03
The next day was the family dinner.
Stuart showed up wearing a turtleneck in the
middle of summer to hide the whip marks. He looked pissed.
My dad asked me in a hushed voice, “He’s not giving you trouble, is he?”
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I grinned. “Nah, we’re great.”
My stepmom chimed in. “You’re great. He looks kinda rough.”
I looked at Stuart. “Honey, come sit down.”
Stuart snorted, but his legs carried him over to me anyway. He sat down next to me.
I patted his thigh. “See? He’s being so good.”
Stuart’s inner thigh twitched. He turned his face away, but his leg didn’t move, and he unconsciously rubbed against my palm.
My dad and stepmom looked stunned.
Was this the same Stuart Huntington who
looked like he wanted to eat them alive yesterday?
During dinner, I heard my stepmom complaining
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that my dad had kicked Brittany out of the
house after the wedding.
Brittany wasn’t backing down. She even said
that one day, my dad, my stepmom, and even me would be begging her for help.
My dad got so mad that he cut off Chad’s
financial support and canceled Brittany’s credit cards. He wanted to see who would come
crawling first.
My stepmom whispered to me, “You and Chad are pretty close, right? Could you get in touch with him? I want to give Brittany some money.”
Last time, my dad was fooled by Chad’s act of being hardworking and ambitious. I was tempted by Chad’s promise to do whatever I wanted.
After Brittany married Stuart, I married Chad.
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After we got the marriage license, Chad said
we should hold off on the wedding. He wanted
to start a business and give me a grand
wedding when he made it big.
I told him I didn’t care about the wedding. I just
wanted a little place for the two of us.
And a special room where I wouldn’t have to
hide my true nature and we could have fun
together.
He thought I was so understanding, so he took
me back to his hometown.
The day after we arrived, he showed his true
colors. He took my phone and, because I didn’t
know the mountain roads and his relatives lived
in
the village, I couldn’t escape.
He made me do farm work for his mother,
cook, and do the laundry. I even had to wash
his and his mother’s feet, or I wouldn’t get any
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food.
He made me ask my family for money every
month and kept an eye on me to make sure I
didn’t say anything to my dad.
After two months of that hell, I managed to
escape and called the cops on Chad and his
mom.
Since we were married, Chad’s actions didn’t
count as kidnapping, just domestic violence. He
only got two years, and his mom got one year
and three months.
Before he went in, he glared at me. “I won’t let
you go, Summer. You just wait. You’ll never
escape my grasp again!”
Too bad for him, by the time he got out, I’d be
someone he couldn’t afford to mess with.
But that idiot Brittany came along and blew me
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up, doing Chad a favor.
This time, since Brittany was so eager to be
with him, who was I to stand in her way?
I told my stepmom, “Brittany isn’t a little kid
anymore. If she needs money, she’ll come
home. If you give her money behind her back,
she’ll have the guts to stay away. And if she
doesn’t back down, how will Dad ever forgive
her?”
My stepmom nodded. “That’s true.”
I turned to my dad and suggested he let me run
the company. He was so upset about Brittany
that he should go on vacation.
My dad figured that since I could handle Stuart,
taking care of the company shouldn’t be a
problem. And if something went wrong, Stuart
would have my back. So, he and my stepmom
went on an impromptu trip.
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Before they left, I made sure to switch their
