Chapter 73 - A Grave Misunderstanding
With Finn Taylor leading the way, Oliver Kleine was carried to the house door of Penny’s mother.
They flung the sack onto the ground, allowing Oliver Kleine to crawl out. He was still swearing at them and probably would’ve attacked them if not for the fact that he was vastly outnumbered.
“Kneel down!” Finn Taylor spat out.
Oliver Kleine took in his surroundings, finally realizing that he was at the door of his former mother-in-law’s house.
In an instant, he was dumbfounded.
“Did Penny hire you guys? I already divorced that woman. Why did you take me here?” Oliver Kleine tried to make excuses for himself.
“I told you to get down on your knees.” Finn Taylor had no interest in listening to this man’s nonsense. All he wanted the latter to do was kneel to the old lady.
“Why should I kneel? We’re already divorced! How ridiculous!” Oliver Kleine tried to leave, but one of Finn Taylor’s lackeys viciously kicked him in the knees such that he bowed over into a kneel on the ground.
And it just so happened that he was facing the old lady’s house.
“Oliver Kleine, I don’t care whether you’ve gotten a divorce or not. I brought you here to ask about one thing.”
Oliver Kleine remained silent, wondering what Finn Taylor was trying to say.
“Do you still remember how you married Penny?”
“By my own efforts, of course…” He initially wanted to say that he had only married Penny because he had proven his worth, but he hadn’t even finished his sentence before a few images surfaced in his mind.
At that time, he had been dirt-poor. He had absolutely no money to get a wife, but he liked Penny very much. That was why he had gone to Penny’s house to do their chores.
There was nothing he wouldn’t do—from cleaning to harvesting crops. They could count on him for any chores they needed to get done.
This was how he left a good impression on Penny’s family. Of course, he never would’ve gotten to marry Penny if he had simply done just that.
The whole of Penny’s family was educated.
While Penny had been a college student, the old lady was a teacher.
As for him? He was almost illiterate—all he knew how to write was his name.
But while everyone in Penny’s family objected to him, the old lady stood up for him. She insisted on marrying her daughter to him.
Oliver Kleine had almost forgotten about this episode of his past, but Finn Taylor’s question had refreshed his memory.
In an instant, tears welled up in his eyes.
“The old lady is lucky that she wasn’t frightened to death. There’s a fable about a farmer and a snake that repays good with evil, but I guess you wouldn’t know anything about that. It’s such a pity that Penny married an illiterate man like you.”
As expected, Oliver Kleine didn’t understand what Finn Taylor was saying. But it was exactly because of this that the former started thinking of something else. ‘In the first three years of my marriage, Penny would often say things I didn’t understand. After all, it was a habit she had cultivated over two decades. It was common in her circle to use such vocabulary, and everyone else understood her. I was just a stranger who had barged in on her life and didn’t understand what she was saying.’
‘Three years later, I suddenly realized that I understood everything Penny said. It was obviously because Penny had changed for my sake. How could I abandon a woman who loved me so much?’ Finally, Oliver Kleine broke down into tears, and he fell to the ground with a loud thud. “Mom, I was wrong.”
Thud!
Oliver Kleine hit his head against the ground yet again while kneeling and apologizing in the direction of the old lady’s house.
Finn Taylor clapped. ‘I’ve solved the matter.’
He turned back to look at his lackeys. “When you go back to Wampus, tell him that each of you will get 1,500 dollars.”
The lackeys couldn’t help but wonder if they had heard him wrongly. ‘It seems like we haven’t done anything, yet we are going to get 1,500 dollars!’
Knowing what they were about to say, Finn Taylor waved them off and asked them to stay silent.
With everything settled, Finn Taylor headed home.
Before he even entered the neighborhood, he spotted a car parked at the entrance to the neighborhood. There was a woman wailing beside the car.
Finn Taylor was still wondering what was going on when it suddenly dawned on him that it was his wife!
In an instant, he felt like someone was crushing his heart.
He rushed up to his wife with large strides. Then, he bent down and grabbed his wife’s hand. “Don’t worry; I’m here.”
Seeing this familiar face, Yvette Larson suddenly realized how comforting his presence was. ‘I hated him so much when he first married into our family three years ago. I even swore to myself never to speak to him in my life. But after three years, it seems like I can’t get away from him. He’s my everything—he’s my husband.’
“What’s the matter?”
“Boohoo.” Yvette Larson didn’t say a thing, but her pent-up emotions burst out right then.
Her tears fell uncontrollably as she lay in her significant other’s arms.
The latter decided not to pursue the matter. He just hugged his wife tightly, providing her with warmth and hope.
Eventually, the whole neighborhood learned of the matter.
Very quickly, it reached Francis Larson and Linda James as well.
A few neighbors had rushed to the neighborhood entrance as well. By then, Yvette Larson had already calmed down because of her husband.
The latter supported her and helped her up to the front passenger seat.
Just as he was about to drive off, Linda James arrived.
Slap!
Without any hesitation, she landed a slap on Finn Taylor’s face.
“Mom…” Yvette Larson rushed out of the car.
“Finn Taylor, oh Finn Taylor. You’re getting more out of hand by the day. I dislike you, but what about Yvette? From the very start, she’s never mentioned a divorce, has she? Who stands up for you when I scold you? Who feeds you when I starve you? Also, who secretly gives you a cushion whenever I make you kneel down on the ground? You’re a piece of work. How could you repay kindness with evil? You’d better give me a good explanation as to why my daughter is sobbing so badly.”
Linda James had no clue what had happened. She had simply heard that her daughter was crying her heart out at the neighborhood entrance and that their matrilocal son-in-law was by her side.
Naturally, she assumed that Finn Taylor had bullied her daughter.
“Mom, I have nothing to say.”
“Great! Are you not even going to rebuke me now?”
Finn Taylor didn’t know what was going through his mother-in-law’s mind. He simply believed that it was his fault for not protecting his wife. ‘It’s true that this is my fault. I failed to protect her well.’
As such, he didn’t try to make excuses for himself.
Yet, it was his behavior that convinced Linda James even further that Finn Taylor was guilty.
“Mom, it’s not what you think.” Although Yvette Larson didn’t know what was going through their minds, she felt that there had been a misunderstanding between them.
“Stop it, Yvette. Your mom isn’t blind. I can still tell right from wrong.”
“That’s right, Yvette. It’s my fault; I shouldn’t have let you go through that.”