"A secret?” There was a gleam in Henry’s eyes as his interest was piqued.
The woman nodded. "Yes, a secret all of us in the village knows.”
"Sure, let's head out to talk." Henry agreed and stood u p to head outside.
The woman was about to follow, trudging along with her plump self, when Yvonne pulled her, feeling left out. "Madam, what secret it is that you're telling him specifically and not me!"
The lady chuckled. "Oh, you can’t know about this secret. At least, not now."
She gave a meaningful pat on Yvonne's hand before turning to go out.
In the yard, Henry trained his eyes on the woman. "So, is it a secret about Yvonne?"
The woman looked surprised. "How'd you know that I was going to talk about her?"
Henry chuckled. "You asked for me to step out and based on what you told Yvonne, it's obvious that this secret is regarding her, no?"
Realization then struck the woman. "I see. You youngsters are better at catching things."
"You've complimented me too much." Henry looked down with a smile before he started again seriously. "D o tell, madam, the secret about Yvonne."
"I mentioned it just now. The whole village knows about it but we kept it from the girl. It's that she isn't a child from the Freys," said the woman.
Henry widened his eyes. "What did you say? Yvonne isn’t a Frey?"
"That's right. Yvonne girlie was picked up outside by the Frey husband and wife twenty-five years ago. It caused a scene in our village here back then."
"Then who are her biological parents?" Henry asked with a press of his lips.
The woman shook her head. "We don't know that. We asked the Freys too but they refused to tell us, so all of us have the suspicion that they stole the child, or that they bought it from human traffickers."
"Why'd you think that?" Henry asked in a low tone.
The woman sighed, "Because the Freys hadn't had a child after being married for several years. Then they went out and poof, carried back a child who was nearly a month old before it was even half a year. And they didn't want to talk about where she came from. That’s why we were skeptical.”
Henry nodded. "There is such a possibility, but why would you think of telling me this?"
The woman smiled. "Because all of us are fond of
Yvonne. We know what type of people the Frey parents are. Yvonne didn’t have it better from them when she was younger. Speaking of which..."
"What is it?" Henry's expression was stoic.
The woman pursed her lips. "Actually, the Freys were considerably okay to her before she was five. When their son was born, though, they despised Yvonne. Scolding and beatings were the regular, and they didn't feed her. We reprimanded them several times, but they wouldn't listen."
"Then?" Henry's fists were clenched tight, fury blazing his eyes.
He knew that the Freys prized their son over their daughter, but he did not expect the reason to be Yvonne Frey not being their biological child. It explained why he thought that she did not look the least bit like the spouses. It was not just her looks, but her character and behavior were unlike them as well.
What shocked him and angered him the most was that they had abused her! 3
"Later on, the Freys moved to the city so that their son could study there but they left Yvonne with Old Freys, Yvonne’s grandparents, but they were nice to the girl."
The woman sighed again, "It’s unfortunate that the Old Freys passed early. Yvonne was picked up again b y her parents. We didn’t know how she did after that, but once we thought about what the Freys were like, w e more or less could guess that she mustn’t have it
easy."
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