Fight Back

What Carroll had said echoed in my head when I saw Old Madame Brown. "Fight back if someone hurt you." I burst into laughter. It turned out that that speech was the rule of the Brown family. "What are you laughing at?" Hearing my laughter, Old Madame Brown, who had walked into the villa, looked back with displeasure. Realizing my mistake, I tried my best to look stern. "Nothing. I remembered something interesting." Then, I walked past Old Madame Brown and into the mourning hall. I took the cushion on the floor, dusted it, found a good spot, and knelt down on it.  Then, I cried with snot and tears. "Honey, did you show up just now? "I knew it. You don't want me to die since I am your wife." I stopped crying abruptly and stared at the handsome face in the photo. "Honey, you saw that, didn't you? Your brother pushed me into the fire. You think that he doesn't care about you, don't you? "I am so delicate. What will there be left if I get burned? Didn't he try to distress you? "Go have a word with him tonight." Right then, Nathan came downstairs with his men. He flared up at the sight of his sobbing sister-in-law. He stood in front of me after two strides. "You bit*h." A slap landed on my face. My right ear instantly buzzed, and some salty liquid surged up to my mouth. It hurt terribly.  I covered my prickly face, looked up at Nathan, and found him staring at me fiercely. The slap from a grown-up man was more powerful than the rattan of my grandmother in the countryside. "You bit*h, what was your trick? Why did I see Carroll!" His tone was fierce, and his expression was ferocious. He was like a demon in the fairy tale. With a faint smile, I looked at Nathan and then wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth. "I'm just a bumpkin. What trick can I play? Mr. Carroll showed up because he doesn't want to watch me suffer." Nathan must have made a thorough search of Bamboo Pavilion with his men. He couldn't find Carroll or a ghost. Carroll was right in his secret room now. Sitting, Old Madame Brown stared at me silently. She tried to find some clues through my expression. "I am not a three-year-old kid. Don't try to fool me. Grandma, what should we do with this bit*h?" The rude remark annoyed me, so I said with my hand on my face. "I am your sister-in-law! What bit*h? Where are your manners?" "Sister-in-law?" Old Madame Brown sneered. "Carroll is dead now. Even if he was alive, you shouldn't put on airs here. It is said that you are not Miss Odette but a Cinderella from the countryside. How can you inherit Carroll's wealth? I can drive you away right now. Do you believe that?" I grew up in the countryside, and that was a fact I couldn't change. Therefore, I couldn't talk back instantly.  My silence encouraged Old Madame Brown, so she continued, "It is easy for you to keep your life. Doesn't Jason take your orders? Tell him to get Carroll's death certificate as soon as possible." I finally figure out the ultimate goal of Old Madame Brown. Without the death certificate, nobody could take away Carroll's legacy. "The body of Mr. Carroll hasn't been found yet, but Madam is a member of the Brown family now." With his standard smile, Jason came in with a document and handed it to me. "Madam, the address on your ID card is Bamboo Pavilion. Now, you are the boss here." Were you kidding? Really? Me? I forgot the pain on my face and took the document over with trembling hands. The relationship between Kelly Smith and Carroll Brown was husband and wife! Tears fell from the corners of my eyes. I had a legal idenity now.  Old Madame Brown knocked her walking stick on the marbled ground, so there came a muffled noise. "Jason, do the good days make you forget that you're nothing but a dog of the Brown family?" Jason kept a smile on his face. "It doesn't matter what I am. I take orders from Mr. Carroll and his wife. Madam is my boss now since the body of Mr. Carroll is still missing." "His body?" Old Madame Brown sneered with disdain on her wrinkled face. "He fell down from a cliff several hundred meters high. Whoever falls from there will become a meat pie. Do you still cherish the hope of finding his body intact?" "Jason, even if Carroll was alive, Grandma is still the head of the Brown family. How dare you be rude to her?" Looking at Nathan, I suddenly realized that a family was a hybrid of the good and the bad.  I looked at Jason with pity. He fought against two unreasonable people alone. Would there be a chance for him to win this fight?  "I will protect whoever pays me." Jason was smart.  I quickly learned from him. I would side with whoever was good to me.  I walked to Jason and interrupted the quarrel. "Am I the boss here?" "Of course." Hearing this positive answer, I proudly raised my head and said, " Jason, please show them the door." "Yes, Madam." Bodyguards ran into the mourning hall and lined up along the door.  Old Madame Brown looked at me with her turbid eyes and said coldly, "Don't blame me because you ask for trouble. Nathan, let's go." Buzz! The phone in my pants vibrated. There came a new message. Carroll: "Do you remember what I taught you?" I: "Fight back?" Carroll: "Yes." Well... I shifted my gaze from Nathan, who was supporting his grandmother on their way out, to Carroll's bodyguards.  Biting my lower lip, I shouted, "Nathan." Nathan looked back with a frown. Pa! Standing on tiptoe, I slapped Nathan on the face with all my force.  Then, I quickly retreated and hid behind the bodyguards. "Grandma!" Because of the bodyguards in front of me, Nathan was in a dilemma. He covered his face and shouted to Old Madame Brown angrily. Old Madame Brown pulled Nathan and said through her gritted teeth, "Don't worry. I will avenge you sooner or later." "I won't see you off. Goodbye!" I hid behind the bodyguards and waved my hand enthusiastically.  After the troublemakers left, I whispered, "Be quick! Now! Lock the door!" After the door was locked, I sat down on the ground, gasping with lingering fear. I felt great, scared as well.  I was afraid that Nathan would fight back regardless of the bodyguards. If so, I would get hurt again.  A pair of shiny leather shoes appeared in my sight. Then, a cold voice sounded. "Well done."