When I opened my eyes again, he was actually there with me in the countryside.
Cecily stood over me, watching me alone.
"Donald is so good to you. He was worried you'd suffer out here, so he came all the way to check on your new living arrangements."
"You should start getting used to it now. After all, being a farm girl isn't about sitting around doing nothing. You'll have to work the fields."
She finished speaking and walked out.
She hooked her arm through Donald's and introduced him to her parents.
"This is my boyfriend. The one inside is his little sister. She was spoiled rotten at home, so we brought her here for you to toughen up."
"However you'd raise any other girl around here, that's how you raise her."
The last part, she said in the local dialect.
Translated, it meant: treat her like a pig, a dog, an animal. Whatever you want.
She walked back over to me, flashing a bright smile, still speaking in dialect.
"Right, whore?"
She thought I couldn't understand. She even had the kindness to explain it to me.
"Sheila, I was complimenting you just now."
"Aren't you happy?"
My face stayed blank. I looked at that smug face of hers, picked up the porcelain ashtray caked with her father's cigarette ash from the bed, and threw it right in her face.
Then I gave it right back to her.
"Whore."
"I'm complimenting you too."
Cecily's face turned a mottled gray.
She shrieked and clawed at her skin, growing more frantic by the second, until she was so furious she burst into tears.
Donald rushed over, grabbed her hands, and pulled out a wet wipe to clean her face.
The look he gave me was pure rage.
"Cecily had a miscarriage. Her health is already fragile."
"How could you do this to her?!"
Cecily's parents panicked too. Her father snatched up a pair of coal tongs from the floor and swung them at me.
"You little tramp, laying a hand on my daughter!"
"I'll—"
I grabbed the pillow and hurled it at him.
"Yeah, I touched her. Go ahead and kill me if you've got the guts."
"She knew he was taken and went after him anyway. She seduced my man, then dumped me in this godforsaken middle of nowhere. Back in the old days, I could've had her drowned for what she did."
"If you don't like it, call the cops. Let them haul every last one of you in."
The neighbors who'd crowded in to watch the commotion heard every word. The way they looked at Cecily's family shifted entirely.
"I thought this girl married some rich man. Turns out she's the other woman."
"And she dragged the real wife all the way out here? How can someone be that heartless?"
"Wait, that can't be right. I heard she was dating him for real, that they were about to get their marriage license."
Cecily couldn't take the whispers and the pointed stares. She snatched the wet wipe from Donald's hand and flung it at them.
She turned on the crowd, spitting venom.
"You're listening to her bullshit! I'm the one who's Donald's woman. If you don't believe me, ask him!"
"Donald, say something! You promised me!"
Donald had already slipped back into character. He reached over and stroked her hair, stepping in to smooth things over.
"Everyone, please stop with the rumors. Cecily and I are the real couple."
"This woman tried to crawl into my bed. I brought her here to teach her a small lesson, but clearly she hasn't learned a thing."
His expression twisted with disgust.
"Now she's trying to slander Cecily."
"I remember Cecily telling me your village has a way of dealing with women like this..."
My heart lurched.
A terrible feeling crept over me.
"It's about time she learned her lesson."
I backed away slowly until my spine hit the wall. The door had been locked from the outside.
Several stocky women burst in, gripping fresh switches braided from willow branches.
They brought them down on me without hesitation.
"Homewreckers are all possessed by fox spirits."
