Til Death Do Us Part

54

“You can come with her. I’ll cover whatever earnings this place loses in the meantime. She stays in the family home …..” Jyeon begins.

“No!!” Greta’s venomous interruption is a snap, and I flinch with her sudden yell. Not expecting it at all. “She isn’t staying with those people. She doesn’t know them. Stop trying to force her into things and forgetting that she knows none of you.”

There’s a tense pause, and the two men look to one another before Jyeon nods. Seemingly reading a message on his friend’s face. I’m watching this back and forth like I’m experiencing something outer body and not a part of it.

“We can work it out. We have already contacted specialists who want to see her to evaluate her old head injuries and how much of her memory is absent. My priority is her health, her safety. I didn’t come here to upset her or ruin her life. I just want to give her back the one left behind her.”

“Why am I not getting a say in this? Why is it that you can swoop in and take over everything? I’m an adult who’s been living just fine. Why am I now an invalid and mentally incapable?” I’m despairing, hating his hypocrisy, and frustrated at pretending to be oblivious.

“You can’t make decisions with only a tiny number of facts. You’re missing a huge chunk of your life. A judge will agree and rule me your guardian, whether you want it or not because I’ve had control of your assets all this time. Your status and wealth will make sure it’s fast-tracked, Sohla. Our family is famous, which will only make it more urgent that I do this. This is in your best interest, and it’s my responsibility as your family. As the one who watched you grow and work hard, sacrifice so much, to achieve what you did.”

“You just sweep in with all your money and power and destroy everything she’s built here instead. You call it caring, but if she was so happy in her old life, why did she drive off a cliff?” Greta turns nasty again and scowls at both men, throwing one fact they can’t dispute and playing along with the idea it was suicide. It’s a slip on her part, given she’s not meant to know that it was more than an accident because I told the doctor I only remembered falling into the sea. Not the how or why.

Jyeon does seem to falter, opening his mouth to speak and closing it again. I hold my breath in case he picked up on her faux pas. He’s suddenly stricken with a change in expression, and his brow and jaw tenses. Battling something internally inside.

“Because I pushed her to it…… I hurt her. I threw her away. And I’ve lived with that for two years. I have to undo the wrongs and give her back her life, her name. I have to restore it all because I know I’m responsible for all of this.” His words stab me in the chest, hurting me and kicking up anger.

“So, it’s about guilt?” I ask. Bitterness seeping through and hating him for acting like he doesn’t know that I would never try and kill myself, and he’s somehow repenting. He knew me better; he knew that I was stronger than that. This is about control and taking things from me while working on damage control. It’s all an act, and this is bullshit. They can’t have people find out about me, now or in the future, without him having to intervene and cover up the fake body news they put out.

“It’s about guilt, yeah….and regret…..and wake up calls…..and missing you to the point of insanity. I never ever dreamed I would find you alive. I just always hoped. Let me take care of you and all of this until you get your memories back.”

I stare at him like he has two heads, and I almost break the façade with a sudden hitch in temper and a building tantrum inside of me.

“So, if we refuse to negotiate? … If she stays here and we kick you out? What then?” Greta eyeballs the lawyer, and I can see her mentally calculating whether she could take these men on and force them out. I know she’s thinking about whether or not the village would be able to protect me with force. Physical removal and refusal to entertain them or their demands.

“The courts will approve my request, and I will come back here with the manpower to take her willfully. I won’t hold back. There’s no way around this. I’m her husband, I will be her legal guardian, and I will take her home. You can save yourself the hassle by packing bags and coming like good girls, and making it easy on everyone. I told you, I won’t let this place suffer financially, and I’ll meet any requests to make it a comfortable transition. My only focus is Sohla.”

“Why don’t I feel like we can trust you at all? In two years, you not once put that wealth and power into finding her or else you would have. She was right here this whole time. Now you’re forcing her away from the only home she knows.” Greta is fighting a pointless battle, and I sink behind her and stare at my feet, thinking it all through and seeing no good outcome. He wins, no matter what. The courts will side with him; even I know that. It'll only make me suffer if we drag out and fight it. And Greta too.

“How would you know what efforts I put into finding her? How much money I sunk on searches? No body, no answers, no Sohla. You have no idea how I spent months scouring over the crash site for just a clue of where she might be. How many boats raked the river and searched the surrounding coasts for the tiniest scraps of evidence. Don’t tell me I didn’t try and find her….. I never once gave up on her. I could never let my heart believe she was gone.” His voice waivers, but a deathly dangerous pitch contradicts what he’s saying.

It was always my job to bullshit people into believing the fantasy we wanted them to see. I would never have believed if I hadn’t seen it myself with my own eyes that Jyeon Park has mastered bare face lying and does it well. He was useless at it with an obvious tell anytime he was dishonest. He’s so believable now it makes me sick.

Searched for me? Yet found a body three weeks after I disappeared to be able to call off the search. He used his wealth and power, alright! And the things he says are still mine; I’m pretty sure are already signed to him, seeing as I was deceased. He’s only here in case I rock up one day and screw him over for doing it that way.

My temper finally snaps, and without thought, fuelled by anger, I storm forward the few steps to close the gap between him and me. I grab his wrist and tug up his left hand in between us, so it’s right there for all to see. Ignoring the sizzle between us as his touch ignites chaotic energy inside of me. His naked tanned hand held aloft and dangling. He stares at me, unsure why I’m holding it up. Handsome and still, oozing with masculine energy that makes me feel small and stupid.

“Yet the wedding ring, I’m assuming, matches this….” I grapple around my neck to locate my chain and tug out my necklace, yanking it harshly, so it breaks free and dangle it in front of his face, held up high. “Doesn’t appear to live on your finger. I wonder why? If you kept searching and holding onto hope, how come you took it off? If you never gave up on your precious wife, then why didn’t you hold onto such a precious symbol of her existence.” I ask with a raised brow. Sarcasm oozing. Hating him for making me feel this desperate. “You’re proclaiming I’m your wife and making it the focus of all the reasons you get to take me away. Yet … something so important that even a girl with no memory held onto it, and you don’t have one.” My accusation is ended with me letting his arm go with a toss, watching it fall heavily between us while labouring with my shallow breaths of temper. Inwardly seething and broken-hearted at the lack of it.

Jyeon lets out a soft snort of air, like a half laugh, somewhat cocky at seeing what I still have despite my denial of a husband, and reaches up to his neck. He smoothly feels under his shirt collar, not with my same harsh movements, and carefully slides out a long silver chain. Slowly, deliberately while locking his gaze on mine. His expression returned to calm and blank.

As the last of it is pulled free from his clothes, a matching silver band with the same ring of encrusted diamonds swings free, right at my eye level. The ring he wore for those entire four years of our married life, even when he hated me the most. A symbol of our fake love for one another in the public eye. He leans down, so his nose is a mere inch from mine, his breath mingling with my air, and he stares at me as though reaching deep into my soul and grabbing hold cruelly. Rendering me mute, in shock.

“Seems we both kept them somewhere safe, close to our hearts, where they would never get lost or forgotten.”