They Used Compensation Money as My Bride Price,Then Said I Owed Them a Life

1: 1

My husband and I got married because I was pregnant.

On our wedding day, they tied me up like a hog at slaughter and set me on the scale.

Eighty pounds of me, eighty thousand dollars of bride price.

Ever since my father-in-law died in that accident, my mother-in-law had been out of her mind. I let it go.

During the toasts, she sat there clutching his memorial tablet and weeping.

"Come here, Davi, kneel and bow to your father-in-law. That bride price was bought with his life. My son married you, so now you owe this family a life."

I turned to look at my husband. He didn't step in to help me. He got down on his knees too, calm as anything.

"Dad, we've brought your guilty daughter-in-law to see you!"

I froze for only a second, then resigned myself and lit the incense.

I set it neatly in front of the tablet.

"Father-in-law, tonight when you all have your little reunion, don't blame me."

"There's no other way. As long as those two are alive, your daughter-in-law can't sleep."

What was supposed to be a lively wedding now looked like a funeral hall.

My mother-in-law came out cradling the tablet, sobbing, snot and tears everywhere. "Old man! Come back and take a look, this is the daughter-in-law you traded your life for! Come back and look!"

Even the emcee, who'd seen it all, was rattled.

I looked back at my husband.

He wrapped an arm around my shoulder to soothe me and generously pushed me forward. "It's fine, Dad's just having a look at you, nothing to be scared of. My mom means well. There's nothing behind it."

She held the tablet up and waved it in my face.

"Old man! Did you see her clearly? Oh, right, you have to see the face."

She pressed the tablet against my cheek. "Old man, this is the daughter-in-law you traded your life for."

It was absurd.

I knocked the tablet aside with one slap.

The whole place went dead silent.

She stared at me, stunned, then snatched the tablet back and wiped it down, careful and thorough.

"What do you think you're doing! Son, are you not going to deal with your wife! What is the meaning of this!"

"Don't push it too far."

Seeing I was angry, my husband rushed to smooth it over. "Honey, my mom doesn't mean anything by it. She's from the country. Country people are the most down-to-earth. She's got no bad intentions."

He turned and shot the emcee a glare.

That snapped the emcee out of it. He swallowed hard. "Tea, bring the tea!"

The girl carrying the tea didn't dare go anywhere near the tablet.

She set it down and ran.

My husband handed it to me with a grin. "Honey, serve the tea. Once you've served it, everything's fine."

He made a little pleading gesture, and my face softened enough that I took the tea.

The moment I turned around, my mother-in-law dropped down onto the floor.

She sat there clutching the tablet, bawling.

The emcee was scared too, but he still tried to help. "Ma'am, dry your eyes, please stop crying. We're about to start the ceremony."

She cut loose at him. "I have to cry loud enough for my husband to hear me! What the hell do you know!"

Then she jabbed a finger at me. "Davi, kneel here and serve your father-in-law his tea."

I just wanted this part over with. I knelt on one knee and offered the tea. "Father-in-law, please have some tea."

She wasn't satisfied. "Well? Cry, then!"

I stood up and said nothing.

The emcee cleared his throat. "Then, then how about ma'am sits in the chair? No need to keep sitting on the floor."

"What do you know! You think I don't know I can sit on a chair! Sitting on the floor puts me closer to my husband!"

I stared coldly at the people around me, my fists clenched tight.

I'd been sparing them their dignity. When I turned back, my husband was smiling at me.

"Honey, let's sit on the floor and bow too. We'll be a little closer to my dad."

He didn't sense anything wrong. He came over and yanked hard at my arm.

I shook him off and smashed the teacup down. "There's something even closer. Why don't the two of you go down there and keep him company?"

I looked straight into my mother-in-law's eyes, waiting for whatever she'd say next.

But the one who fired back was the man beside me.

"Davina Finch, how the hell do you talk to my mom like that!"

2: 2

I stared at Landon, dumbstruck. "Landon, it's our wedding day, and your mother sets up a funeral altar here. Do you think that's appropriate? I'm asking you, is this appropriate?"

"What's so inappropriate about it? Don't blow this out of proportion."

"I'm blowing it out of proportion? I've given your family more than enough face!"

Seeing me angry, my mother-in-law rose from the floor with unhurried grace. She shot me a sidelong look and said, flat and toneless, "Davi, you did take my family's bride price. Making a scene now, that's just because you think it wasn't enough, isn't it?"

"That's not what I meant."

She put on an understanding face. "All right, all right, I know what's on your mind. It's about money, isn't it? Seeing as you're carrying my eldest grandchild, I'll count you a couple more pounds. Happy now?"

At that, I could only find it funny.

Landon had said his mother would decide the bride price.

Said she'd make sure I was satisfied.

The result: on our wedding day, they dragged me out of the car and pinned me onto a scale.

Like a hog waiting to be slaughtered.

My mother-in-law held a calculator, grinning as she pressed it to zero.

Her words still seemed to hang in my ears. "This phoenix crown's awfully heavy, and I can't count that toward the weight. Tell you what, this outfit, the jewelry, I'll knock off ten pounds. That's not unreasonable, is it? And you're pregnant, the baby's got to be another ten pounds too, right? Seeing as it's my family's child, I'll count it as five. How's that?"

"Oh! That's eighty pounds all together. Pork's ten dollars a pound these days, so Mother will figure you at a thousand, one in a thousand, get it? Hahaha! Comes out to eighty thousand total!"

With that, she briskly made the transfer.

And now, smooth as ever, she'd transferred another two thousand, then held the transfer record up in front of me.

"Look, I counted you two extra pounds. Good enough? If it's good enough, then kneel down and kowtow to your father-in-law and confess your sin."

Landon didn't spare me another glance. He knelt at once before the memorial tablet. "Dad! I've brought my sinful wife to offer you a toast."

"Sinful wife? Landon, have you lost your mind? I don't kneel and kowtow, and that makes me a sinful wife? Your Fox family really is a joke."

The emcee wiped at a nervous sweat. "Er, I think, calling her a sinful wife is a bit much. Let's just say daughter-in-law."

My mother-in-law shoved him aside at once, her voice pitching sky-high. "How could that do! The bride price we gave her, that was all the compensation money from my old man's death. If it weren't for her, would my old man be dead? She took a dead man's money, which means my family's short a life! If she's not a sinful wife, then am I?"

Hearing that, something dropped in my chest.

The two of them, one pronouncing my crime with her chin in the air, one kneeling on the floor kowtowing and offering incense to atone in my place.

What a pair, mother and son.

What a pair of wolves.

Down below, the Fox women, wives of the family, cracked melon seeds and gossiped away.

"Oh my, put like that, it really is the daughter-in-law's fault. Who told her to take a dead man's money."

"Tsk, saying she owes a life is going a bit far, but still, the old man died and left her a sum of money. However you look at it, marrying in, she ought to be burning incense for him every single day."

The emcee was so rattled he nearly lost his grip on the microphone. "This, this can't be right? That's not how you put it at all!"

My mother-in-law couldn't be bothered with his nonsense. "Off to the side with you! Davi, are you going to repent, or not?"

She and Landon turned to look at me at the same time.

Their eyes venomous, and impatient.

I lit a stick of incense and, for no clear reason, smiled.

"You've pinned such a black mark on me, so of course I'll take it."

Seeing me suddenly turn sensible, my mother-in-law looked considerably more pleased with herself.

"Then let's begin. You have to be truly devout, so your father-in-law can receive it."

I lit a stick of incense and set it neatly into the censer.

Pressing my palms together, just as she wanted, I knelt in devout prayer. "Father-in-law, I plan to send this mother and son down tonight to keep you company. You can understand that, can't you?"

"After all, if they don't die, your daughter-in-law won't be able to sleep."

3: 3

The words landed, and every guest below rose to their feet.

Ruby grabbed a fistful of my dress, staring at me like she couldn't believe her ears. "What did you say? Say it again!"

"The nerve! The absolute nerve of her! Landon! Look at your wife! Wonderful, just wonderful! Landon! You deal with this yourself!"

She clutched the memorial tablet and wailed.

Not much to her, really. Cling to a dead man and cry. Was there anything else she could do?

Landon frowned, displeased. "Apologize to my mother, kneel and kowtow to my father. Is that so hard?"

"Yes."

He looked genuinely baffled, pressing me. "Davina, be reasonable. You owe my father a life. My mother isn't asking anything else of you. She just wants you to kneel and repent. You're carrying a child. Think of the baby, at least. Don't heap sin on it."

Ruby scrambled to her feet, as if she'd caught me out.

She jabbed a finger at my belly. "If it weren't for that pregnancy, do you think we'd have brought you in this properly? With a wedding this grand!"

I laid a hand on my stomach, and for the first time my heart went cold all the way through.

"If it weren't for the pregnancy, I wouldn't have married in this easily either. I gave your family a break, knowing things were hard for you. You"

"Ha!" Ruby scoffed. "You were scared your belly would show and you'd never find some fool to take you, and scared my family wouldn't want you either, weren't you? Young and knocked up before the wedding, what kind of decent girl could you be? My family was still willing to marry you. You should be counting your blessings."

I turned to Landon. "You think so too?"

His face darkened. He turned his head away, wouldn't meet my eyes.

"How much of a favor do you expect from my family? And this child, didn't you choose to carry it yourself?"

I slapped him across the face. "Landon! This is your child!"

He wiped the corner of his mouth and gave a low sneer. "Heh. But the belly's on you. If you didn't want it, there's nothing I could do about it, is there?"

"Oh, come on now, Davina, enough. We haven't said much to you. Just repent, quickly. Say, 'This sinful wife will always remember my father-in-law's kindness, and I will repay the life I owe with this pregnancy.' That's all."

A furious laugh broke out of me. I cupped my belly and took a step back.

"No."

Landon pulled Ruby behind him. "This is my family's rule. You want to marry in, you follow every step of it properly."

He tossed a cushion at me. "There's your padding. Don't be dramatic."

"Landon, and if I say no?"

He brushed the dust off the cushion, his voice gone completely cold. "Don't push me, wife."

When he turned his head back, there wasn't a trace of love in his eyes. Something in them was almost frightening.

"What are you going to do?"

He didn't answer. He drew a dagger out from under the altar table.

The blade sat over a white candle, heating.

Below, his sister-in-law lounged with one leg crossed over the other and explained, "It's our family's rule. Since you won't repent, and you don't know a good thing when you see it, then we bleed you to atone. That's all."

Ruby jumped in, thrilled with the drama. "Oh, seeing as she's carrying my grandbaby, only bleed half. What are you two standing around for? Go hold her down for me!"

Two burly men below charged at me with ropes.

I stepped back. There was nowhere left to go.

4: 4

"Don't come any closer! Do you have any idea this is against the law?"

Ruby sat with one leg crossed over the other, dragging her eyes up and down over me. "Law? Around here, I am the law. Get on with it. Don't miss the lucky hour."

Landon dragged over a battered metal basin and dropped it on the floor with a clang.

The short blade in his hand was already glowing red-hot.

My whole back was pressed flat against the LED screen, walls on either side of me.

In front of me, the men stood staring, waiting for their chance.

"Landon, don't you dare!"

"Baby, there's nothing I can do. Rules are rules. You bleed a little, get rid of the bad luck, I earn some merit for my dad down below. Nothing wrong with that. Relax, my blade's nice and sharp."

Landon blew on the edge of the knife and came toward me, one step at a time.

I bolted to the side in a panic, but two big men caught my arms and legs and held on tight.

"Let go of me! Landon, you lay a hand on me and my mother will never let this go!"

Landon spread his hands and nodded like he agreed. "Oh, absolutely. But you forget. The day you insisted on marrying me, you cut ties with your own family."

That scalding tip was about to bite into my wrist.

I threw everything I had into it and slammed the two men in front of me aside.

Gathering my skirt, I turned and ran off the ceremony platform.

Behind me came Landon's cold laugh. "Baby, take a look around. Everyone here is my family. Where do you think you're going to run?"

I shoved at a window. It was nailed shut.

Every window behind me was blocked by a body.

Even the doors had been barred tight.

I stood in the middle of the banquet hall, staring up at the people on the platform in despair.

Landon crouched at the edge of the stage and beckoned to me. "Baby, come here. Be good. Let's hurry up and finish the ceremony, then we can go to the bridal chamber."

I ducked my head and quickly dialed my mother's number.

The line rang a few times, then cut off.

"Mom's not picking up. Right, Uncle. Call Uncle. My uncle loves me the most!"

I called my uncle twice more. No one answered.

Shaking my head, I begged the aunts blocking the windows. "Auntie, please, I'm begging you, let me out?"

They just smiled, one after another, enjoying the show.

Not one of them moved a step.

Landon walked down off the stage with that mocking smile, and behind me the aunts shoved me forward.

"Go on. It won't kill you."

"Exactly. Don't waste everybody's time."

Landon seized my wrist and pinned my hand flat against the table.

"Landon, I'm begging you, don't do this, I'm really scared!"

He smiled at me, gentle, and I forced a smile back to win him over.

But the next second the smile was gone, and he pressed down on my wrist until it felt like it would snap.

"When you were screaming to marry me, why didn't you say you were scared? A little late now, isn't it? Let's get it over with quick, so we can go home to bed."

"After today, I will never let any of you off!"

"You'd better worry about getting through today first."

I clutched the hem of my skirt, cold sweat sliding down my forehead.

Feeling that scalding edge come down, my whole body jerked.

But before the sound of the blade cutting flesh came the screech of tires braking hard.

Bang. The doors of the banquet hall were rammed straight open.

A Land Rover drove right into the hall.

I turned my head. Harsh light poured in from outside.

Uncle Nathan climbed out of the Land Rover and swept an irritated glance around the room. "What's this? My niece's wedding, and nobody thought to tell me?"