If It Is You....

Chapter 11: Da-Won

Da-Won's POV.

The car ride was tense. The silence was driving me up a wall. I'm sure mom would have some bull shit to say and a million complaints about not knowing Zahra would be the heir of Yoo Chae Group one day.

I understood the shock.

I had no idea. Zahra had told me her parents had a business back home. I was thinking a mom and pop. Not globally known companies.

One quick check of Naver told me that Yoo Hyun Wook is married to Tasha Taylor-Yoo, the co-CEO of Taylor Made creations. This whole time Zahra was the daughter of huge international manufacturing company and the daughter of one of the biggest Companies in South Korea. I had absolutely no idea.

Of course I knew it was pointless to think of what could have been. That ship had long sailed away and knowing Zahra the way I did, I knew she'd never take me back.

The only silver lining in this whole thing, is how much this is torturing my mother. I'm sure she has so many thoughts rolling through her calculating mind right now.

We'd arrived back home and I'm sure the moment we were alone my mom would start her barrage of questions and comments.

Walking in the door the house keeper and my wife, Hyang Mi, met us at the door collecting our coats.

"Yong Sun" ,our longtime housekeeper, "please bring me a glass of wine." My mother requested. "I need a drink." She turned to me, eyes sharp as knives, "how the hell could you proclaim to love her so much and make a baby with her and not even know what family she came from! This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen before. I feel so insulted by that little twat. I guess this is why she had so much confidence in front of me." Mother was pacing the floor. "Are you sure you had no idea."

I answered back. "No mom. I had no idea. She just said her family had a business. That's all. It's the same way I never told her what my family did specifically. I asked her at the bathroom, she said she wanted to be loved and treated with respect regardless of her family." I sighed. It's not like she was asking for something unacceptable.

My mom scoffed. "God. How annoying. Do you understand the opportunity we missed. This was a huge chance. We've got to find a way to patch this up."

I was incredulous. Is she serious. "Mom. It won't work. Z will never take me back. You made sure of it. I'm married now. Every time she looks at me I see her face fill with hatred."

"Son. Hatred is just the other side of love. We can rekindle that. Plus, she's pregnant with your child. There's no way she can refuse her feelings or connections to you. We can lean on that." My mom smiled. "My grandchild. Can you believe it. My grandchild is going to be born to Yoo Chae Group. I could've never expected this turn of events."

"Mom. You forget. We both signed away our rights to the child. There is no connection there anymore." At this point I felt like I was pleading with her to be realistic. I didn't want to bother Z. I fully understood how much my family and I hurt her.

She let out a sigh. "Son. That's just some silly piece of paper. Blood is blood and nothing can replace that."

I ran my fingers wildly through my hair, feeling exasperated. "Mother you are thinking of this with a very Korean culture specific thought process. Remember Zahra is different. She is culturally American. The stigma around single mothers is different there. She doesn't need me and she knows it. I need you to understand Z will never let this go. What's done is done. The only thing we can hope for is that this won't hinder the business relationship we are trying to recover."

She nodded her head. "We have to fix this. If not, do you truly think the chairman won't find out who the father of his great-grandchild is." She paused, "even if Director Yoo is unbelievably amiable. There's no way he would take kindly to how we handled his precious daughter. We have to fix this or the business plan will fail. Let me figure this out."

I sighed loudly and walked out the living room. I had enough of her for the day.

Stepping into the hallway, there stood Hyang-Mi looking flustered.  "Honey, are you expecting a baby?"

I let out a frustrated sigh. Great now I had to deal with this. I suppose she heard the whole thing. "Uhuh." I nodded my head along.

Her eyes darted side to side, as if she were putting together everything in her head. "And mother says it's the grandchild of Yoo Chae  Group, you kept mentioning Zahra. She's clearly the mother then, and the daughter of Yoo Chae Group." She was speaking quickly running through everything and connecting the dots. "Oppa. I thought you guys were friends. How could this even be! Did you have an affair?"

I looked at her shocked. "No I didn't. Zahra was pregnant before you and I even got together.  I dated her for two years before my mother pulled us apart. This is a marriage of convenience. I thought you understood that."

She was biting her bottom lip. "Even so, Oppa this is unacceptable. It will make me look like a fool. Talk to her, or I'll talk to her. Have her get rid of it!"

I turned and looked at her feeling the anger bubble up in my chest. "She will not." I was trying to hang onto my calm with every fiber of my being.

She continued rattling off as if she couldn't read my mood. "If not I'll talk to her. Convince her to give me the baby. I'll raise it as my own."

With this I felt my last patience slip. "You will do no such thing. Stay away from Zahra. You've already got enough. You got the man, the connections, the family support. Just continue running around here playing the happy housewife."

She looked at the floor. "Still. How can I sit back and let her give birth to your first child! It's unacceptable in every way. As hard as I've been trying to get pregnant, you'll allow another to have your baby. It'll be labeled a bastard. Do you know that! I've been taking all of the herbal medicine your mother can push down my throat, going to the psychics and shamans. Doing everything to no avail. And you'll just have some other woman push out your child!"

I felt the muscles in my jaw tensing as I clenched my teeth. I leaned into her ear, "that's your cross to bear for grabbing someone else's happiness."

She stood there face red and hand balled into fists. I had enough of this situation.

I was over all of it.

I walked away, heading to my study to be alone.