Heiress Unmasked: Shaking the World With Geomancy novel Chapter 2393

When Jack got drunk and beat his family, Maureen would throw herself over Gus, shielding him with her own body, even when she was bruised and bleeding.

As he grew older, he began to realize his mother was unlike the other women in the village. She could read, do math, and even write in a foreign language.

The only thing was that she had no family.

Gus had once asked Jack about the reason why Maureen didn't have a family. He brushed it off, saying she was mentally unstable and wandered around on her own, until he took her in one day.

Apparently, that was why she had no family.

Young Gus never doubted his father's words at that time. He even believed that if Jack wasn't abusive and alcoholic, he might've been a decent man.

However, the teacher, locked up in the village, once told him that Maureen wasn't taken in—she was trafficked, just like the teacher had been.

Perhaps Maureen wasn't born like this. Maybe she had just been broken into it.

Gus was only ten when he learned the truth. It shattered everything he thought he knew about the world.

The teacher, Emma Kirby, told him none of this was right. He was a child born of Maureen's suffering. She had chosen neither this life nor him.

Emma knew Gus couldn't hurt her like Jack did. As such, she pleaded with him to help get the message out. That way, he could save both her and Maureen from that place that devoured people.

Since Gus was a boy, none of the villagers watched him too closely because boys weren't a threat. Therefore, he was allowed to go to school, learn how to read and write, and speak with Emma.

From her, he learned that the outside world was nothing like this. He also realized that not everybody's mothers were "taken in".

At ten, with Emma's help, he tried to report everything, calling the police while he was in town.

But before he could finish, they caught and dragged him back home. Jack ended up beating him senseless and locked him in the house for a full year.

And Emma? Well, she had her legs broken.

At 11, Gus was finally allowed to go out again—not for any particularly good reason, but because Emma, a threat, had died.

According to the other kids, her partner had beaten her to death.

This time, Gus didn't try the police or ask for help. He was afraid his mother would suffer the same demise, too.

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