The heart in my chest is pounding nervously against my ribs as I stop in front of the door to our living room. The smell of coffee and expensive aftershave rises to my nose as I take a deep breath and hold it before slowly exhaling it through my mouth to calm myself.
Muffled, I take in my father's conversation with our guest. This guest is not just some business partner of my father, but my future husband. The contract they have signed is for a huge sum of money that will save my father's company from collapse and our family from insolvency. But in exchange, my father's financier demanded our marriage.
My father puts his company above his own flesh and blood and more or less sells his daughter to a man I have never seen before. If it weren't for my mother, I would have bolted the moment my father delivered this message to me in order to escape this unwanted, forced marriage.
However, I just can't bring myself to leave her alone with him. I know how aggressive he can get. Even though my mother would never admit it I know it is not uncommon for him to hit her. I have seen the bruises that she always tries to hide from me. I've heard her crying and how she finally quieted down after banging loudly. It's hard to imagine what he would do to her in his rage if I ran off and ruined him.
Hesitantly, I open the door and enter the living room, where the fireplace crackles. With my eyes downcast, I enter the room and nervously smooth the satin fabric of my knee-length black dress. Nervously, I stop a few feet away from the black leather sofa where my father is sitting with my mother and my future husband, who is sitting with his back to me.
"Dolores," my father says delightedly. "Just now we were wondering when you would finally join us." For a brief moment no one says anything and I stare spellbound at the back of our guest who is wearing a black suit.
"Sorry," I reply, swallowing hard as I follow my father's prompting gaze and step closer to the sofa. Now our guest rises and turns to me. My breath catches in my throat.
He is clearly younger than I expected. I estimate him to be in his early 20's at the most. He has striking facial features and his brown hair is perfectly styled. His full, heart-shaped lips are twisted into a crooked smile, but this smile doesn't reach his golden brown eyes, which look at me completely emotionless.
Hesitantly, I grasp his hand, which he holds out to me, feeling as cold as his eyes look at me. "I'm Park Sunghoon. It's nice to meet you. What's your name?"
I am sure that Sunghoon already knows my name, especially since my father called me by it not even a minute ago. "Dolores," I reply taciturnly, which is partly due to my nervousnessand at the same time dislike, which I try to hide with difficulty.
I want to pull my hand out of his, especially since we've been shaking hands for far too long for my taste, but Sunghoon continues to hold my hand, preventing me from breaking free of his grip.
"Excuse me?" he asks, approaching my face with raised eyebrows. The coldness emanating from his hand creeps up my arm and runs down my spine like an icy shiver. Perplexed, I look into Sunghoon's brown eyes, which reflect no emotion at all.
"I'm Dolores," so I repeat my name, hoping he'll let go of me now, but instead he squeezes my hand a little tighter with his, making it almost painful. "I'm happy to meet you too," so I quickly add, which of course is a lie. I'm not looking forward to meeting him.
Finally, Sunghoon loosens his grip and I pull my hand to my body, where I enclose it protectively with my other hand. His lips form into a wry smile and I think I catch a spark of satisfaction in his eyes before he sits back down on the sofa.
"I seem to have something wrong with my ears today," Sunghoon says with amusement, shrugging his shoulders in a playfully innocent manner. As he does so, he laughs...
My father joins in his laughter. He really tries to gain the necessary sympathy points with Sunghoon by all means in order to secure the financing of his company. For that, he would go over dead bodies and, the best example, sell his daughter. But what kind of person is Sunghoon, who apparently proposed this offer in the first place?
I still stand rooted to the sofa. Sunghoon's cold eyes meet mine. "Sit with me," he invites me, tapping his hand on the empty seat next to him.
For a brief moment, I catch myself looking at the open door. Sunghoon follows my gaze and seems to know what I'm thinking about. Knowing it would be pointless, however, I throw the thought of running away right out the window and instead sit down on the sofa next to the young man wearing a black suit.
"Why don't you tell me something about your company," my father says with interest, sipping his coffee. As he does so, he doesn't take his eyes off Sunghoon, who places his fingers intertwined on his lap.
"Well," Sunghoon begins, and for a brief moment I feel like I see an emotion light up in his eyes, but it fades abruptly before I get a chance to analyze it.
"You must know that my grandfather is originally from South Korea. There he met my grandmother's brother. Together they worked out a concept and from that a small business was born. They quickly realized that they had a better chance of their business succeeding in Spain. So my grandfather moved here, to Madrid. Here he also met my grandmother and as it happens... they fell in love. My father took over the company after my grandfather passed away from an illness ten years ago. Even then it was clear that one day I would take over the company. Five years ago, my father and I had a serious traffic accident. I survived seriously injured and was in a coma for three weeks; my father died at the scene of the accident."
Sunghoon does not make a face as he talks about his dead father.
"My uncle ran the company until my 21st birthday, so I had time to finish my degree and prepare for the management position as much as possible," Sunghoon continues, adjusting his black tie. "I then legally took over the company 2 years ago, as my father had wished."
"I'm sorry for your loss, that must have been really hard for you", my father says and clears his throat. He's not sorry for anything. He's just glad to have found someone to get him out of the predicament that was his own fault.
He has always been concerned with the greatest possible profit. In doing so, he didn't even stop at scams and ripped people off, which even meant bankruptcy for two companies.
In the end, however, my father got what he deserved. His last fraud was exposed and went straight to the press. As a result, all of his former business partners seemed to have taken a closer look at their dealings with my father and sued him. I don't know how much he owes these people. What is certain, however, is that it is not just a few thousand euros.
"Thank you very much, Mr. Rey," Sunghoon replies. Obviously, he seems to believe my father's feigned sympathy.
"Thanks to the hard work and your financing at a time when my uncle was still running the company, we've come back to the top. Things definitely couldn't be better for the company. I have my people for everything, and they can reach me 24/7 if there are any problems. Meanwhile, I have a lot of free time except for a few meetings and interviews. For this reason, I have considered moving to my grandfather's hometown after we get married," Sunghoon casually reports.
My father, who is taking another sip of his coffee, chokes and begins to cough slightly. "You want to move back to Korea?" my father inquires, his head flushed, loosening the tie around his neck. Shocked, I look back and forth between my father, my still silent mother, and Sunghoon.
"Seoul, to be exact," Sunghoon confirms, nodding and looking at me. Tears well up in my eyes and I look to my mother, who keeps her head lowered, obviously struggling with tears as well. I cannot and will not marry this man. I don't want to move to Seoul either.
"No," I say, shaking my head vigorously. "Dolores," my father says in a warning voice.
Again I look to my mother, who by now is returning my gaze in panic. I love her and I don't want her to get hurt. But if she can't stand up for her only daughter, who would rather marry a foreign man to be spared my father's wrath, then I'll just have to stand up for myself.
"I don't want to move to Korea, I don't want to get married either. I have a life here in Madrid. All my friends are here and I was planning to start my art studies at Universidad Francisco de Vitoria this summer."
Upset, I jump up from my seat next to Sunghoon, who tilts his head a little in my direction so he can look at me. "I won't let you take that away from me! And I certainly won't let you marry me off to a complete stranger against my will!"
"Dolores!" my father roars angrily. "Do what you want, I'm out. I'm not going along with this!", I say firmly and storm out of the room.
"DOLORES!!!", I hear my father yell from behind me. "COME BACK IMMEDIATELY!" his heavy footsteps chase me into the hallway and just as I'm about to yank open the front door and run out, he grabs me roughly by the upper arm and drags me back.
Sunghoon and my crying mother follow my father into the hallway. While my mother tries to soothe my father, Sunghoon stands by with his arms folded in front of his chest and watches the action, not a frown on his face.
"Let go of me," I urge my father, trying to free myself from his strong grip. "Is it fun to humiliate me like this in front of our guest?" he asks angrily. "LOOK AT ME WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU!"
Startled, I cringe and slowly lift my gaze to look into my father's bloodshot eyes. "You can't force me to marry a man I neither know nor will ever love," I reproach my father. Doesn't he himself realize how absurd it is to ask such a thing of his daughter?
"I'm your daughter... in case you've forgotten, you damned egotist," it slips out before I can think it over. Suddenly, I feel a burning pain on my cheek and my head flies to the side.
My father has just slapped me across the face.
Sobbing and quivering my lower lip, I grab my throbbing cheek. "I'm sorry, that wasn't okay of me," my father admits his mistake directly, but I'm sure if he's just doing it to not look worse in front of Sunghoon than he probably already does.
However, when my father turns to Sunghoon, he is still standing there impassively with his arms folded behind his back, just watching what is going on at close range.
"You must forgive me for the inconvenience, Mr. Park. I hope that my daughter's behavior will not harm our business" "Your daughter's behavior will not harm the business," Sunghoon replies unintrested after a moment's consideration.
Tears run down my cheeks. Why? Why is he doing this? Doesn't he see how much suffering he is causing me? Or is that exactly the reason why he wants it all the more? Is Sunghoon a sadist?
"I suggest we talk about all the other details right now in your office" My father nods in agreement. "Teresa!" he finally calls over the middle-aged woman who has been working for our family for as long as I can remember. She even lives in a separate part of the house so she can be there for us around the clock.
She hurriedly comes running over and stops in front of my father and me with her head down. "Escort Dolores to her room and make sure she doesn't do anything stupid" Teresa nods and with a quick gesture of her hand asks me to follow her.
Realizing there's no point in arguing against it, I follow her. I will never get out of here. My life is officially over before it even really started. I'm going to marry a man I don't love, which means I'll never have a chance to get together with Yeosang.
I'm going to move to Seoul, which in turn means I'll lose track of my friends, and I can forget about the university studies I was going to apply for next summer, too.
It's over. It's all over.
A/N: Hi Guys, so what do we think about this first chapter?