Mom Forced My Fiance to Her Adopted Daughter; She Regretted It

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The day before the wedding, I bought a new car to fetch the bride.

On the way back, someone staged an accident and rammed himself into the side of it.

I was reported and hauled to the station for questioning. My fiance and my mother blamed me for hitting an old man and refused to bail me out.

After a few days locked up, my lawyer argued my case, and only then did I get out.

But when I got home, I found our adopted daughter wrapped in my fiance's arms, being kissed.

My mother had handed the old man who staged the accident a fat envelope of cash, thanking him for being willing to help her out.

I stood there stunned for a moment, then started to step inside, only for my best friend to come out and stop me.

"Alison Henson, you can't go in there and ruin their engagement party."

I froze cold. Mabel Simmons sighed. "The old man who staged that accident was hired by your mother. The whole point was to keep you tied up so Pat Henson and Stuart Gilbert could get engaged."

"They love each other. You're not allowed to force your way in and break them apart again."

I looked at the best friend I'd once nearly died to save, standing guard against me now like an enemy.

Fine. If that's how it is, I'll give every one of them exactly what they want.

...

"Old girl!"

"Next time you've got a nice little job like this, be sure to call me! I'm happy to help you out."

The old man who'd staged the accident tore open the envelope and started counting the cash. My mother only smiled and said nothing.

"By the way, Alison's still your own flesh and blood! How can you scheme against her like this, all for an adopted daughter?"

"If she ever finds out your little secret, watch out. Your whole house will be in an uproar!"

My mother didn't answer him directly, just said a few polite words and left.

She walked over to Stuart and Pat.

"The right hour's almost here. Hurry up and finish the engagement."

"I hear Alison got a lawyer to argue her case and it worked. She's probably on her way back now."

"Move fast. Once the ceremony's done, everything's fine."

Stuart held Pat closer, his voice unhurried.

"Mom, there's no need to panic."

"Pat and I already settled it last night jumped the gun on you. She gave me her first time. We're as good as husband and wife now."

"That's right, Mom. It's done now. Even if my sister rushes back, what can she do?"

"Stuart won't marry her anymore anyway."

My mother went still for a beat, then smiled again.

"Good, then."

Blocked in the doorway, hearing something this cruel with my own ears, my heart clenched hard.

I reached for the wall to steady myself, but Mabel thought I was about to charge in and shoved me away.

I lost my footing and went down backward.

The crash drew everyone's attention. All of them stopped talking and turned toward the door at once.

The room went silent in an instant. Mabel dropped her voice low.

"Can't you just let them be? Stuart doesn't love you..."

A laugh slipped out of me, but it came out hollow.

"Did he tell you that himself?"

Mabel said nothing. I lifted my hand and showed it to her. "Do you still remember how I pulled you out of that wild boar's jaws back then?"

She wouldn't look, and she wouldn't speak.

I got to my feet, refusing to let myself fall apart in front of them.

"I saved you without a thought for my own life, and you turned around and schemed against me with them."

One was my best friend. One was the man I loved most. And the last was my own mother.

Every one of them revolved around an adopted daughter. I truly didn't understand what Pat had done to make the people closest to me give themselves over to her, heart and soul.

The moment Stuart saw me, he didn't flinch or look away out of guilt.

Instead he walked out with Pat, straight up to where I stood.

The air dropped a few degrees, and the guests kept up their chatter.

"Alison's back all of a sudden!"

"Huh, why did the mood just turn so weird?"

"You don't know? Stuart was Alison's fiance in the first place. For some reason, while she was locked up, he changed his mind and decided to marry the Hensons' adopted daughter."

"How could Alison take that? So here she is, back to make a scene."

"Damn, I didn't expect it to be this explosive. One man, two sisters at once"

"Watch your mouth!"

Every word landed in our ears, and it put Pat in a difficult spot.

As if she felt she'd stolen her sister's man, and would have relatives and friends whispering behind her back.

Stuart tightened his grip on her hand, as if to lend her strength, to stand with her through it all.

He looked at me, and there was nothing in his eyes but cold.

"Alison, so you've come back to make trouble for us?"

It forced a bitter laugh out of me.

I'd spent every effort behind bars just trying to get out and find him, because I wanted to see him.

I knew nothing of what had happened, and the moment I came back I found him about to marry Pat.

Make trouble?

What gave them the right to pin "unreasonable" on me?

"I only want to ask you one thing."

Mother stepped out, terrified I'd do something to Pat, guarding her like a hen over her chick.

The pain stabbed through me again, and my hands clenched into fists.

"Why did all of you work together to deceive me?"

"Because you've always been jealous, ever since you were little. Whatever you wanted, you had to have it."

"You're too extreme. That's why I didn't dare turn you down when you confessed to me. I was afraid you'd take revenge."

"But the one I love is Pat, the woman who saved my life more than once. Not you."

"Just look at this time. You even ran an old man down. What were you thinking!"

With that, the old man who'd staged the accident against me stepped out and began his performance.

Everyone believed him, convinced I really was extreme and vengeful.

"No wonder Stuart wants to marry Pat. In his place, I wouldn't dare marry a woman like that either."

"Isn't that the truth? Cross her the wrong day and you could lose your life."

Only when Pat heard every ugly remark turned on me did she let out a satisfied breath.

"Sister, let go and give us your blessing!"

"Love can't be forced."

"Even if you meant to kill me today, I still wouldn't back down."

She stepped forward and threw out her arm in front of Stuart, shielding him.

How ridiculous. A moment ago she was hiding behind a man, afraid of being whispered about.

Now that the tide had turned, here she was playing the good one, rushing in to save the day.

Mabel tried to talk me down too.

"Alison, it's already come to this. Just accept your fate!"

"Accept my fate?"

"You know better than anyone what kind of person I am."

"And that old man staged the whole"

"Alison!!!"

Mother raised her voice to cut me off.

"You will let them go through with this. No more trouble."

"If you insist on making a scene, I'll see to it your father knows no peace in his grave."

My eyes went wide, staring at her in disbelief.

Words that cruel were not what a wife should say of her dead husband, nor what a mother should say to her daughter.

My breath caught, and my heart felt like it might stop.

"You want me to do nothing, to stand there quietly and bless them through their engagement party?"

"Yes!"

Pat turned and went back inside, and when she came out again she was carrying two cups of wine.

"Sister, I'm begging you, give us your blessing."

The wine was held out to me, and everyone was forcing me to bow my head.

If I didn't take it, every vile word would turn on me. If I did, I became the villain in their mouths.

Afraid I'd cause a scene, Mother brought up my father again and again.

Using his grave to force me to bow to the adopted daughter.

I looked at her, my eyes full of grief, and she looked away from me.

I put out my hand. "Leave his grave alone. I'll drink it!"

Everyone was happy.

The engagement party went off without a hitch. Even the Gilberts came.

They were more than pleased with Pat as their new daughter-in-law.

When Mrs. Gilbert looked at me, she only urged me to let go, said a melon forced off the vine was never sweet.

I turned and gave her a cold smile. "You tell me now that a melon forced off the vine is never sweet. Why didn't you say that when the Gilberts were in trouble, when you were the one pushing Stuart to get engaged to me?"

I'd torn down her dignity in front of everyone, and her face went ugly.

Back when she'd needed something from me, her manner had been lovely. Now that the Gilberts had climbed so effortlessly high, she thought herself a cut above.

Every one of them had received my kindness, had lived off my help.

Not one of them had a scrap of gratitude, not even a little. What they had instead was the nerve to turn on me like ingrates.

I didn't linger to be humiliated any longer. I went straight inside, back to my room.

But all my things had been cleared out, dumped into a cramped little house.

The place was thick with dust. It made me think of when Father had first brought the orphaned girl home off the streets.

She was supposed to spend her first night in this very room. I'd been afraid she would feel small, so I brought her to rest in mine.

"Who touched my things?"

Mother came over at the sound of my voice.

"I did!"

"Your reason?"

"Pat's room is no good. It's damp, not fit to live in."

"You weren't using it before, so I just"

"Take all her things out. Don't make me do it myself."

"She's taken everything from me. Now even my room is going to be stripped away?"

"What do you mean, your room? I'm not dead yet. Everything in this house is mine to decide."

"If you don't want to live here, you can leave. No one's stopping you."

Stuart and Pat came back too, done with the party.

I let my eyes travel over them. The three of them stood together, a family united against me, the outsider.

And it hit me then. What family, what love was I still holding on to?

"Sorry, but I'm the one who paid for this house."

"Head of the family or not, you don't get to decide for me."

Stuart took a step forward. "Do you really have to say something so cruel?"

"And you all think what you did to me wasn't cruel?"

The three of them froze for a moment. Then Stuart's face went cold.

"You dare go in there and throw Pat's things out, and tomorrow when you're back at the office, I'll throw yours in the trash."

"Don't be so quick to run your mouth at me. Think about the people on your team."

"They've got parents to support and kids to raise, and jobs are hard to find out there right now."

"You cross me, and I'll fire every one of them."

"Stuart???"

He finally saw the panic on my face, and it made him feel sure of himself.

"Good, be angry. That's exactly how I keep Pat safe."

Then he reached out and took Pat's hand.

"Let's go in."

"Wait, we don't have any of those."

"I don't want to get pregnant yet. I think we should wait a while before we have a child."

Stuart smiled and nodded.

"I'll go buy some right now"

"No, you don't need to go for something like that."

And with that, Stuart turned and looked at me.

"Alison, Pat likes the strawberry kind."

My hand clenched into a fist all at once, and I stared straight at him.

"I really want to know why you fell for someone else."

"Even if you don't love me anymore, you don't get to use something this disgusting to humiliate me."

Faced with my question, Stuart finally chose to answer.

"She's sick. It's serious."

"That's why we suddenly took her side."

"When you really think about it, Pat has had a pitiful life."

"Both parents dead, raised under other people's roofs since she was little, starved of love, scolded like it was normal."

"She even knew her body couldn't take it, but she still entered that race just to make me happy, just to win the gift I wanted."

"Alison Henson, your love lives in your mouth. Hers wins in what she does."

I didn't get angry. I laughed.

To help him get Gilbert Corp off the ground, I ran myself ragged every single day, like a dog. Where was I supposed to find the time to whisper sweet nothings with him?

And now here I was, everything I'd poured out repaid with nothing but blame.

My mother looked at me, eyes rimmed red. "Can't you just stop making trouble?"

"She doesn't have much time left. You're different. You'll have countless days ahead to spend with Stuart Gilbert."

"No need."

A man other people have slept with, I won't use again.

Nothing more to say. I turned and walked out.

When I came back, standing in the doorway, the filthy sounds inside reached my ears.

I knocked. Pat was the one who came out.

"I didn't think you could actually put up with it."

She dropped her voice, and the harmless look she always wore was gone, replaced with something cold and grim.

"Then put up with it all the way. Your room's right next to ours. When you hear something exciting later, I hope you can hold yourself together as well as you're doing now."

The door shut. My mother came over to pull me away. "If you don't listen, it won't hurt so much."

I shook off her grip. "You're just afraid I'll go in and ruin their fun. You think I can't see that?"

She tried to deny it. "Alison, do you think this is easy for me?"

"Both of you are my own flesh. Hurting either one of you breaks my heart"

"Wrong. A mother who uses her own husband's grave to force me into line has never once treated me as her flesh."

"Since you love Pat so much, then when you're old, let her take care of you"

"Slap!"

A hand cracked across my face. My mother pointed at me, shaking with rage.

"Why can't you have some understanding for me, and some for Pat too?"

"She's sick. One day she might just be gone."

"Can't you learn to be a little more forgiving and generous?"

Every word, every line was about understanding Pat. She gets sick, and I'm supposed to obey her without conditions?

All at once it felt pointless to keep talking.

I just turned and left. Out of sight, out of mind.

The next day, I went back to the office.

My position had Pat sitting in it, and Stuart was handing out celebration candy.

The office was full of coworkers, all of them congratulating the happy couple.

The moment they saw me, everyone fell silent, watching to see what I'd do.

Stuart didn't even glance at me. He set down the candy, walked around behind Pat, and started massaging her shoulders while announcing it to me.

"Pat has one wish. She's always wanted to sit in this position."

"Be sensible. Don't make a scene."

The air conditioning wasn't turned up high, yet everyone in the room felt cold.

He got the line out and then hurried off.

I didn't say a word. I picked up my things and left.

On the way out I ran into Mrs. Gilbert, her old face full of calculation.

"Ah, that boy Stuart. If I don't go along with him, he throws a fit."

"Alison, don't you worry. Just take this time to rest well, and I'll bring you back when the moment's right."

I still said nothing and walked straight for the door.

I heard a few sympathetic murmurs behind me, people saying Mrs. Gilbert had done this on purpose, using someone else's hand to do the killing.

Afraid I'd take their company away.

I got a call from a friend who works at a real estate agency.

"Alison, are things that hard for you right now? Selling off a house that nice."

"I didn't sell any house."

"Your mother sold it for you. Said she needed the money for Pat's treatment."

"For an adopted daughter, she's backing you into a corner."

I ended the call fast and dialed my mother's number.

"Why did you sell my house? Where am I supposed to live?"

"If I don't sell the house, where do I get money for Pat's treatment?"

"Stop bothering me. If you've got nowhere to live, you can stay with a friend for now, or go rent something."

And with that, she hung up on me.

In that moment, my heart died toward her completely.

I picked up my phone again and dialed an unfamiliar number. "From now on, no more cooperation with the Gilberts. Pull the investment out, cut off the Gilberts' economic lifeline, and let Stuart Gilbert wait to die."

"Second, freeze my mother's cards. I want every one of them left with nothing."