Eyes Full Of Stars || Park Sunghoon

35 ¦ Believe you?

Crossing my arms, I look at Teresa, who is trying to meet my gaze with obvious nervousness. "I don't think it's that complicated; my father cheated on her with you." "It wasn't like that," Teresa replies, visibly affected. Tears well up in her eyes and instantly she averts her gaze from me. "Then what was it like?", I want to know.

Tears run down her cheeks and suddenly I am overcome by this frightening thought that my father could have done something to Teresa that she didn't want. Anyone who beats his daughter to hospital and is about to sell her to a strange man is surely capable of much more.

"It wasn't..." Teresa's voice trembles and before she can even finish the sentence, she finally loses it completely. "Teresa," I say in shock, holding my hands over my mouth. Now tears are welling up in my eyes as well.

She doesn't even have to finish the sentence for me to realize that my father is a fucking monster. I remember the accusations I made to her a few days ago; that she wouldn't care so much if it was her own daughter.

"Why didn't you run away?", I want to know. "I couldn't leave you behind," Teresa replies quietly. "For him, there was no question of me taking you with me, and he gave me an ultimatum: either I leave without you, or I continue to be your family's maid so I can continue to see you."

"Why didn't you report him?", I ask in shock. She shakes her head and a snort escapes her lips. She wipes tears from her face with the back of her hand. "You forget how much influence he has," Teresa reminds me. "Your father hired people to fake your birth certificate so it wouldn't have my name on it, but that of.... Her. So who would have believed me if I showed up and claimed I was your birth mother when there was so much to the contrary? They would have dropped it before a DNA test was even an option."

"And what about her?", I ask Teresa, referring to the woman I believed to be my mother until last night. "She could have corroborated your testimony." "No," Teresa replies, shaking her head. "She's always been very afraid of your father. He's always been a terrible man, Lola."

"I'm so sorry, Teresa...", I whisper with tears in my eyes. Before I know it, we're falling into each other's arms. I feel terrible for blaming her. Teresa herself must know as well as my so-called mother and I what a monster my father is. And yet she has stayed all these years out of love for her daughter.

"It's not your fault, Lola," she replies, breathing a kiss on my temple. She then breaks away from the embrace again. "If you'll excuse me, I'd like to be alone right now to process all of this a bit," Teresa tells me, and I nod in understanding. She rises from the edge of my bed and leaves the guest room with a brief, tired smile in my direction.

Only a moment later, my door then opens again and Sunghoon enters the room. "Can I come in?" he wants to know, looking anxiously in my direction. "You already are," I reply, still in tears, and feel the corners of my mouth twitch up into a brief smile before they immediately lower again and I avert my gaze from him with my lips pressed together.

Sunghoon closes the door behind him and joins me at the edge of the bed. For a moment, he merely looks at me in silence before hesitantly reaching for my face. The heart in my chest skips a beat as I look into his eyes and he gently wipes the tears from my face with his thumb. "I can't bear to see you cry," he says, barely audible.

Briefly, I think I see in his gaze that he regrets saying those words out loud. But Sunghoon can't take them back now either. "I still wanted to thank you for what you did for me today," I change the subject.

"I thought it would do you good to see her again," Sunghoon says sweetly, his thumb still gently stroking my cheek. "It did," I assure him with a smile on my lips, returning his gaze. "Thank you, Sunghoon." I lose myself in his brown eyes, which bore deeply into mine.

As if of my own accord, I reach out to him to close the small gap between us and place my lips on his. For a moment Sunghoon sits motionless before he carefully returns the kiss. As he does so, he places his other hand at my waist and slides a little closer to me. It's a brief, loving kiss that sparks a tingling sensation inside me that spreads throughout my body, befuddling my senses.

"Dolores," Sunghoon breathes into the kiss as I place myself on his lap and wrap my arms around his neck. He pulls away from my lips and places his hands on my hips. "I have a very important business conference call in ten minutes... You should get some rest."

"Okay," I reply understandingly, but I can't deny that I would prefer it if Sunghoon could still stay with me. I feel better when he's there. Carefully, Sunghoon pushes me off his lap. "Good night, Dolores," Sunghoon wishes me before. He gives me one last, longing look before he leaves the guest room and pulls the door shut behind him.

A/N: CEO Sunghoon is busy again... but what do we think about this chapter?