AN: Everyone, I just want to thank you again for reading, following, voting and especially commenting on QTotWD. It motivates me most whenever I see my notifications filled mwahaha!
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"Hello, Uncle Lee," Ye Ai greeted Ethan's and Liam's father.
"My dearest, Aiyana. How good for you to visit," old man Lee smiled widely when he saw her.
"Of course, how could I forget about my best uncle?"
He laughed loudly at her declaration. "It's sad that your auntie had to go to her amigas' convention and missed your visit."
"Not to worry. Actually, it was you who I wanted to meet today," she said as she slowly settled to the appropriate mood of introducing someone.
It started the previous week when Caden Jiang finally snapped her remaining patience with him. Remembering that day made the nerves in her temple throbbed dangerously. If she didn't consider the world law discovering her she might have strangled the man that very moment.
"What the hell is your problem, Caden Jiang?!" she hollered at the man smiling in front of her. It was already too much that her family believed the two of them have something between them; he just had to let it out in the public. Of course, both their reputations soared—the youngest multi-millionaire beauty and the young multi-talented businessman and perfect bachelor.
The name Aiyana Song was never a simple household name in the country. She's even more popular abroad with her ventures and her most successful brand, Le Chant. Her name was almost always linked with the number one most sought man in the country, Ethan Lee. However, people started hopping ships when Caden Jiang gave out signs of chasing after her. Caden Jiang, as the rising star with his own conglomerate in the country, was also known to be a successful businessman abroad! It was like a complete different world where these kinds of people moved around and people pictured a perfect love story!
Caden smiled at her outburst. Today, he decided on his own to visit her amidst her busy schedule with the Black Market, especially now since she pulled Quatro and Cinko out of the main business to focus with him. He liked how he collapsed her routine, showing him her other side unlike her usual cold and very calculative self.
"What?!" she hissed.
"I'm only asking for a dinner, Ai."
"I told you, you don't get to call me that!"
"Xianqi, what made you so mad today?"
'Xianqi your ass!!' she exploded inside. "Go away," she told him in sudden calm.
"Tch. How can you do that?" he asked in defeat. He couldn't understand how she managed her emotions that way. Won't it hurt her internally?
"Tell me, Caden Jiang. What is it you really want?"
"You."
"I'm here."
"Be mine."
"I am."
"..."
"Now what?"
He stepped forward and only stopped when he's inches away from her. She could feel his body heat and was even more surprised when he bowed his head, pushing it closer inches from her own. She could practically see his pupils which darkened considerably, reflecting her inside them.
"Now what?" he asked in hoarse voice.
"Stop playing with me, brat."
"B-brat?" he pulled slightly in surprise.
"I'm asking you business, stop playing around," Ye Ai answered, unperturbed.
"I am not playing around, Ai. My feelings for you are real," he told her silently, his features showing sadness.
"As real as you want to forgive your father?" she asked in even tones.
"...!"
"Aren't they in same level of acceptance inside you? You loving me is as far as you forgiving your father."
"..."
"I told you, I have ways of knowing things."
"Heh..."
She looked at him properly. She couldn't have misheard him. He f*cking laughed at her!
"It's been how long? Two months, no almost three months and you won't even budge from my advances. No one made it this far against me, you know? It's as if you can read my inner thoughts thus you're adamant on not believing me."
"Of course."
"Aiyana Song," he suddenly called her.
"What?"
"Give me what I want and I'll leave you alone."
It was that that sealed the meeting today. Ye Ai made sure that today's visit will only be with the patriarch Lee. She only had a single thought in her mind right now, the earlier she dished this man out, the earlier she could finish this damn of a task world.
"Oh, really? Why's that?" Mr. Lee's voice pulled her away from her thoughts.
"Someone wanted to know you, meet you."
"And who might it be?" he chuckled for he knew the kind of people around Aiyana.
"Hello, Mr. Lee," a sensual voice sounded from the outside as a figure slowly entered the sitting room.
"Aren't you the illustrious, Mr. Jiang?"
"I cannot say illustrious. In the first place, my corporation was only built later this year."
"You're too humble, my young man," Mr. Lee said good naturedly. Humility bought him for he knew younger people can only learn from their elders and the young man in front of him seemed to be the cream of the crop of new buds. Of course, there's Ethan, but he personally knew how stubborn and hard-headed his eldest son for him to listen to his own father.
If only he would choose Aiyana, instead of that Kim girl.
"Oh, I'm not. It's just the truth," Caden Jiang replied keeping his voice welcoming.
"Come, sit, the two of you. Stop with all these formalities."
Ye Ai and Caden Jiang sat but not next to each other. They both took a single couch each, Ye Ai on Mr. Lee's side while Caden was facing the older man. Tea and snacks were served immediately. They had more little kind exchanges until the main menu was served today.
"I wonder what business wound you here, Young Jiang?" Mr. Lee asked while smiling.
"I was only wondering if you would indulge me with some history."
"Hmn?" hummed Mr. Lee in confusion while Ye Ai sat there, silently sipping her tea.
"It was probably more than thirty years ago," Caden started quietly.
"Thirty years ago?" asked Mr. Lee who's still thinking of major business breakthroughs around that time. He remembered it was the time he was still starting up and finally found his perfect path through his perfect partner. He couldn't help smiling from remembering those tough times that shaped him and his conglomerate today.
"Back then, the Lee wasn't yet the leading group in this country. It was the time when your in-law's last name was still the one pulling yours to the wide new world," Caden spoke in even tones as if actually re-telling a part of the history, something he's not connected nor anyone from this room.
It was a known fact that the Lee Conglomerate started from the merging of his own small corporation and his wife's families very own Park Conglomerate. In normal situations, the Park should take the name but instead the Lee became the conglomerate's new name. It was basically due to internal struggles and split inside the Park clan but it's also because Mr. Lee had to pay a great condition to have his name held the flagship instead. That last part wasn't known in the history, though.
"What—" he paled while feeling such foreboding thoughts.
Caden started recounting how Mr. Lee had to do the corporate jobs for his in-laws so they'll support his own growing company. Yes, he began small but he had wonderful and innovative ideas that made the Park trust him with their only daughter. In the first place, they both loved each other, especially the Park's only daughter who married Mr. Lee so willingly. Aside from working on the conglomerate in the country, he's also used to flying abroad for their international deals and expansions. Those busy years were both exciting and tiring; he then had no time for his wife nor was able to produce them an offspring. His wife and in-laws were very understanding especially since the branch of the Park family started competing with them, as well.
While Caden Jiang was narrating his life story, Mr. Lee can't help remembering them himself, listening to the young man's voice in the background.
One of his visits in China, though, Mr. Lee met a woman so appealing that he couldn't help taking a pinch. He knew he was there purely for business but he can't seem to forget her. He returned again in the cover of another business deal and met with her again. He never told her about his family, being married and all. They grew much closer the second time but he had to go back again. And yet, Mr. Lee came back again to meet her and finally took her in his care, deciding not to let her go this time.
It was around the time his in-laws asked for grandchildren. Or maybe they have felt something amiss with him that they started asking more about his deals abroad which they didn't usually do. It made Mr. Lee apprehensive so he curbed to their wish and soon his wife bore him his eldest son, Ethan. They were very happy especially the newly made grandparents but Mr. Lee couldn't help trying to fly out again to look for his woman and their newly born son, too. He hated himself leaving her in her most vulnerable times. He didn't have the time to arrange her medical expenses nor set any personnel to look after her. However, his in-laws decided to let him focus in the businesses inside the country. They never let him fly abroad again and all international deals were handled back to the Park patriarch.
The business deals he can let go, especially since the merging of their companies itself already ate almost all his time, but thinking his woman was left for herself, he can't forgive himself.
A year after, the eminent Lee Conglomerate was birthed to the country, easily pushing it the top with the help of its renowned heritage from the prominent Parks. When he finally settled all business down, he tried again to find his woman, but before he could fly out of the country his in-laws found out about her. Even his wife found out. She was distraught that he had another woman aside from her. Of course, his in-laws were very mad and gave him an ultimatum—he was to choose, that woman or his life as the new head of the Lee Conglomerate together with his own family. In the end, he chose the latter.
This sealed the life of the said woman and her son abroad. They were hounded, trying to take the young child away from her. She and her child ran away until they're helped by her so-called Big Brother from the orphanage they both grew up together. He took him to Italy where his business was booming, raised her son like his own, and buried her when she died of lung complications which started after she gave birth to her son. Add the constant running away and living in rathole, her complication was already terminal when diagnosed. The country wasn't kind to people like her. Back then, she was like a city rat, working not to live but to give her son a way to life.
"So you see, I can actually comment that such woman was so pitiful that she believed a rubbish of a man," Caden's sensual voice sounded cold and as if sharp knives were pointed at Mr. Lee who was silently listening on his seat, his back wet in cold sweat and eyes wide and almost dazed in disbelief.
"H-how—?" he croaked after sometime.
"How did I know?"
Mr. Lee nodded but dreaded the answer the young man will utter any second now.
"You called me Mr. Jiang earlier. That woman's name is Jiang Qing or in your case, Ms. Qing Jiang."
"Qing-Qing," he whispered solemnly and as if realization hit him, he looked up back at the young man. "...! You—"
"I am."
The declaration was steely, cold and sharp.
"No..."
"I am that son of her."
"No!" he yelled then whispered, "that can't be true..."
"You thought your in-laws were successful in killing us back then?"
"They said, you two met an accident...!"
"It was my uncle, to cover up our escape."
"But... why?"
"Are you stupid?"
Ye Ai suddenly coughed but the two already forgot about her and she believed even if she back-flipped on her seat they won't take notice.
"I-I—" Mr. Lee stuttered.
"You? You were the most worthless father in the face of the earth," Caden stated icily, staring coldly at his very own father.