Jessica’s explanation only drove fear in Oscar. “Jessica, she’s well connected. It won’t go unnoticed if we hired a few hooligans to stir trouble. Her relatives are wealthy and powerful. They’re not people we can mess with.
“Did you say that her brother-in-law is the heir of the wealthiest York family? All the more reason to stay away from them. Don’t you know how the Yorks are? We’ve heard of the family even though we live in a rural area. Forget it. A hundred thousand dollars isn’t worth me taking the risk.”
Jessica winced her face. “I’m your sister, Oscar. So you’re going to let it go when someone is making my life a living hell?”
Oscar replied, “How is she making your life a living hell? I mean, you lied to us. Hank had a wife and a son when he was with you, but you became his mistress and wrecked his family apart. You kept that fact from us. Here we were, thinking you found yourself a good man.
“Do you think I don’t know you well? I bet you’re the one picking on the Liberty girl. If nothing else, you were the homewrecker. You should feel ashamed of yourself instead of trying to get even with her.
“It’s hard enough for a single mother to run a business, but you want to take away her only livelihood. I’ll stick up for you if she bullied you, but did she though?
“The huge settlement she got out of the divorce is between her and Hank. The Brown family isn’t to be blamed for Hank’s refusal to give us over seven hundred thousand dollars. You’re only looking out for Hank, so you don’t want to waste the money on me and Jack to fix our houses up and buy new cars.
“We doted on you for nothing. What did we get out of your marriage? Hank only gave a lot less than a hundred thousand dollars for Mom and Dad’s retirement. Jack and I got nothing. I would do anything you ask if you bought us a car and house.”
At the end of the day, Oscar believed his sister gave him crumbs. Whatever he got from his sister was not worth the risk of offending the York and Stone families.
At first, the Yateses were in the dark about Hank’s wife and son. It was only after Hank divorced and talked about marriage with Jessica that the Yates family found out Jessica became a homewrecker.
The Yateses were displeased about this as Hank was a divorcee while Jessica was young and had not been married before. Sure, Hank was only thirty-one years old, but he was getting the better deal out of the bargain.
Hank owned the house and car, and his house was worth millions. Since Hank was also on a million-dollar annual income, the Yateses made a huge demand, asking for 777,777 dollars as a wedding gift.
This was an astronomical amount to ask for in Wiltspoon, especially for a wedding that was not among the wealthy. Ordinary families would only ask for tens of thousands, if not thousands when it came to financial gifts. 777,777 dollars was enough to scare any family from marriage.
As Mrs. Brown put it to her daughter, Jessica was not made of gold.
Besides, the Yateses were not returning wedding gifts of the same value. All the family intended to give were things like bedding, and the money they would get from the Browns were intended for the Yates brothers instead of the newly married couple.
Of course, the Browns were unhappy with the gift exchange.
It also rubbed Jessica the wrong way as it seemed like her family was selling her to get a better life themselves.
Since her parents did not have her best interest at heart, Jessica went ahead and got married to Hank in secret. Now that everything was a done deal, her parents had no leverage to demand the money.
“It’s not like you’re incapable. You can earn the money to buy a house in the city. My husband and I are jobless now. We need money for the wedding, the reception, our home renovation, and whatnot. Money is an issue for us now.”
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