Master of his heart (Brielle and Max)

Emma took a deep breath, only to hear the usual snide comments from the women who always looked down on her.

"That's right, everyone knows the Odeberg family nearly ended up playing daddy to the kid in your belly. What a huge embarrassment! You owe us big time for this!"

As the insults flew, Peyton, who was inside and equally mortified by the scandal, thought the demand for twenty thousand was way over the top.

She stepped outside, only to find the crowd ready to get physical.

"The Odebergs! What do you think you're doing? Picking on us because we don't have a man in the house, is that it?"

Seeing Peyton emerge, the Odebergs became even more brazen.

"Lock Emma up tonight! Big Mama Moll, if you don't cough up that twenty grand, we're not releasing her!"

Peyton was frantic, instinctively looking around for help, but the Odebergs, with their deep pockets and usual bravado, had intimidated the villagers into silence. Nobody was willing to stand up for the Molls, preferring to watch the drama unfold. So, before Peyton's eyes, Emma was surrounded by men from the Odeberg family and locked in a room.

That room was Peyton's, now off-limits to her.

If Peyton didn't produce the money, the Odebergs weren't going to release Emma and were content to camp out in the Moll family's yard, refusing to leave.

Humiliated and on the verge of passing out from anger, Peyton knew that if she did faint, nobody would care about her well-being.

She could afford the twenty thousand; after all, there was the seventeen thousand left from Emma's abortion fund, plus a scholarship of five thousand Peyton had never spent, hidden under her mattress, savings meant for her retirement. The Odebergs had only spent a couple of thousand on the banquet, yet now demanded twenty grand, leveraging their village status to rally a mob against her home.

Reason was useless here, especially when not a soul sided with the Molls.

Emma was pregnant and had been locked up for three days.

Back to the present, Emma felt close to starvation. There was a small toilet in the room, thankfully, as it was Peyton's, who had spent years bedridden, requiring a toilet close by to avoid embarrassment.

But hunger was overwhelming her,NôvelDrama.Org owns all © content.

her appetite having increased withet

pregnancy, her stomach constantly

g in protest. Contes

Blurred vision from hunger, she could

Ontly hear her mother and et

others outside, pleading on her behalf.

But the Odebergs were determined to target the Molls, staying put.

Peyton had managed to eat these past days, but the Odebergs forbade her from bringing food to Emma.

In extreme hunger, Emma felt she could eat anything.

Thirsty and starving, there was a moment she nearly passed out.

Searching the room, she hoped to find something, anything to eat.

Her eyes caught sight of some corn cobs hanging from the rafters, half-eaten by rats, a disgusting sight. Emma wanted to devour them, but thinking of Dustin's child, remembering a photo, tears welled up.

Dustin, so refined, how could his child eat such things?

If only she hadn't gotten pregnant.

Tears streamed down as she gazed at the rat nibbled corn cob, feeling wretched. Reality seemed splite between her fantasies of Dustin and her current plight.

After crying, she realized she could barely produce tears due to dehydration.

Her lips were cracked, revealing deep crevices.

She was too hungry.

Sorry, just too hungry.

Closing her eyes, she desperately gnawed on the corn cob.