HER ONLY HOPE (LK Adaptation)

Part 45

Oh. Relief began to throb inside her chest.

'He's not well, and there's too much pressure on him.'

'His VP—'

'Is not a man I respect,' Jungkook dismissed swiftly. 'And nor does your father, clearly, or he'd have handed over the reins a long time ago.'

That was a fair point.

'You know Dad. He's a control freak.'

'I understand that,' Jungkook said with a lift of his shoulders. 'He owes it to his shareholders—and himself—to protect his legacy.'

'What are you suggesting?'

'That I buy into the company and take over as CEO.'

Her jaw dropped. 'You're kidding?'

'You don't like the idea?'

She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. 'It's not that.' She struggled to think. 'It's just, you have your own enormous business to run.'

'I can do both.'

Which would leave them very little time to share. The thought was a red herring but she pushed it away nervously, only to have a far less pleasant one enter her head. Was he doing this to avoid her? Was he already getting bored of her? Regretting this? She looked away.

'If that's the case, then you should speak to Dad. It's nothing to do with me.'

He made a noise of impatience. 'It has everything to do with you. You're a major shareholder, for a start, and secondly...'

But he didn't finish, so she turned to look at him, only to find he'd stopped walking and was staring into the ocean, his expression brooding.

'Secondly?' she prompted, surprised at the sharp tone in her voice.

He began to walk once more, catching up to her. 'I don't want you to think it's why I married you,' he said finally. 'There's a financial advantage in this for me.'

'You have enough money,' she pointed out.

'Yes.'

'And I know why you married me.' Something sat hard in her throat. She looked away. 'I get where you're coming from. You want to help Dad. I'm okay with that, of course.'

And she was, for the most part. But the undercurrent to every conversation was the sense that they were becoming more and more entwined and that it spelled danger for Lisa. She couldn't think of Jungkook without a strange sensation stealing through her heart.

They walked in silence for a while, just the waves bringing soft, shushing sounds towards them, and the night birds beginning to sing their lovely, high-pitched songs, so Lisa  breathed in deeply and then exhaled.

'How come you got involved in shipping?' she asked thoughtfully as the sun dipped completely behind the ocean, slipping to the other side of the world.

'I had an opportunity, right out of college. I didn't want to take over my father's company.' A muscle jerked in his jaw, so she felt the emotion behind his simple admission. 'So I raised as much capital as I could, as quickly as I could—your parents were early investors, did you know that?'

She shook her head.

'And then I bought a small line of boats.'

'Which you've somehow turned into all this.'

He lifted his shoulders. 'Global logistics boomed right as I moved into it.'