Chapter 11
+25 BONUS
Three days after Audrey had delivered her baby my assistant told me the four men had set up camp outside the company. The janitors had shooed them away, but they returned with a whole bunch of stuff and camped for another day.
At this point, Audrey could get out of bed on her own.
On the fourth day, Audrey asked, “Where are they now, Harley?”
I stared at the suture across her belly and said hesitantly, “Well…”
Her brows lifted. “I’ve been avoiding them for a while now, Harley. It’s time to face them.” It was only when she told me the full story that I understood.
Back in her hometown, her people had a culture where single men could snatch women off the streets and force them into marriage. The man only had to show up at the woman’s home, offer her family money in exchange for their blessings, and the marriage would
become official.
The bride didn’t have a say in the union, and no one bothered to ask what she made of the abrupt arrangements, either. Even if the bride cried and kicked up a fuss, it would be dismissed as part of her bridal ethics.
Audrey had been forced, crying and protesting, into a union by the man with a limp. At the wedding, she didn’t even learn his name.
Refusing to put up with the insult, Audrey fled the next day while no one was watching. She had taken whatever money she had and boarded the only train out of her hometown in the sticks. By some miracle or other, she got out.
She met Jerome after that. “I’ll help you,” he had promised her.
I sighed, feeling sorry for Audrey. She had gone through so much at such a young age.
But she flashed me a smile as she said, “I’d like to deal with this myself.”
I expressionlessly held her down on the bed. “I happen to like nosing into others‘ business.
Two days later, Audrey set up her livestream. I cleared some of the company’s remaining funds to help Audrey reach a wider audience.
She was a dancer whose followers reached five figures before, but with the company’s recent scandal, the numbers had reached six figures. Coupled with the money I had injected into her livestream, her channel gained traction the moment she went live.
Neither the hospital nor the company made for a good livestreaming background, so Audrey decided to meet her family by the manmade lake. It was a quiet, open space, with a
Chapter 11
police booth and emergency center within a one–mile radius.
+25 BONUS
Audrey made her way to the lakeside first and told us to wait for her some distance away. She was alone while waiting for her family to show.
The middle–aged man with whom Audrey shared some resemblance stormed up to her at once. He grabbed her arm and made to drag her away. “You’re coming home with me!”
The bodyguards who had tailed Audrey hurriedly stepped in.
After breaking free from the man, Audrey rubbed her wrist, which had turned red from the man’s vise–like grip, and glowered at her father. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
Her father’s face darkened, and her brother took off one of his sandals to strike her with it. She couldn’t dodge it, but she returned the favor with a hard slap across her brother’s face. “Hit me again and I’ll hit you back,” she warned.
Audrey’s brother was stunned by her retaliation at first, but when he snapped out of his daze, he made to hit her again. The bodyguards stopped him this time. “How dare you hit me! How dare you!” he growled.
When the man with the limp saw this, he howled, “David, we paid your family 5,000 dollars, and what do we get? A runaway bride! And you can’t even get her to come home with you now?”
Audrey’s father snapped, “Stop this rebellious nonsense at once, Audrey! You’re humiliating us!”
“You were wrong for allowing this to happen in the first place, Dad,” Audrey countered. She turned and gave the limping man a disgusted look. “You paid 5,000 dollars for me? Fine. I’ll pay you back.”
“No way!” the man who was presumably Audrey’s so–called father–in–law interjected angrily. “No family in our village has had their daughter–in–law return their gift money!” “I am not your daughter–in–law!” Audrey argued.
