CHAPTER 24
The next morning.
It was no longer Veronica’s birthday, but she was still thinking about her past birthdays right after waking up.
She vividly remembered her sixth birthday, when she asked her dad during breakfast as to what gift he was going to buy for her birthday. Jacob replied, “You are too young to receive
gifts.”
And ever since then, he repeated similar sentences until she turned 18. She demanded a big gift from him on her 18th birthday, and Jacob said, “You are an adult, so you shouldn’t be asking for gifts.” In the end, Jacob never gave Veronica a single birthday present. He didn’t give gifts to Rebecca, either, at least not until she became a successful fashion designer. However, he gave gifts to his two sons every year.
There were times when Veronica cried because of the partiality his father had shown on his sons, and Selena had to console her during those times.
Veronica was now old enough she didn’t need any consoling. She was looking at the painting of a lake dazzling under the sunlight. Compared to all the superficial gifts his brothers or his family members ever gave her, this single gift felt a million times more precious. She really wanted to know more about Akash without directly asking him, so she thought of paying a visit to his sister.
When she entered Rebecca’s room, she was in for a shock. Her sister looked like a ghost because she hadn’t slept at all. “Look at you. You look terrible! Like you were clawed by a thousand cats in your dreams!” Benjamin just came out from the bathroom, and he was fully dressed already.
“Oh, you wear clothes in the bathroom itself?” Veronica laughed out loud. “What more strange habits do you have?”
“That’s something I learned from your sister,” replied Benjamin, cutting Veronica’s laugh short. “If you excuse me, I’ll go and have breakfast.”
“Yeah, yeah,” she moved aside. “I envy people like you who don’t even need to look into the mirror every day. Nothing changes whether you comb your hair or put on makeup.”
Benjamin didn’t mind her words and left without even sparing a glance at his wife. It was so obvious that even Veronica noticed the change.
“Why’s he behaving oddly?” she sat by his sister’s bed and asked. “Normally, he’s always itching to get your attention, but now, when you need it, he’s not even looking at you. I feel like he’s taking his revenge now that he’s gotten a chance.”
“Revenge or not, I don’t care what he does,” Rebecca said, acting as though she didn’t care.
“Sis, can you answer this question honestly?”
“First ask.”
“It’s about Benjamin,” Veronica said. “He’s average-looking, and he doesn’t even comb his hair properly. I don’t know what you saw in the bar to like him and be defenseless against him, but how could you marry him? Just what made you make such a rash move? No one in the house gets it. Even Mom feels clueless in this situation, I think.”
“What made me marry him, huh…” Rebecca took in a breath at a slow place. “Men think we don’t notice where they’re looking, but we notice everything, right?”
Veronica nodded twice.
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