Billionaire Leader and his Dr Wife

Chapter 21 – The family connection

Hazel Maria Cooper

I followed Mia to the kitchen ignoring her brothers. Opening the door to the kitchen I could hear Mia complaining to her mother about her brothers. She was weeping while speaking. I felt bad for her which worsened when I heard her mother Samantha take the side of boys by scolding Mia for playing with boys. Hearing her mother Mia ran away from the kitchen wiping away her tears. Her action seemed much mature than her age.

Sensing my presence Aunt Patricia, Samantha and Emily looked at me. They quickly plastered a smile which clearly was a fake one.

“Hello, Hazel how are you. I am Samantha. We met at your wedding.” Samantha greeted me.

“Hello, yeah I remember.” I replied with a smile.

“I am Emily. It’s nice to see you again Hazel” Emily said.

“Same here, it’s nice to meet you all, Can I help you with something?” I asked

“Oh no dear, you are our guest and the Cooper family doesn’t allow their guest to work.” Aunt Patricia sweetly declined my offer.

“Well I am also a Cooper. So obviously I am family. You can’t treat me just as a guest. Let me help you” I insisted.

“Everything is done, and we were just going to set the table” Emily replied.

“Okay then I will do that” I said.

“No, my dear, maids are there to do that. You just be comfortable and have a little chat with your sister in laws while the dinner is set.” Aunt Patricia again refused me. She indicated to her daughter in laws to take me out.

“Come Hazel let’s have a little chat in our room while we check our babies.” Emily said and lead me through the stairs through which we came. Samantha followed us.

            I felt weird to use this small staircase instead of the one in the main hall as it will lead to their rooms easily. Taking the small one will make us walk around the entire length of the villa. I felt uncomfortable walking with them without speaking anything. To ease the situation, I asked them

“Don’t mind me asking. I was wondering what you both have studied and qualified.” Hearing my question, they both looked at each other bewildered.

“So, you don’t know anything about our families?” Samantha asked

“FAMILIES?” I looked at them curiously.

“Okay, so we have a long way to talk.” Standing at the top of the first landing Emily smiled at me.

“To start with the families, we are five families now connected through marriages. It was six in the past. Cameroon family stepped out of the family bonding five years back when they broke engagement of their daughter Rose with Daniel.” I cut off Samantha when I heard this.

“What Dani was engaged? How and when and to whom?” I spitted out lot of questions at once. I was just awestruck with the information. Dani never mentioned this. Now it seems like I know very little about him. Who was the one who rejected such a dashing man? Yeah, I also was the one to deny him, but my case was different. I was just forced to accept him. If I knew the real Dani before marriage, I would have fallen in love with him. But of course, I do love him now.

“Well he was engaged to Rose Cameroon when he was 8 and obviously Rose a new-born baby.” Emily said and I looked at them in disbelief.

“Don’t look like that Hazel it’s the family tradition. Whenever a girl is born in these six families now five, she is declared as engaged to the eldest among the boys of these families. We were all being engaged when we were born and got married when we came of age.” Samantha cleared my doubts.

“But that’s ridiculous. Neither the man nor women have the right to choose their partner.” I wondered.

“Well your father in law I mean Uncle George and Daniel are the only ones to make their choice. But that happened because their engagement was over.” Emily revealed the truth.

“Dani’s engagement was called off but why? What about Dad? How he escaped the family tradition? So, mom doesn’t belong to these 6 families?” I asked anxiously. It’s just making me confused.

“Well Cameroon family has lot of businesses around the world. They were five brothers and three sisters who were married into other five families which include Cooper family. Rose’s father was the third brother and he was responsible for their business in States. During the recession time when their business was badly affected Rose and her family had to move to US. So, she and her siblings were given education there. Away from the family barriers Rose’s mother was able to break away from the family tradition and convinced her husband to break the family bonding. Rose’s father convinced other brothers to break the family tradition and free themselves to enjoy the outer world. So, they broke the engagement of rose along with other cousins who were also engaged to men and women of the five families. With that incident a lot of changes occurred in these families. Daughters of the Cameroon family who were already married were forced to cut all their relationship with their home. And the daughters of five families who were married into the Cameroon family were disowned by their parents. Emily and Aunt Sophia are among of the victims as they came from Cameroon family. They had to cut all their relationship with their family.” Samantha paused for a moment looking at Emily

“We are not just the ones who got affected but every women and girls in Cooper family were banned from going outside the kingdom. We are also prohibited to go outside the house without our man at our side. School education is also denied for girls. They are being taught at home by female tutors. Rose was my cousin. My father was the eldest brother of the Cameroon. Aunt Sophia is my father’s first sister” Emily sighed.

I felt bad for them. What an injustice is done towards women and girls. They are just imprisoned in their own home. I just felt enraged. I wanted to correct these wrongs. But I should really know their situation. I should know why they are not fighting back.

“Why don’t you all fight back against these injustices. Why you are not able to protect your daughters in fact you are doing wrong to your sons. They are also forced to accept what they have.” I questioned them.

“We are being brought up like this. You asked about our education. We were just given the elementary education after which we are taught how to be a good wife. We know how to cook and serve well our man. We have no right to fight back. Even we have no right over our children. We can’t even suggest a name for our kids after bearing them in our womb for ten months. That’s our fate. Forget it. But you are lucky your husband really loves you. He cares for you. We heard that he bought you the hospital you worked as a wedding gift for you.” Samantha commented.

“Yeah, I am lucky to get Dani. What about dad’s engagement.” I inquired.

“Well to my knowledge Uncle George was engaged to one of the daughters of Parker brothers when he was 5. Her name was also Mary. She died in a car accident when she was eight. She and the driver were alone as they were going to school. It said that even her body was not found as the car was blasted out.” Emily said and turned around the corner.

“Uncle George was 13 by the time and there were no more girls in the family as everyone was already engaged. So, they sent Uncle George to States for studies and that’s where he met Aunt Mary. I don’t know much about their love story but had heard from my mother that it brought a lot of havoc in the family.” Samantha said and stopped in front of a door. We had reached the corridor where there were their rooms. Samantha opened the door and entered the room. I followed her with Emily at my back.

It was the kids’ room beautifully decorated in blue. I wondered why there is no pink color in the room and thought that it might be boys’ room. But again, I found something unusual. One of the babies was sleeping in a cradle while the other one was just laid down on the floor even though there were two more cradles in the room. I just wondered why when I again noticed that the baby lying on the floor was a girl while the one in the cradle was a boy. No, this can’t be happening. How could there be such a partiality.

“Don’t tell me that this is again discrimination between boy and a girl.” I exclaimed

“Well it is. Those cradles are specially made for boy baby and not for girls. It said that girls are impure, and they will destroy the purity of the cradles which are made of platinum. But this was different before five years when everything changed drastically.” Samantha sighed and began to take out her baby from the cradle.

“Then why don’t you lay down them on a bed. Why on the floor? And what happened 5 years back that changed everything.” I again asked.

“Well it’s for her safety. She might fall down if we left her on the bed.” Emily replied.

“So, you do care for your daughter. Hearing Samantha scolding Mia for the fault of her brothers I thought you are biased.” I remarked

“How could we Hazel. We are their mothers. We love them. But I must scold her because mom was there. I feel bad when I treat my baby girl like that, but I am helpless. Do you know something I prayed to God to take her back when I knew her gender when I was having her in my womb? Because I knew she is going to be in hell. I never wanted a daughter not because I hate them but because I can’t protect them. And I know each one of the women in these families will be thinking like me.” Samantha sighed and I knew there is an unspeakable amount of pain behind that sigh.

“I just feel helpless. It is said that someone could help you only if you help yourself. You must help yourself if you must come out of this hell.” I tried to urge them.

“No Hazel you have your back to Dani and Aunt Mary is also there for you. It is hard to live with a man who doesn’t love you but must spend the whole life with him. We are just a mere slave. Even the maids in this house have more freedom than us. Things were different before and we were happy then.” I could see tears forming in Emily’s eyes.

I just went towards her and hugged her. I wanted to tell them that I am there for them. But for that I must know the entire history. I should break the ice between us before moving further.

“Both of you call me Ria. It’s the short of my middle name Maria which my dad gave me. People close to me call me Ria. You both are my sisters. I feel really formal when called as Hazel.” I looked them for their reaction.

“Okay but call me Sam” Samantha replied

“And call me Emy. Okay” Emily said, and we all laughed. We chatted more. They asked me about my family and my work. I gave a complete picture about myself. They insisted to tell them about my encounter with Dani and how we ended up in marriage. So I gave them every single detail. Now I wanted to know more about the families related to each other.

“So, which are the other families besides Cooper family?” I wanted to know more about the family connections.

“Well besides Cooper there are as we told you Parker family. Presently there is no one in the Cooper family related to the Parker’s. If Uncle George was married to the Mary Parker then there would have been a Parker in the family.” Samantha made a joke and made us all smile. Emily continued from there.

“Then there is Hemming family, Weasley family and Sheraton family.”

“So, all other females of Cooper family belong to these three families.” I asked.