Secrets- [][][] Chapter Four

However, the feeling of life and being alive soon changed Ed's attitude. After he was over mourning, so many affairs, he began dating. He even married this young woman from Venezuela. Their marriage lasted only one week. The woman's six years old son hated Ed. They got an annulment.

He met Thui at a friend's house, another lawyer, one evening. He was fifty eight then. Thui, who had married his lawyer's friend father in Vietnam only a year earlier, had come to America with him. Their marriage lasted only six months. The old man died of heart attack shortly after they were in America. The prenuptial agreement they had had, left Thui completely empty handed. She even did not have money to go back to Vietnam. The old man's son allowed her to stay with them temporary until they could arrange a return ticket to her home country for her. But she had to earn that money. She did their housekeeping; nonetheless, she did not want to go back. The reason she had married the old man was not love but was a ticket to America. All her life she wanted to come to U.S. Now she was here in America, her dream world.

That evening when Ed met Thui for the first time, he felt an instant chemistry towards this woman. She was standing in the kitchen, her black hair fell loose on her broad back. She was cutting lettuce in a very peculiar way to make salad. Ed asked his friend about her. After he heard about her life story, he asked his friend if he could have her. His friends, gladly agreed, but he wanted to be reimbursed for her expenses. After some back and forth, they came to agreement for $50,000.00. Ed wrote a check for that amount. His friend told Ed that now that she was his, she would be his responsibility. Ed agreed.

He took her home that night, but he did not sleep with her because at that time he had a living girlfriend in his house. In a week he got rid of the girlfriend and brought Thui to his bed. For the first time in his life, he was in love with this twenty years old Vietnamese woman. Two years later They married.

Thui's fragile body concealed a tough spirit and a perseverance which was almost consumed. She was a gifted user that seized every opportunity to get ahead; and her goal was to become a U.S. Citizen. Marriage was just the right thing for her at that time.

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To Be Continued