Filed to story: The Daughter in the Shadows (Yunice) Book by Una Norris
Linda, noticing she was alone, quickly asked, “Ms. Taylor, where’s Paul!”
Only then did Taylor seem to realize Paul wasn’t in the room. Her face turned cold. “I didn’t see him.” After that, her cheeks flushed with humiliation, and she stormed off, clearly furious. Linda stood frozen for a moment, then suddenly caught on. “Don’t tell me Taylor never found Paul at all?” Linda’s face turned pale as she hurried after her.
Of course, Jackson and Jensen understood exactly what had happened. Paul had always been entangled with Elsie. Ignoring Taylor was one thing, but making her lose face in front of everyone! That kind of embarrassment-how was the engagement supposed to go forward now?
Jackson, already seething, exploded. “Find that useless brat and bring him back to me!” Everyone knew exactly who he meant. When they found Paul, he was entangled with Elsie-again.
Jackson immediately dragged him to the ancestral hall, where he struck him with his cane over a dozen times, hard enough to break the skin. Paul’s mouth was bleeding from biting down too hard. He had never been punished like this in his life. And worst of all, he genuinely didn’t understand what he’d done wrong.
Jensen and Linda stood silently by, not daring to intervene. Jackson pointed at him furiously. “You were supposed to be with Taylor! What the heck were you doing?”
Linda tried to smooth things over. “Paul, Ms. Taylor felt humiliated because you ignored her. Apologize to Mr. Jackson.”
All Paul had to do was take the offer Linda made. But instead, still riding a wave of youthful arrogance, he didn’t feel like he’d done anything wrong. He felt the beating had been completely unjust. So he snapped. “It’s not like I invited Taylor here! She came running to the Powell family to make a fool of herself-that’s not on me!”
Jackson shouted, “Say that again!”
“I’m serious! What, she can’t get married to anyone else, so now she’s got her claws in me?” Paul continued. “She acts like… (man-bossy and self-centered). I never even liked her!”
Jackson’s cane slammed onto the table with a deafening crack.
Paul froze, thinking he’d misheard. He raised his voice in disbelief. “I’m not functioning?”
No one answered. They all just stared at him-heavy, silent, as if the accusation had already been decided. And he, flustered as he was, only looked defensive. The truth was, their suspicion had a basis. They knew Paul. He was the first among his peers to start messing around with women, and the women he dated were all schemers. Hooking up with a wealthy heir like him, any one of them would’ve killed to have his child and leverage it into status. But Paul-simpleminded as he was-had never had a single woman show up with a surprise pregnancy. Not once. Even those two girls from the Saunders family-he’d had both of them, and neither ended up with so much as a late period. So if there was a problem, it was probably with him.
If Yunice hadn’t made that little jab at dinner earlier, none of them would’ve dared say it out loud. But now…
Jackson said, “If it’s really your issue, you’ve got no right to reject Taylor. This is a business marriage. Love and children aren’t part of the deal. Marry her first, then get treatment. Medical tech these days can fix anything.”
Paul stood there, stunned. “Wait, what do you mean my issue? What treatment? Can you all stop being so cryptic?”
But no one was listening. Jensen said, “If you don’t cut things off with that girl from the sticks, don’t blame me if-“
“If what?” Paul cut him off, annoyed. “You gonna have another kid? Look at how old you are. Do you think you can still pull that off? Hah, maybe grandpa should try it too.”
Even if Jensen had another kid now, there was no way they’d catch up to Wyatt. That was just the truth. The three of them fell silent.
Paul wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, growing more self-righteous by the second. “This is what this is about, huh? You can’t deal with Wyatt, so you’re taking it all out on me!”
“You!” Paul snapped. “Did I say anything wrong? Wyatt flipped the whole table and smashed dishes in your faces. You didn’t hit him back, and now you’re taking it out on me?” With that, he stood up angrily. “If Wyatt won’t beg for mercy, then I won’t either!” He stormed off-and no one stopped him.
Once he stepped out of Heritage Hall, Paul came to a halt, his face still cold. He turned back to look at the grand hall behind him. Could it be that the Powell family really can’t keep Wyatt in check anymore? He frowned, a crushing sense of helplessness slowly weighing him down like a mountain on his shoulders.
Inside Heritage Hall, Jackson had his eyes closed, trying to rein in his fury. Jensen stood before him, too afraid to speak. In order to gain rights to participate in the Westvale land deal, Jackson had handed over the hostages from the separate residence. From that point on, they had nothing left to use against Wyatt. And now Wyatt didn’t give a damn about respecting elders or showing filial piety; he probably wouldn’t even bother attending family banquets anymore.
Were they really going to just sit back and watch Wyatt split from the Powell family and rise to power alone? Jackson opened his eyes. “The Powell family can only have one person in charge. Now that we’ve secured Westvale, we don’t need the extra one anymore.”
Jensen lowered his gaze. Hearing the old man’s decision, he could barely contain his excitement. “Got it. I’ll take care of it.”
Paul returned to his own courtyard, still aching from his injuries. His chest was tight with frustration. If Elsie hadn’t come looking for him behind his back today, he wouldn’t have gotten beaten up like that. He’d told her clearly not to come see him today; he’d said it more than once. Why didn’t she listen? Elsie was too reckless. She never cared about the bigger picture. No one knew what kind of mess she’d drag him into next. This secret relationship with Elsie-it wasn’t going to stay hidden for long.
Paul took a deep breath and walked to the pet house, wanting to check on Moss. But as soon as he reached the glass enclosure, he froze. It was empty. Moss was nowhere to be seen.
“Where’s Moss?” Paul grabbed the maid responsible for taking care of the bird. She recoiled in fear, her voice trembling. “Moss accidentally drank disinfectant… he didn’t make it…”
Paul couldn’t believe it. “Didn’t I tell you to get Yunice to treat him? She didn’t come?” There was no way Yunice wouldn’t come. Moss was the pet they’d raised together. He wasn’t the attentive type-he lost interest in things quickly. Back when Moss was still small enough to fit in the palm of a hand, he’d played with him a few times before leaving him alone. After that, it was Yunice who raised Moss-training him, teaching him, coaxing him to perch on her arm. To Moss, Yunice was like a mother. There was no way she would just ignore him when his life was on the line!
The maid said, “Ms. Saunders did come… but she said birds are fragile creatures. Once they get sick, there’s usually no cure. By the time she arrived, Moss wasn’t moving at all. She couldn’t even give him medicine, let alone save him…”
A wave of grief crashed into Paul. He stood frozen, his senses momentarily misfiring. He felt a flicker of pain-then nothing. He stared blankly at the empty pet house. A hallucination crept into his mind. He saw Moss, just after growing his feathers, fluttering down from the swing set. The blue-gold shimmer of his plumage sparkled like a rainbow in the sunlight. Yunice sat on the swing, and he stood in front of her. Moss flapped his little wings and tried to land on his arm. He saw the sharp claws and instinctively wanted to pull back. Yunice laughed gently from the swing. “Don’t move. You’ll scare him; he might miss and scratch you.”
Not wanting to look weak in front of her, he forced himself to keep his arm out, though his back leaned away like he was dodging. Sure enough, Moss missed and fell face-first right in front of him. Embarrassed and angry, Moss jumped up and bumped Paul’s leg with his head, blaming him for being such an idiot.
“Moss, come here,” Yunice called softly. Moss spread his wings and flew to her. As he came down, Yunice calmly held out her arm, letting him land gracefully.
The vision blurred and melted into reality. The swing set, Yunice, and Moss all faded away, leaving Paul standing alone with an overwhelming sense of sorrow and isolation.
Seeing how pale he looked, how completely out of it, the maid nervously asked, “Mr. Paul… Moss’s body is still in the storage room. Do you…. want to go see him?”
See him? Just a pet. Dead is dead. All dirty and stiff, what’s the point? Paul told himself that. But his eyes darted away, avoiding her gaze. He didn’t want to admit he was too scared to look at Moss’s body.
The maid studied his expression carefully and asked, “Then… Mr. Paul, if you’re not going to look, I’ll go ahead and take care of Moss’s body.”
A corpse wasn’t allowed to remain in the courtyard overnight; it had to be cremated or buried right away.
Paul nodded twice, fast and frantic, like he couldn’t wait to get it over with.
The maid, still unsure, added, “Mr. Paul, should I call a doctor for you? The injury on your back…”
Before she could finish, Paul snapped, furious. “Why do you talk so damn much? Just go take care of the body!”
Hurry up and burn it; once it was gone, it’d be like he never had the bird. That way, he wouldn’t have to sit with this sickening guilt anymore.
His eyes flicked toward the bottle of disinfectant in the corner of the pet room-then darted away just as quickly. He didn’t want to face the truth that it had been him who poisoned Moss.
Paul leaned against the wall and left the pet room without a word, his face blank.
He sat in his room for what felt like forever, from morning until nightfall.
Finally, footsteps echoed from outside. He turned toward the door, eyes lighting up with a flash of hope…
“Paul!” Elsie burst in, wearing a maid’s uniform, ready to surprise him.
The light in Paul’s eyes faded. He frowned and walked toward her. “Didn’t I tell you to rest and recover? Why are you here again?”
Elsie slipped into his arms and murmured, “I missed you.”
“Hiss-” She touched the injury on his back, and Paul winced sharply.
Seeing the state of his back, Elsie’s expression shifted. “Paul, what happened to you…”
Paul was already in a foul mood-everything irritated him. And on top of that, this whole beating had been because of her. Now she had the nerve to act surprised?
He moved her hand away, sat down, and grumbled, “I haven’t even asked you-why didn’t you listen to me today and show up at the Powell mansion?”
Today had been a Powell family banquet. All the major relatives were there, and the whole point was to publicly announce his engagement to Taylor.
Even if he didn’t like Taylor, he couldn’t disregard the honor of his family. That’s why he’d told Elsie he was busy and asked her not to come.
Paul’s brow furrowed deeper. His frustration hit a boiling point. “I never said I was blaming you-why are you making stuff up now?”
He was already trying to avoid her as it was. Why would I text her to come?
Elsie looked even more innocent. She hurried to pull out her phone and show him. “Look-your messages are right here….”
Paul didn’t even glance at the screen. “Elsie, could you stop trying so hard? You’re starting to turn into Yunice-smothering me, leaving me with no space to breathe!”
Elsie stood there, stunned. Starting to turn into Yunice!
Back when Paul was still into her, he used to complain about Yunice all the time-how she was too controlling, how annoying it was. He’d said the more Yunice tried to rein him in, the more he wanted to rebel-just to see who could out-stubborn who.
He used to say men should be free, that women should just stay home and stop nagging so much. All that yapping only made things worse.