I guess my actions before were really different from the normal Seth. I looked at Athena's eyes full of caution.
"If I'm not Seth then who am I?" I asked teasingly.
Athena just looked at me defensively.
"I am Seth. Seth who has amazingly seen the light after my two years stay in the army." I replied.
I looked at her again and saw her put her guard down a little bit.
"Athena, you shouldn't trust my stepmother. She… I think she is trying to get rid of us." I told her honestly.
"But… stepmother treats you kindly." She replied.
"Really? Is spoiling me until I don't know heaven and earth anymore, treating me kindly? Do you know, because of how stepmother taught me, I was beaten everyday in the army. I was beaten until I couldn't be spoiled anymore." I told her.
That wasn't a lie. Seth was really beaten almost everyday for a month when he first came into the army. After that, Seth realized that if he wants to survive he has to follow the army rules. I gauge her reactions but she was just quietly contemplating.
"Athena, we need to remove the children from stepmother and the nanny's care. Trust me on this. But we also need to pretend to listen to them. Stepmother is not someone easy to deal with." I explained but she was just quietly contemplating it.
I'm a bit scared that she won't trust me and tell my stepmother about this.
"Trust me on this one. I will protect our family." I told her sincerely.
She looked at my eyes as if she was looking for answers. Whether I'm telling the truth or not.
"Okay. I will trust you, husband." She replied and smiled comfortingly at me.
"Thank you." I said and smiled at her.
I saw her blushing when I smiled at her. She's so cute.
"Wife, we need to make this shop work. This will be our first step to financial independence so if you have any ideas how to improve the shop, don't be shy and tell me about it, okay?" I encourage her.
She nodded happily at me. Ashley came out of the store and told us that Kelly and Lisa were crying inside. It seems like the twins were hungry. I told them to wrap things up and prepare to go home since it was also a bit late.
The following day I was very busy, I started my morning by waking the boys up to exercise. I then headed to my grandfather to ask about trademarks and stuff. He gave me sets of instructions on how to achieve that and I've dealt with it for almost the whole day.
When I got back it was already time to pick up the children. When I arrived at their school they were already waiting for me and I saw David with brand new bruises.
"Did you get beaten again?" I asked and David nodded.
"You will all start learning how to defend yourself every morning from me, including the girls" I told them and we all went to the market to buy ingredients for our dinner. I would really like to add a refrigerator in our shop but it's expensive. I can't afford it yet.
When I entered the shop, I was pleasantly surprised with what I saw. Athena added some decorations to the shop and these details made the shop look chic and eye-catching.
"It looks pretty. You did a good job, Athena. I like it." I told her when I saw her.
"I'm glad you like it, husband." Athena replied.
I prepared our dinner with Ashley and Brittany while the other children did their homework. After dinner, I gathered everyone for a family meeting.
"Alright. As you all know, we are opening this shop tomorrow and luckily you don't have classes tomorrow so I want Ashley, Brittany, Christine, David, and Eric to help out in the shop tomorrow. I will assign your task later. Faith, you will be the leader of the young ones tomorrow, alright? I bought some toys there, if you want to go out and play you just need to inform me and your mother about it." I told them and explained the more detailed plan for the store to the older ones.
"Do you all understand?" I asked them when I'm done with the instructions and they all nodded.
I told them to disperse while I talked to Athena regarding our pricing.
"I was thinking of putting our items for sale for three days to gather people." I told her.
"Husband, I think it would be good to give the discounts for a week so we can gather more people. How about adding discounts when they reach a certain number of articles. Like if they buy 5 they get less 20 owo on their purchases." Athena suggested.
"That's a good idea." I said.
I looked at Athena and realized that she might be better at this than me.
"Do you have more suggestions?" I asked enthusiastically.
"I think it would be a good idea to let Ashley and the others walk around and call out the crowd." Athena suggested and I agreed.
After that, Athena and I checked the shop one more time and once we were satisfied we called it a day and prepared for our opening tomorrow.
The following morning both Athena and I woke up early.
"Are you excited too?" I asked when I saw her come out of her room.
Athena shyly nodded and went to the kitchen. I went to wake up the children including my daughters and we all started exercising.
I also started teaching them some simple self defense.
"Seth must you really torture the children like this? Can't you see how tired my grandsons are? They're already losing so much weight as it is." Stepmother complained.
"Don't worry mother. It's not that bad. My grandfather made me run more than this when I was younger." I said and that was not a lie.
Grandfather was a military man through and through. My father and I would be tasked to join him in his morning exercises before.
It wasn't until he moved to the villa that we stopped doing the exercises. I left my stepmother and continued training the kids before telling them to clean up so we can head to the shop.
We decided last night to eat breakfast at the shop so we can open early. Based on what we had seen the past week, there was enough foot traffic during the early morning so it was best to open early.
"Are we all ready?" I asked after we had eaten our breakfast.
I looked around and saw the children were ready and so was Athena in the register. I opened the shop and the children started heading out and calling out customers. There were a lot of curious passersby who went inside when they saw the interior and all the red sale signs.
"Is this really 8% off?" One customer asked.
"Do we really get 8 owo off if we buy 5 items?" Another one asked.
"Yes. It's our opening sale. It will be a week-long sale to celebrate our shop opening." I explained.
The customers all looked happy when they heard that and started looking at clothes. I tried to help some of them and complimented them to buy the clothes but that is not really going great. Some did buy but the others felt uncomfortable around me.
I wonder if I look too sleazy.
"Madam, why don't you try that with this scarf? If you style it like this. Don't you think it's pretty?" I heard Athena asked one of the customers that was close to her.
She helped her wear the scarf in a certain style and the madam looked pretty happy about it. It seemed like I'm the one who had better watch the register so I slowly headed to the register and signaled Athena to continue what she was doing.
I looked around and was pretty satisfied with the current foot traffic. I also saw Christine talking with a customer and making suggestions on them. I noticed that Christine has a good fashion sense. It'll be good for her to improve this skill.
Now that I think about it, I need to consider their future aspirations. Ashley is already 10 years old, I wonder what are their future aspirations?
"Excuse me, can't you give me a little bit more discount? I'm buying three items." a customer said.
"I'm sorry madam but my wife is the boss. I can't arbitrarily change prices. You can try asking her." I said apologetically.
She looked at my wife and tried to bargain with Athena. I feel a little sorry for Athena but I realized that Athena is great at dealing with these kinds of problems. I watched as she convinced the woman to buy another 2 items to get the discount.
The woman came back looking happy and paid for her items.
"Husband, why did you say that to the madam." Athena said shyly when the madam left.
"Wife, I think you are way better than me when it comes to taking care of customers. From now on, you are the boss. You decide what we will do." I told her.
Since she is way better than me then it is in our best interest if I step down as the store manager and give it to her. After all, I'm sure my former life long plan was to be a househusband. It seems like in this life, I can achieve it.