His Other Woman

Chapter 3

"Myron get back here!" My mother yelled at me. "I told you not to run off on your own."

"Yes mum." I responded as I ran back to her, taking the hand she held out for me. As we walked down the dirty old street with all kinds of suspicious people moving about. As my mother was quite knowledgeable of the place she knew how to maneuver around.

In order to protect me, my mother had me dress up in boys' clothing and kept my hair short. She said people were less likely to harm me if I looked like a boy.

We arrived at the brothel where my mother would start work. As I grew up my mother continued to work at the brothel. We lived in a neighborhood near the brothel which was quite the dangerous place especially to those unfamiliar with it. The brothel itself was in-between the affluent part of the town and the poverty district. And our home was unfortunately on the poverty side.Although my mother did make a decent amount of money from the brothel and could buy a house in a more decent area unfortunately women couldn't own property. In poeverty stricken area where the underground blck market could make its

At that time I didn't know the nature of my mother's work just that she worked. When we arrived at the brothel she took me to a room where there were other young children and I would spend the day with them. They were children of other prostitutes and the brothel house I kind of day care if one would call it that. As the area was dangerous it would be risky to leave a young child on their own at home especially since none of the prostitues were married.

We would play with each other until our mothers were done then they'd pick us when we were done.

That was our routine almost every single day.

And then everything changed when my mother suddenly got sick. There was a plague spreading around that time and with and more and more citizens getting sick. I was only 9 years old at the time. Over time it progressively

"Myra I want you to live." Grow up and live a wonderful life. Hopefully you will get married to a wonderful man. Live a life I never could. Don't trust a nobleman.

She then gave me a pendant which she placed in my hand. It was one that she wore all the time around her neck." This is a pendant your father gave to me a long time ago. I don't know maybe it could be useful to you one day. Your father's name is Duke Hardwin. Remember that. Hopefully, you need to but if things get really tough you could try reaching out to him.

This was the first time my mother had ever spoken about my father to me. The whole time I assumed I didn't have a father because he died a long time ago from an illness or something. But he was actually still alive. wasn't quite sure what to make of what she'd told me about him so far.

She passed away away in the following weeks after this.

Once my mother passed I was left in the care of her friend from the brothel. Her name was Anna. I played with her children when my mother and her were working.

I stayed with her for a couple of weeks and in that time I asked her more about my father of which she told me all about my mother's relationship with Duke Hardwin. In that time I also decided to wear the pendant my mother gave me. Regardless of what my father did to her the necklace had clearly meant a lot to my mother as she always wore it. I felt like I was closer to her by wearing it as well.

It was after a couple of weeks of staying with her that she told me. "Myra, sorry to say this but I can barely take care of myself and my two children and then with you as well it's kind of difficult."

At first I was worried when she told me this. Was she going to kick me out and leave me to be alone?

"However, I have a relative who will be able to take you in." she continued.

In the following days on her day off from work Anna had me pack up all my belongings. Of which I didn't have much just a few boys clothes and a box that contained some of my mother's things.

She took me to another side of the town where I was "Unfortunately, you're going to have to continue pretending to be a boy." She told me on the way. "It's the only way he'll take you in and so make sure you protect your secret okay? "

I nodded in understanding.

She took me to an old house at the edge of the city where upon knocking, an old man greeted us.

At that time he was in his late 60s and he was Anna's Uncle. "Bringing me a mouth to feed?" He asked as soon as his eyes landed on me. "You haven't made any contact with me in years and now you come to me when you need me to do something for you?"

"Please Uncle, he just lost his mother who was a good friend of mine and has no where else to go."

He looked at her skeptically.

"He's very smart and he'll do whatever you tell him." She continued to try to convince him.

After a moment of thought he responded. "I suppose I could use an extra hand at my old age."

He alllowed us to enter his home for him and Anna to catch up as well as discuss my living arrangements. As we got in I took note of how messy the house was it almost looked like a war zone. All kinds of junk and...weapons?

"Make sure not to cause trouble, he may be old but he was once a knight." Anna warned me before she left.

"Call me grandpa Jo." He told me after Anne left. I stared at the gruff looking man as I took in my new living si

Apparantly Grandpa Jo was knight many years ago aiming to become an imperial knight one day, however his leg got injured and he had to retire early.

Whilst living with him I was tasked with chores; cleaning the house, learning to cook and making meals, running errands for him. At first I was overwhelmed, I was 10 years old, had just lost my mother and was now living in a different environment it was going to take some time. Not to mention the mess of a house Jo lived in. His house was littered with armor parts, various swords, arrows, bows etc. I was trying to figure out how I was going to clean up the place without dying. It took a couple of weeks was difficult but with Jo's guidance I eventually managaed to order everything.

I soon got used to my routine with him cook, clean, go grocery shopping etc. Jo was a cranky old man who was demanding things but life with him wasn't too bad and he hadn't realized I'm a girl yet.

Things were calm for a while until I started to get bullied by the boys in the neighborhood. As a girl pretending to be a boy it was quite hard for to fit in with the other kids. When I went on errands to for Jo,a bunch boys who usually loittered the area would gang up and beat me up and take what I had on me.

I tried to defend myself but I obviously I lost as I was weaker and it was multple assailants against one..

Jo taking pity on me offered to teach me how to defend myself