Through Her Eyes ✔

108. TRUTH

'Papa is having a soul tear?' Her heart is now breaking.

Namjoon's gasp breaks her train of thoughts on her discovery, making her turn towards the man. She follows his line of sight, then she sees what made him react in great surprise.

Paintings. There are lots of prettily framed paintings around the huge room, making the space more like a little gallery rather than a simple living room. Paintings of mists and cherubs... of dragon eyes and tiger lilies... She knows the paintings.

"A-are those mine?" She stutters. She couldn't believe it.

They are all her paintings!

They are all beautifully arranged on each of their stands. She could recognize the first painting that she had sold at the front when she desperately needed cash to live by. The next painting was the one that sold when she wanted to buy her own small apartment so that she could be independent and avoid leeching off from Hannah's mom's kindness. The most intricate and most expensive of her sale is at the center. It is the three-part piece painting. The painting of a picnic in a dark park with faceless people surrounded with rainbow mists. She couldn't forget about it. It was the same painting that Namjoon talked about and had wanted to purchase. It was also the painting that had allowed her to buy that expensive penthouse beside Yoongi's. The painting that she thought had been bought by a very loyal patron.

Some of her creations are there too. Them being sold were the reason of her survival after refusing to take what was provided for her, insisting that she could survive on her own. The Dreamer that she had been always so proud of each of those sold pieces. But, why are they here?

This makes her shudder. Does this mean that with all those times, her papa had been helping her instead? The belief of living off with just her talent was all wrong? After all these times... Does this mean that she failed to prove her independency from her papa? But why? Why did he bother to buy all her paintings?

'Why are they here?' She wants to ask but flinches with the coldness of her papa's hands. She almost whisks his hold on her, only she feels him tugging her heart instead. She couldn't dare do it to the man. No matter how she wanted to hate him, but she just couldn't. Her heart would waver, a thing that she had viewed as weakness. A thing that she had deemed a reason for his continuous mental and physical abuse... because no matter what he did, she would consider everything as her fault... never his.

"Da-eun. Da-eun. Da-eun." Like a love sick man, he chants her mother's name. "Are you here to take me?" His eyes are pleading. "Please take me. I have repented already." He starts to sniff, then he sobs even louder. "I didn't know it could happen. I didn't know." His hold is becoming firmer, making her gasp in fear.

All the memories of so much pain rushes through her thoughts, shaking her core. The name calling... the vile curses... his cold hands as he dragged her to a dark pantry... the poison on his skin has been prickling and painful against her own.

"I am so sorry for hurting our little Daun-chan. I am so sorry." Her papa starts to wail like a little boy asking for forgiveness. "Da-eun dear..." His voice loudens with panic as she starts to peel of his forceful fingers from her hand. She needs him to let go. Her hand feels burning. It's so painful.

She steps backward.

"Yoshi... she is Daun. She is not Da-eun. Your wife, Da-eun, had long been gone." Her uncle readily kneels in front of her papa. His voice is soothing, pacifying the panic on the sickly man. His caring gaze is peering through him, eyes pleading for him to just breathe.

Instead of calming down, her papa doesn't let go of her. "No... Daun is not here... she had left me Geong. She hated me. I made her leave." He continues sobbing as he snatches her closer. The force is rolling his wheel chair towards her.