I came down the stairs with the bleach bucket still in my hand, and my wrist burning under my sleeve where Doreen's nails had been.
She was waiting at the bottom with her cash box and her phone, and I knew from her face that the day was about to get worse.
Doreen: Room six left a review. One star.
Doreen: Read it. Out loud.
She shoved the phone into my chest hard enough to make me step back, and bleach water slopped over my jeans.
Doreen: So you can hear what you've done to me.
The review said the room was clean but the girl was sullen and rude, and the owner should have a word with her staff.
Staff. That is what they called me in my own home.
Doreen: I took you in when nobody else would. And this is what I get. You useless little bitch.
The front door went. Piper came in with her two friends, and her phone was already up.
Piper: We heard. Everyone's heard. One star, poor Doreen.
Piper's eyes slid to me and stayed there, and my stomach dropped like the floor had gone out from under it.
Doreen: Get on your knees.
I did not move. My legs just stopped working, like they knew what was coming and wanted no part of it.
Doreen: I said on your knees. You want to act sorry, then act it.
Her hand closed on my ear and twisted, and the pain went white behind my eyes.
I went down on the hall carpet with the bucket spilling bleach water across the boards.
The carpet smelled of vinegar and old smoke, and the bleach water stung the cuts on my knees from the day before.
Piper: Oh, this is good. Say it again, Doreen. Say it for the camera.
Doreen: Apologise. Properly. To Piper, and to the family you shamed.
So that was the trade. My one star, my fault, my knees on the floor.
Piper: Go on then. Say sorry.
I looked at the bleach spreading over the boards and thought, if I say it, this finishes.
It never finishes.
Marnie: I'm sorry.
Piper: Sorry for what? Say it right. Say what you are.
Marnie: I'm sorry I'm a lying psycho bitch.
The words came out flat, like I was reading them off a wall.
Piper: Louder. I want my cousin to hear it.
Marnie: I'm a lying psycho bitch, and I'm sorry.
Piper's friends laughed, and one of them filmed from the side so they would have it twice.
Somewhere behind me, Doreen said nothing at all.
Piper: You know what happens if the police come near my family.
Piper: Use your head, and I won't have to do anything about that face of yours.
I believed her. I always believed her.
Doreen: That's plenty. Now get off the floor. There's work waiting and it won't do itself.
They went out laughing. Doreen took her cash box to the kitchen.
Nobody looked at me on the floor, and nobody said it wasn't fair.
I climbed back up off my knees, and my hands would not stay still, rattling the bucket against the wood so the noise ran the length of the hallway.
One star, and I had agreed to every word of it. That was the worst part. I always agree.
Nobody was ever going to walk in and say, that's enough, leave her alone.
How long can a person stay nobody's problem before they break?
I cleaned up what I had spilled, and then I went to start on the next room.