“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

Jacob’s POVNobody from the rich circles invited me to their parties these past couple of weeks. This wasn’t a new experience for me. When I was young and new to the film industry and produced some good films, the same thing happened. My girlfriend also dumped me and married a big producer back then. That was when I changed from making purely content-driven films to action-driven films that had other layers of romance, drama, and other genres. And it made me highly successful and rich, and the big folks from the industry also began inviting me to their parties without me having to ever curry-favor them. Afterward, I also married the most popular actress of that time, Selena Fox.Marrying me surely prolonged her career and also made her life in the industry much smoother. Perhaps, it wouldn’t diminish my status if I asked her for a little bit of help now, would it?If only she had approached me, I wouldn’t need to be thinking this way, but I don’t blame her for not giving me a hand whe

As the sun toured the heaven and graced the Sterling villa with his warm light, Ryan was sitting in the backyard by the lotus pond and was interacting with the butterflies.“You like the building, huh?” he smiled and glanced over his shoulder. The sunlight crept into the villa and made it soulful by imbuing the spaces with a lot of soft natural lights that would ease the naked eye. No wonder the butterflies were attracted by this building. “It is wonderful, indeed. Whoever built this villa had spent his time under the sun,” he thought as he noticed Kathy grabbing the fruits from the balcony.His stomach started rumbling. “Sorry, guys.” He apologized to the butterflies. “I’m too old to be missing my meals. See you later.”While the butterflies went back to settling on the attractive spots on different plants, Ryan entered the building.Meanwhile, in Rebecca’s room.Rebecca had been to the bathroom for the eighth time in the last forty minutes, and she wished she hadn’t drunk so much co

The excess coffee made Rebecca visit the bathroom excessively, and she didn’t even remember the last time when she was a victim of diarrhea, let alone one this severe.For the eighth time, Rebecca walked out of the bathroom that morning, but this time, she was sweating more, Her shoulders fetl frail. Her stomach made the strangest of noises. Her head felt light. Her shoulders felt heavy. Her hand was on the abdomen, gently pressing the belly in to bear the pain. She wanted to get down on the bed and give some rest to her complaining spine, but to her spine-chilling shock, Benjamin was on her bed, hugging her pillow, and there was an extra-large bun on the table. Her face turned pale like she had seen a ghost; her heart sprang into her mouth, and she immediately ran back into the bathroom, skipping on her toes.“R-Rebecca!” Benjamin rushed over, but she locked the door just in time. “I brought breakfast for you. A new item that I made today. I think you will love it.”Rebecca was shaki

At 9:30 A.M.A young man was sitting on the footpath, with a couple of bags on the side, his countenance growing duller than the old donkey statue behind him. By this hour, most people would have had their breakfast and would be busy with their daily work, but he had nothing to do right now. He didn’t even have the money to buy breakfast.And he never begged anyone for money, either.All he had was his degree certificates, and they felt both priceless and worthless at the same time. After all, he couldn’t eat them right now, but he might just be able to get a decent job with them if he kept trying. Still and all, he was thinking about his parents and about getting back home, though he didn’t have the money for the flight ticket at the moment.He put his cap before him, upside down, and waited. He never asked any passerby with his mouth for money. He hoped someone would toss a coin or two, and he would get to eat for the day, so the rumbling in his stomach would stop and the weight of