He then said, “The dowry your family gives can’t be greater than the betrothal gift my family gives. This is the rule of our Norman Family. If you want to be my wife, you must abide by it.”
My mother was already worried that I wouldn’t feel confident enough to be bullied after marrying, so she prepared a generous dowry for me.
So, after some thought, I finally agreed.
Finally, he said, “I’m not determined to get married yet. Let’s try it out for three months. If it works, we’ll get married.”
I thought he was being responsible for our future, so I agreed.
But to my surprise, my repeated concessions made him look at me with increasing disdain. He asked me, “Yvonne, are you so desperate to get married?”
I wasn’t. I just wanted to marry the man I loved.
That day, I really wanted to tell him. I’d loved him for ten years. Marrying him had become my greatest wish.
It was my mother who stopped me in the nick of time. On the way home, she told me. “No matter how much you love someone, don’t expose your weaknesses to them. You never know when your weaknesses might become a boomerang back at you.”
She said that no matter how much you loved someone, you must maintain your self-respect.
I carried my luggage home. My parents were surprised to see me back.
They kept asking me why I’d come home so late at night.
I didn’t hide anything and showed them the photos I’d taken.
My mother’s face paled as she saw the absurdity in the photos. She shouted, “I’m going to the Norman Family right now. I have to get an explanation from them!”
I shook my head and reached out to stop her. “Forget it, there’s no point in doing such meaningless things. Besides, he’s not the only single man in the Norman Family; he still has his uncle.”
If I couldn’t be his bride, I could at least be his aunt.
My dad slapped his thigh excitedly when he heard this.
He kept praising me. He favored Albert over Ken.
A few years ago, he got drunk at a party and insisted on becoming closer to Albert.
But he ruthlessly rejected him. He still remembered this incident. That night, I slept soundly at home.
When I woke up the next day, Ken’s mother personally sent someone to invite my parents and me to the Norman Family’s house.
They wanted to apologize for what happened the night before.
From now on, we should remain part of the Norman Family. There was no need to make things awkward.
So we arrived on time. Unexpectedly, upon arriving at the Norman Family’s house, we heard the merciless crack of a whip.
As the whip fell, there was a stubborn, angry retort. “Regina and I are innocent. Yvonne is just imagining things. What does it have to do with me? Besides, I don’t like her. You’re the ones forcing me to marry her!”
I’d known Ken disliked me all along. But hearing him say it in person still pricked my heart uncontrollably.
When we entered the room, Ken’s back was covered in crisscrossing whip marks. He knelt awkwardly before Theo, who sat in the middle. Seeing us, Theo quickly subsided and invited us to take a seat.
“My dear in-laws, you’ve come just in time. We can discuss the marriage now…”
“What marriage? I told you, if Yvonne can’t accept Regina, I won’t marry her!”
Ken raised his head stubbornly and looked at me with disdain. Theo gave him an ambiguous look and said to himself, “Whether you agree or not, Yvonne is always the daughter-in-law of our Norman Family…”
