Prosperous Marriage: Married to My Brother-in-law-Chapter 573: Passing by Without Meeting (1)_1
「South Hill District, Waterfront New Village.」
Compared to the bustling Horne Family, the Ruiz home was still very quiet.
Rachel Bailey didn’t go out to tend to her business today. She had called one of her workers, who was also her driver, to take care of the deliveries. Once he had agreed, she stayed at home, thinking of spending some quality time with her husband.
The Horne family had already finished breakfast and gone their separate ways. Meanwhile, Rachel was just getting out of bed and was in the kitchen, preparing food for Hansen Ruiz and Mrs. Ruiz.
Mrs. Ruiz had also just gotten up and was walking down the stairs.
She didn’t know that her son Hansen had returned.
As she descended to the first floor, she went to the sofa and sat down as usual. Sinking into it, she lazily called out, "Rachel Bailey, I know you’re at home today. Pour me a glass of water; I’m dying of thirst."
"Mom, you know where the water is; pour it yourself. I’m busy," Rachel’s voice came from the kitchen.
Since Hansen went on his business trip, his mother had been staying with them. This caused ceaseless conflicts between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, but Rachel was the one who took care of Mrs. Ruiz. Mrs. Ruiz had never done any housework in her life. She couldn’t cook; even if she reluctantly made something, the food was inedible. When it came to cleaning, she would complain about it being dirty, arguing that she wasn’t born to clean.
Hearing her say this, Rachel nearly rolled her eyes. Who was born to clean?
Sometimes, if Rachel got up a bit late and didn’t prepare breakfast for Mrs. Ruiz, Mrs. Ruiz would wake to find no breakfast. She would then call to accuse Rachel of mistreatment. This infuriated Rachel so much that she wanted to snap at her. Couldn’t she just go out to eat? But considering Mrs. Ruiz was her mother-in-law, Rachel could only bear it. She let the unreasonable accusations go in one ear and out the other.
After she became pregnant, Mrs. Ruiz repeatedly demanded that she stop her business. Rachel wouldn’t agree. This caused Mrs. Ruiz to show her displeasure, yet she still constantly reminded Rachel to take her nutritional supplements on time. If Mrs. Ruiz found out Rachel hadn’t taken them, it would lead to another round of scolding.
Mrs. Ruiz’s criticisms were usually along the same lines, "Look at you, short and scrawny without putting on weight. If you don’t eat more supplements, be careful; my grandson might be malnourished. I’m telling you, Rachel, this is the first grandson of the Ruiz Family. You better take good care of him and not let anything go wrong. These supplements are for nourishing the body, and I bought them for you to eat. You have to eat them for me."
Hearing these words, Rachel felt like retorting.
Living with such a mother-in-law kept her on edge every single day.
After finishing her deliveries and returning home, Rachel had to bring back the freshest meat and vegetables from the market. This was to cook for Mrs. Ruiz, who was very picky and refused to eat anything that had been frozen; it had to be fresh from the market.
Rachel knew this was her mother-in-law’s way of deliberately making things difficult for her.
Sometimes, when extremely annoyed, she considered just giving her mother-in-law a bowl of plain rice and a dish of greens. Why bother catering to such pickiness? It felt as if she had married Hansen solely to wait on his mother.
Even though battles between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law occurred daily, Rachel still restrained herself and never complained privately to Hansen. She knew that if it came down to a choice between her and Mrs. Ruiz, Hansen would definitely side with her. However, she didn’t want to be the cause of further estrangement between mother and son.
"What are you busy with, eh? You’re not going out today, so why are you only now in the kitchen?" Mrs. Ruiz couldn’t hold back her complaints after hearing Rachel’s response. Still, she got up resignedly and poured herself a glass of water.
Floyd Thomas was in the Courtyard. Unless Mrs. Ruiz called him, he didn’t dare enter the Main House. He anxiously waited for Mrs. Ruiz to get up, wanting to tell her that Hansen had returned.
Knowing Mrs. Ruiz’s temperament, he didn’t dare to wake her with a phone call before she was up. Waking her from sleep would risk facing her tremendous morning temper.
"I got up late," Rachel replied offhandedly. Today, she was making a Western-style nutritious breakfast.
Her morning sickness had started, though it wasn’t severe. Occasionally, the smell of grease would make her nauseous, but sometimes it wouldn’t.
"What time is it? You’re only just getting up? Don’t you know the best time for breakfast is between seven and eight in the morning? Do you want to starve my grandson? And eh, why did you make so much breakfast today? Can the few of us even eat that much? Don’t waste it, alright? My Hansen doesn’t have an easy time earning money. As his wife, you should know how to save money for your husband, not squander it and cause him financial stress. Understand?" Holding a glass of water, Mrs. Ruiz walked over to the Side Hall, which served as their small dining room. She sat at the dining table, her eyes fixed on Rachel, who was busy in the kitchen. Mrs. Ruiz was surprised to see Rachel had prepared much more breakfast than usual.
She herself spent money like water, never considering how difficult it was to earn money. Yet, when lecturing Rachel, she was quite prescriptive.
"Mom, the money I spend is what I’ve earned myself. I never waste money. It seems there’s someone else who does," Rachel retorted, carefully lifting a fried egg from the pan.
Hansen had given her a black card with no spending limit. However, she rarely used it, preferring to spend the money she earned herself. Her daily income was now tens of thousands of yuan, more than enough to cover her living expenses.
"How much money can you make? How much can you earn from selling vegetables and poultry? Is your daily revenue even enough to cover one meal for us? Look, the breakfast you made today would cost several hundred yuan at least if we ate out, not to mention lunch, dinner, and the occasional late-night snack. Can you earn enough to support yourself? Cut it out. Just admit you’re spending my Hansen’s money. You married my Hansen for his money, didn’t you? All that talk about self-reliance is just a pretense. I really dislike women who are fake and dishonest," Mrs. Ruiz scoffed, utterly disbelieving that Rachel’s vegetable and poultry business could make much money.
