Make Me Yours

“How could she have told me? I left, without a word and she had to find out I was married to another woman in the news. She was horded by those camera men who wouldn’t stop getting in her face with questions for days; she had to bear the shame and the pain of my betrayal. Alone! Then, on top of that, she found out that she was pregnant? By the man who broke her heart? Who didn’t think after what they shared, owed her an explanation? Of course she wouldn’t have told me! Even if she had wanted to, she wouldn’t have been able because you disabled the line she had and made sure that no calls from her to the company or the hotel or casino would get through to me. You did all of that. Both of you. You wanted her out of my life, completely, and you ask why she kept quiet?” He scoffed. “You are jokers.”

“You would not speak to your mother or your wife that way, Xen.”

“No! I have had enough! I will speak any way I wish to. Have you any idea how miserable I have been these past four months? Have you? Of course not. My pain or my feelings do not matter. Only yours.”

“It was for the good of the company. Your father would have done the same.”

“Oh please! If the merger needed a marriage to happen, why didn’t you get married? After all, you are the company’s chairman and Mr Park is widowed too. I see the way he looks at you. I was surprised he didn’t ask for your hand, instead.”

“Xen, you would stop this right this moment. The staff are watching.”

“Let them watch and see the mess you’ve made of this family because of your obsession with control! My only regret is that we let you have your way for too long. First, father. Then I, after him because we both believed that it would be easier to let you have your way. Well, no more.”

He walked out of his open room then, and started to find his way down the stairs into the living room. His wife and mother followed, their pleas to stop him falling on deaf ears.

He met Yuri in the living room. Yun was there too, and Charles. That was only when he stopped. Rachel latched on to his hands then and when he turned, he saw that she was crying. It did not touch him one bit. He knew Rachel. Those were false tears.

“Xen… think about us. What would happen if you leave? Think about me. I would die. The shame. The-”

“I cared for you once, Rachel. As a friend. And when that friendship ended, I held on to respect for you because of the kind of woman you are: strong, ambitious and ever defying odds against women. Just like my mother. However, if somehow, you have led yourself to believe in these past few months that I care about your feelings, then you are very much mistaken.”

The tears were gone instantly; she dropped his hands as though they burned. Carefully, she wiped away the smudges and straightened her shoulders.

“Very well, then. If it must be this way, be prepared to have this marriage and merger dissolved. Be prepared to lose your dearest company, your father’s legacy and his father’s before him.”

“But he won’t lose the company, would he? I mean, seeing as the company was never at any risk of being lost.”

Everyone turned to Charles.

“What do you mean?” Xen asked. The way his mother and wife had gone rigid told him that there was more to Charles’ words.

“I mean that Li Group would have never folded. There was never any theft. No one left the company – they were bought off for some time. Li Group was never at the verge of bankruptcy. All of that was a carefully calculated, well put together and brilliantly carried out scheme just to get you away from Zoey’s side, in to Rachel’s arms.”

The bags in Xen’s hands fell. Surely, Charles could not be right? This had to be a joke?

“Charles, now is not the time for such silly jokes. This is a family matter. You would do well to stay out of it.” That was his mother and as lighthearted as she tried to sound, there was something else in her voice. It sounded like panic.

Xen looked from her to his friend and back. “Charles is as good as family and he would stay. Mother, Rachel… what is this about a scheme? I would advise that you start telling the truth now.”

“I do not know what he is talking about. Charles must have been drinking again; you know how carefree he is.”

Charles chuckled at this. “Oh, Rachel. You know what? You are right. There was alcohol involved, but I wasn’t the one who got drunk and spilled. It was our ever beautiful, ever young Mrs Li. Kim. Do you remember? Friday night in my hotel room?”

Xen had never been more confused in his life. “What? What are you talking about? Can someone speak in clear terms? Why was my mother drunk in your hotel room?”

“Don’t listen to him, Xen. Charles, please. Let’s keep our personal affair out of this.”

Again, Charles laughed.

“What’s with the choice of words today? Xen, you would want to kill me for this; but I have to say the truth anyway. Your mother confessed to me one drunken night, how she managed to orchestrate the entire theft-bankruptcy-merger scheme. All of it was a plan that she started working on, from the moment she returned to Singapore. She was angry that you had taken Zoey’s side and even angrier that you had fallen in love with an American. So, she devised a plan that would get you and Zoey broken up, and married to Rachel. She used the only one thing she knew would get to you – Li Group. Rachel, Mr Park, the three shareholding thieves and a good number of staff were all a part of this. I’m sorry, friend, but they had you. They had you real good. I know it’s been a week and it is quite a coincidence that news of Zoey’s pregnancy would come out now. I guess it was simply the right time for the truth to come to light.”