MY UNEXPECTED MARRIAGE TO THE LOVELESS CEO

Chapter 21

Lisa’s pov

The chauffeured Rolls Royce pauses in front of the pale white building. Not far from the place, the deafening sound of waves crashing against the wall of the bottom cliff can be heard. ‘What’s that?” Roseanne asks next to me.

I tilt my head to the left, eyes scanning the weather outside. Instead of warm, clear skies; our visit here is greeted by dark, heavy clouds and harsh wind. “I don’t know,” I say to her. Then, Jihyo speaks from the front seat.

“Your Royal Highnesses, we’ve just been informed that the weather is going to be rough. There’s a storm forming at the southwest of this place. The expert says it’s going to be an ugly blow of wind, follows by a heavy rain”

“Thank you,” I turn to face Roseanne. “Do you still want to go?” I ask but instead of listening to me, she scans the pale building for almost half a minute, then nods her head.

“I think I should or otherwise I won’t know what’s up with him,” she leans forward to kiss me on the cheek and grabs her Gucci bag. “Do you want to come along?” she asks. I shrug.

“I don’t know. He’s never been a fan of me anyway,” I say before my voice fades and I look back at her. “Unless you want me to go with you, I will go” Roseanne hugs herself. Her fingers tapping her clothed right arm.

“I don’t know. I hate him,” she breathes out. “I know you do,” I convince her. Then, I line our fingers together. “I’ll just wait outside while you talk to him,”

“Your Royal Highnesses,”

A doctor greets us both at the entrance. “Thank you for coming,” she says. “As you are informed via the phone call, Mr. Park suffered from a terrible stroke early yesterday morning,” she inhales before continuing her thought.

Next to me, Roseanne listens attentively. “Our medical assistant only realised about it when he went up to check on him in the room,” she adds further to illustrate the chronology.

“Thus, due to late medical intervention as well as the seriousness of this stroke has inflicted a serious damage to his brain area which controls the speech ability,”

“So, you’re saying he won’t be able to speak?”
“Yes, Your Royal Highness. This condition is called Aphasia”
“Is there any chance he would recover?”
“At this point, it’s hard to say anything”

Roseanne gives me a look. I keep my mouth shut, remaining uninterested with the conversation but I hold her hand so that she knows she’s not alone.

When the elevator bank arrives, we step inside; her first, then me.

The doctor is the last to join and she thumbs floor number 6 before answering a few of Roseanne’s questions.

“Darling, I’ll just wait here,”

I tell the blonde when we exit the elevator. She gives me another anxious look. “It won’t be long,” she assures me, leaning forward for a kiss and I nod my head.

“Of course,” I lit up a cigarette, then pass it to her so that she can smoke too. She blows colourless smoke through her nostrils a moment later. “I love you,” she says. I nod my head. “Whatever that means,”

***

Roseanne’s pov

"Why do you have to do this to me dad?"

I ask him when I step inside the new room alone. The doctor has long gone, after our brief conversation and my partner is waiting for me near the elevator, can't wait to escape this place.

My dad looks at me. But he can't talk or sign or do anything. He's bedridden with too many wires attached to his limbs. Basically, he is as good as dead right now.

"Lisa and I are in good terms for now," I put my bag on the desk next to his bed. "And must you ruin it for me? Again?"

He looks as if he is going to say something. But nothing comes out of that hellish mouth. I sit down, cross my feet at the ankles. "Look at you now, an invalid,"

I scan him as a whole again. Pale and pity but that doesn't mean I'll forgive him. For what he did to mum that he thought I didn't know.

"The doctor told me that they have switched you here for the time being. Something about 24 hours surveillance in case you knock off for the second stroke. Do you know what that means? More money"

I sigh, burying my face in my palms before retracting them back seconds later.

"Honestly, do you have the faintest idea how I'm going to pay for all of these? Do you think I have lots of money to spend on you alone?"

My dad blinks his eyes tiredly. "You always said you won't trouble me back then. That you would leave me alone after I married Lisa. But what is happening now? You are always there, breathing down my neck, third - wheeling my marriage,"

But my dad says nothing.

I draw a deep breath and shut my eyes. A glimpse of memory from my childhood plays: that particular memory of my parents.

I open my eyes again, grabbing the bag from the side table and look at him one last time. "If you think I'd forgive what you did to me back then, you're gravely wrong,"

Then, I exit the room and find Lisa is still smoking. I snatch that particular thing from her and inhale the smoke into my lungs. She just stares at me quietly. "Do you want to lit another one?"

She asks. I nod and she lits another before passing it to me. "You okay?"

I break into tears as I hug Lisa. A cig is still in between my fingers. "I hate him, I hate him so much, Lisa"

"I know," my wife says, kissing my cheek. "Let's just go home, okay?"