The second day after I came back to my hometown, my brother's wife, Abigail Lambert, showed up at the gate with her whole family in tow, insisting that I'd walked her sister home the night before and forced myself on her out in the cornfield.
Evelyn Lambert stood in the middle of the crowd of neighbors, sobbing herself hoarse, spinning the whole thing out in vivid detail. She said I'd had my eye on her for a long time, that this wasn't even the first time, and that she was carrying my child now.
Abigail planted herself in front of me, grabbed me by the collar, and cracked her palm hard across my face.
"Ferris James, you filthy pervert. No wonder you were so eager to walk little Evelyn home last night. You'd been planning this all along."
"Let me tell you something. Family or not, you're going to answer for this today, or the Lamberts won't let you off."
The whole Lambert clan glared at me. I clenched my fist, and a cold smile touched my mouth.
"Abigail, and just how would you like me to answer for it?"
"You marry Evie, properly, right now. You sign over that storefront in town as the bride price, you treat her and the baby right from here on out, and we'll let it go."
Abigail set her hands on her hips and pitched her voice higher, giving the order like a woman wronged.
I gave an easy smile, and my eyes cut sharp across the two sisters.
"Fine. The second you can prove I'm the animal from last night, I'll come to your door and ask for her hand."
1
The yard went quiet. Every eye landed on Evelyn.
Evelyn stopped crying. There was fear and shame in her timid eyes as she spoke, her voice trembling with grief.
"Ferris, you already did this to me. How am I supposed to say it out loud?"
"I'm still just a young girl. If you won't take responsibility, I might as well be dead."
And she made to throw herself against the yard wall. But with this many people watching, she got exactly one step before the crowd hauled her back.
The words set the onlookers off like a pot boiling over.
"My God, is it true? Ferris always seemed so humble and decent. He'd really do a thing like that?"
"She's ready to die to prove she's telling the truth. What do you mean is it true? Who'd smear their own name like that?"
"Fancy college degree, so what. Young men get carried away in the moment. Poor girl, a perfectly good young thing, and now she's pregnant too."
The voices came at me from every side, all talking at once, burying me, suffocating and heavy.
Seeing this, the Lamberts weren't about to stand for it either.
"You son of a bitch, you ruin my daughter and then you want to humiliate us? Today I'll take you down with me."
Evelyn's father charged in swinging a club. I sidestepped, and it slammed into the ground with a bang, kicking up a cloud of dust.
As the second swing came down, my brother's wife lunged in front of her father.
"Dad, don't lose your temper yet. My husband's brother will make this right for Evie, I promise."
She turned to me, let out a helpless sigh, and pressed her case like she meant well.
"Ferris, it's come to this. You did wrong, so be man enough to own it. Evie's carrying your child, so you have to marry her."
"Don't worry. Once you marry her, it's just a matter between husband and wife. You won't get branded a rapist, and it won't touch the background review for that government job you just landed."
Anyone else might have panicked by now, might have caved and agreed because they had no choice.
After all, I'd just passed the interview for the civil-service post, with only the background review left.
After all, if this blew up, even if I was cleared in the end, the review window would already be gone, and years of my work would be finished in a single day.
But they'd read it wrong. They were only lifting the stone to drop it on their own feet.
The ones finished in a single day would be them. The ones who'd lose all face would be no one but the Lamberts.
