Eliza's POV-
It's been a month since I've started working here. During this month we settled in a default schedule.
When Vincent goes to his office I get the kids their breakfast then get Lily ready for her kindergarten. Spend the next four hours with James simultaneously doing a little study. Lily comes home by 1pm after it's her lunch then both the kids have to take an afternoon nap. After waking up at 4pm it's snack and playtime till 6. Then I help Lily do her homework and recently we have started learning Mandarin together. Well I know Mandarin but I act like I don't. At 7:30 pm it's TV time. Her father comes home at 8pm. We all have dinner together and then I retreat in my room. From then I study for about two hours. Then sleep and repeat this process the next day.
Every Sunday I leave the house for the whole day as the kids would want family time with their father and I need to get out of the house. On Sundays I usually meet with friends and did any work that was pending.
Today is a Thursday and right now I was playing Scrabble with Lily. She is a really intelligent kid compared to her I was really dumb when I was 5 and my brother was even dumber.
"I got a Triple Letter Score!" Lily shouted and started dancing around living room coffee table. James was in his play chair he also started clapping. He was the cutest baby I have ever seen. Even though he is trouble maker.
The noise of the front door opening and closing had all our attention in that direction.
"Appa is home!" Lily jumped up and down. No matter what day it is or what time it is she is always excited to see her father.
As Vincent entered the living room Lily ran to hug him. Something about him seemed a bit off today. His face was really stressed.
"Yu Eun leave me." Was the first sentence he said to her. I got up from the rug. Something was wrong with him today.
"But Appa-" Lily tried saying something but Vincent raised his voice at her and scolded her.
"Yu Eun I said leave me, can't you just understand the first time!"
Lily started walking towards me. Her eyes filled with tears. Martha ran from the kitchen to see what had happened. Lily came to me and closed her arms around my waist and started sobbing. Vincent looked at us for a split second and then stormed off upstairs.
I picked up Lily in my arms, she burried her face in my neck started crying. This was the first time I had seen her crying in the last month. I kept on soothing her and patted her back.
"Take her to her bedroom, I'll look after Jameson." Martha said.
I nodded and took Lily to her room. It took me the next 15 minutes to calm her down. When she finally calmed down Martha brought her food to the room and I fed her. As I was putting her down to bed she said,
"Appa has never scolded me like this."
"I'm sure he didn't mean to raise his voice at you. He must've been tensed from his work." I patted her head.
"But he never does that and I just wanted to hug him." Her voice had gone down to squeak.
"Don't worry about it honey. He'll definitely say sorry to you tomorrow." I said.
"Even if says sorry I will never talk to him again." She turned her face to the other direction.
"Come on now don't say that. Your appa will be sad if you don't talk to him." I tried to convince her.
"I don't care." She closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep. I sat by the side of her bed for he five minutes. Then I got up and went to Vincent's office.
I knocked on his door. "Who is it?"
"Eliza." I said.
"What do you want?" He asked.
"I need to talk to you." I said which was an odd request to begin with. Me and him hardly every talk except the occasional conversation about Lily's school or something like that. We have never had a casual conversation.
"Come in." He said.
I went in. He was sitting on his chair, his hair was disheveled and his tie was hanging undone from his neck.
"What do you want? If it is nothing important please leave. I am very busy." His tone straight out rude.
"I needed to talk about Lily." I said.
"Why? What happened?" He straightened up on his chair.
"She is really upset about earlier. She said she won't talk to you anymore." I said.
He sighed and ran his hands over his face.
"I didn't mean to shout on her, I've had a really shitty day today." He explained.
"I tried to convince her but she isn't ready to listen." I told him.
"I'll see to it tomorrow." He looked back at his computer screen.
"You should go now." I took a step towards him.
"I said I'll got tomorrow why can't you understand I am busy." He raised his voice.
That's when I lost my temper. First off he had no right to raise his voice at me and second his attention should be towards his kids first.
"What the hell would be more important than your crying kid?" I raised my voice at him too.
"Trying not to loose that kid!" He yelled.
"Well if you don't want to loose that kid try giving her some fucking attention!" I yelled right back. Then I thought about what he had just said. What did he mean by that?
He looked at me and then ever so lethally he said "Ms. Ahn be careful how you talk to me."
"Mr. Chae I didn't mean to raise my voice like that but could you please talk to Lily first. Even though I haven't known her for 5 years like you do but I know enough to know that she will take this to her heart." I stated in a calm voice.
He stared at me for a while. Then he said "Ms. Ahn sit down please."
I timidly went ahead.
"Ms. Ahn I'll tell you about a situation, imagine yourself in it and tell me what you would do." He said. I nodded.
"Imagine having two kids who are the centre of your whole world and the only reason you ever feel happy. And think about someone threatening to take them away from you saying you aren't good enough for them and you don't care about them when they are the only people you ever loved and are the only reason you do anything is to see them happy. What would you do in such a situation?" He asked.
"I would put everything I have in fighting for my kids." I said without any hesitation.
"And what if the only way to keep them with you is to get married but you don't have anyone in your life?" He looked at me intently. I tried to figure an answer but the question was too out of context for me to answer.
"With all due respect sir, what on earth are you actually talking about?" I asked.
"I'll tell you the reality now Ms. Ahn. The biological mother of my children doesn't want anything to do with them. In fact she left us a week after Ye On's birth. I have the legal contract with her that she doesn't that have any rights on my children. Now her parents are suing me that I am not right for my children and I am incapable of raising them myself. They want the sole custody of both Ye On and Yu Eun. And my case here is weaker as I am the single father who is working most of the day and can't pay enough attention to them, in your words." I winced at the last sentence.
Wow. I didn't know something like this was even happening.
"I have two options in front of me either to marry someone who is good enough for my kids who can pay attention to them and who is good enough to prove to the court that we as parents are capable of raising my kids or give up on them. What should I do?" He asked.
"I don't know." I honestly said.
"I am not going to give up on my kids so the remaining is the first option. Now my question to you is, will you marry me?" I was shocked was the understatement of the century.
"Excuse me? WHAT?" I said.
"Will you marry me?" He repeated himself as if I hadn't heard him the first time.
"I heard you alright the first time my question is why do you want to marry me?" I asked.
"Because you are the only person who the kids are comfortable with. In the last month you've gotten pretty close to them. You also know how to take care of them." He said.
"Why would I want to marry you?" I questioned him.
Had he lost his mind somewhere? If that was the case I could help him find so he could make sense again.
"Ms. Ahn I did a background check and I found out so many things about you. Like you are riddled with loans because of your father's bone marrow surgery and you also are paying your brother's college and hostel fees while saving up for your future education too. Your parents live in Virginia and your brother is studying at NYU and all of them think you have a stable, well paid job for the past two years while in reality you have been struggling with jobs and have even done 3 jobs a day to keep up with your expenses." He interlocked his fingers below his chin and rested his elbows on his desk.
My face burned with embarrassment. I looked down pretty sure that my ears were fuming too.
"Why are bringing all of this up?" I asked.
"My offer to you is in return of marrying me I'll pay off all of your loans and debts, pay off your brother and your college expenses and make sure that you'll be able to completely focus on your studies without having to work." He said.
I looked at him wide eyed. He was offering to pay off loans which will take me at least till 70 to pay.
"That is too much money." I said.
"Trust me Ms. Ahn when I say paying off all of it won't even make a small dent in my bank account that is if you agree to marry." He stared directly in my eyes.
"But... but I don't love you and I am sure you don't love me either." I tried arguing.
"Who said anything about love this is purely going to be a business transaction. For the world we'll be married but in reality we'll live two different lives." He explained.
"I need some time to think about this." I said.
My mind was actually considering this and I knew I had to check myself in a mental institution.
"Take your time. Until then I'll go talk to Yu Eun." He left the room.
I just sat there thinking.
One voice in my head was telling me to say yes to him because all my debt would be cleared and I could pursue my dreams the other voice was ringing the fire alarm and telling me to quit this job and run away.
After sometime I stood up and left the room to take a breather when I passed Lily's room the door was open so I peeked inside. I found Vincent cuddling Lily and holding her near his chest. He could hardly fit on her bed.
"I will never give up on you, sweetheart. I will fight the whole world for you if I have to." He kissed Lily's head and closed his eyes.
That is when I made up my mind. I wasn't going to let them be separated from each other. I admit that there was my own selfishness in this decision. This one decision was going to affect four different lives and I was not going to be the reason Vincent got separated from his kids. He was one of the best fathers ever and no one could love the kids as much as he does.