Filed to story: The Daughter in the Shadows (Yunice) Book by Una Norris
“Men are all the same. You’re about to marry Mr. Cooper, and you’re crying over some other guy? Come on, does that seem right?”
Yunice snorted. “Paul doesn’t deserve it.”
Gill immediately dabbed her eyes with a tissue-completely unaware that Wyatt had caught the whole exchange out of the corner of his eye.
Up above, the backhoe buckets kept dumping coins like it’d never end. Paul wasn’t bleeding, but he was a mess; his whole body was battered, with welts rising all over the back of his head. Seeing he couldn’t take much more, Elsie clenched her jaw and threw herself over him to shield him with her own body. Paul looked at her, choked. “Elsie…”
Elsie’s voice trembled through the pounding coins. “Paul, I love you! You’ve already taken enough for me-can’t keep watching you suffer!”
“Ehin…” Paul’s voice was choked with emotion. Elsie’s tears streamed down. “I know you still love Yunice; she loves you too. If Elle…” The sentence trailed off, unfinished.
Paul’s eyes were bloodshot as he roared, “What kind of nonsense is that? Even if she still loved me, I could never love a woman that cruel. I won’t marry anyone-if I marry in this lifetime, it’ll only be you!”
Elsie clung to Paul even tighter, shielding him from the falling coins. Gill stood there dumbfounded.
Yunice gave a disbelieving laugh and rolled her eyes so hard it could’ve turned back the clock. “The wing-how many amateur moves from the five-story playbook has she mastered to get this good! No wonder Paul falls for her every single time.”
Wyatt, however, only caught the angle of Yunice turning her head away. From his vantage point, he misread her giant eye roll and mocking smile as a bitter, self-deprecating one. He turned his gaze away, lips pressed tight; a sharper edge crept into his stare as he looked at Paul. Finally, he raised a hand and gave a signal.
The hovering backhoe slowly tilted its bucket upright; the long arm retracted. The rain of pain came to a sudden halt. When Paul realized the downpour had stopped, he shouted up at Wyatt, “What, that’s it, backing down already! Come on, keep going if you’ve got the guts!”
Wyatt answered only with a look that screamed “not the sharpest tool in the shed.”
“Blue!” Owen and Lily rushed toward her, but the ground was littered with both cash and coins-there was nowhere safe to step. They tripped and stumbled their way to Elsie’s side, crawling the last few feet.
“Owen… Mom…” Elsie murmured weakly, collapsing into Owen’s arms. Owen’s eyes turned bloodshot as he cried out in anguish, “Elsie!”
Paul’s mouth hung open; his lips and pupils trembled as if Elsie had just laid down her life for a greater cause. “Get her to the hospital! We need to get her to a hospital right now!” Owen shouted in a panic, scooping Elsie up in his arms.
“What hospital? Aren’t you and I both doctors?” Yunice had walked over at some point and now stood squarely in his path.
Lily, sobbing uncontrollably, lunged at Yunice to shove her out of the way-but Gill casually caught her wrist. “Yunny, your sister’s unconscious. You won’t even let us take her to the hospital?” Lily cried.
Yunice calmly pulled a short, one-inch-long needle from her meridian pouch. “Didn’t I already say? I’m the one who practices medicine. If Mr. Owen can’t treat her, I can.”
Gill threw in a jab. “And this guy calls himself a director? The second anything goes wrong, he’s panicking and rushing to send her off to the hospital. No wonder your dad’s hospital went downhill with you in charge.”
Owen choked on the insult, then snapped, “Who says I can’t treat her? Of course, I can!” He immediately pressed his fingers to Elsie’s philtrum. When she didn’t wake, he applied more pressure.
Owen glared at Yunice. “See for yourself-she’s really unconscious!”
Yunice strolled up, calm as ever, and pinched Elsie’s middle finger. “If she won’t wake up, it only means your skills are useless.”
The moment she said it, Elsie let out a shriek and jolted upright from Owen’s arms. Owen flinched in shock, then noticed a long needle sticking out of Elsie’s middle finger. He immediately snapped, “Of course she woke up-you stabbed her! Anyone would wake up if you tortured them like that!”
Yunice replied coolly, “I didn’t just wake her up. I can get her back on her feet, good as new.” She raised the needle again. Elsie, already traumatized, darted behind Owen and sobbed, “Why did it hurt so much? It felt like it pierced my soul!”
Yunice sneered. Of course it hurt. That technique was powerful enough to rouse someone from even the deepest unconscious state. It was the same method she’d used to revive herself back when Owen had drugged her.
Now that Elsie was clearly fine, Owen turned pale and looked at Yunice. “We already paid you back. You got your revenge. What more do you want?”
“What more do I want?” Yunice sneered, stepping closer to Elsie. “Now it’s time to settle everything-one by one.”
Gill crossed her arms with satisfaction, her gaze fixed smugly on Elsie. Every single time in the past, Elsie would fake fainting at a crucial moment to draw everyone’s attention. Then Yunice’s grievances would just fade away, but not this time.
Yunice stared Elsie down, then leaned in close until their eyes met-Elsie’s filled with panic and wariness. She whispered so only the two of them could hear, “I’ve changed my mind. I’m done begging you to give me my identity back. I’ll make you cough up every last thing you stole from me, until you’re running on empty.”
Send Gifts
Elsie shivered, but her terrified gaze slid past Yunice, locking instead on Wyatt standing behind her. Yunice caught that small detail instantly.
She straightened up and spoke clearly, “You may have scraped together 4 million dollars, but as the victim, Mr. Quinton hasn’t agreed to settle.”
Owen, reminded of this, glanced at Quinton with growing unease. Four million dollars could be raised, sure-but they couldn’t buy back a jade bracelet that rare. Whether or not to accept the settlement was still Quinton’s call.
Quinton took in the wrecked courtyard and the bruises on Yunice’s body. He knew she wasn’t doing all this to make things hard for the Saunders family; she was waiting on his stance. After all, the gifts had to be returned to him through Yunice.
Quinton said, “Then, for Ms. Saunders’ sake, I’ll let it go.” He said it skillfully-and slapped the Saunders family in the face even harder. The one they’d always called the most useless had now become the only reason they were being forgiven.
Owen’s pride was crushed. He stayed silent, seething, waiting to see what Yunice would throw at them next.
Yunice stood tall. “Since Mr. Quinton has spoken, then Mr. Owen, please take charge and deposit this money into the bank. Transfer it to Mr. Quinton’s account so both parties have a record, yes?”
Paul glared at Yunice, fuming. So now we have to clean up this mess too? Yunice threw him a mocking look, as if to say: Sure had fun throwing it, didn’t expect you’d be the one stuck picking it all up, huh!
She could guess Paul’s original plan: toss the money, then sit back and watch her crawl on the ground, picking up every single bill while begging for mercy. Too bad for him-it didn’t go that way.
Yunice shifted her gaze and added, “Also, the coins Mr. Cooper lost on the Saunders property-please collect those and send them to the west wing courtyard.”
Owen snapped, “What gives-” He was about to ask what gave her the right, but Yunice raised a finger to her lips. Owen turned red as a beet but bit his tongue. Yunice lowered her hand and smiled. “I’m sure Mr. Owen wouldn’t want a reputation for keeping other people’s property.”
No one said a word. Even if the coins had been dumped in the Saunders courtyard, as long as Wyatt hadn’t said they were a gift, they weren’t theirs to keep. And even if the Saunders family technically had a case, Wyatt could make sure they lost anyway. This defeat left no room for debate.
Yunice took Gill’s phone and said, “Also-“
Owen canned, “Are you ever shine in he done?” Elue’s face turned ghostly pale. Owen frowned, torn. “You were friends once. If you do this, how’s Elsie supposed to make friends in the future?”
Yunice couldn’t tell if he truly didn’t see the truth or was just covering for Elsie. Not that it mattered. She treated his words like a fart-not worth hearing, let alone catching the stink.
Before he could finish, Yunice turned her back to him and raised the phone slightly. “I’ll be watching for that apology.”
As Wyatt and the others left the Saunders mansion, Elsie’s legs gave out and she collapsed to the ground. She stared at the home ruined by money that was never hers, at the people dragged down because of her-regret flooded her. She’d thought smashing Yunice’s jade pendant would leave her no choice but to suffer in silence. She never expected things to escalate like this…
Yunice! If Wyatt hadn’t helped you, today’s win wouldn’t have been yours! Rage and frustration overwhelmed her; her eyes rolled back, and she passed out cold.
Being taken to the hospital gave Elsie a brief reprieve, but Owen and Paul-the two who had to face the consequences-were left behind to deal with the aftermath. The money scattered across the courtyard was a disaster to clean up.
Paul considered hiring help, but Owen stopped him. “What, you want to make the Saunders and Powell families even more of a joke! All that cash lying around while they had to clean it up themselves-it would just confirm for outsiders that they’d tried to show off and ended up humiliating themselves.”
Paul snapped, “So what, who’s gonna clean it? Don’t expect me-I’m in pain head to toe!”
Owen was still fuming. “And whose fault is that? You could’ve just wired the money if you wanted to help Elsie. Why the heck go through all this to get it in cash-” He stopped mid-sentence. Something clicked. “…You weren’t here to help Elsie. You were here to humiliate Yunice.”
If Wyatt hadn’t shown up and flipped the script, this mess would’ve been Yunice’s burden. Paul didn’t deny it. He said nothing. Because Owen was right-Paul had planned it exactly that way. He just hadn’t counted on Wyatt ruining everything.
“That cripple Wyatt keeps ruining everything for me; I’m not letting him off the hook,” he said coldly.
Owen grabbed Paul by the collar, teeth clenched. “You’re still trying to dodge responsibility? If you hadn’t kept going after Yunice, why would Wyatt step in for her? You and Yunice are over-why don’t you put all that energy into Elsie for once!”
Paul had no comeback, so he shot back with equal venom. “Well, maybe that’s because you don’t have 4 million dollars. If you did, I wouldn’t have had to get involved.”
Painting a man and calling him broke and useless-that was a brutal blow. Owen’s face cracked. He let go of Paul, defeated. Today they’d both lost face, but Paul had also lost real money.
Paul yanked on his collar to smooth out the wrinkles Owen had left and, realizing he may have gone too far, asked, “Wasn’t the Saunders hospital always bringing in good money?”
Why else would they be so desperate over 4 million dollars that we’d talk about selling the house!
Owen didn’t want to get into it. Ever since Yunice had been locked away in the psych ward, the Saunders hospital had mysteriously lost its edge in treating rare and complex cases, and patients had been leaving in droves.
Lost the edge overnight? What kind of nonsense is that?
Owen shook his head. “No idea. Same prescriptions-just no results.”