4: 4
4
Something uneasy flickered across the three Butlers' faces, but they pulled themselves together fast enough.
"Go look around our village. Which family doesn't hit their kids?"
"This little tramp wouldn't listen, so I taught her some sense. What's wrong with that? Isn't she standing here just fine?"
I didn't answer them. I eased Yolanda's sleeve back down, took her hand, and drew her to sit beside me on the sofa.
Her eyes were red, and her voice cracked as she leaned close to my ear.
"Ursula, Pearl is a master at twisting everything around. She won't listen to reason. Don't get tangled up with her."
"I don't want to cause you trouble. I can go back with them. Please don't get into a fight over me."
She was clearly terrified out of her mind, and still she was afraid I'd be the one to suffer for it.
Something in me went soft all at once, hard and aching.
I pushed the feeling down out of my eyes and patted the back of her hand to steady her, then turned to the butler standing off to one side.
"Leigh, call the police."
The moment I said it, the three Butlers came completely undone.
"The police? What police? You little tramp, what do you think you're doing?"
"We didn't break any law. What could the police do to me anyway?"
I toyed with my beads, not even bothering to glance at them.
"I was actually going to come find you. And here you are, showing up at my door yourselves."
"Fifteen years ago, how did my sister end up at your house? You know exactly, don't you?"
All these years, my parents had never given up looking for Yolanda.
The police leads had only ever confirmed she'd been abducted. Who she'd been sold to, that they could never trace.
A family like the Butlers would never take in a little girl out of kindness.
The most likely answer was simple. They were the buyers.
Sure enough, the words wiped the composure right off the middle-aged couple's faces. They grabbed the old woman and made to leave.
But the old woman refused to believe it, still shrieking at me.
"Don't you try to scare me! I've lived eighty years. What haven't I seen?"
"This useless little burden cost me two thousand dollars, bought to be a wife for my grandson!"
"Now I've finally raised her to eighteen, and you people say you'll take her and just take her? Is there no justice in this world!"
I gripped Yolanda's hand tight.
I could feel the thin sheen of nervous sweat in her palm.
"Her grandson. Her grandson is a simpleton, twelve years older than me. When I was brought to their house, he was already fifteen."
"She wanted me to marry him. To be his wife."
Not just me. Even Leslie's fists clenched hard.
"Animals. They're nothing but animals."
The middle-aged couple tugged at the old woman, trying to leave.
"Ma, let's go."
"If the police get here, we'll never be able to explain our way out."
But the old woman flung their hands off and stepped forward, reaching out to grab Yolanda.
"If we're going, we're taking this useless girl with us! She's the wife I raised for my grandson!"
"Fifteen years I fed her for nothing. There's no way I'm letting her walk off to some good life so easy!"
Leslie moved fast to block her.
Terrified the old woman would get the worst of it, the middle-aged couple rushed forward to shield her too.
In the scramble, the vase on the display stand beside the sofa was knocked hard to the floor.
Porcelain burst apart in an instant, and the living room went dead silent.
I looked at the pile of shattered pieces.
"You want five million, is that right? Fine. I agree."
Delight flashed across the three Butlers' faces.
But their joy didn't last a single second before my next words were already out.
"That vase was a masterwork from the Ming dynasty. My father brought it home from an auction five years ago. Worth thirty million."
"Deduct the five million I owe you."
"You still owe me. Twenty-five million in damages."
At that, all three of them went white as sheets.
Even the old woman, the loudest and most vicious of them, didn't dare say another word.
After a long moment, the three of them traded a look and turned to bolt for the door.
Their little move actually made me laugh.
"Leigh, have someone stop them."
Just then, several officers walked in through the door.
"Who called the police?"
