Ficorpio
Chapter 1
Chapter 1
My brother was going to marry my sister-in-law.
She was beautiful, with fair skin and a quiet, gentle face. She was even a college graduate.
But the one who had been dating her was my second brother, Tyler—tall, handsome, the pride of the family. The one who was actually going to marry her was my older brother Daniel, who walked with a damaged leg.
Early the next morning, Grace tried to leave. No one in my family stopped her. Only my mother said one thing.
“You can go if you want. Just pay back the bride price first.”
Grace’s family refused to return the $14,000 bride price payment, so of course she didn’t get to leave.
Later, after listening to Tyler, Grace started doing livestream selling to help the family sell produce.
Until one day, Tyler came home with another woman.
When Tyler came back after graduating college, he brought Grace with him. My family never let me sit at the table when we ate, so I could only sneak a look at her through the window.
She was so pretty. Pale, neat, soft-looking. The kind of woman who seemed as if she ought to live somewhere bright and clean.
She noticed me peeking in. Instead of pretending she hadn’t, she smiled and came over with a chicken foot for me.
I liked her right away.
That night, I heard my mother talking to Tyler.
She said the only reason he had ever been able to go to college was because of Daniel. Back when Daniel got hurt in that factory accident, the compensation money had paid for Tyler’s schooling. Without it, Tyler never would have made it out.
Daniel was short, and his leg was crippled. No matter how high they set the bride price, no one was willing to marry a daughter into our house for him.
So my mother told Tyler to give Grace to his older brother.
She said that in another two years, I’d be old enough to marry off too. Once they got a bride price for me, they could use that money to buy Tyler an apartment in the city.
She also said Tyler was young and college-educated. He could do better than Grace. He could find a girl from a government family, someone with real prospects.
By the time she finished, Tyler had started to waver.
That was when my mother saw me.
“You little brat, don’t you dare tell your sister-in-law,” she said. “If you let this slip, I’ll sew your mouth shut.”
I pressed my lips together so hard they hurt and shook my head fast to show her I wouldn’t say a word.
I knew she meant it. My mother was the kind of person who really would do something like that.
Grace was from the next village over. She and Tyler had been childhood sweethearts, and they’d both gotten into college.
Her family believed in son preference. To stay in school, Grace had barely gone back to the Miller home for years. And now that she was grown, this was the first time I had ever seen her.
Chapter 2
Chapter 2
The wedding was held the way people in our hometown always did it—loud, crowded, and dressed up to look happy.
Even I got a new outfit.
Grace’s parents came too, and they brought her little brother with them.
All through the wedding, the guests kept raising glasses to Grace and Tyler. They made them drink again and again until Grace’s face turned redder and redder.
By nighttime, she was so drunk she couldn’t even stay awake.
That was when my mother sent my older brother, Daniel, into the bridal room.
Then she turned around and handed Tyler a wad of cash, telling him to go back to the city and live well.
Early the next morning, Grace came running out of the newlywed room in tears.
Daniel came out right after her with his head lowered, limping over to stand behind my mother.
My mother hurried forward and tried to calm Grace down. “You’re with Daniel now. This is your fate. Tyler already went back to the city. You should stay here with our family and live properly with Daniel from now on.”
Grace screamed and cried and flatly refused.
My mother stepped closer and kept talking. “Your family took our $14,000 bride price payment. If you insist on leaving, then pay back the money first.”
“My family took that money, not me! Why are you asking me for it?” Grace shouted.
“And where’s my phone? What did you do with my phone and my handbag?”
She was yelling so hard her voice was turning hoarse.
Not long after that, my father arrived with Grace’s family and the town head.
“Grace, do you really think Tyler would ever choose you?” Mrs. Miller said, full of contempt. “Why don’t you take a good look at yourself?”
“You stay here and behave. That bride price money is being saved for your brother’s future marriage.”
Her little brother still had snot under his nose, but even he knew that money was supposed to become his one day.
The town head sucked on his pipe and smacked his lips. “Grace, there’s nothing I can do about this. Your family accepted the bride price, so you’ve got no reason to leave your husband’s home. Your parents raised you, after all.”
“If you want to go, fine. Then you can come up with the fourteen thousand dollars yourself and treat it as paying your parents back for raising you.”
“Sir, you watched me grow up,” Grace said, crying. “From the day I was born until now, when have my parents ever spent fourteen thousand dollars on me?”
“That’s just how things are for girls around here,” he said. “Every family does it this way.”
“Town head, what you’re doing is against the law.”
At that, he glared at her. “Against the law? Around here, this is how it’s always been done. Generation after generation. Who ever said it was illegal?”
He was getting impatient now. He waved his hand and cut her off.
“That’s enough. If you can’t pay the money back, then you stay in the Turner house and be Daniel’s wife.”
The light in Grace’s eyes slowly died.
“Ugh…”
Grace suddenly doubled over and started vomiting.
My mother and father exchanged a look.
Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Then my mother glanced around and called toward where I was standing. “Annie, go get Dr. Ellis from the village.”
I took off at a run in my torn shoes. By the time I came back with Dr. Ellis, the town head and Grace’s parents had already gone home.
After examining her, Dr. Ellis told my mother that Grace was pregnant.
My parents were happy. Even if the baby was Tyler’s, it was still their grandchild.
Daniel wasn’t happy at all. He’d only just gotten a wife, and now that wife was carrying his younger brother’s child.
After that, my mother told me to keep an eye on Grace and make sure she didn’t do anything reckless.
But I thought Grace seemed happy.
The baby was Tyler’s. That gave her something to hope for again. She was going to wait for my second brother to come back and take the two of them away.
Tyler started calling more often too, and Grace grew rounder by the day.
Daniel, meanwhile, walked around with a dark face all the time. I once heard my mother whisper to him that once Grace had this baby, they’d make her give Daniel one too.
With a child already in the house, they wouldn’t have to worry about her making a scene.
Daniel didn’t like hearing that, but there was nothing he could do, so in the end he gave in.
Time passed quickly. Before long, it was almost Christmas.
Grace was six months pregnant by then, her belly full and high, and she was so happy. Tyler always came home for Christmas every year.
But this time, the person she was waiting for never came back.
Tyler said it was his first year at work and he wanted to stay at the company over the holiday, pull his weight, make a good impression.
Grace started getting restless.
Whenever no one was around, she would sneak into my mother’s room and go through her handbag. Her ID card was in there. So was her diploma.
I saw her do it many times.
I never told anyone.
Grace was good to me—better than anyone else in that house. She would save some of her nutritional tonics and share them with me. She even helped me with my schoolwork.
And I didn’t like that house either.
I hoped that one day I could escape too.
If I ever got the chance to get into college the way Grace had, then no matter what happened, I would never come back.
In the end, Mrs. Turner found out what Grace had been trying to do.
After that, to keep her calm so she’d carry the baby safely, she made Tyler call and comfort her.
Tyler even sent her a gold bracelet. He said he’d saved up for it just for her, something so nice that even Mrs. Turner didn’t have one.