Bound To The Seduction

Chapter 21: Unexpected Meeting

Glen visited Sarah on Saturday morning and they decided to go to the open market and forage for trinkets and fun stuff. It had been a while since the siblings spent time together and they walked happily, teasing each other, and sometimes, clasping their hands or Glen wrapping his arm around Sarah's shoulder. He was a head taller than her, and this gave an illusion of a perfect boyfriend.

Brandon's mom was flipping through her latest beauty magazine when she received a call. "Aunt, you won't believe this..."

At the market, Glen had managed to get soot on his cheeks somehow. Sarah took out wet wipes and cleaned his face with great detail while Glen messed with her hair. The actions were so intimate that people mistook them for a couple.

Brandon's mom arrived at that exact moment and witnessed this action. From her angle, it looked like they were about to kiss. Brandon's mom narrowed her eyes and walked briskly as her anger took over her reasoning. "What are you doing?!"

The familiar voice from behind made Sarah instinctively turn around. To say she was shocked would be an understatement. This was the last place she expected to see Brandon's mom.

"Sarah, what is the meaning of this?"

Sarah kept quiet and glanced at the crowd that was beginning to gather around because of someone's shouting. shouting was common in a market, but this one attracted attention because the woman shouting looked like a rich lady. People loved gossip.

Brandon's mom also noticed this and Sarah led her into a nearby stall with a seating area. She glanced at Sarah and lowered her voice to a whisper, "Sarah, what is going on?"

"Please sit down." Sarah brought a plastic chair and gave it to her while Glen watched in silence.

Brandon's Mom glanced at the chair like a piece of dirt and snorted, looking at Sarah in contempt. "You'd better give me a reasonable explanation for what happened a moment ago, otherwise, I won't recognize you and kick you out of the Lee family!"

Sarah took a deep breath. She tilted her head to the side, pursed her lips, and raised her eyebrows while pointing at the chair beside her.

Brandon's mom gave a condescending look at Sarah, who stood beside her and threw a contemptuous glance at Glen before sitting on the plastic chair. She placed her handbag on her lap, folded her arms, and leaned back on the chair, waiting for an explanation.

Sarah knew that Brandon's mom was willing to give her a chance to explain, not because she valued and treated her as a daughter-in-law, but because she wanted to believe this was just a misunderstanding. She did not want her son to suffer any grievances.

Sarah understood her attitude very well but she did not care. "Well, at first, I did not want to talk about this, but since you are here, I don't have to hide some things from you."

Brandon's mom raised her eyebrows and a bad premonition crept into her heart as Sarah spoke again, "as a good daughter, I've already saved you the trouble of having to kick me out of the family." Sarah paused, giving her the time to absorb the information before throwing a bomb. "I have already dumped your son."

"What?" Brandon's mom shouted as she suddenly stood and raised her hand.

Pah!

A slap landed on Sarah's cheek.

No matter how agile Sarah was, she would never have thought that Brandon's Mom would suddenly stand up and slap her in a fit of rage. She hadn't dodged. The force of that slap almost knocked her teeth off. Glen raised his hand to return a favor.

"Glen, no!" Sarah managed to stop him in time.

"But she hit you."

"Did you forget what mom taught us? Never fight with elders unless it is a life and death situation."

"But—"

"No buts," Sarah interrupted him as her lips curved into a reassuring smile, "I'll handle it." She turned around to face Brandon's mom. "And you, this is the first and the last time you will ever lay a hand on me. As for how we got into this situation, you'd better ask your precious son. If you'd spent half the effort teaching him about loyalty, perhaps we wouldn't be in this mess right now."

Sarah's eyes emitted a terrifying chill that even Brandon's mom couldn't help but step back. Why didn't she ever realize that Sarah could be this terrifying? Sarah's words had her questioning her life choices. Was Brandon hiding something? But still...

"You b*tch! You dared to break the engagement! Do you want our family to be the laughingstock of the whole city?"

"Ma'am, I don't really care about what happens to the Lee family." She turned to her brother, "Glen, let's go." Sarah held Glen's free hand and walked away, leaving the stunned woman behind.

"Do you think I'm blind?" Brandon's mom shouted, pointing at her departing back, "I saw it clearly at the door just now. You and that pretty boy—"

Sarah halted in her steps and turned around. "Oh, I forgot to introduce him." She pointed at Glen, "This right here is my younger brother Glen, Glen Suarez. Don't ever call him a pretty boy."

***

Sarah hesitated at the door for a few seconds, took a deep breath, and walked into the house. Henry was never home at this time of the day so She needed to do her cleaning and leave as quickly as possible. It wasn't worth it to cancel the session for such a small ruckus, right?

As soon as she walked in through the kitchen door, she stopped in her tracks. Henry was in the kitchen cooking something. His knife skills were top notch and he was there slicing carrots. He had a pale blue apron that blended neatly with his regular black outfit. All these made him extremely pleasant to the eye and Sarah almost forgot to breathe.

He took his eyes off the chopping board and looked at the intruder. He chuckled when he saw Sarah staring at him like a statue. "Hey, you've never seen such a handsome guy like me in the kitchen, right?"

"You can say so." Sarah nodded, but her eyes never left his face. She stared at him like a dog waiting for his favorite treat. She would be wagging her tail now if she had one.

"Okay, you can wipe your drool now." He put down his knife and leaned on the table. "You are giving me goosebumps."

Sarah suddenly came to her senses and pretended she wasn't looking. She brushed all the hair away from her face and tucked it behind her ear. One glance at her face and his expression changed. The playful Henry disappeared and was replaced by an icy one.

"Sarah, what happened to your face?"

"Nothing," she said, covering that part with her palm. She looked nervous and her eyes fixed on the floor.

"Nothing," he echoed. "For the record, my eyes are perfectly fine." He rinsed his hands and dried them with a paper towel. He walked closer to Sarah, and reached out his hand to her face, wanting to inspect her bruise.

She took a nervous step back and brushed her hair to the side, covering the left side of her face. "Okay, okay, I wasn't looking and  bumped into a door." Her eyes never left the floor.

"You bumped into a door with five fingers," he scoffed, "Yep, very convincing."

"Umm... I didn't know you would be in the house." Her eyes darted everywhere else except his face.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"I better get my cleaning equipment," she said and dashed out of his sight, into the laundry room.

As soon as she left the room, his fingers balled into a fist. He took out his phone and made a call while looking for an icepack for her face. "Andy, find out what happened to Sarah today. Every. Single. Detail. I'd like to know which idi0t had the nerve to touch my people."