The Light in your Eyes

Chapter Three

CHAPTER THREE

Mrs Shawn had never thought that the child she had always cared for and loved would turn out to be some other rich family's daughter. At first she couldn’t accept it and fought a lot with her husband before finally letting go. Scarlett was the apple of their eyes, as the youngest daughter of the family of five they all doted on her. She decided to see her original daughter before ultimately removing all thoughts of Scarlett from her heart.

"So you are saying, Jade is a primary school teacher." Mrs Shawn said to Mrs Thomas.

"Yes, Jade is a teacher." the latter replied while frowning wondering if there was anything wrong with working in the education sector.

"And you let her?" There was some slight irritation in her voice. Everyone knows teachers are at the bottom of the food chain in the country, they earn the lowest income and don't command enough respect in the society.

"Aren't you a teacher yourself, so what's wrong with being a teacher?" A male voice said. Reuben was disgusted with the tone she used, although he wouldn’t let any of his children become a teacher but to downgrade a profession was hypocrisy especially if you are in said profession.

Mrs Shawn was stunned she didn’t expect someone to point that out. It is true that she and her husband are in the education sector but they have long left the classroom for the new educators. Her husband is the principal of the public school they were both appointed to while she is the vice- principal. Being an educator was not really her first choice.

"You think I am proud of my job? Please, who the hell is happy taking care of some dumb teenagers while getting some meagre salary". Mrs Shawn said angrily. Which wealthy family in the country would let their children teach in a classroom, even illegitimate children are not given such liberty.

Jade heard the remark just as she was about to enter the living room and retorted,

"Well I am actually glad to be a teacher. If you think it’s some shitty profession, you should change your profession. Perhaps selling fish at the general market might suit you best. Teaching is a noble profession and you should please respect this nobility." she eyed the person saying bad stuff about her job while feeling unhappy. Although being a teacher was a lazy choice she had made because the course seemed simple to study while filling university form back then. There was actually a cogent reason she had chosen to be in the classroom but that is a story for some other time. Nonetheless, no one was allowed to say anything bad about her job or wouldn’t that mean she is not good enough herself.

Mrs Shawn felt humiliation from the depth of her stomach and was fuming mad at what Jade said. "Calm down Loveth, don't get yourself so agitated. It is not good for you". The husband was trying to calm her wife. He also had opinions about the somewhat rude girl but he wanted to have a clear understanding of the issues on ground first before he made a conclusion.

"What did you say? I should calm down how the hell did these people raise their children. Just listen to what she just said, I should be a fishmonger." She screamed at her husband. Not really screamed but her voice was loud enough to show the anger she wasn't so interested in hiding.

"Yes you definitely should be a fishmonger because your attitude right now perfectly suits a market place". Jade chipped in joyfully, enjoying herself. "Making people mad with anger is so fun". She thought to herself.

"Yes Jade you are right, the market place is just right for her." Mrs Thomas said with a calm voice but her eyes didn’t look so calm. She gently picked up her cup of juice and sipped a little.

"Else would any normal mother question another family’s method of parenting?” She felt quite smug with her comeback.

Jade side-eyed her former mother, dissing other members of the family was a thing they did together in the past but stopped doing years ago.

"She might actually be right to question your parenting method, after all aren't I talking back to my elders right now and you are not correcting me." She said sarcastically. The room fell silent, The Thomas were thinking that Jade seemed strange today, she was an extremely lazy person who thinks talking to others was a waste of strength. They were equally surprised when she decided to become a teacher too. Talking was a hard chore to Jade of the past.

"Why are you so active today, who riled you up?" The eldest son of the house said. He hadn't said anything since the meeting started and was just going with the flow of things. He couldn't really be bothered.

"What? I am leaving this place today anyway so I might as well misbehave." Jade replied with some mischief dancing in her eyes. "So where are my poor parents?” She pretended not to see the stunned faces of everyone.

"Enough all of you." Mr Thomas said while pointing to Jade. He wasn't really in the banter before but things were really getting out of hand so he had to intervene. "You stop whatever shenanigans you have in that brain of that, these are your parents and you have to accord them with the respect they deserve." He said strictly. He had always been a strict man who had no time for nonsense. Jade feared him a lot in the past. However, after all that had happened in the recent years she grew less afraid of him. She just rolled her eyes at him but kept quiet nonetheless.

"I heard you agreed to sell the company to your uncle". He questioned.

"Yes I did, running a company is troublesome anyway I might as well get rid of it". She replied getting bored and really tired, no one even bothered to offer her a space to sit. How wicked of them.

"You made a wise choice". He said satisfied. Although the company wasn't much to him, he really did not want to give it to an outsider. Jade snickered. That company almost took her life five years ago, they were selfish to have given it to her.

"From what I can observe, you guys don't seem to care about Jade and seem to have already known about the switch at birth thing a long time ago". Mrs Shawn suddenly said eyes narrowed and calculative. "Let me guess, you used her as a foil to deceive some people while protecting your original daughter, otherwise you would have contacted us sooner." It simply doesn't make sense for them to keep Scarlett outside if something hadn't gone wrong. At least from what she had seen in soap operas on the intrigues within the wealthy family.

"What nonsense are you saying, no one will take you for a mute if you keep quiet. And stop making up things in your head, things aren't as simple as you think." The Madam of the Thomas family replied.

Right now they have decided to shed all cordial ties with these people. It is true they have known about the girls switch for a long time, maybe far longer than others thought but decided not to reveal it because that time was a crucial time for them which allows them to have no weaknesses the enemies could grasp. It won't matter if an unrelated person got hurt.

At this moment, Jade became enlightened as she thought back to everything that had gone through in this family and the more she remembered the paler her fair face got.

"Turns out my suspicion back then was right too, for so many years I got kidn*pped so often I was beginning to think the president of the country was my father." Jade said solemnly. The worst happened around five years ago. She was kidn*pped by some people who were demanding for some file, they placed a phone call to the mansion and the reply given was heart-breaking that even the kidnappers would have pitied her had they been the regular type.