3: 3
Wilfred dragged a stool over and sat down right in front of me.
He crossed his legs, the top one bouncing, and looked me over like I was a trained monkey putting on a show.
"Brooklyn, you told me your dad was just a retired factory worker and your mom stayed home."
He lifted his chin at me.
"So what are you playing at, pretending to be somebody?"
I didn't answer him. My finger found my dad's number on the screen and hit call.
Wilfred wasn't worried in the least.
"Go on, call. Let me tell you something. We're a couple, we're about to get married."
"Even if the cops show up, this is a family matter. Nobody can touch it."
"You could summon God himself down here today, and you'd still follow the Swanson family's rules."
For some reason, a call he always picked up in a second was still ringing. On and on.
Right then, my mother-in-law finally came out of the house, carrying a big deep bowl in her hands.
The liquid inside was cloudy and gray, with clumps floating on the surface, giving off a sharp, sour reek.
I nearly gagged on the spot.
"What are you doing?"
She put on a smile and held the bowl out to me.
"This is the ritual tea. Every new bride marrying into the Swanson family has to drink it before she comes through the door."
Seeing me go pale, her grin turned even more shameless.
"It's the water the whole family washed our feet in. Sat three days now. The older it gets, the better it works."
"Drink this bowl down and I guarantee you'll be meek for the rest of your life, head bowed, never daring to talk back to your elders again."
I turned my face away, so sick I could barely breathe.
Wilfred stood, grabbed my chin and forced it up, pressing the rim of the bowl hard against my lips.
"Be good. Drink the ritual tea, then kneel and knock your head on the ground three times for my parents."
"Do that, and I'll forgive you for acting up just now."
I clenched my jaw shut.
But that sour, rotten stink kept crawling up my nose, and my stomach heaved.
I'd already decided. Even if I had to bite my own tongue off today, I would never drink that thing.
Wilfred bore down harder, his fingers digging into my cheeks until they ached.
"Open your mouth."
I whipped my head sideways with everything I had and slammed my forehead into the rim of the bowl.
It flew out of his hand and shattered into two pieces on the ground.
The filthy, stinking water splashed across one leg of Wilfred's pants and all over me.
"You little bitch."
Wilfred flew into a rage, seized a fistful of my hair and yanked it back, a tearing pain shooting across my scalp.
"You had your chance to do this the easy way!"
"If you didn't come without a bride price, you think I'd have lowered myself to sweet-talk you for three whole years?"
He let go of my hair and shoved me stumbling, then the people behind me shoved me roughly back.
Wilfred pointed at the pigsty in the corner of the yard and shouted.
"Drag her into the pigsty. No food for three days."
"Whenever she opens her mouth to beg me, then we'll finish the virginity check."
Off to the side, my mother-in-law was so worked up her face had gone red.
"Yes, starve her. Once she can't stand up anymore, she'll behave on her own."
"When she's desperate enough, I'll feed her a couple mouthfuls of slop water. She'll be on her knees begging, guaranteed."
Two burly men grabbed me by the arms from either side and dragged me toward the pigsty.
My feet scraped two pale lines across the ground. I had nothing left to fight back with.
As that raw pigsty stench grew closer, the eager grunting of the pigs was already drifting to my ears.
The instant they dragged me to the pigsty gate, the call in my hand connected.
My dad's deep, steady voice came through from the other end.
"Brookie, what's wrong?"
