Chapter 13 The First Strike Back
Calista finished talking and loosed her grip. Quincy felt her legs go weak and she collapsed onto the floor.
Her face was all white, and when she looked back up at Calista, she suddenly felt fear in her heart.
When she thought about the police and what the Fairchilds could do, she became terribly anxious and didn't say any more, instead escaping up the stairs.
Calista originally intended to go back to her own room, but then she suddenly smelled something delicious in the kitchen and realized that she hadn't eaten much at Fairchild Manor earlier, plus she went through so much the night before and she was starving now. She made a turn towards the kitchen and saw two maids preparing snacks for tea.
"I'm hungry." Calista leaned against the door and suddenly spoke, startling the two maids who were chatting with each other. She didn't wait for their response and continued, "Prepare some food and send it to my room."
Quincy had told all the servants to leave the living room earlier, so nobody saw how Calista treated Quincy earlier. So when they heard her give instructions like this, they all thought she had gone mad.
Unfortunately she turned and left before they could even react, and they missed their chance to mock her.
One of the maids threw her gloves on the kitchen top and said angrily, "Can't she see that we're very busy? Does she really think she's the Ms. Calista now?"
The older maid replied, "What does it matter? Isn't there a bit of food leftover from lunch? Just pour a bit of soy sauce on it and send it upstairs. She eats anything anyway."
She said this mockingly, because Calista of the past never dared to be picky about her food.
Of course Calista had no idea what they were talking about downstairs because she was looking at herself in the mirror, feeling rather strange.
She was still young and tender at eighteen, and even though her thick fringe covered half her face, she still looked fairly sweet.
She combed all her hair back and tied it into a high ponytail, revealing her clean forehead and exquisite eyes.
Looking back at the transformed young lady in the mirror, she laughed to herself, and thought that she didn't look too bad at all.
She used to really hate this straight cut fringe because it got into her eyes, but she didn't dare to change her hairstyle because her stepmother had said that it looked nice on her. But did it really look nice? Yelena was just afraid that Calista would steal the limelight from Quincy.
Just then, someone knocked on the door. When Calista opened the door, there was nobody outside, but there was half a bowl of leftover pasta with some baked beans and tomato sauce left on the floor, and nothing else.
She couldn't help but laugh piteously at herself. What sort of life did she use to lead, she thought, a life where she couldn't even get to eat warm food.
Everybody said the school canteen food was awful, but she thought it was delicious compared to the terrible things she ate at home. When her father wasn't home, she wasn't even allowed to sit at the table. The things she had to eat in a dark corner were possibly even worse than what the security guard's dog ate!NôvelDrama.Org exclusive content.
If it were her old self, she would have happily eaten everything because she was hungry. But now she knew that if she ate this without saying a word, what she would get in return was not the reputation of being humble and content, instead she would be mocked at for being lowly and desperate!
She picked up the bowl and went downstairs and saw that the living room was filled with delicious treats and a fresh cup of Ceylon tea. It seemed like Yelena had just returned home and was all dressed up, anxiously waiting for someone to arrive.
The servants pretended not to see Calista and continued to mind their own business. Calista held up the bowl of food in her hands and walked right up to Yelena.
Yelena was anxiously trying to settle matters for her daughter! Earlier Quincy had phoned her and said the Fairchilds would continue to investigate what happened the night before and would definitely force the two men to tell the truth. Yelena was nearly driven mad with worries, so she had invited someone who could help to have cups of tea at her house.
Seeing Calista appear in front of her at this time made her so furious!
Calista is lucky that I don't kill her. How dare she appear in front of me so boldly? Does she think she is still in the Fairchilds' house?
Yelena raised a finely plucked eyebrow and laughed coldly, "Oh look who we have here, isn't this the Ms. Calista of the Staffords? You were so amazing last night! Why, are you here to continue putting on this cool act?"
Suddenly she realized that Calista had combed her fringe up, and was still wearing last night's dress from the Fairchilds. She looked completely different and Yelena's expression changed.
"Who allowed you to comb all your hair up! You're dressed so provocatively at such a young age, who are you trying to seduce huh?"
Calista stood by the sofa and listened to her calmly. Yelena always behaved very differently at home from what she was in public, and Calista had heard things way worse than this when she was younger.
Calista laughed as she turned the bowl in her hands. "Mrs. Fairchild, is my father on the verge of bankruptcy? I'm the Ms. Calista of the Stafford family and I have to eat this sort of cr*p? If we're really so poor, then we shouldn't hire so many servants to pretend we're still rich, just fire some of them."
Her sarcastic tone of voice shocked the servants busying themselves in the living room. But none of them panicked because in this house, Calista's words were never taken seriously.
Yelena saw that Calista ignored her words and became even angrier. But when she saw the food in Calista's bowl, her mood improved instantly. "Why? Can't eat this? There are many out there with no food to eat you know? Who are you? You're lucky to even have food to eat, and you still want to be picky?"
Yelena's cheekbones were very high and they made her look mean when she smiled.
"At the end of the day you're an uncultured swine! So you think you've got wings to fly now huh? Even if you don't want to eat this, you have to eat it! Otherwise forget about having food to eat from now on!"
Calista looked at all the servants standing by the side watching this show and all the delicious food on the coffee table, and suddenly she felt like challenging her stepmother.
"What if I refuse?"
Refuse?
Yelena was stunned for a moment, but then her carefully made-up face immediately turned threatening.
"You little punk! You've grown wings and really want to fly huh? Zoya! Lilian! Ms. Calista here refuses to eat! Shove the food down her throat right now!"
The two maids mentioned were more than happy to do this - Calista was behaving weirdly today, and they were already annoyed. This was their chance to teach her a lesson, see if she still dared to talk about firing them! "No need." Calista unexpectedly stopped them.
Yelena thought that Calista was finally scared, and smiled knowingly. She knew it, no matter how much Calista had changed, deep down she was still a useless coward!
So she sat down and crossed her legs, sneering, "Then eat it now! Eat it here in front of me! After you finish you'd better lick the bowl clean and make sure you don't leave a single strand of pasta behind! Otherwise forget about eating anymore!" Calista didn't look the slightest bit angry when she heard this, and asked gently, "It's too much for me, what do I do if I can't finish it?"
Before Yelena could react, Calista reached out and dumped the contents of the bowl on Yelena's head.
She cackled spitefully and said, "So...please eat it for me, Mrs. Stafford."
"ARGHHHHH!"
The pasta and sauce got all over Yelena. She jumped up from her chair and screeched, "Calista! Have you lost your mind?!"