Chloe had a hard time getting out of bed. She mustered the little strength she had and pressed the button to call the maid.
Although she had been asleep for hours, Chloe was still quite exhausted and sore. Boswell must have ridden her like a stallion on steroids.
The girl Boswell brought back pushed the door open, but she wasn't dressed in a maid's uniform. As she entered the room, Rosa greeted Chloe with a half-hearted enthusiasm. "Hello, Mrs. Huo."
The mess in the room stung her eyes. Anyone with an ounce of sense could tell that Boswell and Chloe were engaged in some kind of wild sexual adventure in this room.
Leaning against the headboard of the bed, Chloe glanced at Rosa with a hint of arrogance and said, "Prepare some food for me."
"Yes, ma'am!" No matter how reluctant Rosa was, she had to do as Chloe said because it was her duty as a maid of the Huo family.
After Chloe came out of the bathroom, almost an hour later, she looked around and realized that the maid still hadn't brought her midnight snack yet.
She shook her head, dismissing all thoughts on the matter and replaced the sheet that had traces of blood on it with a fresh one.
At around two o'clock in the morning, Rosa finally served Chloe the midnight snack—two slices of bread and a cup of yogurt. Rosa pretended to be guilty and said, "I'm sorry, ma'am. I don't know how to use the toaster as this is my first time being a maid. Would you like to have something else instead?"
Chloe smiled and politely refused, "It doesn't matter."
After Rosa left the room, Chloe took her phone out and called Boswell. "Can you get something to eat when you're back?" 'Hmm… what should I call this man from now on? Honey or Boswell?' she thought to herself.
Boswell hadn't finished his work yet, but when he heard her words, he recalled how beautiful she looked in the afternoon, and took it as an invitation of some sort. He put down the document in his hand and said, "Sure! I'll be right over!"
Half an hour later, Rosa was in the kitchen munching away at some fruits when she heard the sound of engine turning off. She scrambled to put the fruits away and pretended to clean the counter.
After changing into his slippers, Boswell walked past the living room and went upstairs without looking at the kitchen.
Five minutes later, Rosa was called upstairs.
In the room, Chloe had a casual, nonchalant expression on her face as she nibbled on a piece of bread, as though nothing had happened.
However, the cold expression on Boswell's face drove shivers down the nervous girl's spine as he glared at her furiously and yelled, "Is this your idea of a midnight snack?"
Rosa's heart skipped a beat. "Please don't misunderstand me. I just don't know how to use the toaster yet…" She gave Boswell the same excuse she gave to Chloe earlier.
Burning rage hissed through Boswell's body like deathly poison. "So what if you knew how to use it? Were you going to let my wife eat toast at night? What is the point of me bringing you here if you can't even take care of my wife?"
"I'm sorry, Mr. Huo. I'll learn how to cook from tomorrow," Rosa apologized tearfully.
Boswell didn't have the patience to continue this argument anymore, so he waved at her dismissively and said, "You can leave now."
He knew that the reason why Chloe invited him back for midnight snack was that she wanted him to see how Rosa treated her. Boswell quickly sat down next to the woman with an embarrassed look on his face as he couldn't believe that Rosa would treat his wife like that. "I'm sorry. It's actually my fault."
Shaking her head, Chloe swallowed the food in her mouth and comforted him with a smile, "Don't blame yourself over this. This bread isn't that bad. Besides, something is better than nothing."
Boswell took out his phone and called his assistant to rectify the situation immediately. He ordered him to bring over some food from the best restaurant in the city.
Chloe didn't stop him. Since he went through the trouble of asking someone else to bring her some food, she was appreciative of his efforts.
Soon after, spread over the dining table downstairs was an expansive range of dishes, hot enough to guarantee satisfaction.
Boswell proudly took Chloe's hand and brought her downstairs so she could have a taste of whatever she wanted. After a seemingly satisfying "midnight snack," the couple decided that it was time to get some sleep and retreated to the bedroom.
On the second day, things were much quieter at home. On the third night, however, when Boswell returned to the villa, he found a stranger in his home.
A handsome young man, perhaps in his twenties, was mopping the floor quietly in the living room. As soon as he noticed the startled man, he quickly walked up to him and said, "Good evening, Mr. Huo."
Boswell couldn't place that person's face in his memory and his eyebrows furrowed as he looked at him and said, "Good evening. I'm sorry, who are you?"
"Oh, I'm the new servant Mrs. Huo hired. Don't worry, Mr. Huo, I can do everything. I can cook, do housework and repair household electrical appliances." The young man's positive attitude and confidence annoyed Boswell all the more.
His eyes looked up towards his bedroom and he understood what was going on. "Where is my wife?" he asked in a polite manner.
"She's upstairs. She fell asleep right after I gave her a massage," the young man answered innocently.
'You gave her a what?' Did he hear that right?
Boswell turned around and strode upstairs without saying another word.
It was dark in the bedroom when he pushed the door open and walked inside.
He walked to the bedside and looked at the woman who had her eyes shut tight. "Are you asleep?" he asked.
Chloe opened her eyes and answered, "Not yet."
Before she could get up, however, the man pressed his body against hers. Running his fingers down her smooth face, he whispered, "What have you been up to?"
The woman answered honestly, "I had a really bad headache, so I asked Butler Wang to find someone who can give me a head rub. Turns out the man is really good at giving massages too. He knew all about unblocking the meridians.
The moment he pressed my temples, I started to feel so much better." 'How dare she admit it!'
Gritting his teeth, he gently bit her earlobe and said, "I'll have Rosa sent away tomorrow, but you'll have to say good-bye to the young man downstairs too. Do you hear me?"
With a cheeky flash in her eyes, Chloe feigned confusion and asked, "Why? Aren't they good at what they do?"
Tightening his grip on her slender waist, Boswell said, "I brought a young woman back and you brought a young man back home. What would people think of us?"
"Well, when you put it like that… it does sound very inappropriate…" Chloe pretended to be innocent still.
"Well, it's good that you've realized it. Don't forget to send them away tomorrow!" he asserted.
"And where exactly do you want me to send them?" she asked.
"Wherever, I don't care. It's up to you." Boswell had no time for such trifle.
After getting what she wanted, Chloe put her arms around the man's neck with a satisfied grin on her face. "Okay!"
Although her feelings for him hadn't quite grown into love yet, she was his wife now. After all, she had to preserve her position as Mrs. Huo, didn't she?
The following day, things were back to normal in the villa. The team of help in the house were still the ones Butler Wang had arranged as they were doing their jobs well.
As time went by, Boswell came to realize that his wife was very smart, especially when it came to dealing with the women around him. Chloe always found a way to deal with the clingy types without making a scene.
More importantly, it seemed as though she had won his heart.
Chloe was also starting to contribute heavily in the company's affairs and before long, Boswell handed over all the power to her to deal with the design of the Purple Charm.
When she was with Erica, she could win the favor of her mother-in-law without even doing anything.
Boswell couldn't tell when she began to give him orders. She wouldn't allow him to drink too much; she wouldn't allow him to stay up late; she wouldn't allow him to work overtime… Slowly, but surely the list of things she wouldn't allow him to do grew bigger.
It was just as Colman had told him, Boswell had fallen into the trap set by Chloe.
Just like his grandfather fell into the trap of his grandmother and his father fell into the trap of his mother, Boswell couldn't help but allow history to repeat itself.
From then onwards, Boswell formed tremendous respect for Colman's words of wisdom.
Even just two years before her 30th birthday when Chloe said that she didn't want to have a child so soon, Boswell didn't challenge her wishes. Instead, he assured her that she wouldn't have to worry about having a child until she was ready.
Every single night, he would hold the sleeping woman in his arms and think about how his life had come to this.
He finally found out the reason. Although she was not as shrewd as him, she was a woman and she would act like a spoiled child and make him obsessed. And just like that, she was the one who had the final say in everything.
He had no idea of what was going to happen after he gave her his heart because by that time it was already too late. He had completely given himself to Chloe!
Fortunately, the two of them lived a happy life and Boswell didn't have to spend the rest of his life worrying. Since he wasn't the high-maintenance type, he was happy just to be able to hold his wife in his sleep every night.
Chloe gave birth to a daughter at the age of 29, and her daughter was the spitting image of her mother. Boswell, who was a slave for his wife, was now also a slave for his daughter. His position in the family now was worse than it was before.
As the old fisherman's proverb goes, "There is always a bigger fish in the sea."
Boswell, who had been scrupulously methodical in the business world, was controlled by a woman called Chloe Shen, and he had never been able to turn the tables ever since.
