He Asks Me to Marry His Brother
We had agreed to meet at the civil affairs bureau to get our marriage certificate.
Seven years.
From when he graduated college carrying only his resume and faced constant rejection, to the sleepless nights helping him start his small company, I was always by his side.
I've imagined countless times what the day we'd get our marriage certificate would be like, but I never thought it would turn out like this.
Yale Gabriel showed up, with his brother, Calvin Gabriel, right beside him.
Calvin was holding a pink-and-white swaddled bundle—a tiny lump that looked like a newborn baby.
I stepped forward, smiling, intending to ask whose child it was, but the words caught in my throat.
Yale looked terrible; his brows were tightly furrowed, and his eyes kept darting away, refusing to meet mine.
A cold sense of foreboding crawled up my spine, stiffening the back of my neck.
Before I could say a word, Yale pushed Calvin toward me.
"Yolanda," his voice was rough, like sandpaper scraping wood, "Calvin's girlfriend died unexpectedly, leaving this child behind."
I froze, my eyes dropping to the swaddling clothes before returning to Yale's face. "What does this have to do with us registering our marriage?"
Yale took a deep breath, as if steeling himself. "Children from single-parent families have it so hard. How about you don't marry me, and marry Calvin instead?"
"At least it gives the child a complete family."
I wondered if I'd heard wrong or if someone was playing a joke on me today.
I locked eyes with Yale Gabriel, my voice shaking: "Yale Gabriel, say that again? I've been with you for seven years, not your brother!"
Yale frowned, his tone impatient: "Yolanda, don't be so stubborn. Just think of it as doing a favor."
Before he could finish, Calvin Gabriel interrupted, his voice full of contempt.
"If you still want to marry into the Gabriel family, you can only be with me."
Unable to have children...
Those words cut straight into my heart like an ice-cold knife.
I suddenly remembered that rainy night three years ago, remembered the car that lost control and sped towards him.
At the time, Yale Gabriel was drinking with a client to celebrate a project's success. He hadn't come home by midnight, so I went to pick him up, worried.
When I arrived at the intersection, I saw him swaying drunk in the middle of the road, and a car was speeding straight toward him.
Without thinking, I rushed forward and pushed him away.
But I was violently thrown by the car, and when I woke up, I was already in the hospital ICU.
The doctor held the diagnosis report and told me gravely that the severe impact had caused permanent damage to my uterus, making it very unlikely for me to conceive again.
Yale Gabriel held me then, crying, and kept saying, "Yolanda, I love you as a person. Having children or not doesn't matter."
Those words still echo in my ears, but the person in front of me has already changed.
I looked at the silent Yale Gabriel and suddenly laughed with anger.
He probably forgot long ago how this 'Mr. Gabriel' came to be.
Back when he was starting his company and lacked start-up capital, I begged my dad to give him two million. When his company was about to collapse, I used my connections to find a major industry leader who brought in a life-saving investment. When he signed his first big project, I stayed up all night creating three proposals to help him impress the client.
Now that he's worth hundreds of millions, he treats me like this?
Yale Gabriel saw me smile and thought I'd given in, immediately reaching out to grab my hand.
"Yolanda, I knew you were the best!" He said, trying to please me, "Calvin is a grown man; he can't be expected to take care of a child. It's the woman's responsibility."
"Don't worry, I'll definitely make it up to you properly. I won't let you be treated unfairly."
I pulled my hand back and looked him in the eye, asking, "Your mother is a woman too. Why doesn't she help?"
Yale Gabriel's face tensed for a moment, then he grew more self-righteous: "My mom worked hard raising the two of us. She deserves to enjoy life in her old age. We can't let her work anymore."
He leaned in close, lowering his voice as if sharing some big secret: "My mom said since you don't have to have the baby, the bride price is off, and your family doesn't need to prepare a dowry."
"Isn't this saving your family money?"
Save money?
I nearly laughed out of anger.
Saving money? They clearly wanted a free nanny—someone to care for the child, serve their mother and son, and cost them nothing.
I took a deep breath, holding back my disgust: "You never wanted to marry me. Why didn't you say so sooner?"
Yale Gabriel scratched his head, a trace of embarrassment on his face: "I know you usually like children, so I wanted to surprise you."
A surprise?
My stomach churned and I just wanted to find somewhere to vomit.
"If you marry Calvin, we'll still be family, and our relationship won't change at all."
"As long as you treat the child well, I promise I'll treat you just like before."
That twisted logic sent a chill through me.
I pulled my hand away and said clearly, "Yale Gabriel, I, Yolanda Scott, will never marry your brother."
After that, I turned and walked away.
Yale panicked and rushed forward to stop me, his voice pleading, "Yolanda! Can't you at least consider all seven years we've been together?"
I stopped moving, looking at the face I had loved for seven years.
I once thought that face was gentle and reliable, but now it felt strange and ugly.
"Yale," I said softly but firmly, "it's completely over between us."
Just as I was about to turn and leave, Calvin, who hadn't said a word until then, suddenly rushed over.
He shoved the baby he was holding into my arms so forcefully that I staggered back two steps.
Completely caught off guard, I felt the sudden weight in my arms and instinctively tried to steady the child.
But the baby was so small and soft; the moment my fingers touched the swaddling clothes, the child started slipping down.
"Ah!" I cried out, reaching to catch the baby.
The people around us also gasped, and some even pulled out their phones to record.
Calvin Gabriel was quick and agile, rushing over and barely catching the child.
The baby was so frightened it burst into sharp cries, drawing even more people to watch.
Before I could even react, Calvin suddenly knelt in front of me with a thud.
He grabbed my leg, yelling through tears, "Yolanda! How can you be so heartless? How could you abandon me and our child!"
Our child?
That phrase almost made me spit blood from anger.
Unaware bystanders started pointing at me and whispering.
"What's wrong with this woman? She looks decent, but her heart is so cruel."
"She already has a child and still won't take responsibility—that's too much!"
"That man is so pitiful, having to deal with a woman like that."
The whispers felt like needles stabbing into me, making me uncomfortable all over.
Yale Gabriel held the child and quickly pulled me aside, lowering his voice to urge me, "Yolanda, stop making a scene. So many people are watching, it's embarrassing."
"The child can't be left without a mother Marrying Calvin makes perfect sense."
"When you grow old, the child can take care of you and see you through to the end. Isn't that great?"
A wave of anger suddenly surged to my head, and I couldn't hold back any longer—I raised my hand and slapped Yale Gabriel.
The sharp slap rang out clearly amid the noisy crowd.
Yale stood there stunned, holding his face as he looked at me.
I stared at him, my voice trembling with anger: "Yale Gabriel, have you completely forgotten why I can't have children?"
I remembered three years ago at the hospital, when he held me and cried; I remembered how he said it didn't matter whether we had children or not; I remembered how he swore to care for me for the rest of his life.
Those scenes merged with the man before me, filling me with a sharp sense of irony.
Yale Gabriel touched his reddened face, a flicker of guilt passing through his eyes before impatience quickly took over.
"Yolanda Scott, don't push your luck," his voice turned cold. "You're not young anymore, and you can't have children. No man would want to marry you."
"I'm having Calvin marry you only because you saved me back then. Don't be ungrateful!"
At that moment, my heart completely sank to its lowest point.
It turned out he had long taken my sacrifices for granted, even seeing letting his brother marry me as a favor.
I looked at him coldly. "Yale Gabriel, if you keep pestering me, I'll call the police."
I came home in a daze, pushed the door open, and collapsed onto the sofa.
The sofa was soft, but my whole body ached as if I'd been badly beaten.
Suddenly, my phone rang, and the screen showed "Dad."
I took a deep breath and answered. As soon as I said "Hello," tears began to fall.
"Yolanda, did you get the marriage certificate? Did everything go smoothly?" Dad's voice was full of hope, but also a bit of nervousness.
I choked back tears and told him everything that had happened outside the civil affairs bureau, in detail.
There was a long silence on the other end of the phone—I thought the call had dropped.
Then Dad's voice came through, trembling with anger: "That bastard! That ungrateful scoundrel!"
"I must have been blind back then, thinking he was dependable. If I had known, I never would have let you be with him!"
Mom took the phone from me, her voice filled with pain: "Yolanda, stop crying. We won't let them hurt you."
Luckily, we never registered the marriage. If I had gone through with it, who knows how much suffering I would have endured.
I wiped my tears and sniffled, "Dad, I want to withdraw all our investments and project support from Yale Gabriel's Company."
After saying that, I hesitated again. "But since this involves cooperation between two companies, I'm worried it could affect our own company..."
Dad cut me off firmly, "Affect what? Our family isn't short of money!"
If anyone dares to bully Ben Scott's daughter, I won't let them get away with it!
"Go ahead and do it.I will have your back!"
"I'm booking a flight home right now. Don't worry, I am here to help you."
After hanging up, I felt much more at ease.
Before I could recover, my phone rang again, this time from an unknown number.
I answered, and a sharp, sarcastic voice came through: "Yolanda Scott! No, wait, Yolanda Scott! You useless woman!"
It was Yale Gabriel's mother, Ruby Carter.
"Our Yale was trying to give you a way out, and you just slapped him in the face? Do you really think you're some big-shot heiress?"
"Marrying into our Gabriel family is a blessing you've ever earned, and you don't even appreciate it!"
I listened to her words and just thought they were ridiculous.
I hung up immediately and blocked that number.
Not long after, Yale Gabriel's call came through.
I didn't answer, but he kept calling over and over.
So I simply blocked his number too.
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