As she heard the door shut behind Grandfather Meng, Sara turned to Adam and Chelsea before saying "Mummy, Daddy, you cannot allow that b*tch ruin my party. Sebastian Wu is coming, and you know that my engagement to him is meant to be announced by the elders today." Sara had tears running down her face
Chelsea slightly moved and gathered Sara into her arms, before saying "Everything will be alright my precious. You will be the star that we know you are, the person who brings us endless joy, and everything will happen as it is meant to."
While rubbing Sara's back, Chelsea looked at Abigail before snapping "What the hell are you doing sitting there. Serve breakfast and get into the kitchen and complete the clean-up. If you do not have everything done by the time that Sara is ready to head to school, you can forget about being driven there."
Chelsea turned to Adam, who added "While it is your birthday, and to make sure you do not ruin this event for Sara, including her engagement, while you will be allowed to go to satisfy the old man, get this through your f*cking head, this is not your party no matter what he says. This is Sara's party, and you will stay exactly where we tell you to stay, and do what we tell you to do, otherwise you can forget about school and that woman you call your grandmother will be tossed from the hospital."
Abigail lowered her head, as she stood. Before she realised it Sara had pushed a chair hard into her legs, and laughing said "Yes, you b*tch. Mummy and Daddy have it right. This is my party, and the only reason you are being allowed to have any involvement is because I need everything to go right. Now scram!"
Holding back the tears, Abigail hurried out of the dining room and returned to the kitchen. She saw Butler Du, standing in front of the kitchen staff, and heard him say "How dare you do any clean-up that the Master and Madam have dictated that that person does. You were all told that you disobey Master and Madam's regarding her, then you would lose your jobs."
Chef slightly tensed and before responding "Butler Du, as she took the breakfast out to the dining room, we heard the Old Master had arrived. Master and Madam had also made it clear that other than the staff here no one was to know what they had decreed about Miss Abigail. You know that the Old Master likes coming into the kitchen, and if he had come in and saw everything stacked there to be cleaned up, it would be difficult to hide their orders."
Butler Du, added "I do not give a care. You all know the orders…"
Hearing the anger, Abigail calmly said "Butler Du, the Old Master has left, and I will deal with everything, you do not have to worry about that."
Butler Du turned around, and with an evil smile, said "Well get everything cleaned up. The young miss has told me earlier that she wants to head off to school within." Butler Du paused and looked at his watch before continuing "twenty minutes. You know the rules, if you are not cleaned up, and absolutely ready to go to school, you are not allowed to go."
Abigail dropped her head slightly and moved to the sink, carefully moving the items the staff had kindly cleaned for her back to the side for her to wash, as Butler Du came over and with a sauce bottle in his hand, squirted what he called his dirtying mix onto the plates to a gasp from the kitchen staff.
Without responding, Abigail, drained the sink, and refilled it, starting the handwashing of all the dishes, so wishing that she could stack them into one of the three domestic dishwashers for a cycle to run, or to place them onto the trays for them to be cleaned in the commercial dishwasher. With Butler Du watching what was happening in the kitchen, there was no way that she could get away with doing that.
Abigail, picked up pot, pan, dish or utensils that she had used one after another and started handwashing them, placing them on the draining board, while she continued. After three months, she had the routine down pat in this kitchen, and within ten minutes had all the dishes washed, and was drying each one, showing the dried dish to Butler Du, before putting it away.
As she finished the last dish, Abigail looked at the wall clock and realised that she had three minutes to change and be waiting out the front for Sara to head to school. Tossing the Apron, dishcloth, and tea towels that she had used in the laundry hamper, Abigail ran out of the kitchen, grabbed her school uniform and quickly changed into it, stuffing both changes of clothes into two plastic bags at the bottom of her school bag, and running to the front porch.