The Billionaire Father Who Came Too Late

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"You couldn't raise your own daughter right, and you still don't know it in your own heart? You've got the nerve to come here and drag her off?"

"Your daughter's out chasing men every single day. Freddie had no choice. That's the only reason he raised a hand to her."

"That's right. Think how good Freddie's been to her, buying her clothes and bags every other day. When did she ever go without a thing to eat or wear? And she still carries on with a whole string of men, even tries to run off with one. That's not knowing when you're well off."

"Those last few times she ran, I'm the one who helped bring her back. Freddie knelt down at the edge of the village and begged her to come home, crying his eyes out."

Listening to all of it, I froze.

A mother knows her own daughter. There was no way she was anything like what came out of their mouths.

I turned to look at her. Her eyes were full of tears, and she didn't say one word to defend herself.

Like she'd lived through scenes like this too many times to count, and knew that saying more wouldn't change a thing.

The voices kept going. Frederick had put away the viciousness from before, and now his face was all forgiveness, all pallor.

"Everyone, don't say that. I was too rough this time, that's why she—"

One of the older women sighed like she couldn't knock any sense into him.

"Freddie, you're just too soft-hearted, that's your whole problem. Fine, she ran off before, but this time she hurt you this badly and you're still standing up for her."

The others chimed right in.

"You ask me, this woman just hasn't been beaten enough. Beat her into line and she'll behave. If she were my wife, I'd have broken her legs long ago. See if she'd run then."

"Isn't that the truth. Bad enough she never kept to a wife's place, and today she even pulls a knife. Freddie couldn't take it anymore, that's the only reason he went a little hard on her."

"Some people still have the gall to come here making a scene. If it weren't for the Delgados donating to the village every year, and Freddie putting in a good word for you, we'd have reported you to the school board long ago. Anyone who raises a loose daughter like that has no business being a teacher!"

Only in that moment did I finally understand.

Why the future me had said my daughter tried to run so many times and never got out.

Why she would never breathe a single word to me.

Why Frederick dared smash the car and drag her off so openly.

Because he'd already sealed off every road.

First he'd destroyed Carly's name across the whole village, wrapping every one of his cruelties in a coat of "he had no choice."

Then he'd used my job and my safety to threaten her.

Frederick held out his hand.

"Ma'am, today was my fault. I shouldn't have hit her."

"Let Carly come home with me. I promise I'll treat her right from now on."

He said it with real feeling, but I saw it plain as day. His eyes were full of triumph.

I took a deep breath.

If he wanted to use talk to crush me, then I could use that talk too.

"If my daughter is as worthless as everyone says, then I'll take her home and set her straight."

"The two of you aren't happy together. There's no sense tying yourselves to each other by force. So let's part on good terms."

Frederick's hand stopped.

The others, on the other hand, took my side.

"That's fair enough. A good man like Freddie, why hang himself on one tree?"

"A used-up thing like her is just an eyesore anyway. Freddie, you're still young, no worry about finding someone better."

"Should've divorced her long ago. Freddie, don't waste your life on her—"

"No!"

Frederick's voice shot up. He was about to say something when Rosemary Delgado stepped out.

"A divorce is fine. But you talk about parting on good terms, and that isn't something you can settle by just carting my daughter-in-law off like this."

"When our family married her in, we paid a bride price of a hundred and eighty thousand and bought a whole set of gold jewelry. And all these years my son has spent plenty on her too."

"The money, my family's willing to let go. But today she hurt my son, and that can't just be waved away."

I looked at her. She'd lived here a long time. There was no way she didn't know her son beat his wife. She'd probably been egging it on.

I was about to speak when she went on.

"A little squabbling between a husband and wife is perfectly normal. When we elders interfere too much, it only backfires. I'm not like you, ma'am, telling people to divorce at the drop of a hat."

"And I don't want to see my son wronged either. Since she hurt him, she can stay and care for him until he's healed. Let the young couple work things out a little more. Who knows, they fight at the head of the bed and make up at the foot of it."

It was a pretty speech.

It made her son's behavior sound reasonable, hinted that I was meddling in the younger ones' affairs, and showed off how magnanimous the Delgados were, all at once.

And her reason for keeping my daughter there sounded, somehow, fair and right.