From Garbage To Glory

Chapter 5

5

It was after midnight when Jeremy came back home. He was panting hard and the smell of his sweat spread in the air-conditioned room as he entered.

"Ewww! He smells like garbage. Did you take a dive into a trashcan or what, i***t?!" Vanessa's grandmother, Maxima, who lived with them in their house threw an empty plastic bottle at him.

Jeremy wasn't looking ahead. He was still lost in thoughts and consumed by fear of what he experienced at the work site. He was not focusing and thus the bottle hit him in the left eye from the cap side.

"Argh!" Jeremy held his eye and doubled over. The pain made his entire face throb.

"Are you crazy, grandma?! Why would you throw something like that?" Jeremy yelled back.

It was a reaction to her disrespectful action. However, it caused a stir in the house that he never wanted to start. Grandma Maxima started crying loudly, her loud sobs summoning Jeremy's mother-in-law Celeste, and Vanessa from their respective rooms.

Grandma put on a strong act of being bullied, and since Celeste hated her good-for-nothing son in law from the core of her heart. She got a reason to humiliate him.

"You bastard! Son of a devil! Two-penny asshole! How dare you make my mother cry. Who gave you the right to raise your voice in this house." Celeste smacked Jeremy across his face.

"I... I am sorry, mom. I-it wasn't my intention. I.. I was... I was—"

"SHUT UP!" Celeste slammed him into the door and grabbed his hair in her fist.

She glared into his eyes and looked longer at his left eye which was now turning red and swelling.

“Poor loser! i***t! Sewer rat! How dare you.” She pulled on his hair with an iron grip and moved his head back and forth.

Jeremy was too cowardly to fight back. He was not only scared to defend himself against her but also weak. He could never put up with his mother-in-law who always insulted him, ordered him around like her personal servant, and made him prepare their food everyday.

Although Jeremy disliked her, he couldn't do anything but live in the same house as her. He loved Vanessa a lot, and her mother and grandmother were her life. They were her only family left. She couldn't leave them behind after marriage.

Jeremy was also a kind soul. He knew the importance of family and respected the elders for their hard efforts because he had a grandfather too. So, Jeremy didn't mind having them come and live in the house he bought.

Unfortunately he couldn't have a say in his own house because it was not really his. Not until he paid back the money he borrowed from his wife, and mother-in-law.

Jeremy was low on cash. That's why his wife and mother-in-law lent him money to collect the down-payment amount needed to finalize the registration of this house. Jeremy was yet to pay them back.

Additionally, he was the one paying all the EMIs of the house.

But still, Celeste controlled everything around. She acted like she was the owner of the house and treated Jeremy like a servant.

"Can you see this, Nessa! This scum is talking back to your grandmother. That grandmother who sacrificed her whole life in providing for you and me when we were helpless and vulnerable. But look what she's getting back in return? She's humiliated, yelled back and treated like she has no worth in this house. Your husband is insulting her." Celeste turned to Vanessa who was standing by the couch with hands folded and cold eyes looking between her grandma and Jeremy.

When her eyes came to his face again, Jeremy pleaded with her to believe him. However, Vanessa turned her face away and went to help her grandma.

As soon as she touched the old woman's shoulder, she hid her face in her hands and rose with a grunt of pain.

"It's okay, Nessa. This is your husband's house. He is the one providing for us in the family whereas me... I am just an old hag sucking off you. It's okay if he insults me." She shed crocodile tears.

Vanessa's face softened towards her, "No, grandma. Who said the house is his? Mom and I paid for it too. You're not sucking off anyone. If it's anyone who's living off others— it's him!"

Her voice boomed towards the end, making Jeremy's eyes moisten.

"Nessa, how can you—"

"Shut up, loser! You don't have the money to buy me a thing. You don't have the energy to do chores around the house. You don't have anything to give back to my family but you have a sharp long tongue!" Vanessa screamed, her eyes raging red. "How dare you insult my grandma?"

Vanessa crossed the room and slapped him on the same cheek her mother slapped him before. The corner of Jeremy's lip broke. Even if he didn't want it, a tear escaped his eyes and his wife scoffed.

"Wow! Look at the girl crying. You think we're bullying you? Jeez, why don't you go die somewhere, Jeremy."

"What's going on here?" The sliding doors of the balcony were slid to the side and Jeremy's grandfather appeared.

Since they didn't have another room to put him in, Celeste made his bed in the balcony on the floor. She placed a lumpy mattress for him where he slept, no matter the weather, Jorah had to endure it. He didn't complain much because he knew that complaining would get his dear grandson to pay the price.

"Oh, there comes your old hag!" Vanessa snickered. "Unlike my grandma who's always doing something to contribute to the family, your old man is always relaxing. I regret that mom put him in the balcony. He's got a nice view to see and he's always in there doing nothing."

"Don't drag my grandpa into this, Vanessa."

"Why? Your ego is stoked when I talk humiliatingly to your old man. But it's fine if you do to mine. Jeremy! You reap what you sow. And since your grandpa is useless and takes unnecessary space, I think I should bring him to an old age home."

Tbc...