The Contract: Sunshine (17 page)

With a resigned release of breath, she unstuck her legs from beneath her and rolled off the sofa making her way to the room she had chosen as her own. 

As she passed Yoon’s bedroom, she stopped and strolled in.  It was the only room in the condo she had yet to explore.  Stepping inside the first thing that caught her eye was the dominating wooden platform bed with its
plush red comforter against the stark, contemporary woodwork in the room.

The Asian influences added a minimalist feel and the gray tones from the wooden focus wall behind the bed, along with the black and white art work hanging along the far wall, blended the room together perfectly.
 

Whether it was his taste or someone else’s, she liked the modern furnishings throughout the place.  It was more comfortable than the expensive antiques she grew up around in her grandmother’s home.  Strangely she already felt more at home here than she ever did living with her mother and grandmother.  Maybe it was because there weren’t any expectations other than the ones she was capable of doing, such as cleaning and cooking.   Or that had been the case before today. 

Now that Yoon knows she is the heiress she claimed to be, there was no telling what he would want from her.  Everyone always wanted something when they found out she was Sophia Dupree’s granddaughter.

Sitting on Yoon’s bed, Sunshine ran a hand over the lush red comforter.  A glint from the thick band platinum wedding band she now wore caught the sunlight flooding through the open blinds.  She was a married woman now, but she didn’t feel different.  She wondered if she would have felt more married if they had had the chance to consummate the marriage.

She had unpacked her things in the bedroom next to his not feeling comfortable enough in their situation to actually place her personal items next to his when he had several more vacant bedrooms with empty closet and dresser drawer space.  It didn’t mean she hadn’t planned on sleeping in his bed with him. 

After they landed from their trip to Las Vegas at sunrise, Yoon drove her to her TDY-Apartment after they left the airport so she could pick up her meager belongings.  Her personal items were made up of the necessities her grandmother personally packed into thrift store bought luggage.  There were several pairs of blue jeans, decorative t-shirts, a few blouses and her sensible shoes, no heel above two inches and her personal hygiene items. 

Sunshine put her hand over her mouth to stifle the loud yawn.  She and Yoon barely napped on the return flight home because of the unexpected bad weather outside Washington.  Her thoughts returned to earlier.  She had thought finally, starting today she could stop worrying and start concentrating on what she wanted for her future... 

Their plane had landed in D.C. to the beginning of a cloudy overcast day.  It should have been her first sign her day wasn’t going to be a good one.  She always had bad things happen to her on a cloudy day.  Her parents divorced on a cloudy day.  Her father told her he had cancer on a cloudy day.  He died on a cloudy day and he was buried on a cloudy day.  Her grandmother kicked her out on a cloudy day. 

Her plans were to take a power nap after she unpacked, take a long soaking bath, check out Yoon’s wine collection, take out a couple of sirloin steaks from the freeze in the panty and cook a romantic “wedding” dinner for two.

She had planned on seducing Yoon.  He seemed to appreciate her initiative a couple of nights ago, so she didn’t hesitate on her decision to do so again, but within a forty-five second broadcast on the television all her hope for an independent future was dashed.

Once the calls started coming to her newly charged cell phone, she knew her opportunity to live a “normal” life was over.  She had to have just experienced the shortest marriage in history.  

Sunshine didn’t bother to unpack.  Instead she removed fresh undergarments, a pair of jeans, a floral print t-shirt, a pair of penny loafers and her makeup bag and placed them on the bed.

Not wanting to hear any “congratulations” from her mother; the “
Have you gone insane?
” from her grandmother; or Yoon’s “
I want an annulment
” just yet, she turned off her phone before her bath hoping to keep the outside at bay just a couple of hours longer.  Of course the message Yoon left on his home answering machine she heard loud and clear in the bathroom since his home office was nearby.

“I’m on my way home and you better be at the house when I get there.”  CLICK!

She groaned and pushed herself up off Yoon’s comfortable bed as his gruff messaged played repeatedly in her head.  Going into the room next to his, she grabbed the handles and pulled the two pieces of luggage out to the foyer by the door.

Sunshine had just settled on the sofa to wait for Yoon to come home when she heard the elevator stop outside the door.  Her eyes closed briefly and she dabbed at her eyes with her fingers.

Why am I so upset about leaving?  It’s not like it was a real marriage.

Happy early Independence Day...

The first thing Yoon saw when opening the door of his home was Sunshine’s luggage.  He stood staring with a fist tightening in his gut and his thumb on the hand free of his car keys popping. 

He stepped in further, closed the door behind him and tossed his keys on the foyer table.  Yoon cleared his throat.  “Sunshine,” he called out. 

It was so quiet he feared that only her suitcases remained behind.  Now knowing who she was, he knew the little items he had helped her pack at her old apartment could easily be replaced.  Or worse, her grandmother sent a driver for her, planning to send someone later to pick her up her things.

What if I never get to see her again?

“I’m in here,” he heard her soft voice coming from the living room area.  Relief caused him to sigh loudly.  He hadn’t been aware he had been holding his breath since calling out her name.

Rolling his shoulders to relax from the tense drive home only to find the front gate of the complex flocked with reporters, he briefly closed his eyes and breathed.  He wasn’t accustomed to having his privacy invaded and he didn’t want his agitation to rollover to Sunshine.

Opening his eyes, he forged ahead.  Standing in the sweeping archway between one set of spaced columns he simply stared at her.  She was dressed casually in a floral-print t-shirt, worn jeans and loafers.  Her auburn colored hair was once more in a pony tail but this time it looked damp and brushed primly off her lovely lightly made up face into a clip at the nape of her neck.

How could he not see it before?  The proud bearing of one accustomed to the rigidness of growing up wealthy with expectations that weren’t required of others lacking the same opportunities to attend the best schools, spend summers abroad...

Sunshine had the same regal countenance as her grandmother now that she was sitting still and quiet.  It was as if now that the truth was out, the carefree uninhibited woman from the restaurant no longer exists. 

When she turned those soulful eyes on him
—
now that he knew who she was
—
he could see the one beautiful thing that the young homely girl in the picture had in common with the woman sitting rigidly on his sofa.

“Don’t look at me that way,” she broke the silence.  “I know you probably hate me for bringing who I am and the media attention that comes with it into your life.”

Her eyes were first to drop away as she looked down at her hands folded in her lap.  He could see she was twisting the band he put on her finger.  Had that been just a few hours ago?

“I don’t hate you,” Yoon said.  “I saw your suitcase by the door.  Did your grandmother want you to return home?  She called my office, but I haven’t returned her call yet.”

“I’ve been playing the role of a coward, too,” she laughed softly.  “My cell phone is still off, but you know that.  I assume you left the loud message on the phone in your office because you couldn’t reach me on my cell phone...”

“Actually I left a message on my home office phone because I don’t have your cell number and I was loud because I was at a traffic light next to a loud construction site when I called.  You didn’t hear the work trucks in the background?”

She shrugged her shoulders.  “I was in the bath when I heard your voice.  I thought you had come home at first, and then I realized it was the machine and I got the gist of what you were saying.”

He moved to sit on the edge of the sofa next to her causing his long legs to draw upwards and his knees to spread wide.  He rested his elbows on his knees with squared tipped fingers tee peed together in front of him.

“Sunshine, I want to apologize to you,” Yoon began.

“Apologize?”  The surprise was evident in the high pitch of her voice.  “What do you have to apologize for?”

“For not believing you when you told me the truth,” he explained.  “For being more concerned with my own reasons for wanting you here that I didn’t bother to simply look on the internet for possible pictures of you to prove you are who you say you are.”

“It surprised me when you were so sure,” she grinned.  “However, after learning my Nana Sophia was one of your investors in a project in Africa...let’s just say I understood why you didn’t associate me with the girl in the picture.”

“Well, to say you blossomed is putting it mildly,” he smiled.

“I was ugly, I know.”

“Not ugly...but...err...”

“Ugly.”

“Okay, ugly,” he conceded.

She punched him in the shoulder.  They both laughed and just like that she was
his Sunshine
once again.

Her smile cleared and he could tell by the way her fingers picked at the material of her jeans she was questioning whether she wanted to say something or not.  He waited.

She quirked an eyebrow.  “What do we do now?”

He kept his voice calm and reasonable, even though his desire for her was gnawing at him.  “Your grandmother probably will want you to come back home now that she believes you have gone out of your mind while I, of course, seduced you in order to get my hands on your wealth considering our business association and her confidence in how important you are to her--.”  Yoon voiced his assumptions aloud.

Sunshine’s mouth dropped wide as she looked at him with incredulous eyes.  “Boy, do you have that wrong.  I am not important to my grandmother.  I am the docile mutt in the bloodline of strong Dupree women,” she mocked herself.

“When she spoke of you, I heard a lot of pride, Sunshine,” Yoon countered, surprised by her reaction. 

“No,” she shook her head.  “She tells me more times than I can count, I’m my mother’s daughter.  If you knew my mother, you would know that is not a compliment.”

“Sunshine...”

“No, Yoon.  I’m serious.  For Nana Sophia, I’m the means to her getting the male heir she longs for since my father died.”

“What good is that when the child you have will carry the father’s last name?  Unless, of course, the father agrees.”

“Trust me, my grandmother can afford to pay any man I marry enough to allow any son I may have to carry the Dupree name,” she fretted.   “Next, she probably will want to also raise him herself and keep me out of the picture as much as possible, just like she did with me and my mother.”

Yoon frowned at that bit of information.  He knew in business Sophia Dupree could be ruthless and he admired her for it.  However he didn’t want to believe she would take the high hand approach with the granddaughter she spoke so fondly of.

“Admittedly, it isn’t uncommon in Korea for the son-in-law to take on the last name of the family he marries into that does not have a son of their own in order for their name to live on.  However, for the most part, it is a second or third born son that agrees to such a thing.”

“I don’t care about the Dupree name living on,” Sunshine’s eyes bore into his.  “What I care about is being an active participant in my children’s lives.  This is why it is so important for me to obtain my independence from my grandmother.”

She drew in a shaky breath.  He could see how painful this was for her.

“Unbeknownst to my grandmother, my father set up a separate trust fund for me.  When she found out after his condition worsened, she convinced him to add the stipulation that I couldn’t receive control of my inheritance until I had been married for one year in hopes that I would meet a man who wanted me, not my family name and money.”

Her overly bright eyes tugged at his heart.

“Why are you so upset about this?”  Yoon asked.

“Because, it just makes me so mad,” she replied.  “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Wouldn’t I?”

She paused a moment as if she was mulling it over.  “Without my grandmother, Yoon, I have nothing.  No job.  No place to live.  No money.  Nothing!”

“Not anymore, Sunshine.”  Yoon reached out and laced the hand that was worrying her jeans with his and held it palm side up on his knee.  “You can do and be anything you want now.”