Chapter 8

After Alana finished speaking, she stopped talking. She gave me one last look, then turned and walked away. "Alana, you didn't want to marry Freddy, right? If that's true, why didn't you fight back?" She looked over her shoulder at me like I was an idiot. "Your family lost your land last night for almost nothing. You didn't want that either. Why didn't you fight back?" Her words stunned me. I had no idea how to answer. Fight back? It wasn't that I didn't want to. I just had no way to win. It wasn't just the land. Even if Freddy really stabbed a hole in me just now, what could I do to him? "Didn't you ever think about running away?" "Running away?" Alana laughed like my question was cute. "If I ran, what would happen to my parents? And where would I even run to? I didn't even finish high school. You want me to go out and sell myself?" The Alana I knew when we were young was gone. I had known her as a quiet, obedient young lady who never cursed. Hearing these words from her now felt strange and sad. "Marrying Freddy wasn't even the worst thing. At least I don't starve. Isn't that something?" In her smile, I saw deep exhaustion. Maybe she tried to fight back once, but she lost in the end. Maybe that was just her fate. After Alana left, I had no choice but to think hard about what she said. Freddy's hate for me was not going to fade. He would try everything to ruin me, and I had no way to beat him. She was right. If I wanted to get away from him, I had to leave Stonebrook. It wasn't just me. Dad had to come with me as well. But life never followed preconceived plans. Certain things would happen to a person no matter how hard they tried to hide. ... On the night of the summer festival, Dad made some desserts and a few dishes to go with drinks. We shared a few cups. After drinking, I went to bed around 10:00 pm. I hadn't slept long when someone pounded on our door so hard that it shook the whole place. Dad and I both woke up and rushed to open it. The moment the door swung open, two of Brandon's men stormed inside with a huge guard dog. Their faces looked wild and mean. "What are you doing?" Dad tried to stop them, but they said nothing. They searched every corner of our house fast and roughly. However, they didn't find what they wanted. Then, they pulled the dog and rushed to the next house. "What was that? What were they looking for?" Dad and I were both confused. He put on clothes and stepped outside to ask around. I followed him out. Torches and flashlights lit up the whole village. Dog barks echoed from every direction. Dad came back soon. "Dad, what happened?" I asked. He said, "The woman you saw in Brandon's house, the one he bought from the city, ran away tonight. Brandon and his men were at the Ford residence drinking for the festival. When they came back at midnight, she was gone." I was shocked. That woman had been chained. How did she get out? That night, not only the Ford family and Brandon's men searched for her. Even Liam gathered tons of people. They spread across the hills with torches, looking for any sign of her. But even deep into the night, no one found her. Dad and I did not join the search, but the whole village was in chaos. I barely slept. Around 4:00 am, someone from the village came to tell Dad to go to a meeting at the village council office. I couldn't sleep anyway, so I went with him. When we arrived, a crowd had already gathered. Almost every family had sent someone. The meeting, of course, was about that woman. It wasn't a meeting, however. It was a threat. Liam spoke first. "Everyone, you all know what happened tonight. If the police show up in a few days, you should know exactly how to answer their questions, right?" The people in the room didn't react much. It wasn't their business, so they didn't care. Then Jeremy, who sat beside Liam, cleared his throat and spoke. "Everyone, this matter can stay small, or it can blow up big. If the police do come, for the good of this village, I expect all of you to keep your mouths shut. "Just say no one bought a wife. If anyone says the wrong thing, you will deal with the consequences yourselves." Jeremy always acted warm and friendly, but right now his presence crushed everyone in the room. People nodded fast, promising not to say a single wrong word. Dad and I stood in the crowd, silent. Watching the villagers act like this made my head spin. I didn't know when it happened, but Stonebrook had changed into something I no longer recognized. While I was still in shock, Brandon walked straight up to me with a dark look. "Luca, did you hear the instructions or not?" I didn't expect him to come ask me in person. Maybe he saw my family as trouble. I didn't answer. I just nodded once. Brandon didn't like that. He smacked the back of my head hard. "Talk." At that, Dad rushed in. "Brandon, he's just a kid. Don't take him so seriously. Don't worry. We won't say a word." Brandon grunted and turned to leave, but as he walked off, he shot me a look. It was the same look he gave me at Freddy's wedding. The kind of look one gave a dead man. When we got home, the back of my head throbbed. The slap came out of nowhere, and anger burned in my chest, but I had no choice except to swallow it. I wasn't even qualified to fight back. I found myself hoping that the woman really did reach the police and that they would come take Brandon and the Fords away. By then, the sky was getting light. Even in the early morning, heat clung to the air. I filled a bucket with tap water and went behind the house to take a cold shower. I was halfway through it when I heard a rustling sound near the straw pile. It wasn't the soft sound of wind through the leaves. It sounded like something moving inside it, pushing the stalks around with a rough scrape. Every hair on my body shot up. The backyard had been abandoned for months. The straw pile was taller than a person. It was the perfect place for snakes to hide. I hated snakes. Panic shot through me. I grabbed the hoe by the wall and stared at the pile of yellow and green stalks. The noise grew louder. Stalks on top of the pile began to slide down, like something huge was trying to break out. Cold sweat soaked my back even though I was still wet from the shower. My hands shook around the hoe. What if a giant snake were inside? Then, I saw what emerged. It wasn't a snake. It was a thin, bony woman with messy hair hanging over her face.