Death For The Better ✔️

Pierre's New Bride

It was a Sunday morning when Hazel Leblanc had moved in to live with her new husband, Pierre Leblanc and his children. There had been a lot of movement and noise when she moved into her new house. This was contrary to the Sunday routine of the neighbourhood. We usually enjoyed quiet mornings on Sunday.

I remember Hazel as being a cheerful and polite lady. As soon as she had unpacked her suitcases and arranged her belongings, she came out and introduced herself to her neighbours. She came to my house too, to get acquainted with us. We liked her as soon as she started talking.

Pierre's new wife was indeed pretty. She looked pretty amiable and soft-spoken to us. She was much better than Pierre's ex-wife, Nicole. Nicole had, after all, abused her husband physically as well as verbally. When she and her husband were getting divorced, the judge had decided that the children would live with their father and that Nicole would be sentenced to five years in jail. Served her right, we had thought at that time.

Hazel was a lawyer by profession. When Pierre needed a lawyer to fight his divorce case, Hazel had stepped forward to take up his case. That's how they had met. They both fell in love with each other while the case was being fought. Pierre confessed his feelings for her four months after the case was won. And Hazel just echoed his thoughts. And so they got happily married with great pomp and splendour.

But on that occasion, I still remember, the children were upset with this marriage. Obviously, the children loved their mother and found it unacceptable that their father was getting married to another woman a couple of months after the divorce.

The first week of Hazel's stay at her new house was pleasant for her. She found the house spacious and cosy, and that the children were well-behaved. She liked her new house very much. But the second week turned out to be sour for her.

Since she was a lawyer, she had to report to the court by ten in the morning and used to come back by five in the evening. Though she had never cooked meals for others at her mother's house, she never complained at her new house where she had to cook breakfast for the entire family and pack lunch for Pierre, the children and herself. She was a harmonious girl who coped up with everything, despite the inconveniences.

When Nicole was the mistress of the house, she did not allow her daughter Rebecca to stay out late at night. She always ordered her to be back by 10pm no matter what the occasion was. But her son, James, was allowed to be out till 2 in the morning. Also, she forced Rebecca to cook meals for the entire household on Sundays. Nicole was conservative in her ways and this was reflected in the way in which she treated Rebecca.

All this changed when Hazel became the mistress of the house. She allowed both Rebecca and James to enjoy with their friends till 3am, but not later than that. On Sundays, Pierre cooked breakfast for the children and the family had their lunch and dinner at restaurants.

Hazel was a good wife and mother. Everybody in the neighbourhood agreed to that. She lived harmoniously with her new family, or so it seemed to us at least. But we didn't know that it was the new bride's turn to get tortured by her foster kids.