DIVORCED : Rejected Billionaire Heir

Chapter 05 : Useless!

Joe walked into his in-laws' house in a hurry. He didn't even have time to change his clothes, so he went straight to the kitchen to prepare dinner.

"I need to cook something simple and quick. I'm sure Zack and Mom have been waiting for it."

With quick movements, Joe made an omelet and fried some vegetables. Once everything was cooked, he quickly served it on the dining table.

"What is this?!" Zack, who had been waiting with Rosetta, frowned. He slammed the fork that he had been holding because he felt unappetizing with the food served by Joe.

"Have you lost your mind, Joe? You're serving me and my mom this kind of junk food for dinner? Seriously!" Zack pushed away the plate filled with vegetables.

"Sorry, Zack. But that's the only thing I can cook quickly. If I cook anything else, you'll have to wait over an hour." Joe explained. He wiped the sweat that had fallen from exhaustion. Just as he had come home and started cooking immediately after his fight with Hudson, he now had to face his brother-in-law's and mother-in-law's wrath.

"Don't argue, Joe. What your elder brother said is true. Do you think it's appropriate to serve us food like this? Where's the chicken? Or the fish? Why are you only cooking vegetables? Do you think we are animals?" As Rosetta's voice grew higher, she also pushed the plate in front of her away.

"But, Mom-"

"Never mind! Just cook something else. Hurry up, don't be too slow. Do you want to starve us here?" Rosetta raised her hand and gestured to shoo Joe back to the kitchen.

"No need, Joe. Take off that apron, and we'll eat now." Jesslyn, who had just gotten home from work, immediately replied, asking her husband to eat together. She felt sorry for her husband, especially when she saw the bruise on the corner of his lip.

She didn't know what had happened, but Jesslyn was sure that the bruise must be related to the challenge given by Oliver this afternoon.

"Jess! Why are you even asking him to eat? Mom doesn't want to eat food like this. Garbage food." Rosetta was still adamant about refusing to eat the food that Joe had cooked.

"Well, then, you don't have to eat," Jesslyn spoke in a firm tone. Without cleaning her body, she sat down and picked a plate to start dinner.

"Joe, hurry up and eat," Jesslyn commanded, her gaze getting increasingly restrained as she watched Joe do nothing.

"Okay." Inevitably, Joe immediately took off the apron that had been draped on his body. He ignored the displeased looks that Rosetta and Zack were throwing at him.

During the dinner, Zack again provoked a commotion. He couldn't help the dislike lingering in his heart, especially when he saw Joe eating with gusto as if nothing had happened.

"Have you managed to get promoted, Joe? I want to buy a new motorcycle this month and earn extra money. When do you get paid?"

Joe, who heard Zack's words, immediately stopped putting food in his mouth. "Sorry, Zack, I can't help you. My salary is too small for that. My salary is only enough to pay for this family's expenses."

"CK, you're useless," Zack said softly. "Then when will you be able to help me, Joe? You've been working for three months, and you can't help me at all. If you can't help me, then what are you working for, huh?"

By now, Joe's appetite had disappeared entirely. He put the fork in his hand onto the plate, then looked at Zack as he said, "I really can't help you, Zack. Like you said, I've only been working for three months. I want to help Jess to pay the household expenses every month. So, I can't help you."

"You're too much, Joe. Can't you figure out a way to help Zack at all? We're a family, and you should be helping us. For three years, you didn't work, and we didn't mind that at all, and now that you're working, you still can't help us. Is this what we call family?" Rosetta began to play a role, acting like the one who had been hurt the most. In other words, she was playing the victim.

"Mom. What Joe said is true. His salary isn't much, and he has to help me pay for everything in this house. As for the motorcycle Zack wants to buy, why doesn't he buy it himself? He's too old to be pampered and give in to all his demands."

Jesslyn chuckled in her heart. Honestly, she didn't like the special treatment her mother gave Zack. Her older brother was always pampered from childhood to adulthood.

Zack never even worked after graduating from college, and all the expenses that had to be paid every month were charged to Jesslyn. She felt unfairly treated but couldn't hate them because they were family.

"Jess! Don't go too far! Why are you saying such disrespectful things to your brother? It's like you've been brainwashed by this cowardly man who is your husband. What did he say to make you dare to fight us?" Rosetta stood up from her seat, her breathing ragged. She was always like that when her favorite son was humiliated by others.

"Disrespectful? I'm just telling the truth, Mom. If Joe helps Zack buy a new motorcycle, then my salary won't be enough to pay this house's monthly expenses. For three years, I held back my every desire to buy the things I wanted to fulfill your needs. And now that things are better, you want me to feel that way again?" Jess showed a deeply disappointed expression.

"Shut up, Jess. You're making mom feel sad. You son of a bitch." Zack defended his mother. He acted out the drama so that his little sister would feel guilty and apologize.

Unfortunately, the problems that Jess had been facing all day were enough to give her a headache, and she didn't care about the drama played out by her brother and mother.

"Whatever!" Jess got up from her sitting position and left. She left, going into the room after slamming the fork on the plate until it made enough noise to deafen her ears.

"Jess!" Joe stood up, preparing to go after his wife.

"This is all because of you, you idiot! If I could turn back time, I would never have allowed you to marry my daughter. You're useless." Rosetta said.

"You don't have the slightest influence in this family, Joe. It would be best if you realized that with or without you in this family, you do not influence at all. If I could choose, I would want you to leave and stay away from my daughter forever!"

Joe did not care about his mother-in-law, who continued to protest and insult him. He stepped quickly towards the room. He felt panic, especially when he heard the sound of the door being closed very firmly.

"Jess?" Joe approached his wife, who was pensively in front of the dressing table.

"Don't overthink about what your mom said. From now on, I will look for a part-time job to help Zack buy a new bike. How about it?" Joe gave a solution to his wife.

"Heh, part-time job? We can't even work in the company, Joe, so do we want to work part-time? Are you kidding me?" Jesslyn's personality returned to how it was before, ignorant and indifferent to her husband.

"I'm not joking, Jess. I'll do anything to make you happy."

"You can never make me happy, Joe. By agreeing to the challenge given by Oliver this afternoon, you have already ruined my life. What if you can't complete Oliver's challenge?" Jesslyn looked at her husband with a desperate look in her eyes. "No. I shouldn't have to ask you that. I shouldn't have to ask such an absurd question. I should have realized earlier that there was no way you could complete the challenge. Selling 100 properties? Haha, really?!"

Jess hit her head a few times and felt very frustrated with everything that happened that day. From the challenge given by Oliver, the foolishness done by her husband for agreeing to the challenge, the offer of dinner given by Aaron, then her family, who consistently pressured her inside when she was home.

"Don't hurt yourself, Jess. I can win the challenge. I will get the promotion and move up the ranks like Oliver promised. I'm sure, Jess, and you should be sure of your husband too."

Jess was silent for a moment when she saw the confidence in Joe. However, her thoughts were again disturbed when she remembered the figure of Aaron, who appeared again in her life. "I'm sure you'll fail, Joe. Aaron won't let you win this time." She whispered, then bowed her head. Shattered by the arrogance she had always maintained, she was too afraid to face the man who had tried to harass her when they were in college.

"Aaron? The guy who asked you to dinner last night? Who is he, Jess?" Joe asked. He did not recognize Aaron's figure, even though they both studied at the same university.

"Don't mention that bastard!" Jess screamed hysterically, then burst into tears. The bad memories came back and made her very scared.

"Jess! Calm down! What has that man done to you to make you this scared?" Joe asked. He held his wife's hands tightly to stop beating herself up.

"Let's not talk about it anymore. I want to sleep." Jess got up, went to the bed, and laid herself down.

"Explain it to me first, Jess. Who exactly is Aaron? Is he your friend? He said he would help me win the challenge. He can't possibly hate you, right? If he hated you, he wouldn't have offered to help me."

"And you know what we'd have to sacrifice if you accepted his help?" Jesslyn stared at her husband's face for a few seconds, then turned her eyes in another direction.

"Dinner?" Joe asked in an ambiguous tone. It seemed like he didn't remember the bad words Aaron had thrown at him this afternoon, especially about "sleeping together" with Jess.

"Dinner? Are you really this naive, Joe? Whatever! Do whatever you like. I don't care anymore."

Joe needed clarification. "Jess, you can explain well to me. I've been looking for a way out, and I'm sure I can fulfill the challenge. But I'm curious about Aaron. Why do you seem to hate him so much?"

Jesslyn was put off by her husband's questions. "You don't need to know, Joe. If the solution you say is to ask Aaron for help, then you have betrayed our marriage, Joe."

Joe widened his eyes widely. "Divorced? Why did it escalate like this, Jess?"

"Just think about what you've done wrong! If you keep on like this, maybe we should get a divorce, Joe. My mom seems right, and you're just a useless man, a coward, and a loser who can't even defend his wife's self-respect!"