Honor of the Family
Part 2
By lady FoxFire
Edited by Cat M.
"YOUR WHAT!!!!!"
"My wife." Vinnie’s words were thick with shame.
"You never said that you were married!" Charlie said, shock in her voice as she realized she'd been having a relationship with a married mouse. Charlie sank into the chair as far from Vinnie as possible, her face heartsick.
"I am and I’m not," Vinnie said quickly, before Charlie and his bros could get angry with him for stringing Charlie along.
"I think you better explain how you could be married, and not be married!" Modo growled angrily, his fists clenching angrily.
"It was a wqui~ jiot marriage, an arranged marriage," Vinnie explained nervously as he played with an empty bottle on the table in front of him.
"I thought those were illegal now?" Throttle said (asked uncertainly?) as he sat (down) next to Vinnie, (deciding to hear his side of the story?).
"They are now, but Vinnie was one of the last people to have it set up before the law when into effect," Stoker informed the Bros (sourly? angrily? wearily?)
"How old were you, when they did it, Vinnie?" Charlie asked, as she began to forgive him for not telling her, (even if she was still steamed?).
"Less than an hour old. To tell the truth, my parents had the doctor induce labor a month early so they could arrange a marriage before the law went into effect." Vinnie explained, as he got off the couch and started to pace the floor. (restlessly? With angry steps? as if he couldn’t sit still another moment?)
"Tanya… my so-called wife was 5, almost 6 years old at the time. Our parents want to join the family names, so I was born. In truth, it was much worse than what it sounds like. Much worse." (Vinnie’s voice, already stressed and nervous, grew louder.)
"As we grew up, our parents kept us together as much as possible, so we could fall in love. Not that it mattered if we did or not, just as long as the two families became one. Life with Tanya could be (best? accurately?) described as a LIVING HELL. For example, she would blame me for things; if she ate all the candy, she would tell everyone I did it. She would say I broke things, or I did this or that. Anything to get me into trouble, and then I would get punished. Tanya was perfect, she could never do anything wrong." Vinnie said, (stopping in his angry pacing) with a lost look in his eyes.
"As she got older, she would drag me out with her so she could see her many lovers. If anyone asked, she was on a date with her future husband. When it came out that she was pregnant… I was punished. I was told later that she lost the baby."
"If I ever tried to tell people what she was doing, or if I won’t obey her… she knew how to hurt people without leaving a bruise, or by making it look like an accident." Vinnie said (mumbled?) to the floor, as he rubbed his arms nervously.
"So that’s why you hate your family?" Throttle asked, (a bit of sympathy beginning to creep over his features?)
"No, even after all that, I still loved my family… even Tanya, a little." Vinnie said (lowly? Hoarsely?) with a (denying?) shake of his head. "No, the reason I hate my family is much, much worse…"