“Eat. I need you on top form to finish off your work next week,” Dad says. “It’s always when you go on those crazy diets that you mess things up.”
I turn my gaze to him and bite the inside of my lip. It’s things like that he’s been saying all night.
Always and ever the dutiful brother, Jeff jumps in and says something to save me.
“Dad, her diets aren’t always crazy. She helped me massively once and I lost a few extra stress pounds when we did the Keto diet together.”
I smile at him, grateful for his intervention and he gives me a curt nod.
“That’s great son, but I’m talking about work though. As you know these campaigns take serious thought. Thank God she did good on this campaign. Only the good Lord himself knows how I worry when I have to trust her with any kind of business.”
Everyone goes silent and my stomach clenches. I don’t know how he thinks it’s okay to say such things and not expect me to feel bad or offended in any way.
“Peter, that’s not very nice,” Mom speaks up.
“It’s true, I’m just taking precaution. Rachel knows what I mean.” He points his fork at me and shakes his head. “Some of the shit you get away with would never be allowed in another company. Be grateful I put up with it, and I have for as long as I have.”
I don’t answer. I just take a sip of my water and cry inside.
The question comes to me again, however.
Why do I stay?
Why do I continue to work for him?
Are my dreams for my career and my future aligned with being treated like an idiot.
I couldn’t feel more humiliated, but I hear Dante’s voice in my head telling me how much I’m worth and that I shouldn’t settle.
It’s the first time I’ve ever thought of myself as settling. Maybe I did and I didn’t know. Maybe I just took comfort in the fact that it’s my family business so being Rachel Bradley was enough to work at a place that was the best. Maybe it’s not best for me though.
Dante’s not settling, maybe I shouldn’t either.
Chapter Fifteen
Rachel
I’ve had the worse headache ever. The kind that caused me to stay in for two days straight.
The kind that made me think that Mom was right about that fever. Yesterday I was burning up and so weak there was no way I could have gone out.
The bad feelings have only just eased up with the help of Jia’s magic potion. It was part of her grandmother’s recipes to cure anything and everything.
It definitely helped. Before she got here my head felt like it was going to fall off my body and explode. Now I’m close to fine. Or, at least what I call reasonably okay.
“You’re looking better,” Jia says with a nod.
She sits next to me on the sofa and smiles.
“Thank you.” Hearing I look better is good news. I looked like hell earlier and I don’t want to ever look like that again.
It was just so weird. It was like having a migraine and feeling nauseous but since I haven’t eaten anything much I didn’t feel like throwing up.
“Maybe I got some kind of bug. I felt like hit earlier and yesterday I couldn’t move.” I sigh. Dante came over yesterday to take care of me. He stayed all night feeding me chicken soup and holding me. It was so nice of him to come by and nice to have him take care of me the way he did. He’ll be back later tonight.
“It sounds like a bug. I’ve left some of the tea in a pot for you and the ingredients on the side in case you need to make more,” Jia says with a nod.
“Thank you so much. Nothing worked except for this. what did you put in there?” I ask glancing at the remnants of the yellow flowers in the bottom of the cup on the coffee table.