Hiraeth ; Meteor Garden 2018

Chapter 44

Shuijing

I arrived at the restaurant 30 minutes later after I had changed and freshened up. I was dressed in a black and white striped tee tucked into dark blue high waisted trousers. I had on some gray zip up wedge sneakers. My hair was slightly curled and on top of my head was a light grey French beret. Across my body was a small gray Fendi crossbody bag and I also carried a white cardigan along with my phone.

"Meimei."

I turned around and saw the woman who will always be my sister, no matter who I was.

Tengtang Jing.

She was wearing a silky blue off-the-shoulder dress that reached just a little above her knees. Her hair was beautifully curled and she wore a bright smile. One particular detail I noticed was the absence of her engagement ring on her right ring finger.

I smiled and gave her a tight hug.

"I missed you meimei." She said and I hugged her tighter.

"Come on, they're waiting." She said, pulling me towards the empty restaurant aisles. I assumed they rented it out for the sake of privacy. We stopped at a table near the large glass windows of the restaurant and there sat my 'parents'.

My 'mother' wore a red blouse with a ruffled collar and her neck was adorned by her favorite pearls. Her hair was neatly tied in an effortless bun, making the pearl earrings she was wearing more prominent. She silently sipped what I assumed to be tea as she waited for as to sit.

Beside her was my 'father'. He wore a nicely fitted blue shirt underneath a matching jacket. He wore a grim expression as he crossed his arms across his chest.

"Mom." Jie called out, making them look at us.

"Ah yes.. sit down dears." Mom said, beckoning us to take a seat. Jie took the seat across from Dad while I took the seat across from Mom.

"Shuijing dear, what would you like? They have a variety of seafood here and the desserts-" Mom said, pushing a menu in front of me but Dad stopped her.

"Let's cut to the chase. She knows why we're all here." Dad said, making Mom sink back to her seat.

"Go on Shuijing. Or is it Soojung now?" Dad said with a sneer. I kept my composure. I wasn't going to let him see me as a weakling. Not anymore.

"Did you have something to do with my kidnapping?" I asked and Mom looked at me in shock.

"Shuijing! How can you say such a thing! Your father would never do that! Right, dear?" She said, turning to my Dad who was silent.

"D-dear? Why aren't you saying anything? It's not true is it? " She asked, lightly shaking Dad's arm.

"It's true." He stated calmly and Mom let out a gasp as the tears I didn't even know I was holding back were freely falling from my eyes.

"D-dad.." Jie cried out, tears in her eyes.

"What? You know that the BLANC & ECLARE Trading Group are our number 1 rivals besides the Daoming Group. I had to do something to distract them in expanding their business at the time and your grandparents were desperate for another grandchild. I did nothing wro-" Mom cut Dad off with a hard slap.

"Nothing wrong?! You took away an innocent child from her family! Her parents suffered because of you! You're a monster!" Mom said as tears rolled down her tears uncontrollably.

"So what are you going to do now that you have the Jung Empire at your fingertips, sue me? Put me out of business?" He sneered and I calmly sighed.