Part 2
575 Words
TWO
"I'm sending you to Australia," Phuong's father had told her. "There you can study accounting until you're qualified. A proper CPA. Then you will come home to sort out my company. You'll check all my accounts and find out who's stealing from me. I suspect my accountant, Felipe, but he's family – your brother's wife's brother – and your brother swears he's honest, so we need proof before we can fire Felipe and give you his job. So study hard, because this family's fortunes rest on you."
"Why me? Why not Thuan?" Phuong asked.
He sighed. "Because you're ten times as clever as your brother, who's also blinded by love for the stupid woman he calls his wife. She'll spend all his money and leave him when he's bankrupt to marry some other stupid man. You'll never be seduced by a pair of batting eyelashes over a dissatisfied pout. Love won't make a fool of you."
He was right, Phuong reflected. If she was ever foolish enough to fall in love, her mother's acid comments would soon dissuade her of any such sentimental feeling.
Sadly, her father's plans hadn't come to fruition in his lifetime. A stroke felled him in his sleep, leaving her brother in charge of both the business and the family finances.
Her brother's phone call had been abrupt. "I'm not wasting any more money on you. Felipe tells me Dad's business is nearly bankrupt, so we have to cut all unnecessary expenses – including educating you. I don't know what Dad was thinking," Thuan said, without even greeting her.
"But I only have a year to go. Then I'll be able to work for Dad's firm and turn the company around, just like he wanted," Phuong protested. "Just one more year."
"Not one more cent," he snapped. "There's no point educating girls. Look at my wife, Pearl. You might work for a few years, but then you'll get married and have children – what do you need an education for, when all you'll do is cooking, cleaning and childcare? And I won't support you any more, either. Pearl says we can barely afford to support Mother and we have nothing left to waste on you. You're too old. Find a job or a husband. You won't be welcome here." Before Phuong could respond, he'd hung up. That would be the last time she'd speak to her brother.
Find a job or a husband. Her Australian visa didn't allow her to work more than ten hours a week, which was hardly enough to pay for her final year of university fees. It would barely cover her food for the week, let alone her rent. She knew what she had to do – find a husband, and fast. An Australian man who could give her Australian citizenship. Then she could finish her degree and save her father's firm. If Felipe and her brother hadn't bankrupted it already.
A husband. She needed a husband. Where did a girl go to get a husband quickly? The internet, of course. She knew other girls back home who'd been mail-order brides and they'd raved about the experience. The men had romanced their brides-to-be, whisked them away to their home countries, married them and given them a future. She also knew girls back home who'd done worse – sold their bodies to many men, not just one, in order to help the family finances. Compared to p**********n, marriage to a stranger couldn't be that bad – perhaps there'd be some handsome, charming, rich one who'd sweep her off her feet and into the lap of luxury. Then her brother would be begging her for favours.
Smiling to herself, Phuong opened her laptop. She had a husband to find.
- Writer
