Til Death Do Us Part

50

“I don’t know you. Please stop.” My voice breaks and panic shows face even though I try not to let it. Suddenly aware of how close he is and that my necklace is rubbing just below the very edge of my dress neckline. Mere millimetres from concealing the platinum and diamond band therein that would give this away completely.

“I was too shocked upstairs to let it sink in. Don’t go anywhere. I’ll figure this out on my own why you’re acting like you don’t know us, why you never came home. I’m not about to lose you again. I know I did a lot of wrongs…. Please give me a chance to fix that.” He steps towards me and lifts his hand as though he’s going to touch my face, and I scramble backwards, turn, and shoot away from him at speed. Terror gripping my heart and not about to let him touch me again.

I don’t stop until I slide through the hatch and close it behind me with a thump. Tugging Greta in front of me as the looming tall figure of Jyeon cuts between his two friends in pursuit, and he ends up face to face with her. Separated only by the wooden surface between them. A few eyes stray this way, but no one knows what’s going on, and it looks friendly on the surface.

“Jyeon Park…. Her husband.” He nods at me over Greta’s shoulder and reaches inside his jacket to pull out his wallet. Seemingly way more composed than he was up in the lounge. He places a black credit card on the counter first, then a business card right beside it. “I’ll pay our bill but keep this because we will talk again. This isn’t done.”

I recoil, losing all fight, inwardly seething that even thinks he still has that title after everything, yet the Sohla of the past is nowhere to be seen. Afraid of being discovered and completely wilting in his presence. My thoughts are chaotic, and I’m jumping between mentally yelling at him that he’s a murderer and asking myself if he seems like a guy who wanted me gone. He’s confusing as hell.

“You guys need mental help. My sister is single, never married. You’re scaring her.” Greta is doing a much better job than me and holding her own against his intimidating force. Keeping the act up and sounds convincing.

Avery and Bryant are silently locked onto my face, staring openly, and I end up completely hiding behind her to shield myself from the intense scrutiny. I must look like a scared kitten. I don’t know how to navigate this. I’m so out of my depth. In Jyeon these two years, something that has gotten stronger is his commanding aura, and I’m folding like wet paper in the wind.

“Amnesia? Deliberately hiding? Whatever the reason, don’t tell me it’s not her. I know it is. I can tell. From the way she walks, moves, carries herself, and her mannerisms. Her voice, her scent. Do you think I wouldn’t know the girl I grew up with and married? I shared my life with her. And that…” He leans forward and points at my shoulder, and I’m confused for a second, unsure what he’s getting at. Looking down at my dress in case my necklace is on show and start to panic again, but it’s still concealed, and I curse myself for always wearing it.

“What?” Greta turns and looks me up and down, seeing nothing on me at all. “Because of a dress?”

“The birthmark on the back of her neck where her right shoulder meets. I’m sure I saw it upstairs when she was picking up breadsticks. Don’t tell me that’s not my Sohla when I know for a fact it is.” Jyeon’s tone is cold and stiff. His eyes flicker to me once more, and he nods at his card as though telling her to hurry up and take it.

Greta lets out a breathy laugh, slides his credit card up and moves to the till to ring up their bill without touching the other. She’s in full-on war mode and trying to keep her calm.

“Lots of people have birthmarks, lots of people can look the same. I think I know my own blood. Don’t come back; your custom is not welcome here anymore.” She slaps his card back at him without swiping it. “What you ate so far is on the house. Call it a parting gift. Now leave and take your boys with you.”

“Not tiny red hearts they don’t. I’m sure that’s not common at all.” Jyeon isn’t backing down. I guess the shock from seeing me has entirely worn off, and he’s in stealth fight mode, the guy who used to dominate board meetings. I hate that he still remembers my tiniest strawberry birthmark, given I always kept my hair down, and it was never on view to anyone.

“Is there a problem here?” A masculine voice behind the group of men cuts into the tense atmosphere, and Tom appears at the side of them as he walks around. Eyeing them up, seeming bulked up and angry, I guess he heard her, seeing me standing further back and trying to look invisible. He reads the situation and seems to decide he’s not leaving.

“Anna, are you okay?” His tone softens to an undeniable affection, and he lifts the hatch to come in around to join us, even though he usually never would. He is acting like he belongs here.

“None of your concern. We’re talking about personal issues that don’t involve you. Butt out. Whoever you are, you’re irrelevant.” Jyeon’s tone turns deathly, his eyes following the way Tom slides Greta aside lightly and comes to shield me from whatever he considers is a threat. Making it clear I’m someone he cares about.

On the one hand, I appreciate it, even though the old me would have been able to handle all of this on her own, yet I’m also annoyed that he thinks I need him to sweep in. That we can’t do this without a man helping us. Greta is a fierce psycho on any day of the week, and I’m normally so much stronger and more capable than this. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Maybe the fact that there’s this suspicion that this man tried to kill me deep down.

Jyeon turns icy and seems to bristle with the addition of my hero standing between us. His usual calm and capable demeanour that he’s famous for missing altogether, and he narrows his brows, not concealing his anger at all, and my heart almost stops.

“I’m not leaving this village without my wife. I’m her legal guardian and have every right to take her from here. She has a home and a family who miss her. She has a life to come back to. If she’s suffering from memory loss, then I’ll take her for treatment, and you have no right to stop me. Keeping her here, using it to hold her, makes me not trust you one bit.” Jyeon and Tom stand face to face, the air static with the electrical current, and I’m so close to passing out with the sheer stress of this entire thing. I catch Avery and Bryant moving forward to coax Jyeon away gently, sensing this is getting tense. Bryant slides his arm around the front of Jyeon’s chest and pushes him back with a flat palm. Tom seems completely silenced with shock at Jyeon’s words and glances at Greta by his side, looking for answers.

“We’ll be back once everyone has time to let emotions settle. We’re sorry it turned sour like this. We’re happy to see you again, Sohla like you have no idea.” Bryant is Mr calm and in control and seems to have undergone a personality transplant in two years. He was never Jyeon’s dependable friend who swooped in to soothe things. He was usually the instigator in all chaos. Jyeon was the mediator back then.

“Stay well. We’ll see you soon.” Avery smiles warmly at me, and it’s like a knife in my heart. It takes everything in me to stay blank and not react, even if it feels like a ward drum playing in my chest. These men were my childhood and lifelong friends through Jyeon, who always treated me like a younger sibling.

“Just get out, all of you.” Greta pushes Tom aside and throws both cards across the surface at Jyeon, so he swipes at least one of them back into his hand.

The two men signal for others nearby, and it’s the first time I notice they are lingering across the room waiting to leave. Their other three companions and I’m thankful I don’t recognise any of those too. They both escort Jyeon away, keeping a hold of him as all he seems to do is keep glancing over his shoulder at me with the most unreadable expression. I can’t tell if it's anger, sadness, shock or what.

My face is numb with keeping it steady and showing nothing at all emotionally. That whole encounter has made my mind explode, though, and I’m on the verge of breaking.

I don’t wait for them to leave, and spin on my heel and hightail it into the kitchen, picking up the nearest sandwich bag and shoving it over my mouth in desperation. I crumble to my ass and take gulping raspy breaths in a bid to curb the significant panic attack starting, and tears finally break loose and start trickling down my face as everything I held in erupts.