Pay With Your Heart

Chapter 389: Answer.

“The... the offer, does it still stand?” She asked, her voice coming out in small, shaky waves. Dan-Han silently nodded, giving her the response she needed.

“How much?”

“How much do you want?” He asked, gaining a surprise raise of her brows.

He could see her trying to come up with a figure in her head because he had just been too generous with his words-something she wasn’t expecting.

He was fully aware of how implicative those words sounded because it was in every way a blank check, but he wasn’t fazed by it. Firstly, he was certain she wouldn’t be able to ask for much. He had dealt with people like this before. So, it was safe to say he knew she’d be too frightened to make an outrageous demand, and secondly, he meant it.

He was a man with too much money and no spending limit for his woman’s happiness. The happiness he wasn’t so sure would come from finding her parents because, for all he knew, they might bring her another round of hurt and pain, resurfacing the dejectedness and insecurities she had desperately been trying to lock away, and this time she might be lost to it forever.

Oh, how Eun-sun tries to hide it, but he could see the sadness lingering in the shadows of her hazel eyes, especially when she saw people with their complete families. It was something she kept mute about and carried in her heart like a cursed heirloom.

.....

Eun-sun was many things; strong, confident, loving, short-tempered yet sweet, but above all, she was broken.

He knew how deep her brokenness ran despite the walls and smiles she kept to hide it away – the smiles, he believed, were mostly for him so he wouldn’t get to worry about her. Other times she really smiled because she was truly happy with him, and that was something he wanted to keep forever.

As much as she tried several aloof attempts to quell and hide this deep yearning and inward desire from him, he saw through her and understood that the desire to have a family that others got but never did, was something that hunted her, leaving her incomplete.

This had further made him wonder how it would feel for her if she had one because whatever little good memories she had of what had almost felt like one, life had brutally turned into hurtful and resentful memories.

At one end, there had been a mother who abused her and treated her like a plague, hurting her both physically and emotionally. On the other, a father who left his family behind with a boat load of debts to handle, thereby saddling her with too many responsibilities at the age of fifteen – that was too early an age to deal with responsibilities even adults miserably failed at wielding. It was an age where girls played with princess dresses and dreamed talk about boys.

From the first words she had bit out at him back at the hospital to the letter and every other conversation he had shared with her, he knew she had a rough start in life, and her pride and principles were all she really held on to.

He could imagine how fast she had to grow because she had learned too quickly that life took no special care of anybody, and the devil never played favorite when dealing the worst of cards.

From the report he had acquired months ago while she had been drugged and admitted to the hospital, he discovered she had started working at fifteen. She was tirelessly shifting between jobs and going to school while looking after a sick grandmother and a mother who had broken her jaw at least twice during her less sober period.

His jaw clenched in recollection of those sordid details.

Eun-sun was a girl who was robbed of her childhood, and life played her no fair hands.

And knowing she had been passed from one parent to the other, with no one casting a fair glance of care towards her, had given her a sense of worthlessness – and these were some things he couldn’t change, and it hurt him in turn.

And even while she claims she was used to being alone with no family, he knew there’d always be a lingering thought of whether she could have what she really longs for when she finds her real family. Personally, he thought no one should truly live without knowing or having a family because whether or not it might be dysfunctional, knowing there were always people out who you shared a bond with gave somewhat a sense of belonging.

So, yes, whatever cost he’d pay to give her what she truly wanted, he’d pay and do so gladly.

And if her parents were undeserving of her, then he’d pray their reappearance would give her some closure while he stayed by her side as she healed, no matter how long it’d take.

He narrowed his gaze at her, silently awaiting her answer.

“Three hundred thousand.” She said. “Three hundred thousand dollars.” She repeated when his gaze unblinkingly remained on her. Song-Hee wondered if she had asked enough or maybe a bit too much. Byung-Hun had asked her to ask for a million or even more, but she wasn’t stupid. He hasn’t suffered at this man’s hand whose gaze alone made her heart wildly thump with trepidation, so he had no idea what sort of a monster he could be.

Three hundred thousand was a big amount, as a matter of fact, it was an enormous amount, but only for her, but definitely not for someone like him.

Dan-Han noted how she uncomfortably shifted in her seat, her eyes darting back and forth with guilt and fear.

“Good.” He replied, but his response had her stiffen, and her lashes heavily fluttered.

Dan-Han registered her look of surprise before pulling out a pen from the inner pocket of his suit. He slid it across the table and tipped his chin at it.

“Your account number.”

Song-Hee looked utterly stupified as she lowered her eyes to the pen. She glanced at him, and a thought went through her mind.

Would he hurt her and take back his money after he had gotten his answer? He was a powerful man, and he could practically get away with anything, so it wouldn’t be odd if she asked for some assurance, right?

But before she could ask, Dan-Han spoke up first. He undid the button of his jacket and threw one arm across the chair. “Believe me when I say I can get the answers out of you without spending a dime, but I am anyway.” He told her, and Song-Hee instantly understood what he was trying to say.

He could have gotten the answers without offering her money. He’d likely torture her or threaten her like he did the last time, and she’d give him the answer he wanted to save her life.

If there was one skill Dan-Han had mastered in his years of being trained and prepped to be the future patriarch of the Lee family, and years of chairing several board meetings, it was assessing people’s thoughts through their countenance and that look of suspicion hadn’t missed him.

Song-Hee nodded and picked the pen. She pulled out an old bet slip from her purse -which was full of them – and scribbled down her account details. Her hands quivered as she stood up and passed to him before returning to her seat.

Dan-Han whipped out his phone and made a quick transfer, one which had her eyes fully widened like she was trying her best to pop her eyeballs when she received an alert.

Her eyes frantically shuffled glances between her phone to his face before counting the zeros again. It was more than she had asked for.

“The rest is for the years you nicely took care of her. See it as some appreciation.” He said, enunciating the word nicely before his countenance turned somber. “So tell me, who gave her to you?” He asked, not wanting to drag the matter any further.

Song-Hee glanced at him before nodding her head. She opened her purse and brought out a folded article that seemed to have been torn out from a magazine. Dan-Han watched her with furrowed eyes as she opened it and placed it on the table.

He picked it up and looked at it. He turned it over and looked at both sides, a crease line forming between his brows. It was a written interview of someone he knew so well. He lifted his eyes to her, and she nodded, answering the unspoken question in his eyes.

Dan-Han glanced at the paper again, this time with a look of shock and horror, something he hadn’t thought he was capable of expressing.

“Do...you know him?” Song-Hee stutteringly asked when she observed the look of recognition in his eyes. It wouldn’t be strange if he did. p

People of the upper class mingled with their own kind.

Dan-Han peered at her with an inscrutable look in his eyes. “Are you sure?” He asked a question of his own without replying to hers.

Song-Hee nodded. “Yes.” She replied, drawing Dan-Han’s face into a stiff frown, one that made him almost pale as a sheaf. “I’ll never forget that face. He gave her to me, but not before saying it was an act of kindness. But whether it was for her or me, that I can’t say.”

Of course, it wasn’t for her, but for the baby, at least that was what his overly firing brain was muttering to him.

Dan-Han gazed at the picture of the man in the article repeatedly, and several thoughts began to spin in his mind while Song-Hee cautiously observed him, fear registering in her heart at the grim look now sitting on his face.

“Who else knows about this?” He coldly asked.

“Hmm?” Song-Hee innocently muttered.

“Who else knows?” Dan-Han almost snapped. He looked at the paper again before staring at her.

Song-Hee shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Her lips quivered as she evaded his deathly gaze.

“I won’t ask again.” He threateningly drawled.

“My... Byung-Hun.” She stuttered out, her heart beating even more heavily than before, and cold sweat beat forming on her back.

Dan-Han’s frown grew deeper at the name. “And who the hell is that?”

Song-Hee lowered her eyes and shifted in her seat once more. “My boyfriend.” She uttered.

Of course, she had to tell someone.

“And where can I find him?” He asked.

“I..”

“Where can I find him?!” He cruelly interjected, the harshness of his voice making her jolt as she reflexively clenched her purse.

“On his way to him!” She blurted out, and Dan-Han turned red on the seat, his eyes flashing with great anger as he could already guess why he was going there.

Just how greedy could people be?