Chapter 289 The Widow Walker
Chapter 289 The Widow Walker
At first, Flora simply felt exhausted. She even blamed herself, wondering if she was just being greedy and lazy. But two months later, she realized she was pregnant–and suffering from severe morning sickness. When Jacob heard, he wanted to rush home, but his mother scolded him.
“What’s the big fuss? Every woman gives birth. It’s not a big deal. With us around, you don’t need to worry!”
By the time Jacob made it back, Flora’s belly was already showing, but she was still running around doing housework inside and out. Jacob tried to help, but Mrs. Walker waved him off. “The baby’s stable. She needs to keep moving if she wants an easy birth later!”
When the farming season came around, Jacob insisted that his wife not work in the fields, worried the neighbors would gossip. So Mrs. Walker came up with a new way to torment her.
She claimed her son was working too hard and needed fresh meat and vegetables every day. The refrigerator used too much electricity and wasn’t “fresh,” so she had unplugged it. Instead, she ordered Flora to walk ten miles to the market and back every day.
Some neighbors felt bad and tried to speak up, but Mrs. Walker just scoffed. “What, seven or eight months pregnant and she thinks she’s a princess? When I had Jacob, I was still out digging potatoes. Had him right after I got home, and his afterbirth was still covered in dirt! Didn’t he grow up strong as an ox?”
People in the village said Mrs. Walker was cruel, desperate to make Flora suffer just as she had. When they saw Flora shuffling along the roadside, they’d give her a lift if they could. But ald earn her a scolding, often loitered just outside Flora, afraid that returning too quickly would earn her a scolding, often loitered just outside. the village before going home.
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By midsummer, every household was busy, and no one had time to check in on Flora. Then one day, tragedy struck. She fell three miles from the village and never got up again. Her clothes were soaked in blood, and not far from her hand lay the chunk of pork t her life.
had cost
By the time someone found her, it was too late–for both her and the child. The bodies were already cold.
Jacob sobbed uncontrollably. Mrs. Walker, face dark with anger, smacked him on the back of
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Chapter 289 The Widow Walker
the neck and snapped. “You useless thing. What are you crying for? If she tripped and died with our baby, that’s because the heavens didn’t protect her. Bad luck, that one! Stop mourning. If she wasn’t meant to stay, then she wasn’t one of us. I’ll find you a better wife!”
She yelled this in the Walker family courtyard, with Flora’s body nearby. The moment she finished her tirade, a sudden whirlwind swept through the
still laid out on a door plank courtyard, chilling everyone to the bone.
The village women rushed over and tried to cover Mrs. Walker’s mouth. “Have a little decency! Flora’s spirit might still be here!”
Mrs. Walker twisted her neck and spat toward Flora’s corpse. The wind died down immediately. She huffed, triumphant, “Spirits? Ghosts? I don’t believe in that nonsense. What’s she gonna do now, haunt me?”
Flora hadn’t been buried long before the Walker family and her parents started fighting- over her money. According to tradition, the husband’s family kept the dowry, but Flora’s parents were furious and shaking with rage, Stories of Mrs. Walker’s cruelty spread like
wildfire across ten villages.
Mrs. Walker didn’t care. Her daughter–in–law was dead, and the family still made a profit. With money, we’ll get a better one next time!
But no one expected how hard it would be to find another wife. The story of the Walker family had become infamous. No decent family dared to send their daughter there. Two families, motivated by money, tried to marry off their girls. But both brides fell mysteriously ill–vomiting, feverish, weak as straw. Doctors called it a “shadow illness,” something caused by spirits. Both engagements were broken off, and the girls recovered immediately.
After two failed betrothals, Mrs. Walker started getting nervous about the money burning a hole in her pocket. She went to a fortune–teller in town. The answer? Flora and her unborn child had died unjustly. Their resentment clung to the Walker home. Only a woman with a strong, dominant fate could break the curse.
It wasn’t until the third year that Mrs. Walker managed to find such a woman–from a faraway province. From engagement to marriage, the new wife was perfectly healthy.
Standing before Flora’s grave, Mrs. Walker spat again. “What can you do now, huh? It’s been three years–your bones are dust! We’ve got a new daughter–in–law now!”
But the new wife wasn’t anything like Flora. She wasn’t afraid of being scolded or cursed. She was big, strong, and not above getting physical. A few confrontations had already ended with Mrs. Walker on the losing end. In front of Jacob, the new wife was sweet and clever–she wrapped him around her finger, and he stopped listening to his mother altogether.
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Chapter 289 The Widow Walker
Mrs. Walker fumed, but the new wife just acted like she didn’t understand. “Sorry, I don’t speak the local dialect,” she’d say. “No idea why Mrs. Walker’s upset.”
Dreaming of being served like before? That was over. The new wife claimed she didn’t know how to cook local food. “You don’t cook, I won’t either. I’ll just head to the shop and drink soy milk. Whoever’s hungry can do the cooking!”
When she got pregnant, Jacob–traumatized by the past–stayed by her side day and night He even pressured Mrs. Walker to buy meat and slaughter chickens to nourish her. When Mrs. Walker used frozen meat from the fridge, the new wife gagged and spat it out.
“This tastes awful! The baby’s acting up–can’t eat it!”
