24. Maid or mistress

Crystal Allen

I swallowed hard, not knowing what to do. It was undeniable that Ansel was being a totally different guy than I thought he was. I could put up with him being a not-so-successful lawyer; I could put up with his lack of money and even the fact that he had to feed his opium addiction, but knowing that he already had so many children made me lose the high expectations I had for him. He. I just didn't like knowing that I was going to be a stepmother from now on. I had grown up with a stepmother who did me so much harm that the last thing I wanted in this life was to be a stepmother, but the man I loved had a child, and there weren't two.

"Where are these kids?" I asked, feeling a bitter taste in the roof of my mouth. Why did life hate me so much?

"Who? Oh, God!. Are you still thinking about this?" He said it exasperatedly.

"Of course, I'm thinking about it. You literally just destroyed me with that information. Why didn't you tell me sooner that you had kids?" I almost cried for him. Why didn't he understand my pain?

"And is that important? You wouldn't have stayed with me if you knew I already had children?" He asked, making me think about that. Would I have made a different decision if I had known about his children beforehand?

"I don't know. Now I'm confused." I took the blanket and covered myself, mad at him. I didn't even know how I was going to broach the topic I was hiding from him right now; he didn't want a kid, but he had me knocked up, no matter how much he tried all the time to ejaculate out. There were times he wanted to make love when he was all stoned from opium, so he couldn't control himself like when he was lucid.

"Honestly speaking, it doesn't bother me." He was being rude to me. "Stop being the bourgeois son of a bitch who is judging me because I wasn't born with a silver spoon with a bunch of servants around me to even wipe my ass with their tongues! Life is the same, as you see. I had children, and I don't regret having them. If that bothers you, then fuck it, damn it." He turned over in bed and lay down while grumbling after turning off the lamp. "How insufferable that you keep bothering me with nonsense at such a time." So that night was the first time I cried because of Ansel.

The next morning, Ansel didn't seem to be upset with me anymore, as he came to me as a woman to have some nice morning sex, but he also didn't apologize to me for acting so rudely towards me last night. "I'm out of opium; can you give me some money, so I can get it?" But he had the courage to ask for money.

He told me that lately he wasn't having any good clients, and he even joked that I had brought him bad luck, so I was giving him my money, the money I brought with me from my father's house. I helped with the household expenses and even doubled some for him to buy his magic dust. The truth was that I was already almost out of money, but Ansel urged me to give him the money, saying that it would only be now that I would be helping with expenses and that in a little while he wouldn't be having any more difficulties.

"Clear." I got out of bed to go get the money I had left; he was already getting ready to go to work. From the room where we were, since the walls were not soundproof, we could hear the clatter of plates and cutlery in the kitchen, indicating that the maid had arrived. "Will you be back early today?" I asked, leaving the money on the corner table, and went to put on makeup. I always put on makeup and did my hair so that Ansel's maid would know that I was much superior to her.

"Probably not; I'm a little stressed, so I'm going to drink after work." He replied as he put on his boots.

"Leaving this apartment for a bit to see a different environment is a good idea; are you going to take me to drink with you too?" He laughed at my question.

"Stop being an idiot, Lea. Why would I take you to a tavern? For those sons of bitches to harass you? No, ma'am. My wife has to wait for me at home in bed." He said this, again ignoring the fact that I hated him calling me by my ex-maid's name, and took the money that was on the table and started counting quickly. "Just that? Are you kidding me? That's not even enough to buy a bag of opium." He complained, and I sighed. It seemed like this drug was getting more expensive every day.

"Love, I think you'd better give up the opium and go back to smoking the simple herbs you used to smoke." I commented, and he rolled his eyes, looking exasperated.

"Just because it's so expensive, you cowhand? It's a drug imported from the East; it's obviously expensive."

"I say this mostly for your well-being, Ansel. Many people have said, Opium is very harmful to your health, I don't want you to get sick." I warned him. 'Even more so now that I'm expecting your child.' I almost said it, but I held back. I still needed to think about how I was going to approach that subject, considering that he didn't want to have children anymore and that I didn't want us to fight again like we did yesterday. "Besides, the money I brought from my parents' house is gone."

He made a sound of displeasure with his mouth. "Why the hell did you take so little money, damn it?" He grumbled, sighing, and kept the money from leaving the room.

"So that's it, after three months together the man no longer remembers to kiss me goodbye before going to work." I commented in a loud voice so he could hear and in response I had the beautiful loud, booming sound of the front door being slammed shut by him as he left the house. I shrugged and continued putting on makeup.

Moments later I left the room because I was hungry, usually I preferred not to have a conversation with that maid, but the idiot was so rude that she never came to invite me for meals. It was at these moments that I missed the Allen mansion and my life as a bourgeoisie, I always had my meals on time, but now living here, I had to go find something to eat. Honestly, what a humiliation.

My husband's maid was lying on the sofa in the living room filing her nails just to confront me, I frowned and went over to her, grabbing her legs and pushing them off the sofa angrily. "What is this? Are you crazy?" She asked with that astonished look on her face.

"The only crazy person here is you who thinks you're the owner of this house, you worthless person. Go prepare something for me to eat!" I ordered, she sat upright on the sofa and looked at me with an insulting look.

"Why don't you go yourself? Oh yes, I forgot that you are useless and don't even know how to cook." She laughed at me, which made my anger increase.

"See how you talk to me, you disgusting girl. Have you forgotten that I'm your lady? Or do you want me to order you to be flogged in the public square?" I threatened her with a real desire to punish this idiot. She even had the nerve to laugh at me.

"I'm not your maid, I'm Ansel's maid and you have no idea what our deal was. I mean, who do you think was occupying his bed before you got here, you worthless petulant?"

"What?" Was she trying to say that she was Ansel's lover this whole time? That was impossible. She couldn't stop laughing, that bastard.

"That's right you heard. I was the one he fucked before you got here, so don't think you're that special to him." Suddenly I started to hear that disgusting servant's voice as if she were underwater, I was dizzy and everything around me was spinning until it was dark.

When I woke up, I was lying on the bed with my entire body weak, Ansel was standing there, with his hands on his waist while he looked at me with an unfriendly face. "What happened with me…?"

"You passed out, the doctor said your blood pressure got too high." He told me and I ran my hand through my hair without knowing what to do. "When were you going to tell me you're pregnant, Crystal?"