THE DESPISED SON-IN-LAW

Chapter 12

Sarah stood at the top of the stairs watching them with a startled expression on her face. Her eyes darted from her brother and Mother to James' stiffened frame. She caught the spilled soda on the floor, and the crushed can in his hand.

Taking the steps, two at a time, she rushed over to her Mother's side.." what is going on here?" She asked with a livid look on her face.

"You can ask this fool you are married to! He attacked us first! He had the guts to insult our mother simply because she insisted that you deserve better",  Theodore replied first.

Sarah assessed the room again, her gaze landing on Thomas, she caught his bloodshot eyes, and the can in his hand for the second time. Her eyes widened in realization, as she took for word exactly what her older brother said.

"Is that what this has resorted to? Do you now insult my parents? How dare you, James Johnson?!" She yelled at him furiously.

James stared at her, his bloodshot eyes staring on in disbelief.

"Who gave you the right to attack my family? What audacity is that?! They pay for the very it you breathe! You are absolutely nothing without any of us! So how dare you?!" She continued yelling at him.

James could not understand how the woman who had been so gentle and sweet through the night while they had made love, could seriously be standing there accusing him without reason.

"What is wrong with you?! How blind can you be, Sarah Brown?! These people that you call 'Family' sent you out to be drugged and molested, just So you could bring money to them? How am I the villain?!" He snapped back at her.

Sarah's voice stilled within her throat and it began to hurt. She shook with both anger and grief. She was torn between worlds, she knew she should hate her family for trying to sell her out, but at the same time, she was more than willing to do anything for them.

"They are planning to sell you out for money and you are just going to stand there and defend them? They bloody want you to go back to Peter Causey crawling and begging..the man who bloody tried to rape you for f**k's sake!" He cursed at her.

Sarah flinched at his words, but she was determined not to stand there and be demeaned by a man who could barely afford the clothes on his own back.

"What is it to you? Why do you bloody care?! I am not your responsibility, James Johnson. I am not even your wife! I am so much better off without you here and you know that the only reason we are even in this marriage is because of my family's wealth and your poverty-stricken life!" She retorted.

Veins began to appear on Thomas'neck and arms as he bit his jaw and clenched his fist.

With an anger bout, he flung the crushed soda can across the room. Even though he applied next to little effort, yet, the can was propelled across the room, so that it broke through the glass window and landed outside with a thud.

"This is all your fault, Sarah. If only you had married Fred, you would be far richer and we would not be dealing with this low-class A****n prodigy. Who should be walking the forests by now? " Mrs Brown accused Sarah with a ton of venom in her tone.

Sarah merely shook her head in total helplessness.

"I should never have trusted you," she said to James, referring to the previous night as much as he knew that was what she meant.

"You do not have to do this. You are better than this, Sarah Brown, and there are far better ways to solve this problem than selling yourself out so cheaply" The moment he said that, Sarah's eyes widened with anger that she did not know when she reflexively slammed her five fingers across his face.

James lifted his face with clenched jaws. He was not going to retaliate because he understood why she did that.

"You would know a whole lot about selling one's self out cheaply, now wouldn't you? Do you think I enjoy being here?! This is my family!" She yelled at him.

"You enjoy being with this animal? I warned you severally Sarah, but you never listen to me! I will never let you forget the fact that a woman must do all she can to protect her family. This! Is the choice you and your Father made over Fred? Simply because he what...cheated a few times and called off the engagement?" Mrs Brown queried her impatiently.

"Ah, you've got to be kidding me," James said amused by her words.

"You would have been a multi-billionaire by now, and he would have easily helped you find a way to solve all our problems. If you had not decided to settle for a lunatic and a swine!" She growled at Sarah.

"Wow, wow.. this is your family. These are the people you want to sacrifice your entire being for?" James asked with a torrid kind of emotional anger.

"Family! You call these people your family. What are they doing to save the so-called 'Family'? Why are you the sacrificial lamb? Have you ever bothered to ask yourself that? You think these people care about you?" He yelled at Sarah.

"You better watch your tongue filthy rag. Who is going to care for her other than her own family? You? Of course not! Sarah is doing what she had to do because this family's resources are dwindling because of her! If she had not been so careless in managing her end of the Company, we wouldn't be in this position in the first place!" Theodore said angrily.

"She has to bear the responsibility of fixing what she broke!" He added.

Immediately, Sarah's phone began to ring, she picked up the call and put the phone to her ear. Her expression declined drastically as the person spoke on the other end of the line.

With a nod, the phone clicked, and the call was cut. She put her phone down and turned to everyone with a smile.

"Excuse me, I have to go out for a moment," she said and climbed back upstairs to get her bag.