The moment she saw Moon’s face on television, Sunshine laughed before she could even hear the content. After laughing for about six minutes, she finally hit play.
Moon was being interviewed, and she was singing with pride about her love for Cassius the fool. She even talked about his father Peter Strauss and how half of the Quinn group belonged to them.
She also talked about Pastor Salem, praising him for his good work in reminding everyone about the apocalypse. Of course, she credited the revelation to herself and claimed that she had a prophetic dream. She even shared that after the acid rain; an endless cold was coming.
Sunshine turned it off; she could not watch Moon boasting and bragging like a fool. Her cousin really did not know what she was setting herself up for.
The universe had given them a second chance to live again, and Moon was using it to look for fame. In the long run, her cousin would regret her choice.
With only two hours to morning, Hades laid down in the chair and went to sleep. She remained awake and worked on her robot dog.
She spared a glance at the virtual screen to see where her personal stats were standing.
[Repairman: Sunshine Raine.
Repair success rate: {6%}
Favored tool: {Hammer}
Intelligence: {25/100}
"Oh!" The beating of her heart escalated, and the drill dropped to the floor.
The weather bodysuit had brought her 1264 points! She had enough to level up her space. This was awesome. She had been worried because she could not take in those large military vehicles and water tanks.
"System, upgrade the space." She commanded.
[Upgrade commencing.]
As for other things like intelligence, she figured that it was not related to general knowledge. It was mechanical knowledge. The repair success rate had gone up as well. With time, her phones would be ringing off the hook and she would get big orders.
She could not wait because she needed those merit coins. Sunshine left the space, laid down on a chair opposite Hades and finally went to sleep.
In the morning, to avoid the Quinn family drama, she went out before breakfast to buy more of the things that she and Hades had agreed to let her buy. They had divided the list. He would acquire the big things like jets and more military vehicles and armored tanks, and she would buy smaller things.
On her way out, she noticed the army of lawyers entering the gates in a convoy of about twenty vehicles.
"Thank God that I am not going to sit through that." She said to herself.
She drove herself to the warehouses first and took everything that had been delivered there into her space. Then, she drove to a seed market. She planned on selling seeds and creating a big farm at West brook in future.
If her space had the ability to take in live animals, she would have taken in many as well. That inability was the only flaw of her space. But what she had was better than no space at all.
She started off by buying fruit seeds in high quantities. In the fruit market, vendors did not ask questions like why she was buying so many seeds. As long as the cash cleared, they were happy to sell to you.
They even made recommendations on what seeds were best for what kind of soil. Where to buy the best fertilizer or find trained farm workers looking for work.
She bought grain and cereal seeds, legumes, vegetables. It was only when she went to buy oil seeds and specialty crops that she met a stumbling block. It was in the form of a woman that looked bored and concluded that Sunshine could not afford to put down 2.1 million for their seeds.
The demeaning expression in the woman’s eyes morphed into surprise after twenty seconds. "Holy shit! It is you! The maid that is licking her boss’ balls." The girl pointed at her.
Her eyes shifted back and forth from Sunshine to the picture of her phone. "Must be nice fucking a rich man senseless that he marries you." She added.
Sunshine was confused; she had no idea about what the girl was talking about. "Do you know whom you are talking to like that?" She asked fingers clutching into an iron clad fist.
The young woman waved her fingers dismissively. "Are you not the maid, Sunshine Raine that married Hades Quinn?" She displayed the picture for Sunshine to see.
It was a picture of Sunshine in a maid uniform eating from the kitchen inside Quinn manor with her bare hands. It was obvious that the picture had been posted to humiliate her.
"Fucking unbelievable!" Sunshine cursed.
Her first thought was that Moon was the one that leaked the unflattering picture, after all she was the one on the news last night.
"You and your cousin are really talented. One took down the boss and the other, the boss’s son." The woman sneered. "Must be nice going from rags to riches like that. Although, you two shot yourselves in the feet. As soon as you married in, the Quinn group declared bankruptcy. I bet you are regretting that decision now."
Sunshine did not respond to the woman that was obviously waiting for a response. Her eyes roamed around for possible reporters that could jump out of the shadows and thrust microphones in her face.
It was only now that she noticed that her picture was on the front of every damn newspaper. If she did not have supplies to stock, she would be out of there very gladly.
She covered her head with a hood and handed over her credit card. "I am a Quinn now so you know that I will pay well. We still have money, if that is what you are concerned about. Now, swipe the card and send my delivery to the Quinn manor." She held her head high.
After seed shopping, she went to the mall, behaving like a thief in hiding. She wrapped a scarf around her head, over the hood of the jacket. When she walked past a mirror and saw herself, she paused her steps and laughed.
What have I done wrong? Why do I have to hide?" She muttered. Was it her fault that she had not been born wealthy, or that she had married a wealthy man that many women would have jumped at that opportunity to marry?
She was still thinking about it when she saw a news stand in the mall. Her throat vibrated when she saw that same picture of her contrasted with a picture of Amber, Hades’s ex-wife.
Obviously, they were comparing their looks. Amber was a rich girl, an actress. Sunshine was the maid who ate with her hands. One was perfect the other, not so much.
It made her scoff. "Who cares they will soon have bigger things to talk about than me. Idiots." She removed the scarf, lowered the hood and took off the sunglasses. Proudly, she faced the curious and judgmental eyes in the mall.
Nothing would deter her from preparing for the apocalypse. As for beauty, it was one of the top disasters in the apocalypse for women.
A beautiful woman without a strong protector in such times was like a mango tree with ripe mangoes on the side of the road. Anyone with strength could climb the tree, pick and eat its fruit.