Pledge of Faith

Life is filled with walking sticks, you must know when to use them to get ahead...

PLEDGE OF FAITH

Secrets! 

Hanna Kelly hated them. No matter how you kept your vow and didn't tell, someone always knew or found out. At the early age of nine, the surreptitious undertakings of her family had caused her to forsake her home and everything familiar, and abscond into the unknown.

"This is only how I know to save you from becoming what I have become." Her mother, with tears running down her cheeks, had lifted her chin. "Carry this secret with you in your heart, Han-Ahn."

She had gently turned her around to face the two people in the boat. "Go! They will teach you everything they know. Learn well, and let my grandchildren live a different life than this."

Taking a few faltering steps toward the boat and the outstretched hand of Amy Darwin. Hanna had heard her name being called in the distance. In fear she had turned and listened as his voice boomed out her name again close, but still in the distance.

"Abonim..." she had whispered in fear. But again her mother had turned her around, giving her a little push towards the boat.

"Go! Go now!"

The little boat had taken them to rendezvous with a fishing ship in the Han River. For days Amy Darwin had held her as they had entered the rough sea and traveled as a stow away to China. There the two of them had met Paul Darwin and his son Mitch who had taken her to a refugee camp where, officially she became an orphan, and was sent to the states. The Darwins were working with missionaries who were handling the departure of orphans being placed in homes across Europe and the United States. How she had cried on those boats. Even now she got sea sick from just watching a ship or boat on the water. Hanna Kelly smiled in derision at her thoughts as she observed Daniel Choi in conversation with her daughter, Kay. Her mother must have been the same age then, as Kay was now. Those words spoken by her mother forty-five years ago came back to her suddenly.

"...let my grandchildren live a different life than this."

She did not know how Daniel Choi found out her secret, but she knew his kind. Had it not been for his grandfather, she would not have had to run away in the middle of night. But she had, and nothing was going to make her forgive the family who had caused such pain all those years ago. Like her mother before her, she was going to protect the daughter she loved. As heir to the penurious, once cream-of-the-crop, Choi's family resorts, Daniel Choi needed to marry into wealth, to rebuild the business damaged by rumors of sex slavery, money laundering and gambling debts. His mistaken belief that she would take over where her husband had left off, was a lesson she intended to teach him. No one would ever deny her access to her children again. It was now time to put into action her carefully laid plans for the family that had stolen her childhood. Secrets are never safe when someone other than you knows about them. Back then she had felt like pleading. Although tears had come unbidden, she had known that the alternative was worse. The adults in the situation then had been as helpless as she. But her mother had found a way for her to live a different life. She wondered if Daniel Choi knew the fierce anger which burned in her. Did he realize that some secrets were bound to be hidden in stone, better left behind where they could not be discovered? She had assumed the identity of an orphan, been shipped to America, and had become the adopted daughter of Sean and Amy Darwin.

As she looked back over the twist and turns of events which had led her to Tom Kelly, she realized that she should have expected this eventuality. At eighteen she had met and fallen madly in love with the forbidden fruit, the eldest son of her mother's boss. Heir to millions, and six years her senior, they both knew from the day they met that the strong attraction they had for each other was taboo. They had kept their relationship a secret.