"Lex, are you absolutely sure Zara isn't bullying you?"
Technically, Skylar Sommers had been the one to discover Lex scrubbing the shoes when she went to look for Zara.
Since Skylar and Lex had only just met, she didn't feel comfortable prying directly.
But her immediate assumption was that Lex was being exploited.
It wasn't that she assumed the heiress was purely malicious. But what if Zara had begged, and Lex was simply too polite to say no?
Zara was used to having people wait on her hand and foot. She came from a world where she never had to lift a finger, surrounded by a fleet of household staff.
Lex, conversely, was used to being walked all over at home and had zero boundary- setting skills.
It was a recipe for disaster.
Not wanting to confront them herself, Skylar brought it up to Claire.
Claire had gone up to check. She had frowned silently at the sight, waiting until a break in training to pull Lex aside privately.
"No." Lex hadn't expected Claire to interrogate her about it.
She looked a bit embarrassed.
"Then why are you washing her shoes?" People were already whispering that Lex was Zara's personal maid.
Those exact taunts had sparked the earlier physical altercation.
The girls might have stopped saying it to Zara's face, but the gossip was definitely still circulating behind closed doors.
"I..." Lex hesitated.
Claire furrowed her brow. "Is there something you can't tell me?"
"If you're just too embarrassed to say no to Zara, then you're just enabling her inability to function as an adult."
"She's only going to get worse, and she won't even realize she's doing anything wrong."
"She'll start taking your kindness for granted."
Lex hurriedly waved her hands. “It's not like that!"
"She paid me."
*What?*
Now it was Claire's turn to be stunned.
"How much?"
"Twenty dollars a pair." Lex looked down, too nervous to meet Claire's gaze. "Is that too much?"
"But Zara set the price herself."
"I honestly thought ten dollars was more than enough."
*So that was it.*
Claire was slightly speechless.
If they were just running a side hustle, there was nothing to be ashamed of. Why were they acting so secretive?
"No, earning money through your own hard work is nothing to be ashamed of."
"As for charging twenty dollars, it's all about supply and demand."
"Out here in the middle of nowhere, she can't hire a maid, and there certainly arent any dry cleaners. You've comered the market.
Charging two hundred wouldn't even be unreasonable." 'FindNovel.net
Lex was floored by Claire's response. Her eyes welled up with emotion: thought. I thought if you found out, you'd look down on me."
“I also charged her for carrying her luggage earlier."
"But I swear I didn't ask for it! Zara insisted on paying me."
"I know a few bucks is nothing to someone like her."
“But I desperately need the money, so I didn't have the pride to turn it down."
In the beginning, Lex hadn't even thought about making a profit
was genuinely a good-hearted wet
person who just wanted to help out.
But Zara wasn't a bad person either.
She wanted to use her wealth to financially support Lex, turning it into a mutually beneficial arrangement.
This was a life skill Zara had picked up from Connie, her family's housekeeper. Zara wasn't naturally diplomatic and entirely lacked her stepsister's manipulative charm.
But she was more than willing to practice the practical advice Connie gave her. “That has nothing to do with pride. Like I said, making an honest living is nothing to be ashamed of."
"If we weren't stuck in training camp, you could easily turn this into a real business.” "Who knows? Maybe one day you'll run your own domestic services empire."
Claire wasn't just saying that to make Lex feel better; she genuinely saw a natural entrepreneurial instinct in her.
Little did Claire know, she was acting as a prophet.
Years later, Lex really would go on to found a highly successful domestic services company.