Chapter 8 The passage of time
Pearl carried the baby into a shabby house on island, where she and her husband Havet lived together. She looked around and found that he wasn’t home right now, she said with a bored expression:
“He’s probably at the casino again.”
She doesn’t care about Havet anymore, Pearl ignores everything, she takes care of Elise as carefully as her own child. In response to that affection, baby smiled at her making her happier than ever. And so Pearl named her Jane, a name dear and cherished with all the sincere affection she had.
In the evening, Mr. Havet returned home with a strong odor of alcohol on his body after he had lost all his money at his beloved casino. Havet constantly expressed irritation and annoyance with whispering curses in his mouth because everything happened today was not as he wanted.
He entered the house and saw his poor wife taking care of a newborn baby, he was very surprised, quickly ran to see. Havet looked at the child and then at Pearl, he angrily shouted:
“Whose child is this? Your child is married to a man outside, right?”
Before Pearl could answer, the man grabbed her by the hair, pulled her out, and scolded her severely:
“Damn it, you filthy whore, you are so sleazy and shameless to fuck another guy to the point of getting pregnant and taking that baby home to raise, when my presence is non-existent in your eyes. .”
Pearl strongly objected:
“No, that’s not the baby I gave birth to, she’s the one I picked up on the train.”
He didn’t believe what she said, Havet kept berating her mercilessly, he got even more angry when she kept lying that it was the child she had picked up on the train. Havet vented his anger at being cheated on by his wife by hitting Pearl on the back and body. That man, after a long time of fighting, he saw that his miserable wife seemed to have surrendered, she could not say a word, but could only cry and hide in a corner, then he let her go.© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.
He left Pearl there, picked up the bottle of wine and sat on the sofa to enjoy it, after a while, Pearl saw that he was fast asleep, she quickly went to her room and carried Jane in her arms. At this time, Pearl told herself that she needed to be stronger, she had to protect this child with all the love she had.
Pearl thought so and acted decisively, she had to leave this man right now, move to another place to live with only her and Jane. Although Pearl wanted to, it was really difficult because she was so poor, she didn’t have much money and she didn’t know where she should go.
But everything will be fine, she will take Jane wherever she feels safe. And so she packed her things and luggage as quickly as she could. But her move to leave is stopped by Mr. Havet, when he suddenly wakes up to find Pearl wanting to leave this place.
At that time, he seemed to have sobered, completely returned to the state of a normal person as usual, he tried his best to ask when Pearl had returned with affectionate gestures when His dear wife had not returned home for several days. Havet asked:
“Oh, when did you come home? Did I beat you? Oh, my God, what a wretched man he is to have hit his beloved wife.”
Pearl looked grumpy when Havet put his arm around her to take her in his arms, she said angrily:
“Enough is enough, Havet. Stop with pretense, I’m so tired of this scene. I can’t continue living with you right now. I have to protect my adopted daughter, she can’t live with a bad father like you.”
Havet marveled at his wife’s words, he couldn’t live without Pearl because she was a money box he could extract for his gambling pleasure and he realized there was no woman stupid as Pearl treated him so well. So now he can’t let Pearl leave, he has to find a way to hold his wife back to take care of him like before. Havet generously said:
“You adopted a child? It’s really good for me and for both of us because you and I have been married for so many years and still don’t have children, it’s amazing baby. It seems that god heard your plea and bestowed on you a child in the way that he is most accessible to you.”
Pearl still looked at Havet with annoyed eyes, she remained silent and said nothing. Havet noticed that his dear wife was unresponsive and continued rambling his fake mouth. Havet happily says:
“So aren’t you the happiest person right now? When you accepted a little angel into my house. Stay here and don’t go anywhere because more than anyone else, the best thing a child needs is a happy family. I will be very happy if I become her father, a kind and helpful father around, I will teach her everything I know.
When the wife heard this, she laughed lightly, she did not think that this bad man would try to flatter her and try to hold her back right now. Havet saw his wife unresponsive and quickly continued to say:
“Isn’t today a good day? We will hold a small party with grilled fish to celebrate her becoming a new member of our family.”
As soon as he finished speaking, old Havet kissed his wife once on the lips, then stretched his shoulders a few times to calm down, he went quickly to the kitchen to get a small box of fish, Havet said excitedly:
“Honey, I’ll make some simple fish dishes for our daughter.”
Pearl saw Havet’s actions and did not react, she knew all his intentions but did not want to expose it, Pearl wanted to see what Havet would do next, so she temporarily won’t leave. Or perhaps Pearl couldn’t bear to leave because she still loved him so much and was moved by his actions that made her stay even though he kept tormenting her for no reason. But in her heart, Pearl would still move out of the place whenever she wanted when he treated her badly again.
A few days later, while Pearl was tending to Jane, Havet brought an unknown woman home with a boy about four years old behind her. The sly boy eyed the house like a thief, sly looking with a hairless head and a few scars on his arm. The woman walking beside Havet was Dixi, she was tall, a little thin, with a long face with a hawk-like nose, she wore a layered dress and a worn-out leather jacket. Dixi stepped closer to take a closer look at the house, she said in a bitter voice:
“This house is also very good, a good place for me and my son to live here.”
Havet said nothing, he continued to carry a large luggage inside the house to give Dixi, his woman time to get acquainted with this place and talk with Pearl, his current wife. The wife looked at two strangers entering her house with such a blatant face and angrily shouted:
“Havet…Why did you bring another woman home?”
Dixi chuckled and answered Pearl on behalf of the flustered Havet:
“Hi Pearl, I’m Dixi, Havet’s new wife, nice to meet you. And the first time you say hello, you don’t have to be so angry.”
Pearl was upset, she was about to raise her hand to slap Dixi, but Mr. Havet stopped Pearl, he pushed her hand away and shouted:
“Enough Pearl, this is my new wife. You mustn’t touch her.”
The poor wife saw her husband protecting the other woman, she tried to swallow her tears, implicitly understanding everything that was happening in front of her. Pearl didn’t want to say another word to her unfaithful husband and lousy mistress standing there, so she went inside, packed her bags, took Jane in her arms, and quickly left the place.
Havet let Pearl leave, he continued to hold Dixi’s hand to invite her into the house, she was very happy, kissed him on the cheek with a whisper of praise that he did a good job in handling his ex-wife, forcing her have to leave here.
Pearl, because she was in such a hurry that she didn’t have time to think and prepare in time when one day she left that place so quickly, she temporarily had nowhere to go. If she went to another place, she would need to have a lot of money to buy tickets and rent a place for Pearl and her daughter and at the same time, it will be a light thunderstorm today, and rain heavily, so the boats and big ships will be limited sail today.
And then suddenly Omot was like her savior, she was a middle-aged woman living nearby, she provided Pearl with a temporary place to live, it was a small house located away from the her old house is not far away. It seems that this is Pearl’s temporary residence right now, because she has no money, she will continue to work in processing and freezing fish on the island to have time to take care of Jane.
While several days had passed on the ship that Dina was on, she was still vaguely wandering around the inside of the ship looking for Elise, she regretted that she had lost her just for a minute with carelessness. Dina has been on the ship for more than four days, but she has not been found anywhere, making Dina extremely sad and disappointed.
And then one fine day, Dina saw a beautiful little girl who closely resembled Elise, just by mistake, and partly because she missed Elise, she kidnapped that child by her side to raise. Until child’s parents found out about the above action, Dina was misunderstood by everyone for the crime of kidnapping children. Therefore, when the ship docked in France, child family handed over Dina to the police for handling.
But things don’t seem to be going as well as they thought, Dina is helped by a strange man and rescued in time. He secretly took Dina away before everyone handed her over to the police. And since then the police have not found her, Dina’s whereabouts have mysteriously disappeared completely. That made Lady Matida excruciatingly sad when the important lead to find Elise was broken in the middle, the poor mother did not know where to look for her baby daughter anymore. Things have suddenly become difficult and full of challenges in the search for Elise, bringing Elise back to her right now.
The long and wide days of time accidentally passed, soon Brian was eight years old, the boy was smarter and more cunning, more mischievous with his pranks than ever. And another thing is that he was very interested in sex because he experienced it very early when something bad happened five years ago that Brian and his brother had.
As far as Brian knows, the woman Daisy was shot dead by someone else and Jack was taken to jail by the police. Brian didn’t seem too surprised by it, he just regretted that he couldn’t see someone as charming as Daisy again, and Matthew looked more emotional, his brother spending the day in his room sad when heard that the woman Daisy was shot dead. Brian looked at Matthew’s appearance and smiled to himself.
“What a weak guy.”
In the following days, Brian had a young girlfriend of his own age in his own way but it seems that Brian’s mind is a bit out of line with his age through the actions he did with his girlfriend at school, and so Brian was strictly observed and taught by Mr. Wibul afterwards. He is forced to act and manage Brian more closely because he does not want anything bad and evil to revolve around his nephew.
Wibul will find ways to protect the children, prevent them from doing bad and dark actions. That’s why Brian dislikes his grandfather more and more, always taking a defensive stance and opposing mind to Wibul as he constantly manages to keep the boy in check. That’s why, Brian always has a burning desire like never before that he has to be more mature, he wants time to pass quickly so that he can become an adult, then he will escape in grandfather arms and do whatever he wants.
At the same time on a large island, a three-year-old girl with white hair was playing in the sand, she sat there playing alone while Pearl was working nearby. The child is very obedient and obedient to the adults, she does not coddle or demand her mother because she knows Pearl is working very hard to take care of her.
And then a week passed, Pearl suddenly fainted in her house when she had just returned from a hard day’s work. Jane was scared and cried and ran over to Mrs. Omot’s house to ask for help. Omot received the news and quickly brought Pearl to the hospital for timely treatment.
Pearl’s condition has progressed so badly that she has to take medicine right now, so Pearl has spent quite a bit of money on medication and treatment at the hospital. And then the next day, Mr. Havet and Mrs. Dixi visited Pearl with a cocky attitude and a fake face. He glanced at Jane for a moment and realized that she was really lovely and beautiful, so he had an idea that he had never had before.
Havet pretended to be a good husband when he asked Pearl to let him raise Jane, who would be the best father to her young daughter. Pearl never believed it, no matter what, she couldn’t let her little Jane share the same roof with these two misbehaving people.
But through Havet’s sweet and sincere persuasion, she was also somewhat relieved, with her health condition, Pearl could not be strong enough to raise and care for Jane. Therefore, she had to letting Havet take care of her daughter, but she was also not secure about Havet, so before letting her little daughter live with them, she made Mr. Havet make a commitment to her that he must perform the duty of a father, he must raise and take care of her properly when Jane is eighteen years old.
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