Holly gave me a once–over and said, “By the looks of you, you didn’t stick with the troops. You talk a good game, but really, you just left your hubby on the front lines while you lived it up.‘
“1
“Who says I didn’t stick with the troops? I was with Anthony on Darak Island.”
“Darak Island? I thought he was stationed on the frontier?”
Holly looked confused. I breezed past her, pulled out a wad of crisp bills from my bag, and laid them out for my parents.
“100,000 dollars to the last cent. I’ve paid back every dime I owed you. We’re square
now!”
Mom and Dad counted the money with intense focus, bill by meticulous bill, even more carefully than they had tallied the wedding costs.
“Is this really 100,000 dollars? Yasmine, how on earth did you make all this? Wow, I had no idea you were so
smart.
“Your sister was just blowing off steam that time. We’re family, after all. There’s no point in splitting hairs over debts and such. We shouldn’t even be having this kind of conversation.”
Mom spoke as she carefully wrapped the money in a piece of cloth and slipped it into her bag.
I knew the moment I stepped out the door, she would stash it away at the bottom of the chest where she kept my sister’s bridal things.
“I bred shellfish and sold pearls. There’s a little town near Darak Island known for it. That’s where I made money.”
That was too much for Holly. She lost her cool and knocked her stool over.
my
1/2
“Yasmine, tell me what’s really happening. You were supposed to be having a tough time at the border, how could you…”
I watched Holly hopping mad, but I kept up my clueless act.
“Who said anything about Anthony going to the border? His orders were for Darak Island, clear as day.
“I just tagged along with the military and found a way to earn some extra money near his post. Is there a problem?
Holly was so mad she was practically shaking.
“What was the point of me slaving away at home for the college entrance exams? I didn’t get into college, and when I tried to study for a retake, I couldn’t even find a tutor. If I’d known it would turn out like this, I might as well have married Anthony!”
A few months back, when the college entrance exam results came out, Holly did not make the cut, as expected.
The flowers and cake we had gotten ready were left untouched, and the village kids had a field day teasing her.
Then, the folks in the village could not stop comparing me and Holly, saying I was an army wife and she was just a country bumpkin.
Holly was adamant, convinced that if she just repeated her senior year, she would ace the entrance exams.
However, I was out on the frontier, my chances of coming back were slim to none.
That was why Holly completely lost it when I came home to pay off debts.
“Forget the exams! Whoever wants to take them, let them!”
The air was thick with fluttering paper, as test sheets and workbooks cascaded down like a sudden snowstorm.
Holly’s grip on my collar was fierce, her fingers digging in, cutting off my breath.
“You’re going to go back and divorce Anthony. Tell him you were wrong, that it was me who saved him!”
I scoffed and asked, “Why would I do that?”
In a flash of rage, Holly snatched a long wooden spoon from the stove and swung.
There was a loud thud, and then, the darkness swallowed me whole.
When I came to, I was lying in the cellar of our house.
