He saw the whole yard strung with decorations, a ring of red lanterns hanging all around, and stopped dead in his tracks.

Daisy's father even stammered as he spoke:

"Conrad, this banquet today isn't being thrown for Thelma, is it?"

My brother kept nodding as he busied himself hanging the red silk:

"It's for Thelma. I couldn't make it back when she got married off, and it's weighed on me ever since."

"Thelma had her disabilities, so the cost of this banquet is something we, as her family, ought to pay back to the groom's side. Call it making up for the trouble we owe them."

The words were barely out before Daisy's father was shaking with rage. He flung the money down hard on the ground and turned to leave.

On his way out the gate, he didn't forget to curse:

"Everybody in this village knows exactly why Thelma ended up the way she did."

"Sure enough, you go to the city and come back heartless as a wolf, and then you turn around and help the Lawrences throw a wedding feast? Mark my words, lightning'll strike you down sooner or later!"

With that, Daisy and her family walked off into the distance.

Only Vera came chasing after, grabbing hold of Daisy, demanding to know the truth.

Daisy pointed toward the barren hills, tears spilling over:

"Thelma's dead. Gerard tormented her to death, plain and simple. Mother and child, both buried up there in that grave."

"You never came back to stand up for her. Fine, you shoved her into that pit of misery and washed your hands of it."

"But she's gone now. What are you doing helping the Lawrences make up for some wedding feast? There's no decency in this world that allows for that!"

Vera stumbled back into the yard. My brother was hunched over scrubbing a pot.

He was muttering, angry too:

"I don't know what's gotten into that family. If he won't take the money, then we'll find someone else to host the banquet!"

Vera was hemming and hawing, about to say something, when a clamor rose up behind her.

That sound — there was none I, Thelma, knew better.

"It's that pack of villains from the edge of the village! They've come to steal our things again!"

I hid behind my brother, but he rose with a smile to greet the guests.

At the head of them was Gerard.

Amid all the jeering from the crowd, he bowed and scraped before my brother, cringing, and called out, "Big brother."

My brother looked around for a long while, and when he didn't catch a glimpse of me, disappointment flickered in his eyes:

"Is Thelma sulking because I came back so late? Won't show her face?"

Gerard sensed that my brother knew nothing, and in an instant his whole face changed. With more and more villagers crowding in, he dragged Vera out the gate.

Afraid he'd hurt her, I hurried out after them.

Gerard's expression had turned ugly, and he stuck out his hand with malice in it.

"Where's the money you promised me every month?"

"You don't pay up, and I'll tell Conrad Matthews you're the Lawrence family's real daughter. See how you go on living the good life at his side then!"

I froze where I stood.

So it turned out Vera's own brother was this very Gerard, the one who tormented me day after day.

Vera slapped his hand away, disgust all over her face.

"You still have the nerve to ask for money?"

"Thelma's dead — a thing this huge — and you dared keep it from me?"

Gerard scratched his head, his face full of impatience.

"You only told me to marry her in and tie her down so she couldn't go to the city. You never said I couldn't sleep with her."

"Besides, she's the one who couldn't hold up. A couple of rolls in the sheets and she died in childbirth. Who knows, maybe somebody'd already worn her out before."

Vera was shaking with fury. Her hand flew up and cracked across his face:

"She was pregnant! How is that the same thing?"

That set Gerard off. He lunged and clamped a hand around Vera's throat, grinding the words out through his teeth:

"Other men's wives carry to term and come out just fine. What makes her so delicate? She got what she deserved!"

"And who even knows whose bastard she had in her belly. The two of them, alive, were nothing but dead weight!"

I cursed him with everything I had, screaming for him to let go, but it was all for nothing.

I finally understood.

Every single one of them, my brother included, could no longer hear my voice.

Gerard's threat came out vicious: he had to have the money before he went back to the city.

Otherwise, he'd expose her.

It was right then that my brother's voice came from behind them.

"Gerard. What you all just said—what did you mean by it?"

At the sound of his voice, Vera's whole body went still.

She turned, stepped carefully up to him, and ventured cautiously,

"Conrad, when did you get here…?"

My brother pointed toward the cook he'd hired for the yard, his expression easy.

"The cook's arrived. I figured I'd call my brother-in-law in for a few drinks."

"Just now, from a ways off, I heard you all say something about exposing somebody… What's all that about? Expose who?"

Vera's face was strained, but she let out a breath all the same.

Her eyes slid away on instinct, and she made up some excuse on the spot to wave it off.

But once Gerard had swaggered back into the yard, Vera grabbed my brother's hand and pressed him about when, exactly, he could go back to the city.

My brother ruffled her hair fondly and soothed her.

"What's this? The older sister watching her little sister get married, and now you're getting anxious yourself?"

"Don't worry. When your day comes, the whole affair won't be one bit less grand than Thelma's."

"Besides, once this banquet's over, we still have to take Thelma back to the city to get her treated."

Vera's feet froze where she stood, her face full of panic.

But my brother didn't notice. He'd already strode over to Gerard and pulled a thick cash gift from inside his coat.

With everyone at the table watching, he pressed it into Gerard's hand and told him,

"Thelma married you, and I, her brother, couldn't get back in time."

"This bit of money—call it the dowry I owe her."

"It's a year's wages I saved up. You two newlyweds take it and set up a household."

That pack of bachelors from the edge of the village stood there with their wine bowls, and at the sight of it they forgot to drink.

Their eyeballs were fixed dead on that bulging cash gift, staring until their eyes glazed over.

Vera tried to speak up and stop him, but my brother raised a hand and cut her off.

He clapped Gerard on the shoulder and smiled. "I've gotten a solid footing in the city this past year."

"I know you've never had a real job, big brother here already had someone line up a position for you in the city. Work hard from now on—putting food on the table, that's what matters."

At those words, every one of them suddenly couldn't sit still.

A wine cup shattered. It was Nathan, who had tormented me.

Liquor egging him on, he jabbed a finger at Gerard and let loose.

"The kid in Thelma's belly isn't even Gerard's! What gives him the right to have every good thing land on him alone?!"

Vera stepped forward and cut in fast.

"What drunken nonsense are you spouting! Somebody get over here and haul him off!"

But my brother raised a hand and stopped her, his gaze locked dead on Nathan, his voice dropping a few degrees colder.

"Go on. What do you mean, no telling whose kid it is?"

Nathan let out a cold laugh and spat at Gerard's feet.

Reeking of liquor, he leaned in close to Conrad, calling him "big brother" with every other breath.

"Big brother, I'll be straight with you—I'm real fond of Thelma. She's been mine for a long time now."

"So that lump of flesh in her belly, that's my seed."

"This thick stack of dowry, no matter how you slice it, I've got to get a share, don't I?"

"You don't believe me, go on out to the barren hills and dig that mother and child up."

"She's only been dead a few days anyhow. Drag her to the hospital, run a blood test, and I guarantee it'll come back as my own flesh and blood."