The Abandoned Bride

Chapter 7

A few days go by and I start to feel better and notice the maid that is serving me looks different and the way she wears her hair in small braids looks so pretty.

"Is your name Mimi?" I ask when she comes in with the medicine.

"Yes my Lady" she says and comes over with the bowl and spoon and hands it to me.

"Where do you come from?"

"I come from the grasslands, I am not from here" She says smiling sadly.

"Were you taken by my husband?" I ask curious about the melancholy I see in her eyes.

"Oh no,  The General saved me and I begged to be his servant. I am blessed to be here with him now" She says with redness filling her cheeks.

"Oh, are you going to be his concubine?" I say with a sudden realization and her face turns bright red.

"No, I am simply his servant, I had to beg him to take me, he didn't want me, but I would have been killed without him" She says very quickly and stumbles over her words. I reach out and touch her arm and smile and chuckle.

"It's fine Mimi, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable, I simply just didn't understand the situation" I explain.

"Mimi come here" the General yells out to her and she smiles and bows her head and leaves the room quickly. Some time goes by and I decide to get out of bed and stretch my legs and body and walk over to the desk and sit down and pour myself some tea.

 This is the longest rest I have had in 10 years and I stretch my wrists and realize for the first time in years my wrists aren't throbbing or aching from all the transcribing I had to finish. I walk over to the bookcase behind me and look at the books and I realize this must have been Changwei's room. All the books seem to be about military maneuvers and tactics, but I do find a child's book and pull it out.

"What are you doing out of bed?" A voice appears out of nowhere and I drop the book. I don't say anything but I look up and see the General standing there.

"Are you feeling better?" He asks with a smirk.

"Yes" I say quietly and look down.

"I think you owe me some answers to my questions now" He says in a less aggressive tone. I don't even know what to say to him as I don't think he will believe any of my words. I am sure that he has talked to his Mother by now and she must have gotten all the servants to corroborate her side of the story. I am unsure though what kind of tale that Mother-in-Law is currently weaving at this point as I haven't left the room for days.

"Where were you going the night I came home?" He asks, getting closer to me.

"I don't know, I don't remember" I say, closing my eyes and he gets closer and grabs my wrists.

"Were you running away to find your lover?" He says quietly with his mouth next to my ear.

"What?" I say opening my eyes and turning to look at him.

"I said were you going to find your lover and run away from here with him, I have been hearing some rumors around the manor" He says his eyes burning with a muted rage.

"I don't have a lover" I say flatly trying to not anger him.

"Aren't you transcribing books and writing letters to your lover all day long?"

I scoff and now I feel the anger burning inside of me, the unfair treatment and abuse for all these years I have had to suffer with from his mother and now I have to hear these words from him.

"Do you really have a right to say these things to me? You abandoned me on our wedding day, you never even saw my face clearly and I never received a single letter from you. I was never even allowed to write a letter and I didn't know if you would even come back for me. You know I have been called the abandoned bride for the last ten years, you wouldn't even know the shame that I have had to face because of you " I say standing up and backing away from him and I can feel tears pricking my eyes, but with my sudden courage faltering I feel my legs growing weak, but I find myself continuing to yell.

"If this is true that I have a lover, that I was running away, then what? What are you planning to do to me? Divorce me? I am fine with that, we don't even need to talk about this anymore" I say throwing out my last ounce of courage in my body.

"You are my wife, we are not divorcing, we are never divorcing, but I will get the truth out of you yet" He says in a shout and walks out of the room with a bang. My knees start to buckle and I fall down into the chair.

It is quiet for the next couple of days and the General doesn't come and see me at all and I wonder what he wants from me. No one has told me to leave the room and Mimi continues to take good care of me. I am confused and concerned about Mother-in-Law and what her plans are for me now that the General has come back.

 In the evening everything seems overly quiet and none of the men that came with the General are here and everyone else seems to be in bed. I decide now that this is my chance to go and see Uncle because I need to let him know what happened. I quietly leave the yard and go down to his establishment and knock on the back door and I am let inside and wait for Uncle in his office.

"Danni, what happened? I thought for sure you made it out with the traveling artists? " He asks, his eyes widened at the surprise.

"My husband returned that evening when I was escaping and then I fainted from an illness and have been in bed since then" I explain and give him more of the details.

"Well what are you going to do now?"

"I don't really have a choice now, I have to stay in the house. If only I would have made it out before my husband made it back home then Mother-in-Law probably would have told him that I died when he came back home."

"Are you going to be okay? Where did he think you were going?"

"I haven't really told him anything, he suspects I have a lover" I say shaking my head at the notion.

"Are you going to tell him the truth?"

"I don't know, I am unsure where and who his allegiance lies with, I would think he would side with anything his Mother would say. There is no way I can fight the both of them now, for now I am going to wait and see what happens" I say.

"Boss we need help, these men are really rowdy tonight" A worker pops in the door looking flustered.

"What is happening?" I ask.

"There are some high profile men here tonight and making it hard on the staff, do you think you could sing for them, it may calm down the crowd?" Uncle says with pleading eyes, I sigh and agree even though he knows my life is a complete mess he still has no problem asking me.

 I quickly get dressed up and cover my face with a veil as I don't want to be found out now, I don't know what my husband the General would think of me if he found out what I was doing. I head onto the stage and decide to sing a livelier song to start with and work onto a more subdued style of song after.

 When I finish singing the song a man climbs onto the stage obviously drunk, but no one dares to stop him and I realize he must be a high ranking official so I try to back away from him. He comes over quickly and grabs my hand and declares that he wants to see my face.

 He gets the crowd going and chanting that they want to see my face and I really want to slap his face, but I know that won't resolve the situation. Before the man can lift my veil another large man makes his way onto the stage and I think this will really be the end of me.