Benjamin called for an ambulance, and then Jacob was admitted to a hospital. It was only a mild sunstroke, so Benjamin didn’t find the need to accompany his father-in-law to the hospital, but he made sure to send a message to his wife.He delivered pizzas until evening and also noticed that the Wraith had been following him since morning.“She hasn't even stepped out of the car since morning, and she’s managed to somehow keep up with my speed for the most part. Is this what determination can do? Gotta admit she’s scary in a way,” Benjamin thought as he finished his work and sat upon his own Harley Davidson. “I want to teach her a lesson, but I would like it more if it’s Rebecca who does it. At any rate, it’s time to lose this stalker.”Benjamin drove fast and entered many alleys and left Jane clueless.She smashed her hand on the steering wheel and hurt herself. “Ouch. Dammit. He knows I’ve been tailing him, but he doesn’t even come to talk to me once. I was thinking of pulling him in
Many real estate tycoons were all talking about one name the past few days.“Who the heck is this Ryan? Where did he even come from?”“What’s his background? How can he buy so many properties in such a short time?”“Is the mafia behind him?”“Is it a politician? Or a rich businessman maybe?”“Whether it is the governor, or someone else… Someone must be backing him. Otherwise, how can a single man manage to buy an entire street? No one in this city owns an entire street.”“This isn’t just a matter of pride anymore. We must bring this man down.”Be it millionaires, or multi-millionaires, they were all thinking along the same lines. They wanted Ryan gone out of the city or from the surface of the earth if possible.This issue reached all the way to Terry Praise. He was also thinking of buying a building near the Sterling villa so he could closely observe the struggles of the Sterlings and thoroughly enjoy watching them suffer as he pushed them deeper and deeper into poverty.“Ryan… Ryan
“B-Benjamin?” Rebecca’s eyes enlarged. She looked at her father once before hurting over to her husband. “Why are you here?” she lowered her voice. “You know my dad isn’t in good condition. What if he gets angry and acts up now?” she looked back to see what kind of expression Jacob was making, but her father was already standing right behind her. “Dad! When did you get here?”Jacob looked straight into Benjamin’s eyes. “Were you the one who admitted me into the hospital?”“I’m sure it was an ambulance,” replied Benjamin, not breaking eye-contact.Jacob paused for a second. “If it was you, then don’t expect a thank you because you already owe us a lot.”Benjamin didn’t say anything. Rebecca didn’t like what her father was saying, but she didn’t want to argue with him right now.“Keep your discussion short,” Jacob said and went to the main gate and stood there.“So?” Rebecca hurriedly asked.Benjamin tapped his finger on his lips.Rebecca’s eyes drew in more light. “Are you kidding me?”
As Benjamin slowly stepped forward, Ryan stood up and turned to face him. Both looked at each other and kept looking at each other as their eyes reflected the love for one another ever so quietly.Benjamin lowered his head and bent his knee.Rebecca was visibly surprised. She wasn’t expecting Benjamin to be this overly polite. (This guy… he really wants this job!) On one hand, she loved how he was desperately trying to be close to her, but on the other hand, she was afraid of her family hurting him.“You can stand,” Ryan sent a mental message.Benjamin stood straight and loosely put his hands behind his back. “I’ve read your advertisement and came for the butler job.”“What job experience do you have?” Ryan asked in a somewhat serious tone.“I worked as a pizza delivery guy,” Benjamin stated confidently. “I can drive fast and well.”“So you have no experience working as a butler?”Benjamin hesitantly shook his head. He didn’t want to reveal the fact that he had worked like a slave in
Hearing Ryan’s words, Benjamin’s hand stopped in the middle of chopping.“What’s with the pause?” Ryan’s brows lifted together. “If you can’t even control one small family, you are not worthy of leading our clan, except perhaps in your dreams. But I was told you loved your wife even when she hated you, so this little task of winning over a family shouldn’t be too hard. If you succeed in this small trial, I will happily leave the clan to you and go for one last world trip, knowing the clan is in good hands. What do you say? Can’t you love these words that are coming out of my mouth right now?”Benjamin’s blood was boiling, but he was controlling himself. He redirected his anger to cutting the things before him.Ryan just found it amusing, but he didn’t provoke Benjamin anymore.Rebecca entered the kitchen and was slack-jawed by seeing how fast Benjamin was chopping the onions and ginger. “Wow, slow down. You want to cut your fingers, or what?” she came up to him and said, “Want me to g
Selena had been fully focused on reading a romance novel for four hours. Even though Delle had told her Jacob returned from the hospital, she didn’t get up. Now that she had finished the book, she threw it out the window and yelled in frustration. “Fuck off, Author! How could you spoil the ending like that? How can you break the lovebirds apart?”Delle wasn’t surprised because she had seen this type of behavior before. Selena liked happy endings, so she got furious when a book ended on a sad note with no real foreshadowing.Naturally, Selena’s mood grew worse, and she didn’t even bath. She came downstairs and sat at the dining table and tapped the plates with the knife and the fork. “Why isn’t anything arranged yet? Where’s the food, Kathy? Are you fucking sleeping or what?”“Kathy is busy, trying to catch the chicken, mom,” Rebecca came out of the kitchen, with freshly cooked rabbit roast on the platter.“R-Rebecca!” Selena was just plain shocked for a good five seconds, especially a
Rebecca’s words struck harder than bullets. Selena fainted and fell from her chair. Before her head hit the floor, Ryan caught her.A few splashes of water woke Selena up, and she was still sitting in the same chair. The difference, however, was that she could see Ryan eating what looked like rabbit meat, which was supposed to be lying on the floor. She was shocked. She looked at her daughter, and she seemed just as shocked. How could someone eat what fell on the floor? This was hard to digest for both the women of the Sterling family. As if that wasn’t enough, Ryan was making noises while sucking the nutrients from the bones, and then he crunched on the bones like a barbarian. The mother and daughter couldn’t maintain straight faces.They had already shared the table with him a few times, but he didn’t make these cheap sounds in the past.“Mhmm, it’s a roast, yet the meat isn’t hard,” Ryan seemed somewhat satisfied as he glanced at Benjamin. “I’m sure you didn’t have the time to mari
Last night, the dogs had successfully worn the chicken out and would have also succeeded in catching it and ripping its wings and lungs apart, but Mina saved the bird at the last second and threw it outside the villa and wished it good luck.The dogs madly growled and attacked her, but she slapped the first attacker into hugging the grass, and the rest skedaddled, with tails tucked tight between the legs.Mina later snuck into Rebecca’s room and spent the rest of the night under the bed.The television kept playing in Jacob’s room throughout the night. He had heard about the news regarding Terry and kept talking on the mobile to different people, trying to reestablish his connections with them and get his movies released, and though he received some support, it wasn’t much. Because of him selling his villa, his value had fallen greatly in rich circles, and he knew that.“I can’t waste this opportunity. I have to do something.” He could just go to his wife’s room and ask her to help hi
“How are things with your family, brother?” Fiona asked.Selena raised an eyebrow. “You’re in a family that deals with real-estate, so you should already know how we’re doing.”“Haha, I do, but outside information can only be trusted so much,” Fiona responded. “Recently, we’ve worked hard on getting a marriage deal for Fiona. Her fiance owns a reputed sports agency that deals with covering all the popular international sports. He earns hundreds of millions every year, but his father is a tycoon in the alcohol industry. Their net worth is in tens of billions.”“Good for you and your daughter,” Jacob smiled.“By the way, Brother,” Fiona glanced at Veronica and Akash. “What does Veronica’s husband do?”Jacob’s expression slightly changed.Veronica frowned and looked at her mother who was looking back at her with a rather poker face.“He is staying at home for now,” Veronica said openly.“Pfft, he’s jobless?” Riley snorted. “Your taste is so bad, Veronica, not just in terms of finding a pa
Benjamin went to the first floor and waited in the hall until Rebecca left her room.Then he went to her room. The door was locked, but he solidified his energy in the keyhole and opened the door.He entered the room quietly and saw the water bottle on the table next to her desk. It was half-full.Benjamin took out the vial and poured a drop of water into the bottle while saying ‘I love you, Rebecca.’He entered the bathroom and poured a couple of drops in the bathtub while once more uttering the three words ‘I love you, Rebecca.”He was about to come out of the room, but then he stopped and then ended up leaking another drop of water on the pillow, and another on the blanket. “I love you, Rebecca.”“Hopefully, this will help,” he thought.Benjamin then hurriedly left the room and then went to the rooftop. He mixed a few more drops in each of the four water tanks, while saying the words out, “I love you, Rebecca.”He looked at the vial.Three fourths of it was finished.He put the via
Despite Uzza, Rye, and Benjamin living in separate rooms, there were many guest rooms still available in the mighty Sterling villa, the best property on Rachel Hill.So, the families of Jacob’s siblings stayed in those rooms without any issue.But the problem was with the cousins, who were trying to show off. They acted arrogant and haughty with Veronica and even mocked Rebecca for the little hair she had on her head, not even bothering to wonder why exactly her hair was like that.Rebecca didn’t even bother talking to them, or sparing a word with them because she knew how selfish and self-centered these people were.Jacob and Shawn might have forgiven these people, but Rebecca couldn’t just act like nothing ever happened.She didn’t treat them badly, either. She just ignored them and minded her business.However, her cousin sisters got their eyes on Benyamin who was quite good-looking. Her cousin brothers were also unable to avert their eyes from Rye.Rye looked more like an exotic f
So many people started visiting Sterling villa ever since Selena herself had leaked the news of her buying a lot of land and buildings in Aurora Hills.Selena was sitting on the balcony, with Veronica next to her.“Why has the traffic increased so much?” Veronica said, “I’m seeing so many cars come and go recently.”Selena somewhat smiled and sipped on cream coffee. “I wasn’t born rich, Veronica. My relatives didn’t even let my parents into their homes or invite us to their functions because we were poor as church mice.”“Stop joking, Mom,” Veronica smirked with amusement. “You look like a million dollars. I’m sure our relatives’ sons back then would have wanted to marry you.”“You’re not entirely wrong, but they didn’t want to marry me as much as they wanted to mess with me,” Selena said. “I still remember one guy telling me, ‘I may look ugly as hell, but I can show you heaven in bed.’”Veronica went silent in shock. She didn’t think her mother’s beauty would have brought such terrib
Delle was bringing food, three varieties, on a big plate.Rye intercepted and took the plate from her. She brought it to Benjamin and sat by him under the tree.The grass was cool, even though the breeze was warm.“You think I haven’t noticed that you weren’t eating anything since you made that 40-day promise?” Rye said. “You were just acting like you’re eating.”She broke the bread mixed with fruit and brought it closer to his mouth.He didn’t open his mouth.“Do you want me to stop eating just like you are doing?” Rye said.Benjamin, who was staring into the distance, glanced at her. “Is it possible to love and hate at the same time?”Rye pursed her lips together, not quite understanding why he asked such a question. “I was angry with the things you did. I am still angry, but I don’t hate you. So, if you really love someone, I don’t think you can hate them.”“If there is no hatred in his heart, then how is Neel able to do this to me?” Benjamin asked, a hint of pain laced through his
Rebecca and Benyamin had breakfast together.This nearly made Selena’s eyes bleed. She didn’t think she’d live a day like this.Watching them eating happily was like injecting poison into her body.While she loved seeing her daughter happy, she couldn’t spare any mercy on the man who tricked her daughter into marrying him.Even now, she was thinking in her heart, devising plans on how to separate her daughter and her husband.Having lost the mood to eat breakfast, she came to the backyard.Amber was preparing the background setting needed for the interview.“Where’s Kathy?” Selena asked.“S-She’s with Samuel Sehla, ma’am,” Amber hesitantly said.Selena’s gaze turned a little icy, but then she smiled. “I knew Kathy had it in her, but I didn’t think she’d be able to grab the attention of someone like Samuel Sehla.” She looked at Amber. “What about you?”“I-I don’t plan on grabbing anybody’s attention,” Amber quickly replied.“Tsk, tsk,” Selena shook her head. “Try to grab Benyamin’s att
The next morning.Rebecca came out of her room fast and reached the dorms just to check on Benyamin. She found him brushing his teeth with his finger. And he was using salt.“Don’t you have a brush and toothpaste?” Rebecca quickly asked. “You should have asked me then.”“No, I’m fine with this,” Benyamin replied. “The smell of the chemicals in the toothpaste just makes me feel nauseous, so I’m fine with just this sea salt.”“But… will salt be enough?”“It’s enough,” Benyamin gave a thumbs-up. “In fact, I’m worried about you because you’re using that chemical-ridden toothpaste which dullens your brain.”“If they dullen the brain, then why would they promote toothpastes so much on television?”“They will promote everything that will make them money while keeping the people sick, so that they will not be able to think clearly and would rather depend on the government to think for themselves,” Benyamin smiled.“That’s not funny,” Rebecca hissed. “I have to go and brush my teeth. And I’m f
Later that night.Benjamin was out in the garden, sitting under a tree, doing nothing as hours went by.“He’s been like that since dinner,” Rye was watching him from the first floor’s window. “It’s not good.”“What can I say?” Uzza was feeling heavy-hearted. “It feels like the story of Abel and Cain altogether, though in a different way. The brothers that represent the duality of current man. The devil sure knows how to mock us and make us angry. I’m certain now. It’s his plan. He put the sworn brothers against each other.”“But how did he get Shadow?” Rye frowned. “I don’t sense any demonic energy in him.”“Considering Shadow’s abilities, it’s easy for him to hide the demonic energy,” Uzza opined. “He’s a perfect place for demons to hide, though I don’t know how they got hold of him. He must have been caught by surprise. I just hope that this won’t lead to something disastrous.” She was looking at Benjamin. “The longer this goes, the more likely that someone among those is going to b
Veronica brought Akash with her to dinner. Almost everybody was present at the dinner table after a very long time.New tables were arranged because there were more people now.Veronica could see that Akash was not taking his eyes off Benyamin. “Why are you staring at him nonstop?” she asked in a low voice.“He’s tall, handsome, and so fair. Even his hands are so shiny. How’s that possible for a man?” Akash sounded quite envious. “Men are not supposed to look so good-looking, right?”“Mm…” Veronica looked at Benyamin and felt the same. “He does look like a million bucks, but he doesn’t seem to have much muscle on his body. What’s the point of being tall when you don’t have enough muscle? You only look like you have inadequate genes.”“Not every man can be built heavy like the men in your family.”“Haha, you’re right,” Veronica was proud of her brothers and dad because they were tall and big and good-looking. Their jaws alone would melt the gazes of many women, after all.Rye and Benjam