Chapter 60
CHAPTER 60
The new stairs were completely built. They appeared more fashionable than the older ones. Vlad and Mercie played together as
they ran up and down the stairs until they grew tired. The maids warned them that it was dangerous to play on the stairs, but as
usual, they lived in their own little worlds that didn’t easily listen to others’ words.
Meanwhile, Selena postponed her film dates because she had things to take care of at home.
She didn’t try to overthink and just stuck to plans that had always worked for her. And her main weapon was keeping Benjamin
busy and frustrated. It was found on that very same day that Dorothy was suffering from severe pain in her feet because of skin
cracking underfoot, especially at the toes as well as the heels. Doctor told her to get warm water treatment regularly. However,
Dorothy made Benjamin wash her feet before letting her legs soak in warm water mixed with salt. After enough soaking, he had
to massage her feet for at least ten minutes before applying cream at the end. He was told to do this every night before Dorothy
went to sleep, at least for four weeks. It came to light that Nolan at the same time had back issues. His back felt stiff every
morning after he woke up. He couldn’t even bend forward or backward properly, so the doctor told him to get massaged every
morning. And Benjamin was ordered to take care of Nolan. His mornings got occupied with massaging the old man for at least
half-hour. Along with that, he had to listen to Nolan’s disparaging comments. Even though he was massaging professionally,
Nolan never appreciated Benjamin’s effort. Not even a little bit. Kathy had caught a severe cold, so Benjamin was told to oversee
the breakfast cooking procedures. While overseeing wasn’t that hard, it was wasting a lot of his time. After breakfast, he had to
hurry in order to drop the kids to school. And then he had his pizza-delivery job to take care of until evening. When he returned
home as a tired man, the real nightmare started. Selena made him help with the homework of all four kids, which took him two to
three hours, and it wasn’t even productive as the kids weren’t good at studies. After that he was allowed to bathe and eat dinner.
And then he had to read novels for Selena before she went to bed. This was the past he refused to do. However, Selena made
Rebecca tell him to do it. And he was forced to oblige. After reading her the books, he was told to water the plants because
Oliver used to water them every night. He was told to fill Oliver’s shoes. The only good thing that came out of doing that was he
found the book that Selena had thrown out the window.
Nevertheless, by the time he returned to his room, at around eleven or sometimes even twelve at night, Rebecca would already
be sleeping. He couldn’t even find time to talk to her because all the work in the house was being put on his shoulders. Dorothy
even made him wash her toilet twice in one day. As if that wasn’t enough, the fat maid Delle had been behaving strangely lately.
He thought she was the only maid with a decent gaze, but he began reconsidering that opinion. Laden with both bodily and
mentally tiring works repeatedly, he didn’t even know how
quickly a day passed. Before he knew it, an entire week had passed.
In the whole of the past week, no one in the Sterling villa had done more work than Benjamin, and no one was paid less than him
as well.
The title Unpaid Maid truly fitted him these days, to all those watching and wondering while living in the villa. Delle eventually told
Selena about Benjamin’s morning routine. “What? He yawns?” Selena glared at Delle. “That’s all you gathered after all these
days?” “Y-Yes, ma’am,” Delle’s mouth was turned down. “He goes to the rooftop every morning and yawns rather loudly and
stretches his body. He walks along the parapet, scrutinizing the surroundings. He feeds birds, too. That’s all I could notice these
days. Sorry for disappointing you. I won’t show my face to you anymore.” She didn’t say anything and began to walk away. “Wait,
I never said I fired you,” Selena said, surprising Delle. “Does that mean... I can continue working here?” Delle’s heart beat faster
as she awaited Selena’s response.
“You can.”
Delle teared up. “Thank you, ma’am. Thank you very much.” She lowered head and quickly left the room.
Selena faintly smiled. She never wanted to fire Delle, but by saying she would if Delle failed, and by keeping her in job even after
she failed, Delle would feel really grateful for the opportunity Selena had given. All Selena had to do was twist her words a little
bit so that she would benefit from any situation the most. “He yawns, she said. What can I do with that useless information? Tsk,
Veronica has been living at her girlfriend’s house lately. If she was here, I would have burdened him some more by making her
give him absurd tasks.” After some thinking, she wondered, “Maybe I should tell Dorothy to tell her daughter to come back as
soon as possible. Since Jacob is too busy to come home these days, I don’t think she’ll have a problem.” She knew exactly what
type of woman Elizabeth was. If only Shawn were the head of the house, she would have raised hell and said she wouldn’t
return until Jacob was gone from the villa. However, Jacob and Selena still controlled most of the things related to the Sterlings.
So Elizabeth had no other choice but to swallow her pride and return sooner or later.
Though Selena didn’t like Elizabeth, the biggest problem she was currently facing was the problem of potentially losing her
daughter to her son-in-law whom she despised down to the bone. If only he hadn’t married her daughter, Selena would have
been able to introduce her to a lot of rich suitors, but with Rebecca already marrying a pizza-delivery guy, she couldn’t go and
introduce her to just about anybody as she and her daughter would be laughed at. She could only go to her friend’s son, Edward.
Selena who was already being burdened by her eldest daughter-in-law felt further angered by the arrival of a son-in-law she
never saw coming.
Even if you wake her up in the middle of sleep, she could give a thousand reasons for her hatred toward him.
And until now she supremely succeeded in not letting Benjamin get adjusted to his new family, much less establish himself in this
new environment.
“Just wait, son-in-law. I won’t wait for Edward or anybody to do the work. I will not only frustrate you, but will also let my daughter
completely overlook you. And that’s not the end of it. I’ll make your life so miserable, you’ll not even think of getting near my
daughter ever
again.”
After having a coffee and reading a bit of a non-fiction book, she went to her mini gym room and looked at the garden through
the glass wall and smiled. There was nobody there. Benjamin must be very busy massaging Nolan’s back, she thought and
ended up laughing so hard and long she teared up.