The Contract: Sunshine

by McCarver, Shiree

  Yoon had agreed to the year with a stipulation of his own added to it. He expected complete fidelity to their marriage. He wouldn’t have a woman carrying his name bringing shame upon his family by sleeping with other men. She agreed with some silly counter of, “What was good for the goose was good for the gander.”

  He took that to mean if she couldn’t cheat he couldn’t either. Never being one to be promiscuous or sleep around on his mistresses in the past, he had no problem agreeing. As a matter of fact, he got some warped sense of satisfaction knowing for one year she was all his.

  “Jamal, how did everyone find out about my marriage? It just took place last night and it was a private affair with only the bride, my lawyer, the justice of peace and me.” He kept the anger out of his voice. It wasn’t his assistant’s fault that the news had gotten out before he had the chance to speak with his parents.

  “It’s all over the news,” Jamal answered.

  “I don’t see how my marriage is big enough news to warrant media attention. Who would care? A brief notation in some financial magazine I understand, but...”

  “You’re joking right?” Jamal interrupted him with a chuckle. “You marry this particular sister...I’m sorry, sir.” He cleared his throat and began again. “You marry one of the most eligible African American women in the world and think no one is going to notice or care to report it?”

  Yoon’s mouth dropped wide. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Did you or did you not marry the Dupree Food’s Heiress last night in Las Vegas?” Jamal questioned with his smile dying into a frown of confusion.

  Oh my God. Yoon thought. The minister and his wife must have noticed Sunshine’s name on the marriage license and assumed she was the heiress. No reason she lied so easily about being the heiress. All her life people probably made the assumption based on her name without any effort on her part.

  What on earth was her crazy mother thinking naming her after a person still alive using their own name? Maybe that was the point. Maybe Sunshine’s mother uses her to swindle others into believing she was the heiress. Was that why that preacher fellow left without paying? Was he told by her mother she was an heiress, therefore she could well afford to pay for her own meal? All of this was crazy and he had to find a way to clear the mess up.

  “No, I did not marry the Dupree Heiress,” Yoon laughed and scratched his head. “This is crazy.”

  “I don’t know how crazy it is, but the publicity has been good for business,” Jamal blurted. “Since the news hit, you’ve had investors calling left and right wanting to invest in any future projects that may come open.”

  “You must be kidding me?” Yoon knew his expression had to be one of incredulous disbelief. “All of this because people think I married an heiress?”

  “Not just any heiress, mind you,” Jamal stated. “An heiress with a very wealthy influential grandmother that would happen to be your new grandmother-in law.”

  “Oh no,” Yoon groaned. “Mrs. Dupree hasn’t called yet, has she? I’m lucky if I don’t lose her as a client after this. Shit.” He sighed. “She will think I deliberately set out to use her good name by marrying a woman that happened to have the same name as her granddaughter.”

  “Huh?”

  “I was so busy thinking about my personal situation, I didn’t think about...” Yoon shook his head. His thumbs popped against his fingers. “The only thing I can do is release pictures of me and my wife with a brief statement to correct the misunderstanding. Once the public see her, they will know the truth.”

  “Am I missing something here, sir, or have you gone crazy?”

  Yoon was surprised to hear Jamal speak to him this way. He was usually so formal, even when Yoon requested he call him by his first name since they’ve been working together for over five years.

  “Excuse me?” Was all Yoon could think to say.

  “Now, I think I’m the one that’s confused,” Jamal muttered. He stood and walked across the room and lifted the remote control from the coffee table in the sitting area of Yoon’s office.

  He cut on the wall size television screen that remained on CNN for the most part and there was a running caption across the bottom of the screen, his name tied to wedded bliss with the Dupree Food’s Heiress.

  “Why would CNN report something without verifying it first with the parties involved?” Yoon yelled. “Has the entire world become so desperate for news they’d take anything at face value these days?”

  “Give it a moment,” Jamal said. “They will run the story in a minute and they have pictures of the heiress. Looks like they had used the pictures you’d taken for that Forbes magazine article. Anyway, you tell me if the pictures they have of the heiress is the woman you married or not.”

  “Jamal, you think I wouldn’t know if I married...” Yoon’s voice faded into silence as the story led in with what they called: A rare picture of a very beautiful and elegantly dressed Heiress Sunshine Dupree with the grand lady, her grandmother, Matriarch Sophia Dupree taken two years ago at a charity function in Africa.

  Either the entire world had been duped or he had to be the world’s biggest idiot. Would it be easier to tell everyone he didn’t know she was the heiress, or would it be easier to tell them he had been a man desperate enough to marry a woman he assumed was a liar? Neither option painted him in a competent light.

  Once the truth came out, he would be lucky to have one single client left. No one would believe that he didn’t set out to swindle people into allowing his agency to manage their millions.

  ***

  Sunshine’s newly charged cell phone was ringing nonstop. Her mother had called numerous times leaving messages. Sunshine could swear she heard the champagne cork popping in the background.

  Her grandmother called once. She left no message. She wouldn’t. For her grandmother, the call itself was the message. Whenever Nana Sophia called, there was no question of if she would have to call a second time or not. She would not and you don’t wait to find out what happens if you don’t return her call.

  Sunshine planned on returning her call, just not at the moment. She had other things to worry about for now; such as Yoon was ringing her again. Now this was call number eight and this time he appeared to have left a message.

  She worried her bottom lip as she stared at the phone on the sofa table at Yoon’s and now her resident. Lifting the phone from the table, she pressed to dial her voice mail and listened.

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

  Well, she thought. That was short and to the point. I guess the honeymoon is over before it started.

  Why was he so upset? It wasn’t her fault he imagined her as some opportunist looking for a handout rather than believing she was who she said she was. True, she could have made an effort to show him on his computer she was who she said she was. She didn’t take pictures often, but she was sure there had to be at least the one they showed a hundred times with her on a rare outing with her grandmother on the different news channels. Why did people even care about who was marrying whom these days?

  She knew why. People love a good fairytale story about the wealthy. No one wanted the truth; that she was a homeless heiress with a grandmother determined to prove her point and a mother who was in between rich husbands.

  Sunshine groaned. Her face dropped into her hands as she fretted about what to do next. From what she could tell about Yoon so far, he was a private man with a life far removed from the socialite affairs she was expected to attend but rarely ever did.

  Now that she was married, no doubt her grandmother would assume she’d learned her lesson and therefore restore her credit cards and up her monthly siphon from her trust fund.

  By now she was sure Nana Sophia knew everything there was to know about Yoon Young and his family. The only thing Sunshine could do for Yoon is annul the marriage before her grandmother made it her personal mission to “discreetly” destroy all th
at he and his family owned.

  The only way to make her grandmother not feel slighted enough to want to go on the warpath against Yoon and his family was to take all the blame on her own shoulders. She would tell her the truth. Yoon married her not knowing who she was and that is what made her like him even more. If her grandmother wanted to be angry at someone, she rather it be her. It won’t be the first time Sunshine had disappointed her.

  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.

  Chapter 9

  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 laugh
ed 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.