The Contract: Sunshine (29 page)

“Yes...yes...but...”

“No buts,” Yoon said passionately.  “If I give this woman her way this time
,
what will she demand of us the next time?  I can’t live in fear of Sunshine being wrenched away from me every time I tell Sophia Dupree to stay out of my marriage.”

“You’re right,” Joon Woo conceded.  “I would be remised as your father if I encouraged you to give into blatant blackmail.  You are now your own man and this is your own family you’re fighting for.  You have to do what your conscious bids you to do.”

“Thank you...for everything.”

“No, Min Yoon, thank you for making me proud to be your father,” his voice cracked with emotions.  Clearing his throat
,
he said, “I will call you back once I have what you need.”

Time makes us forget the things we swear we’d never forget...

“You’ve been down to the gardener’s shack again?”

Sunshine looked up at the sound of her grandmother’s voice.  She hadn’t even realized she wasn’t alone in the family library anymore for the old diary she found hidden amongst the books was turning out to be more interesting than she first imagined.

“Yes,” she answered
,
easing the diary close
d
and moving it down between her thigh and the arm of the chair.

“The place is filthy.  Why do you insist on spending time out there?”  Her grandmother settled down in the chair across from her spreading the wide tea-length green chiffon skirt about her and crossing one dainty ankle over another.

“It holds fond memories for me.  Instead of coming inside to your party
,
I ask
ed
Yoon to hang me up by my wrist and fuck me like I was one of his slaves,” Sunshine replied.  “Does it offend you that a woman with Dupree blood in her vein
s
would find pleasure in being dominated by a man considered beneath her station?”

“Please do
not lie just to be crass, dear.
I
t’s not very becoming for you to do so.  T
out n'est qu'ordre et beauté, luxe, calme et volupté.
”

Sunshine rolled her eyes. 
All is just
order and beauty, luxury, peace
and sensual delight
.  Her grandmother’s answer to all things unrefined
.
With a deep sigh
,
she countered with, “
E
me presse de rire de tout, de peur d'être obligé d'en pleurer.
”

I push myself to laugh about everything for fear of having to cry about it.

“How long are you going to feel sorry for yourself, Sunny?   It’s only been one day and I’ve already grown bored by your behavior,” Sophia complained.  “Is the phone ringing off the hook?  Is that man camped outside waiting to risk all for you?”

“When did you become so cruel?”

“I’m not cruel, Sunshine.  I’m a realist.  Fairytale romances don’t happen for the Dupree women. We are cursed.  The men we love either betray our trust by accepting this blood money that fill
s
the banks or they die.”

“I don’t believe that.
”
Sunshine shook her head smoothing back her hair behind her ear.  “I don’t believe you believe that either.  What
’
s happening is we keep making the same mistake.  We always
have one Dupree woman that has
become embittered with loneliness and lack of love; immersed in work and power.  So much so she deliberately seeks out to destroy another’s happiness!”

“Sunsh
ine, just like all of us that ca
me before you, you will learn that you are meant to serve a greater life purpose.  We hire help to be average domesticates, we don’t become one.  We do not marry for love,” Sophia final words were said evenly. 

“But you did,” Sunshine said softly.  “I came here in the family library hoping to find answers to why the women in our family keep making the same mistakes.  I found nothing.  So after awhile
,
I decided to read one of my favorite stories and I found--”

“Tell me, d
id you look over the portfolio of eligible men that I had my assistant to prepare?”  The older woman interrupted.

“Why are you doing to me what your mother did to you?”  Sunshine asked.  “Why not be the one to stop
history from repeating itself, N
ana?”

“I was young and foolish like you once,” Sophia
’s
lips turned up in a half smile.  “I thought I knew what I wanted and yes, I fell in love; defied my mother’s wishes and left my husband at the altar literally.  It was like that scene from that movie,
Mrs. Robinson
with that actor
Dustin Hoffman
.  You know the one that I mean
,
don’t you?”

“I think so,” Sunshine murmured.

“The difference was I wasn’t a young naive woman unaware of what her actions would mean to her future.  I ran away from my tenth anniversary gala where I was about to renew my vows with a man I didn’t love the first time I married him.  Why?  Because my mother thought it would remind me once more of my
responsibilities
.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Those responsibilities were to be seen on the arm of a man that had no ambition and was
more of a friend than a lover;
t
o nurture a son that was growing more like his father every
day
,
wanting to spend more time gardening than learning the ropes in the boardroom.”

“My father was even like that as a boy?”  Sunshine grinned at the disclosed glimpse of her father’s childhood.

“My mother found my journal and she knew I was going to leave my husband and your father to run off to Spain with this glorious matador I met while vacationing in Barcelona.  So she locked down all my expense accounts and sent out wedding invitations for a
vow renewal
ceremony.”

“What happen
ed
?”

“Don’t you know?”  Her grandmother’s eyes pierced her.  “Wasn’t that my private thoughts you were reading?  Hand it over, please.  I should have never written about my affair in my journal.  If I hadn’t
,
we just might have gotten away that night.”

Reluctantly
,
Sunshine did as she was asked.  “I didn’t get to finish it and I wasn’t snooping around for
it
.  I reached for
Romeo and Juliet
and the diary
tumbled out with it.”

“Ahh, so that is where my mother hid it,” Sophia chuckled bitterly.  “Bitch knew I hated reading Shakespeare.  Oh my, that’s how you are going to be referring to me someday isn’t it?”

“Tell me Nana Sophia,” Sunshine reached out and placed her hand over her grandmother’s hand.  “How do I stop feeling as if I’m dying inside?  What did you do to let the love go?”

“Who says I have?”  She cocked a well arched and penciled brow at her granddaughter.   “I will love that man until the day I die.”

“If you know how I’m feeling, then why do this to me?”  Sunshine asked.  She truly wanted to understand.  “Give us your blessing.”

“Until when Sunny Girl?”  Sophia eyes blurred with unshed tears.  “You want to invest your heart and soul only to watch him sell himself and your love to the highest bidder?”

“Yoon would never do that to me.”

“How can you be so sure when he hasn’t even made an attempt to fight me to get you back?”

Sunshine didn’t know how to answer her question.  She hoped that regardless of what she wrote in the letter for him
,
he would see in her absence that he missed her and soon after that he would realize he loved her.  How could she fight for their marriage alone? 

“Child, if you can’t even answer that question about the man you love, then you need to look at those portfolios like I told you to.”  Her grandmother pushed herself up from the chair and leaned over to pat Sunshine’s leg which she had tucked under her bottom.  “Sit like a lady and please...please...don’t wear those
blue jeans
to dinner, dear.”

“Nana Sophia,” Sunshine called out to her.  “What happened to the man you love.”

“He took the two million dollars my mother
paid him to bring me back home,
opened up a ho
rse breeding farm in New Mexico
and married a fat Mexican woman who loved horses.”  She shrugged her erect shoulders.  “It was the end to my fairytale.”

***

On shaky legs
,
Sophia made her way to her office and dropped down in the leather seat behind the large mahogany desk with its elegant golden leaf scroll motif. 

She looked at the diary a long moment before opening the pages to read her familiar scrawl and began to read her own words
,
suddenly remembering many things
.
S
he would swear she would never forget what her mother did to her.  Nor would she ever do to her child what had been done to her. 

Sophia had easily ke
pt her word with her son Cedric.
H
owever when Sunshine was born
,
she immediately fell in love and swore she would mold her from the beginning and save her from the same pangs of life she experienced. 

Where had she gone wrong?  How did she end up becoming the enemy of the one person that meant everything to her?

Sophia looked up at the resounding knock on her door.  “Come in,” she called out.

“Grand Madam, Mrs. Hye Da is here to see you.  Would you like me to bring your usual tea?”

“This is not a tea visit,” Hye Da declared busting in like a mini-sized dynamo with hands on her hips and purse swinging from her wrist.

“Oh my goodness,” Sophia groan
ed
.  “
Hye Da, what are you doing here?
  My granddaughter is here at the house.  What if she sees you?  You will ruin everything.”  With a wave of her hand
,
Sophia dismissed her assistant.

“Have you gone insane?
  I thought we had an agreement!
  You have single handedly nearly destroyed my son’s business!”

Sophia grimaced.  “Umm, that was not what was intended.  I had no idea others would pull their accounts when I pulled mine.”

“Why
w
ould you do that?  They are married and happy.  Isn’t that what we wanted?”

“I need to be sure your son loves my granddaughter,” Sophia confided with a deep sigh.  “I need to know if he is willing to risk all for her.  If he doesn’t
,
then you lied about him being honorable!”

“You got to be the craziest old woman I
’ve
ever know
n
.”  Hye Da went off in a tirade of Korean.

Sophia rolled her eyes and barked, “Stick and stones.  Not get--”

“Mr. Young
,
you can’t go in there!  Mrs. Dupree is in a meeting.” 

Sophia and Hye Da looked at each other in alarm.

“I don’t give a damn.”  They heard Yoon booming voice.  “That old woman is going to listen to me and if you want to stop me from killing her
,
you
better get my wife down here A
SAP!”

“Why in the
Sam-fucking-hell
is
everyone calling me
old
tonight,” Sophia grumbled from her seat behind the desk.  “Disrespectful!  The entire lot of you coming up into a lady’s home
—
”

“Will you shut up and tell me where to hide,” Hye Da hissed
as
her dark eyes searched frantically about the room.  She made a run towards the first door she saw.

“Uhm-ma?”

Hye Da stopped in her tracks and released an inward groan. 
Too late.
  “Min Yoon what are you doing here?”   Her eyes went wide when she finally got a good look at him.  “Oh
w
hah...whah...my poor baby,” she crooned reverting to Kor
ean to ask had he had any sleep
or eat
en
anything.  “You’re wasting away.”

“I just need to shower, change and get some sleep,” Yoon scowled
,
brushing her hands from his face and taking a step back from her.  “You, I will deal will in a minute.
I came here to see her!”  He pointed a finger at a peevish looking Sophia Dupree.