Jack’s frame. The interior smelt of stale coffee and industrial cleaner, the smell of a man who worked for a living.Leslie climbed into the passenger side, her knees drawn up to avoid touching the stained upholstery. Bernard squeezed into the back, his laptop bag, now filled with paper resumes, clutched tightly in his lap.Robert put the truck in gear. The transmission shifted with a loud, m
CHAPTER 55
"Is there a problem here?" Chloe’s voice rang out, clear and melodic. She began walking toward the desk, her heels clicking with a terrifying, familiar confidence.The receptionist pointed toward Leslie. "Just a walk-in, Ms Vance. She was asking about a job." I told her we …""That is the General Manager," the receptionist whispered to Leslie, but Leslie wasn't listening.The world seemed to shrink until it was just Leslie and the impending approach of the woman she had once delighted in crushing. If Chloe saw her like this, clutching a handwritten plea for work, smelling of a rusted truck, rejected by a girl at a desk, Leslie knew she would never recover The story would be across every social media platform by dinner. The fallen queen begging for a job from the striver.Panic, raw and animalistic, surged through her.Before Chloe could look up from her tablet before their eyes could meet across the marble expanse, Leslie spun on her heel. She didn't walk; she bolted. She pushed
CHAPTER 56
THE RICH OUT, FOR JOB HUNTINGShe didn't stop there. The "three-day" deadline her mother had set was a ticking bomb in her mind.Right after she left the pharmacy, she walked ahead, looking for where to submit the remaining letters in her hand.The afternoon sun was high above the sky and acted as a threat to Leslie’s skin. She walked farther ahead and immediately spotted a grocery store ahead.On a normal day, it was far below her standard to even apply for a job in a grocery store, but she had to.She walked right into the grocery store to see a line of people paying for their items.She walked past them and made her way to the counter.“Ma’am. You need to join the line; please don’t skip. The cashier said, looking at her disdainfully.“No, I am…" Leslie tried to explain that she was not here to pay, but was immediately cut short by the cashier.“Please join the queue. No skipping." The cashier fired.She turned around and made her way back to the end of the line, amidst the daring
CHAPTER 57
THE ARROGANT DROPOUTWhile Leslie navigated the jagged cliffs of her past and Robert marched through a funeral of his own dignity, Bernard Smith walked the city streets with a stride that did not belong to a man whose family was on the brink of a jail cell. He adjusted his silk tie, one of the few luxury items his mother hadn't yet snatched for the appraiser, and looked at the gleaming glass towers of Midtown with the eyes of an owner, not a petitioner.In Bernard’s mind, the last seventy-eight hours had been a glitch in the simulation, a temporary technical error in the grand design of his life. He was a Smith. He was a university student with a GPA that commanded respect and a lineage that, in his eyes, acted as a permanent VIP pass to the corridors of power. To Bernard, the idea of starting from the bottom was a metaphor for people with lesser surnames. He didn't see himself as a labourer; he saw himself as a CEO in waiting, currently enduring a slightly inconvenient intermissi
CHAPTER 58
THE NEW LABOURERS"I will have a paycheque that dwarfs both of yours combined," Bernard retorted, climbing into the middle of the truck’s bench seat with an air of unearned victory. "I am a university student. I have a future. You two are just... well, you are the help now. I am the one who is going to save this family’s legacy." He saidAs Robert turned the key and the Ford groaned to life with its signature rattling thud, Bernard continued to boast. He talked about the synergy he would bring to his future CEO, the strategic realignments he would suggest for the Rothwell contract, and how he would eventually fire Jack once they were back on top.Leslie sat in the passenger seat, staring out the window at the blurred grey buildings. She didn't have the heart to tell him that she had seen her own pedigree get laughed out of a hotel lobby. She didn't have the energy to explain that the speechless receptionist was not impressed; she was bewildered by Bernard’s audacity.Robert drove i
CHAPTER 59
THE GOLDEN BOY, IN CHECKThey were broken. Robert was doubled over, his hands resting on his knees as he fought for breath. Bernard had collapsed against the side of the stone wall, his expensive shirt ruined by grease and salt. Leslie sat on the bottom step of the service entrance, staring at her ruined manicure with a hollow, wide-eyed gaze."Inside," Linda said, her voice showing no sign of the exhaustion that had claimed the others. "Now."She didn't lead them to the kitchen for water or to their rooms for a rest. She dragged them, metaphorically, though the weight of her authority felt like a physical chain, into the grand living room.The space was a skeletal version of its former glory. The rugs were gone, the art had been stripped from the walls, and the only furniture left was a single, long mahogany table and four mismatched chairs. The room felt massive and cold, an echo chamber for their collective failure.Linda sat at the head of the table She waited until the three
CHAPTER 60
THE EGO OF THE RICH“She thinks I have accepted this,” Robert thought, his jaw tightening. “She thinks because I am cleaning her floors and hauling her beef that I have forgotten who I am. She thinks the 'CEO' is dead.”But the fire was still there, buried deep under the layers of shame and exhaustion. He was not thinking about minimum wage. He was not thinking about saving the Smith family. He was thinking about the exit. He was thinking about the moment he could reclaim his title, find the leverage he needed to crush the Rothwell Heir, and flee this house, leaving Linda and her children to rot in the ruins of their own arrogance.Linda turned back to the group, her face a mask of iron resolve."The terms are set," she said, her voice flat. "Three days. If you are not on a payroll by Friday morning, you are an expense I am cutting. Leslie, you are in the kitchen at dawn. Bernard, you are on logistics. Robert, you start with the windows in the ballroom. I want them clear enough to