Her One Rose

"There is absolutely nothing you this bitch can do appropriately!" Quinn yells as she flings the steaming mug of coffee away from her.

The hot liquid spills sideways and scalds Bethany who jumps back but it's a little too late as the bulk of it had landed on the back of her hand. She immediately turns to get it under some cold water but she's immediately stopped by Quinn's incredulous gasp.

"You want to walk out on me?" She half yells shrilly so as to attract attention from the rest of the family. "Just because I politely told you that the coffee is too bitter, you want to walk out on me?" Her voice takes on a slight faltering to show that it's filled with emotions.

Fake emotions.

Bethany immediately shakes her head. "Of course not, the hot coffee spilled on me and I'm going to wash it off..."

There's a clatter of footsteps behind her and Bethany turns around to see Daisy and John Worth, her in-laws, as they come downstairs to see what all the commotion is all about.

"Mum... Dad..." Quinn whimpers and puts on a face as they approach the duo.

"Are you okay? What's going on here?" Daisy asks, looking back and forth between them.

"I made some coffee for..." Bethany starts but she's immediately cut off by Quinn.

"I begged her to make me a cup of coffee given that her coffee is the best I have had these past two days but she decided to make it bitter. I whined gently, telling her to please add a little sweetener and some cream but she slapped the coffee out of my hand and some of it spilled on her hand, she's blaming me for pouring coffee on her hand. I didn't mean to..."

Bethany sighs heavily, just as it has been, it's all just repeating itself and if not for Charles, she will not stand here and listen to Quinn, a girl that's about three years younger than she is, lie against her to her own face.

Daisy looked immediately at Bethany. "Don't blame my daughter for whatever she didn't do. Is it a crime to call our daughter in law to come do some cleaning for us while we are expecting someone important?"

Bethany shakes her head no. "It's not wrong. But I didn't..."

"It's not like we agreed to your marriage with our son anyway, rag who wants to be rich..." John whispers under his breath as he walks past her towards the staircase.

Bethany heard his words very very clearly and it hits her right in the heart, the most fragile part in her body. "What did you say?"

John just turns around and eyes her from her head to her toe and hisses. "Are you done with the work or you have so much time to kill having a fun time bullying my daughter?"

The burning sensation in her hand is nothing compared to the amount of abuse she has suffered in the house of the Worth family. Married out of love, to their first and only son, Charles Worth has given her so much endurance that she's staying to get insulted even when she does not deserve any of the hate they show to her.

"You need to hurry up because you need to be out of here by tonight. You still have the rooms and bathrooms upstairs and the kitchen. I'll inspect it and send you on your way, for now, find something to do and get those red hands of yours out of my sight, they look disgusting." Daisy scrunches her nose as she walks by, hand in hand with Quinn.

Just as they walk by her, Quinn gives a sideways glance at her and smirks evilly. She won the round... Just as she had always won.

Bethany puts her hand up to her face and sees that the whole skin has become patchy blisters and extremely red and there is absolutely no way it's not going to take more than just cold water now, it is going to scar no matter what.

And of course, the Worths does not want to hear that the coffee she spilled 'on herself' is going to stop the work.

She's been there for the past two days, helping out with the chores and cleaning that's been going on. They had wanted to save on getting a professional cleaning crew because, "what's the use of a daughter in law?" That was exactly what Daisy had said. Cleaning up has proved to be a challenge because it was the whole place against herself alone.

They are expecting an important person the next day and no matter how much she tries to know who, she just can't figure it out. Even Daisy seems very excited and it's all she talks about in the dining room but she's too busy to catch anything in what they are saying and standing around means she's been idle.

Of course, she had accepted to clean given that after getting married to Charles, she's been more or less an housewife, taking care of her husband and nothing more.

Talking of her husband, she removes her phone from her apron and dials his number, maybe she can tell him to tell his family to refrain from bullying and abusing her just because she's married to him.

"Hello?" A male voice rings out, sounding tired and exhausted.

She immediately feels bad for calling him, he must still be at work and he'll be tired as well, given that she's not there to cook for him as he would love. Maybe it just was not the time to bore him with her own problems.

"Hi dear. I just called to hear your voice."

"Now you have." He says languidly and hangs up immediately.

Bethany laughs drily before pocketing her phone. "Maybe something bad happened at work and he's busy. I'm sure he'll call me back later."

She sighs heavily once again, going for the first aid box that is somewhere around the house to attend to her injury before going back to work. If she's going to be returning this night, she is going to have to work extremely fast...

While shuffling around with a mop basin on one hand, and the mop itself on the other, she thinks back to now happy she had been getting married to Charles.

The day in itself had been so fairytale like and dreamy that she had been smiling all along. No marriage is a bed of roses and she has accepted that but when the Worth family started to get to her, she discovered that her own marriage is a bed of thorn with one rose.

And that one rose is Charles.

Because of that, she had stuck through the maltreatment, the physical and emotional abuse... Reminding her of her background anytime they get the chance to do so, lying against her and the time that Daisy had given her a crisp slap for burning a piece of pancake.

The one thread that is keeping her standing is Charles.

Bethany smiles as she imagines her husband's smile when she finally arrives home, knowing that she will be able to make him dinner after being absent for more than a day.

*

It's past ten pm in the night before Bethany after leans back and admires the sparkling clean tabletop in the kitchen.

Just then, Daisy appears behind her and she rolls her eyes. "Finally. Took you three days to do what I would have done in one." She hisses slightly. "I would love to let you leave now but I forgot about the pantry."

Bethany frowns immediately. "Pantry? It's already ten pm, I should be home already." She protests.

"Home? The house that my son built is where you call home? Yeah, of course, it's your home but to me, it's my son's house and you need to earn your keep for living freely there. Start with it now or you will go home by two am." She orders before turning on her heels and leaving the kitchen...

It's exactly twelve thirty am that Bethany finishes stocking and restocking and cleaning up the messes in the pantry.

Oh, they have kitchen staff but they are all on holiday at the moment, considering they will be resuming the next day to their duties but the time is clashing so they can't be around to clean and to work at the same time, that's why the daughter in law is the adhoc slave.

Bethany walks to the living room to see Daisy asleep on the couch. She taps her gently...

Daisy wakes up with a start and then relaxes when she sees that it's just Bethany. "What do you want?" She snaps at her, rudely.

"I'm done here. Can I leave now?"

"Yes yes, whatever." Daisy replies, eager to get back to her sleep.

"Is there..." But Daisy is already fast asleep once again, snoring lightly on the couch.

Bethany sighs and straightens up with a ton of stress on her lower back. She grabs her coat off the entrance rack and her car keys.

In about ten minutes, she's already driving herself home, alone by midnight, through the darkness and nobody caring about where she is or how she's faring...

Not even her own husband.

The only joy she has got is that maybe getting home earlier and cuddling in bed with him will be able to relieve all the stress she has accumulated over the last three days...

Only when Bethany finally gets home, her one rose left withers away into nothing.