Chapter 39
Sharon worriedly asked for details. What do you mean?” Her heart was thumping wildly,
Sophie scratched her head. Her hair was disheveled and she looked just as confused. I can’t say for sure. I just went to the store to pick up som cereal and saw your father buying a knife. I asked him what he was buying it for, but he ignored me and left. He didn’t even look up at me,”
“Bought a knife and left?” She hadn’t seen her father come home, let alone the knife.
What on earth did he need a knife for?”
“Your father is a man of few words, but he usually greets the other neighbors in the community. He seemed really out of character carlier. Soph continued to express her concerns,
“Do you know if my dad has gotten into an argument with anyone recently?” Sharon feared the worst. Someone’s life might be on the line. including her father’s.
Sophie shook her head. “Ethan is patient and slow to anger, and he gets along with everyone. Plus, he’s not one to hold a grudge.
Sharon found no reason to disagree with Sophie. Her father never bothered much about anything besides her own affairs.
Sharon asked urgently. “Which way did he go?” She couldn’t figure out why her father needed a knife, and she became more anxious by the seco
“That way” Sophie pointed. I think he was headed to the bus station.”
“Bus station?”
They were in a small town where everything was within walking distance. People only took the bus if they were going out of state.
Is Dad planning to leave town?
Sharon asked Sophie to keep an eye on Irene in the house, and rushed off in the direction that she had pointed.
As she made her way to the station, she tried calling Ethan.
The call connected
“Dad, why aren’t you home yet?” Sharon asked as calmly as she could without letting on that she was aware he was planning something.
“I have some urgent business to attend to and won’t be back tonight. You and Irene can sleep in the bedroom. The sheets are new and I’ve already made the bed and prepared extra blankets.” Ethan skirted the question,
“What kind of urgent business is that?” Sharon tried to keep her voice even as she took long strides..
Again, Ethan avoided going into detail. He said, “Don’t worry about it. I’ll be back tomorrow. Get some rest tonight”
Sharon was aware that she was not going to get a straight answer from him, so agreed with him and hung up.
Exactly at that time, a car was driving by. She hailed it down and managed to hitch a ride to the station.
At the waiting area outside the bus station, she saw him
sat there hunched over, a cigarette in his hand and sucking on it deeply.
He sai
She noticed there were already a number of cigarette butts in the steel hin next to him,
Ethan might be a mere shoemaker without much education, but he was always neat and polite. He had never smoked, and he had never looked as disheveled as he did right now.
Sharon then saw he was carrying an unsuspecting, small black bag. She guessed that’s where Ethan had kept the knife he purchased.
She rushed over and called out, “Dad, what are you doing here?”
When Erlan uw hier, he froze slightly then hid liis small black bag somewhat hastily. He got rid of the cigarette and rubbed his hands together to kind of clean then “Why are you heret Dulo’t I tell you to get some rest?”
“We couldn’t powdly get any strep knowing you wrie out here? Sluron looked at him and then toward the bus station.
Where are you planning to g
Lihan looked away from her but made no altempt to answer
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11:01 AM
Chapter 39
Sharon took matters into her own hands and went over to him, searching through his coat pockets and wallet, rummaging for a ticket
She looked at the destination on the paper ticket, written in capital letters. Her breath hitched as it dawned on her
“Dad, are you going to see the Stanley family?” Sharon recalled the face Ethan had made when Irene talked about her cooking. She realized he ha been more upset that she thought
Ethan remained silent.
“Dad, what are you planning? Are you going to kill Edwin?”
Sharon realized the gravity of her words and felt giddy with shock.
Tm just going to find out the truth about how they really treated you.” Ethan said sullenly, his eyes red with grief.
He looked at Sharon with heartache. My beautiful, happy daughter married into their family and had to put up with all kinds of hardship and suffering,
Initially, he thought Sharon was just thin from dieting, but when Irene mentioned how good her cooking was, he realized that they must have worked her really hard. Or even worse, used her as a maid.
He hadn’t gone to visit the Stanley family all these years or contacted Sharon because he didn’t want to be an unnecessary burden on her. He neve imagined that the Stanley family would actually go so far as to take advantage of her and abuse her.
Ethan’s confession felt like a sword piercing through Sharon’s chest Sharp painful, and relentless. She couldn’t hold back her tears.
She pulled on Ethan’s arm, pleading with him. “Dad, don’t go. There’s something I haven’t told you. Actually, Edwin and L… we got a divorce.”
“Divorced Echan was stunned for a moment. The news was like a bolt out of the blue.
Sharon nodded, confirming. Tm sorry Dad. I should have listened to your advice from the beginning. I shouldn’t have gone to Edwin and I shouldn’t have married him in the first place.
After all, Ethan had been against the marriage from the get go. He made his disapproval very clear to Sharon then. In the end though, he relented at her insistence.
The outcome was not just her own physical and mental exhaustion. It even caused immense suffering to her own father. She was wracked with guilt.
Sharon hugs her father tightly and apologized between sobs
Ethan returned the hug. His calloused hands stroking her hair like when she was a child. “Don’t cry, my child. Divorce is not the end of the world. As long as you are safe, everything will be fine.”
He was actually visibly relieved. He had never got over his doubts about the Stanley family. From the day she married, it was clear to him that they would not make things easy for her.
Ethan could not convince Sharon to give up the marriage, but he also imagined that at least they would not ill–treat her. He had gotten angry not just at the cruelty of the Stanley family, but also because of his own negligence towards his daughter.
The two of them finally went home together.
Sharon continued to play dumb about the knife, pretending not to know Ethan had bought it. She also quietly instructed Irene not to talk about their time with the Stanley family.
She couldn’t imagine what would happen if Ethan found out that she was treated like a slave. She was his heart and his reason for living, if he knew about it he might really snap and kill someone.
After Irene fell asleep, Sharon sat with her father on the steps of the front porch, as they used to do in the past,
They reminisced while enjoying the cool breeze of the evening.
The conversation was peppered with laughter,
Sharon suddenly felt emotional as she looked into the
distance at the familiar view and then back at the smile on her father’s face.
She had a warm home and a loving father, why did she leave all that behindt
After a while, they addressed the elephant in the room. Edan initiated the implc. So, what’s nesut
Ethan already knew that sharon had divorced without king a single cent from the Stanley family. He wan’t com
worried about her future.
meerned about that but he was
