Fairless Daughter

The Dinner Guest

Kai POV

When Cha was seventeen, our father brought home a man for dinner. We all thought this man was a friend from work, but then Father announced that the man would be Cha’s new husband. Cha and Mom instantly started crying and begging our father to change his mind. Mom tried to tell him Cha was too young to get married, but he got angry and slammed his hands on the table, and everyone stopped talking. The man sat there eating with a smile on his face. He was enjoying our misery. He had this evil look on his face when he said, "You will be my third wife, and you will bear me many children.” a sob escaped Cha’s mouth, and Dad looked at her with a mean expression. Tears rolled down my mom's cheeks, but she could not help Cha. Seeing both of them crying and looking so sad broke my heart, and I started crying. Cha was my best friend; how would we live without her?

During dinner, James just sat at the table and played on his phone. He never said anything to defend Cha or try to talk our Father out of his decision. He would've sent that man away if he had asked our Father not to let Cha marry that man. I had disliked my brother before, but now I hate him. After the man left, our father told us that the man's name was Yeong Kang. He was wealthy and would pay him a million dollars for Cha to marry him. I looked at our mother with confusion on my face. We are also a rich family. We own over twenty supermarkets nationwide, so we didn’t need the money. How could he be so cruel to his daughter? I thought. Yeong was also already thirty-three years old, with two wives, and Cha was only seventeen. This whole situation was breaking our hearts, and the three of us became depressed. We never knew when that man Yeong would return and take Cha away, so every day was a nightmare.

About a month later, the man showed up again, and this time, he came to take Cha away. We started crying and begging Father on our knees not to send her away like this, but he only got angry and shoved us away with his feet. He pulled Cha up and told her to gather her things. He only gave her ten minutes to get her stuff and return downstairs. Mom and I were still on the floor crying, begging him not to do this. He was so mad that he kicked my mother in her stomach while she was still on her knees, begging him. After a few minutes, he went to Cha’s room and dragged her down the stairs and into the living room. Yeong was standing by the door watching us cry and begging, and he just laughed. Cha was still crying when she was shoved into his hands by our father. Yeong didn’t like that she was crying, so he slapped her across the face. “You better behave, young lady, because you don’t want to make me angry,” he said to her with a smirk.

While he scolded Cha, I slipped into the kitchen and grabbed the knife Mom used to cut up the meat. When he turned his back, getting ready to walk out our door, I ran up to him and stabbed him into his right leg as hard as my little hands would let me. When he felt the pain from the knife, he kicked me away and pulled the knife out of his leg. My father grabbed me and started stroking me all over my body, but I didn’t care. I wanted to kill that man for trying to take Cha away from us. My father locked me inside the attic after he finished beating me. I was so angry that I tried my best not to cry because I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction. After Yeong left with Cha, I could hear our father yelling and hitting our mother, saying, “You’ve failed me as a wife. You have raised nothing but rebellious, disrespectful daughters.” After a while, I heard his car drive away from the house.

Mom came to the attic with a first aid kit a few minutes later. She had bruises on her face and tears still in her eyes. When she opened the kit to dress my wounds, I took the ointment and dressed hers instead. “ I am so sorry I am not strong enough to protect you and your sister,” she said while sobbing. I hugged her, and we stayed that way for a while, crying until no tears were left. “ I have to go before he comes back. I am forbidden to talk to you for the next week while you’re locked in here for punishment. I will bring you your dinner soon.” she said, standing up. I must have fallen asleep after she left the room. The opening of the door awakened me. It was my mother bringing me dinner and a bottle of water. She also got me a blanket, a pillow, and books. Nothing was in the attic except for many old boxes and a not-so-bright light. “ Make sure you find somewhere to hide the books from your father, or he will get mad again.” I nodded and hugged her, and she left, locking the door behind her.

I didn’t know what time it was, but I could see through the little window that it was dark outside. For the following six days, I stayed in that attic by myself, reading the books Mom gave me to keep me company. My father did not come to check on me, but I was happy about that. I wished I would never see him again because I hated him for sending Cha away. When I was finally allowed to leave the attic, my heart broke even more because Cha’s room felt empty and cold. She was gone, and I didn’t know if I would ever see her again. The next six months went by, and we heard nothing about Cha. I would ask my mother if she heard anything, but she never did. She wanted to know just as badly as l did, but she was so scared of what my father would do to her. During this time, James gets himself in a lot of trouble. He totaled his car while racing with his friends, and the next day after the crash, our father bought him a new one. He had been arrested for driving drunk, and our father spent a lot of money to make the charges disappear.