Filed to story: The Daughter in the Shadows (Yunice) Book by Una Norris
Just as he rolled up his sleeves, Peggy rammed into his chest with a headbutt. He staggered back several steps and plopped down hard into a chair.
Peggy casually brushed her bangs aside. “Aren’t you a little old to be pretending you’re still young and tough?”
Mr. Terrance gawked at her, clearly stunned by her ferocity.
But unwilling to admit defeat, he clutched his chest and began faking a scene. “Ugh, ugh. She’s trying to kill me!”
Even though Owen knew he was faking, he still didn’t want things to get any uglier. He helped hold him up and frowned at Peggy. “Just apologize to him already!”
Mr. Terrance wheezed in Owen’s arms, pointing at Peggy with trembling fingers. “Words aren’t enough. I need a real apology and a hundred thousand in medical expenses!”
Peggy snorted. “What, you made of gold? One hundred grand? You’ve gone insane.”
Owen snapped. “Can you shut up and just apologize already?!”
Peggy folded her arms, eyes rolling to the ceiling. “In your dreams.”
Mr. Terrance looked between the useless Owen and Lily. “You’re all just going to let her run wild?”
Lily looked extremely uncomfortable. No matter how skilled she was, she couldn’t get a handle on Peggy. The woman was a force of nature-soft didn’t work, hard didn’t either.
If there had been a way to keep her out, she would’ve taken it. But right now… there wasn’t.
Seeing no one would back him up, Mr. Terrance spat, “Fine, fine. You people really are something-letting a woman walk all over you like this. I’m embarrassed for you!”
“Fine. Don’t say a word. I’ll go tell everyone just how pathetic you lot are. Let’s see if you can still show your faces after that!”
Owen, now completely humiliated, couldn’t help but turn to Yunice and shout, “Yunice! Are you going to do something about your people or not?!”
With that roar, all eyes shifted back to Yunice.
She held her teacup, looking slightly out of the loop.
Just as everyone wondered what this had to do with her, Elsie sprang up, red-eyed and pleading to Yunice. “Yunice, please don’t let her keep hurting people!”
Mr. Terrance blinked. “What do you mean by that, Elsie? I’m not following.”
Elsie, still on the ground, turned her head and said, “Peggy’s actually Yunice’s friend. She’s been badmouthing the family nonstop, and that’s why Peggy keeps helping her go against us.”
She even wiped away a tear, looking completely helpless. “In this house, Peggy only listens to Yunice. If you want her to apologize, you’ll have to beg Yunice personally.”
Mr. Terrance widened his eyes and pointed at Yunice, cursing, “What kind of thing is she? Clumsy even at serving tea-now I’m supposed to beg her? She doesn’t deserve that kind of face!”
Yunice’s eyes darkened. Even the knuckles gripping her teacup turned pale from the force.
These were all Lily’s relatives. People learn by example.
Lily didn’t respect Yunice, so naturally, her relatives treated her like garbage too.
Years ago, before Yunice was framed and locked in a mental hospital, these relatives would order her around every time they visited. They’d nitpick, mock, and belittle her-as if insulting the Saunders family’s eldest daughter somehow elevated their own status.
Yunice wasn’t the type to silently endure back then. She used to fight back.
But every time she did, she received no support from her mother or brother. What came instead were whipping branches across her back and scoldings about being ill-mannered.
Elsie would put on her good-girl face and “plead” for her, but it was always just stoking the flames. Owen would strike without holding back, and Lily would rush to apologize to Mr. Terrance, saying she hadn’t raised her daughter well-dumping all the blame on Yunice.
Crash! The teacup in Yunice’s hand shattered into pieces on the ground. She silently pulled a napkin and wiped her hands.
Then she said, “Peggy, slap her.”
The words “slap her” came out so calmly that it took a few seconds for everyone to realize what she’d said.
The next second, the room burst into laughter.
“She really thinks she’s somebody now? Who in this house would listen to a nutcase like her?”
“Hey Yunice, heard you spent three years in the mental hospital. When they electroshocked you, did you really piss and shit yourself? Then get blasted clean with a power washer like some livestock? Come on, tell us!”
Peggy looked at Yunice with wide eyes. Yunice was in a psych ward? No way. A lunatic marrying that well?
But the smirks on Lily’s other relatives’ faces made it clear-it was true.
Then one of Mr. Terrance’s other sons chimed in. “Yunice, once you’ve had a mental illness, you’re nuts for life. Even if we all took turns slapping you, the cops would say we were just keeping the peace.”
In other words, even if they beat her, they’d be praised for protecting public safety. Thuil Gill hurled a teacup and hit one of Mr. Terrance’s sons in the head. “Shut your mouth!” Yunice finished wiping her hands, then looked up and said calmly, “You can come over and try.” Mr. Terrance’s two sons took the bait. Hearing Yunice’s challenge, they leapt over the chairs and charged at her, raising their hands. “We’ll hear you if we want!”
Yunice turned to Peggy and said, “If I lose a single strand of hair today, your wedding’s off.”
“What?” That snapped Peggy into full clarity. She grabbed a stool and swung it at them!
Yunice added lazily, “Hit as hard as you want. If you injure anyone, I’ll cover the costs.”
Peggy knew Yunice could afford it, and with that reassurance, she whirled the chair and beat the two Saunders men into a howling mess.
Peggy wasn’t just talk. At 140 pounds and with self-defense training, beating up two lazy, loudmouthed bums was a piece of cake.
Watching his sons get pummeled, Mr. Terrance sat up from Owen’s arms and pointed at Yunice, roaring. “You’ll pay for this! You think you can afford it? You’re trash! Sell yourself to a nightclub for three years and you’d still be worthless. I’ll make you regret this!”
With that, he lunged at her, reaching for her clothes.
Lily didn’t come from a good background. Her own family didn’t like her. To win their approval, she bent over backward to please them.
And because of that constant appeasement, these people thought they, as Moores, could do whatever they wanted in the Saunders household.
Even assault Will’s beloved daughter in front of his memorial portrait.
People like Mr. Terrance had no class. And when they fought, they didn’t even try to make it dignified. He went straight for Yunice’s clothes.
Because in the eyes of men like him, the greatest way to humiliate a woman wasn’t beating her with a branch-it was stripping her bare, subjecting her to the scorn of every pair of eyes, shaming her from spirit to skin, nailing her to a pillar of disgrace for life.
Yunice stared at Mr. Terrance’s reaching hand and remembered all those whippings on her back.
When Owen was a teenager, one stroke of the branch would tear through her clothes and skin alike. Mr. Terrance’s two sons would sit there eating seeds, commenting on how fair her skin looked-no wonder she managed to seduce Paul…
Just as Mr. Terrance grabbed her collar, Yunice caught his radius bone with perfect precision, twisted, and dislocated his wrist with a quick snap.
The sharp pain made Mr. Terrance lurch forward with a groan.
Gill was quick to react and smacked a soft cushion right onto Mr. Terrance’s head. “You old bastard, who are you trying to fall on? You think you can touch my lady?”
Mr. Terrance was hit squarely and stumbled backward, landing hard.
The whole living room erupted in chaos. Other relatives, who had been watching for fun, shrieked and ducked for cover. A few unlucky ones even got caught by the swing of Peggy’s chair leg.
Owen watched the pandemonium and yelled. “Stop! All of you, stop right now!”
No one listened.
Yunice remained calm and composed in her seat. It wasn’t until Peggy had beaten Mr. Terrance’s sons into a whimpering huddle that Yunice finally spoke, “Stop.”
She only said one word, but it was far more effective than Owen’s flailing and shouting.