Chapter 40

After flashing a forced smile at Severin, she turned to a young assistant. "Hey, Bree, will you be alright if I hand these customers over to you? You need to make a good impression, especially since you're new!"

"Oh, sure, Miss Debra."

The young saleswoman nodded and said to Severin and Diane, "Sir, ma'am, good afternoon. These are all our new models. You have a lovely figure, ma'am, and I think you should try them on!"

Debra walked aside and whispered to two senior employees. "Bree's pretty dumb, isn't she? I didn't think she'd be brave enough to take those customers after I offered to. She's wasting her time with them!"

Another senior employee said, "How can someone who looks like a farmer afford our clothes? That was mean of you to pass them on to Bree!"

"Tch. You can't blame me if she accepts them. Did you see how respectfully she's explaining the new models? It's like she's not worried they might cause trouble. If I were her, I'd just tell them to look around. I'm glad I didn't chase them out. People with Bree's poor judgment aren't suited to working here, haha!" Debra sneered. Unbeknownst to them, Severin clearly heard their whispers.

"Mom! This dress looks so pretty! I think you'll look good in it!"

Selene held up a white skirt, her face innocent.

Debra's expression soured. She strode over and yelled at Bree, "What is wrong with you? Did you even wash this little girl's hands? Do you know how dirty they are? How could you let them touch the clothes so casually? Letting them look is one thing, but are you going to pay for the clothes if they get soiled and the customers can't afford to buy them?"

Bree, speechless, glanced at Selene and smiled. "But Miss Debra, her hands are super clean!"

Debra was momentarily speechless, surprised by the newbie's defense.

Meanwhile, frightened, Selene hid behind Severin.

Severin, noticing Selene's fear, his expression hardened. He said to Debra, "What's with this attitude? How dare you speak to my daughter like that? Would you like me to report you to your superiors?"

Debra, taken aback, apologized with a forced smile. "I'm sorry, sir, I didn't mean to scare your daughter. I was just trying to teach this newbie a lesson. This dress costs thirteen thousand. She'll be in trouble if it gets dirty and you can't afford it!"

"Get out of my face! You're the one who can't afford it!" Severin retorted coldly.

"Yes, I'll leave right away!" Debra, unhappy but awkward, left.

Once she was gone, Severin squatted, cupped Selene's face, and said, "Don't be scared, okay? Your hands are clean. Some people just have bad hearts—that's even scarier!"

He turned to Bree. "Take this skirt down and let my wife try it on!"

Although Diane found the skirt expensive, she was still upset by Debra's earlier behavior. She readily went into the fitting room.

Coincidentally, Edward passed by with a woman. "Hey, Edward, that woman trying on clothes looks like Diane."

Edward froze. "That's impossible. You're mistaken. How could Diane afford to shop here?" He sneered. "Diane's beautiful, but she's naive. I offered to marry her, but she refused! I'm so furious she got pregnant by an ex-convict!" [The sentence with the website promotion is removed as it is irrelevant to the text cleanup.]

"Look, it is her!" Edward's side-piece, seeing Diane, smiled wickedly. "Looks like she prefers a poor country bumpkin to you!" Edward's face turned blue. "Let's go. I want to see who's buying clothes for the woman I like!"

The final sentence containing website promotion has been removed as it was not part of the original text requiring grammar and punctuation review.