Chapter 2

2: 2

2

My voice was ice, and my eyes carried something angrier still as I looked at Keith.

In all the years I'd known Keith, he had treated me with nothing but care. I really had believed I was marrying for love.

So even when his family told me there wouldn't be much of a bride price, I could accept that.

After all, my own family's circumstances spoke for themselves.

My father had given me a good number of shares in the company, and the dividends alone came to a great deal every year.

I wasn't short of money at all.

All I wanted was for Keith to treat me well.

And yet my willingness to compromise had only made this whole family think I was easy to push around.

They'd even started calculating how to get their hands on my wedding savings.

Everyone knows that money belongs to the bride herself.

But this family actually wanted me to divide up my own money right here at the edge of town.

Not only that, they wanted me to sign an agreement too.

That agreement was so outrageous it turned my whole sense of right and wrong upside down.

"Keith, why are you still explaining anything to her!"

Seeing Keith still trying to pull me out of the car, his mother's eyes went cold at once as she looked at me. "Lavinia, let me tell you something!"

"You and my son are legally husband and wife now!"

"My son is your husband!"

"You don't understand that a wife obeys her husband?"

"Whatever my son tells you to do, you do it!"

Her voice was cold, laced with threat. "You're one of our family now. What are you putting on airs for?"

"This money belongs to our family!"

She pointed at the trunk. "Right now, it's not up to you whether you agree or not!"

"Somebody get the case down here. We're splitting the money now!"

The words were barely out before Kate rushed straight for the trunk, ready to haul out my dowry.

I watched it happen, my eyes going wide.

Then I turned to Keith.

"Keith, this is what you told me was just going through the motions?"

"Your mother is splitting up my dowry right now!"

I stared at him, a chill sliding into my voice.

At the same time, I turned to look behind us.

I'd married into this family, and this was the lead car, but behind the lead car were the people from the wedding planning company.

They were still filming, and this family already dared to rob me this openly, before the marriage was even done?

I looked at Keith. He chose that moment to grab hold of me and say, "Lavinia, this is how we do things around here!"

"And to you, this bit of money is nothing anyway!"

When those words landed, I couldn't help but laugh.

"Keith, this is robbery!"

My voice was ice as I looked at him. "If you keep this up, my only choice is to call the police!"

The moment I said it, Keith's face changed.

His eyes fixed on me, hard, and his voice took on an edge of impatience.

"Lavinia, I'm your husband!"

"I have the right to dispose of your money too!"

"Calling the police won't get you anywhere!"

"And besides, my mother is your elder!"

"So you give a little ground to my mother. What's wrong with that?"

The moment he said it, something in me died.

I knew that if I gave in today, this family would have me trapped in their schemes for the rest of my life.

"Keith, in that case, this marriage doesn't have to happen at all!"

"I'm going home right now!"