"Just how.." He couldn't find the right words to say, the shock was too great for his mind to rack off any rational thought of how his good-for-nothing wife earned money.
However, one thing is for sure and the physical evidence of it is sitting right on his hand.
"Coco Hughes is making money." Alhai muttered, his eyes narrowed slightly.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
The loud and hurried footsteps from the staircase had pulled him out of his inner turmoil and looked at the stairs.
He might have been staring at the money pouch for too long because when he looked at the staircase, he only saw Zaque and Heiren scrambling to get down.
"I heard something." Zaque was breathing slightly heavy, a sign that he was indeed hurrying down the stairs.
Alhai only guessed that they probably heard the noise that Coco made when she dropped off the food on the table and the sink because if that's not it then what else would have Zaque rushing down?
Zaque is the first husband and has his way established among the husbands.
If he doesn't come down to check whatever happened or who visited then it doesn't matter to him, but he actually went down to check up on the source of the noises.
"The wife stopped by." Alhai informed him, voice laced with disdain and a frown on his handsome face, "She dropped us something to eat, told me to give this money to you, and distribute it with four of us before leaving without letting me call for you."
Zaque gave him a look, calculating and trying to gouge out his intention for not telling him sooner.
Then, the silver haired man walked towards the dining table and dropped money on the wooden surface without a care. He didn't even turn to look back to check how much money was inside the pouch.
Who knows what Coco Hughes had done to earn that amount of money. If she had gone through an illegal and immoral process of acquiring such an amount then he doesn't want any of that.
Alhai turned to Zaque, the frown still present on his face, "I'm not sure what she brought for us, but if it's the fruit just like the one the other day then I don't want it."
Alhai could have screamed for Zaque that their wife had stopped by and dropped some food if he wanted to, but he didn't. What's more is the way Alhai muttered incoherent words under his breath as he dropped the pouch on the table.
For Zaque, Alhai was acting suspicious.
He had decided to tell the other husbands what happened when Coco Hughes came back and had earned himself different reactions from them.
Heiren, since he was there when Coco woke up, knows that their wife was someone else.
Quiren, who met Coco on her way to drop off the fruits, was adamant on his belief that Coco was merely toying with them and refused to believe that Coco Hughes, the woman who threatened them, had died and got another Coco to possess the body.
Alhai, on the other hand, was completely indifferent with everything Zaque had told him. Although, Alhai's reaction right now was suspicious, doesn't mean that he had changed his mind about their wife.
When they were introduced to each other as Coco Hughes's spouses, all of them vowed to make a way for each other to get out of Coco's way and divorce her.
However, even if they wanted to do the best for each other, Coco Hughes will find a way to ruin it.
Hence why she was always down at the town's bar, drinking her anger and worries away, drowning in alcohol and debts that seem to increase easily as days pass.
Although, the current Coco Hughes right now is acting differently from their original wife, and they can't deny that.
If this was indeed their wife then she would have walked inside the house and demanded for Zaque to accompany her in the room, force Quiren to sing for her, make Alhai read for her, or have Heiren pushed against the dining table by now.
Yet, their wife right now didn't just go home and do those things like usual, but she actually just dropped some food and money that she kept telling Zaque should be their allowances for the week.
Allowances? They haven't heard that word for a long time. It's always debt here, debt there, debt everywhere.
Now? When Zaque went out of the house to buy some salt and seasonings from the market, the vendors had called for him and asked him when Coco would come back from the mountains.
That's how he found out that his wife goes out of the village to get the fruits or whatever she sells to make money.
The old Coco wouldn't do that, and Zaque knew, but could he really trust Coco Hughes's words to not be tomfoolery? His fear and anger towards his wife is preventing him from doing so and he doesn't know if he'll be able to forgive her.
The only reason why he let Coco Hughes stay last night was because she brought home fruits from who knows where out of courtesy.
Zaque sighed, rubbing his fingers against his temples as he thought of what to do.
"Check the contents of the sacks first." Zaque stated, turning to Heiren, "Out of the four of us, you're the best cook and knows how to check the quality of ingredients."
Zaque's words made Heiren flushed, the sudden praise from him was unexpected.
"O-Okay.." Heiren nodded his head, scrambling to go to the dining table and pulled the tie off the sack, he peeked inside and the amount of potatoes had him gasping in shock.
"There's so many potatoes here." Heiren murmured, his beautiful pair of eyes wide in amazement as he reached in to pick out one potato to inspect it.
"And it's good, too! Where did she get this?"