Jim reluctantly walked out of the kitchen with zero expectations. However, he briefly stopped after seeing Rebecca.She was currently squeezing her calves because they were aching from all the walking and running. She could see her brother standing across the street. ”Tch, I thought he’ll leave after I sit here, but he’s following me like a dog. It’s so annoying.”“Excuse me,” Jim came over to her and offered the glass of milk. “Please have this.”Rebecca looked at him and was momentarily surprised by how good-looking and well-proportioned he was. Now, she was born in a family of fine-looking people. Her dad, mom, brothers, and sister, all of them were blessed with beauty from birth. Also, she worked in the fashion industry. So, it was a very rare thing for her to be surprised by someone’s looks. The last time it happened was more than a year ago, when she had first met Benjamin in a bar of all places.Before Rebecca knew it, her hand automatically raised and grabbed onto the glass ha
All four of them jumped onto her, trying to touch her everywhere and harass her in public.“Stop it!” she screamed and struggled to break free.Suddenly, Jim dashed into the scene and punched one of them in the back, then grabbed his neck from behind and threw him into another guy. Even though Jim didn’t look bulky, his strength was no joke. “You motherfuckers dare harass a lady in front of my store!” He tried to punch the other two men, but they were nimble and managed to back away and make some distance.Rebecca quickly got behind Jim.“You get into the restaurant, Miss. I’ll deal with them,” Jim said.“There are four of them,” Rebecca said, “I’ll be here and help you.”Jim faintly smiled after hearing that. “Don’t worry about me. Dealing with these guys is like cleaning trash from my restaurant. I can finish it without fretting.”The four black guys spread out in a semi circular formation. “You think you can beat us just because you got a couple of sneak hits in?”“Why don’t you gu
Jim and Rebecca were taken to the police station, but by the time they entered the station, a lot of cases were already filed on Rebecca. And new cases were filed on Jim as well after they took his information.Jim and Rebecca didn’t get what was happening until the inspector told them of the crimes they had committed.“Rebecca Sterling. You harassed four young black males who were minding their business. You called them with the N-word repeatedly and even tried to assault them with the help of your boyfriend, Jim Drake.”Rebecca’s jaw dropped very much from hearing this preposterous report the officer was making. She was so shocked she couldn’t even speak.“Not just that, but there are more instances where you’ve shown aggression on black people this very morning while you were out for jogging,” the officer added. “These multiple instances of your offenses clearly make you a candidate worthy to be put in jail.”“You gotta be kidding me,” Rebecca growled. “What sort of fucking joke is
In the Sterling villa. Elizabeth was talking with her mom who was on the bed and drinking coriander juice against her will. “Rebecca is so stupid,” Elizabeth blurted. “Why would she go out when we repeatedly kept telling everyone to not go out? Look what the Sehla family has done now. They will try to use this opportunity to humiliate us as much as possible.” “You reap what you sow,” Dorothy sighed. “She carelessly went out. Now, she’s suffering.” “Yeah, but she’s not the only one who’s suffering. Everyone in this house is now feeling anxious because of her.” “You’re right.” Elizabeth shook her head. “Anyway, you don’t think too much about it, Mom. Just sleep and focus on healing.” Dorothy nodded. After Elizabeth left the room, Dorothy waited a few seconds before taking the sweet box out from under her pillow. She opened the box and put a sweet in her mouth and enjoyed the taste. “Grandma!” Lisa’s voice shocked Dorothy and made her cough. “What’s that in your hands? I thought Mo
Marcus walked out of the station and sat on a bench under the tree shade. He called someone on his mobile. “Mr. Bernard, this is Marcus. I need your help with something. It’s very urgent.”“Whoa, chill, dude,” a throaty voice spoke from the other choice. “You haven’t contacted me in a freaking long time. I ate a lot of biscuits yesterday, and I’m having a hard time shitting right now. Is it okay if I call you later in the afternoon?”“I told you it’s urgent, didn’t I?”“Yeah, but I spent at least an hour in the bathroom,” he responded.“You’ve gotta get your stomach looked at. Who’d spend an hour squeezing their intestines in the bathroom?” Marcus blurted. “Anyway, this is serious, Mr. Bernard. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have called you.”“Ugh… okay. I guess I can keep the shit inside for a few more hours,” Bernard reluctantly said. “Tell me, what happened?”“Jim is behind bars. The police captured him and are wrongly accusing him of doing some illegal things and more.”“Oh, that’s bad.”“
Brian entered the station with multiple lawyers and waved the papers in his hand. “Here’s the bail.”Selena and everyone was immediately relieved to hear that.The inspector calmly checked the documents and slightly frowned as he looked at Brian. (How did this man get the signature from the high-court’s judge?) He also noticed that the magistrate was among the people Brian brought, so the inspector was forced to smile. “Please sit down first, sir.”“Why would I sit in this filthy place?” Brian retorted. “You better bring her out before I lose myself.”“S-Sure thing,” the inspector quickly glanced at the officers, and one of them hurriedly opened the cell.“Come out, Rebecca,” Selena said.“Mom, what about this man?” Rebecca looked at Jim who was sitting next to her in the same cell. He was still cuffed up on purpose. “Didn’t you get bail for him?”“We don’t even know who that man is,” Selena said. “If we bring him bail, then the reporters will make it seem like you and he are somehow
Jim’s words, ‘can I have your number,’ left almost everyone there in shock.Rebecca just didn’t know how to respond. She wanted to reject him, but he clearly helped her fend off the ruffians. But if she were to give her his number, wouldn’t that mean she was interested in him? Rebecca didn’t have any feelings for him, so she wasn’t sure if she should give her number or not.“I know this isn’t the right time,” Jim quickly said, “but if I have your number, I thought I could contact you some other time. If not, you can just visit my restaurant sometime in the future.”“Uh… I think I’ll do that then?”“D-Do what? Giving me your number, or…”“I’ll visit your restaurant some day,” Rebecca said.Jim smiled, but he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t disappointed. To this day, most women would drool at him, but very few women had grabbed his attention. Even now, Jim felt like talking with Rebecca even though Veronica and Selena were around. There was something about her that was different. But si
In Sterling villa. An invisible dark cloud was hovering on top of Rebecca who was in deep sleep. She was having many dreams, but one dream suddenly popped into her mind. It was her kissing and having sex with Jim, the man she had recently met at a restaurant. It woke her up at once. She found herself sweating. She tried to wipe the sweat off her face, but then realized that her hand felt very stiff. She couldn’t fold her fingers, which showed signs of her body lacking water. She grabbed a bottle from the fridge and hydrated herself. Within seconds, she was able to open and close her fist again. She sat down on the bed, looking a bit dull. She did not like the fact that she had such a nasty dream all of a sudden. She never had such a distasteful dream before. She never even imagined having sex like that with anybody, so the dream she had really made her feel bad. She blamed herself for having such perverse thoughts. And she didn’t want to go back to sleep anymore. It was already 5
George came to Rebecca who was sitting in front of a piano she hadn’t played in a long time.“Will you help me with learning the piano?” George asked her politely.“I myself am relearning it, so, no,” Rebecca replied, “uncle.”George laughed. “I’m your brother-in-law, not your uncle.”“Both are fitting,” she retorted, “in this case.”George found it embarrassing and frustrating that she wasn’t giving him any face even though he was just trying to be friendly, albeit with hidden intentions. “Do you know what happened to your sister’s husband?”“Akash left, it seems,” Rebecca said.“Yeah. But the shocking thing is that Veronica isn’t crying,” George opined. “Even enemies will shed tears as they’re parting, but… how come your sister isn’t shedding a tear? I didn’t know her heart was so cold.”“It is good that she’s not faking her crying like some others do,” Rebecca replied, startling George.“I-Is that what you think? Now that you put it that way, I don’t disagree.”Just then, Fiona arr
“Haha, did Veronica’s husband really go back to his country?” Fiona laughed excitedly as she privately talked with her daughter Riley in a guest room. “I didn’t think things would happen so smoothly. Now, we just need to introduce one of our rich allies to Veronica, and the rest will take care of itself. I should also deal with Rebecca’s husband, too.”“Mom, I need to tell you something,” Riley said.“Go on,” Fiona was eating sweet bread which Delle had made.“I…” Riley hesitantly said. “I think I’m in love with Benjamin.”Fiona choked on her bread.Riley quickly gave water.It was only after drinking the water, Fiona was able to breathe again. She took a few deep breaths and looked at her daughter in shock. “Are you fucking kidding me? You have a wedding soon, and you’re saying you fell in love with Rebecca’s husband? A pizza-delivery guy?”“No, mom. Rebecca’s husband is Benyamin, the guy with the wolf haircut, but the one I fell in love with is Benjamin,” Riley clarified, “the guy w
“It’s obvious that your sister has come here with a goal,” Selena was talking to Jacob in his room. “Fiona is a snake through and through. We can’t let her stay here for long, or she’ll cause our family to split up. If we give our daughters to the billionaires she refers to, then they will try to have control over our family. You do realize that, don’t you?”“So you want me to send my sister and her family away when they came to our house after so many years?” Jacob asked her back in an annoyed voice.“Yeah. You can’t hesitate with a snake, or it will bite you when you’re most vulnerable,” Selena added. “If you don’t send her away, she will stick in this house for a while and make a mess out of our family.”Jacob thought about it. “I can’t do it myself, but I know someone who can.”“Who?” Selena curiously asked.“Your eldest daughter,” Jacob smiled.“Rebecca?” Selena was surprised for a second. “I see. If Fiona confronts Rebecca about her marriage, then Rebecca wouldn’t just watch. If
“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 Riley. 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