After a long time, everyone in the Sterling family was present again at the dining table during dinner.The maids Kathy, Delle, Ashley, and Amber were all serving. All of them subtly showered their love on Jacob, taking turns, to put food on his plate. Naturally, Jacob was in a good and positive mood.“Dad,” Shawn glanced at his father, “I heard from one of your friends that your two upcoming movies together have a budget of 650 million. Is that true?”The number 650 million shocked almost everyone at the table, except Selena and Benjamin.“Don’t you think it’s too risky?” Shawn said. “Putting all of your assets into just two films?”“Are you telling me how to produce films now?” Jacob chortled. “You don’t multiply your assets without taking risks.”Shawn didn’t say anything, but he didn’t look pleased.“My husband is just worried about the worst-case scenario, that’s all,” Elizabeth said and laughed all by herself, but when she glanced at her parents, they joined her as well.“Dad, w
The next morning.On the rooftop, Benjamin was caressing the parrots that looked rather dull. “You two have become dull these days. What’s wrong? Did you eat something you shouldn’t?”The parrots looked clueless.“Haha, don’t worry. I’ll nurse you two back to health with good food. However, there’s going to be my wedding reception soon, and I don’t want to see you two shitting on anyone’s head.”The parrots half-heartedly nodded.Meanwhile, Delle reported to Selene that Benjamin was feeding the parrots.“Right. There’s still those things,” Selena’s exposed a section of her teeth. “Killing them is easier than killing chickens, but I wanted to see him suffer as they suffer. Now, I don’t have time or energy to spare with those petty parrots. Tell Johnny to shoot those things down with a slingshot or something. Tell him I want them to suffer and die in the most pathetic way possible.”“Yes, ma’am,” Delle didn’t like what she was hearing, but she could only keep her head lowered.Afterward
Jane came to Sterling villa in the evening because Rebecca called for her.She didn’t look to be in a good mood when she entered the room, so Rebecca asked, “You look dull. What’s wrong?”“Nothing,” she said and sat on Benjamin’s bed which was again pushed away from Rebecca’s bed, but now it was only two feet apart. “Donovan left me at the shopping mall, and he didn’t return. He didn’t answer my phone call, either.”“It looks like this is the first time it happened with him.”“Yeah. This is a bad sign, right?” Jane asked.“Well, he’s a famous wrestler, so he’s gotta be busy at least one day of the week.”“You are right, but… Anyway, why did you call me?”“Uh,” Rebecca looked a little embarrassed. She kept scratching her cheek. “I told you about the wedding reception, didn’t I?”“Yeah, you did, and that’s the right thing to do, or you would have lost him, trust me,” Jane sounded proud of her. “You should have done this long ago, to be honest.”“The thing is… I told him we’ll have the r
The cops received an anonymous call and arrived at the underground tunnel as fast as they could, but what awaited them was beyond what they had expected or imagined.“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” they couldn’t believe what they were seeing. The whole underground tunnel had collapsed. “What in the world happened here?” Now, they had no idea if anyone was even trapped inside or not.Later that night.A clean red Porsche arrived at the Sterling villa. After seeing Benjamin, the guard said, “Did you get the Porsche serviced? It looks fresh.”Benjamin gave a thumbs-up before driving through the gate. After he parked the car, he was walking into the villa, but his ears caught the distant noise of the birds in distress. What bothered him was that the noises didn’t come from the trees but from the dorms. He had a bad feeling about it. He rushed straight to the dorms and kicked the door open, waking up the butlers and cleaners.He went to the storage room, and it was locked. He looked at the b
The next morning.The veterinarian had treated the birds and asked who abused them, but Benjamin didn’t have an answer yet.Benjamin didn’t go to the rooftop. The parrots were still resting on his bed. Because their nails and part of their feet were crushed, the veterinarian said, they might never be able to stand, much less walk properly again.Their situation didn’t even let him sleep. He felt guilty because if not for him taming them, they might have left the villa, and they would still be living somewhere happily. But now, their entire life was ruined by his mother-in-law.Yes, Benjamin had overheard the conversations of the maids from a distance and learned what had happened. He didn’t want to use his enhanced sense of hearing to eavesdrop on others in the villa, but the circumstances forced him to.He knew Johnny was the one who caught the birds and beat them and tortured them, but the one who made him do it was Selena.“Not only did you get some men to attack me, you even went
The parrots did show some interest in the parfait, but in the end, they didn’t eat anything. The veterinarian had to come and check up on the birds again.Selena now knew what exactly had happened the previous night, and she then understood the reason why the muffins were so horrible, the worst she had ever eaten. She had to make Johnny personally go and buy the best muffins in the city and then eat them to feel a little better.The word already reached Rebecca through Veronica, but she couldn’t question Benjamin because she was smart enough to realize that Selena probably had something to do with the birds. Moreover, there wasn’t much one could do if family members kept fighting against each other. Whom should she support? She had been seeing this since childhood, so she was thinking of telling Benjamin to control himself until she bought a new house where they could freely live together.While Rebecca was planning a design for her and her husband to wear during the reception, Benjam
The family doctor had come and treated Benjamin, even though the bleeding had stopped by the time he came.Selena was also there. She didn’t want anything serious happening between the husband and wife as they were sitting next to each other. So she stayed in the room to make sure nothing of the sort happened.As the doctor was leaving, he looked at Selena and said, “You may love your son-in-law, but you can’t be calling doctors bastards for not answering your call in the first few rings.”Selena’s face flushed pink as the doctor had said what he wanted and left. Though she felt embarrassed, she was at least glad that her words were taken in a way that would make her daughter feel better about her.However, seeing the wounded parrots resting in the bed was something she didn’t like. Beds were not meant for birds, she thought. If not for Rebecca constantly being in the room, she would have already done something about it.After Benjamin rested on Rebecca’s bed, Rebecca went to the couc
Anous returned to his job. He took the kids to school and then dropped Benjamin, Rebecca, and Veronica at the Powell’s gym.Jane and Donovan were already waiting there.Donovan didn’t look ashamed of what had happened at the birthday party, as he seemed to already put that behind him.“Why do we only get 1 hour?” Jane complained before even entering the gym. “Donovan says we need at least two to three hours to properly train our body under supervision.”“This is like rehabilitating, you know,” replied Rebecca. “Some training without therapy.”After they entered, a tall and handsome black man came to greet them. Both Rebecca and Jane went speechless for a second.“P-Powell?” Jane was shocked. “It’s you?”“Haha,” Powell laughed, putting his hands on his waist. “It’s great to meet friends from college, especially you, Jane.” He offered his hand for a handshake, but she didn’t go with the flow.Jane grabbed Donovan’s arm and said, “This is Donovan, my boyfriend.”“Oh…” Powell’s gaze chang