The Contract: Sunshine

by McCarver, Shiree

  Nodding at the maître d —who had no problem recognizing her now that her face had been plastered alongside Yoon’s since their nuptials had been broken by the media—upon entering, Sunshine followed the waiter to the table located privately in a corner.

  The waiter held out her chair and she sat when she felt the chair touch the back of her knees. She silently waited as the server shook out the cloth napkin resting on the china plate setting and placed it across her lap then placed the folded menu in her hands. Lastly, with elegant discretion, removed the empty plate and adequately arranged her eating utensils for her convenience.

  Once the waiter disappeared with their drink order, Leslie was the first to speak. “Thank you for agreeing to meet me here today.”

  “I must say I was a little surprised by the invite,” Sunshine admitted. She thanked the assistant waiter as he filled their crystal goblets with ice water. She took a sip and sat the glass back down on the table.

  “I know I have no right to ask you to meet me here, but I didn’t know what else to do. Yoon would be upset if he knew I asked you to meet me here.” Leslie’s hands clasped and unclasped on the table before her. “You didn’t tell him, did you?”

  Sunshine stared sightlessly down at the table. “You didn’t ask me not to, but I didn’t see a reason to make him worry about us getting along.” She looked up at Leslie. “We are getting along aren’t we?”

  “I concede that you are the woman Yoon wants to be with,” Leslie answered. “Especially since you’ve seem to have won Mrs. Young over also. It doesn’t leave me much room to fight anymore. However, I don’t know how much longer Yoon’s mother is going to be on your side once she finds out what your grandmother is doing to him.”

  At the mention of her grandmother, Sunshine was on immediate alert. “What?”

  “God,” Leslie shook her head and leaned back in her seat. “You don’t know do you?”

  “Know what?”

  “Yoon must really love you,” Leslie began. “He is about to lose all of his clients because of you and yet, he protects you by keeping you in the dark instead of telling you the truth.”

  “But why would his clients abandon him? Because I’m Black?”

  “Because your grandmother yields a lot of power, Sunshine and obviously she does not approve of your marriage to Yoon. She has not only pulled her various significant holdings but everyone that joined Yoon’s investment firm because of her has also started to withdraw,” Leslie explained.

  “I can’t believe this,” Sunshine worried her bottom lip.

  “Can’t you?” Leslie asked. “Is it true you haven’t spoken to her since your marriage?”

  Sunshine dropped her head shamefully.

  “What did you expect your grandmother’s reaction to such a slight would be?”

  “I...I knew she would be upset, but with me...not Yoon. I wasn’t ready to deal with her yet,” Sunshine admitted.

  “It’s not about you anymore!” Leslie took in a deep calming breath before continuing more quietly. “You and Yoon didn’t even have the decency to put in an appearance at the party she had thrown for the two of you. I know you are newlyweds but don’t you think you’re being a bit selfish. You two aren’t your average two consenting adults. You have corporations with your family names on them and thousands of people relying on your families for their livelihood.”

  “I...I suppose I never thought about it quite like that before.”

  “Sunshine, do you know that your grandmother also invited Yoon’s parents, their friends and associates? Do you have any idea how embarrassing it was for someone in his father’s political standing to apologize for his son’s behavior because he failed to put in an appearance at an occasion being thrown in his honor?”

  “Oh God,” Sunshine groaned. She nodded at the assistant waiter as he appeared with the house wine. As soon as he half filled her wine glass, she lifted it to draw in its content. “It was not my intent to inconvenience anyone. It was to be a family gathering and I wasn’t ready for Yoon to meet all of them yet.”

  “Your grandmother wants Yoon to end the marriage and because he refusing, she’s taking Yoon’s life’s blood from him.” Leslie turned pleading eyes on her. “Before his parents find out what is happening to him, I beg you to end this and let him go before he loses everything.”

  “How do you know all this?” Sunshine asked. How could this woman be privy to things that Yoon hadn’t even shared with her?”

  “Yoon’s assistant and I are good friends,” Leslie answered. “He said Yoon hadn’t been to work for a few days and he wasn’t returning his calls and he was at wit’s end on what to do about the clients calling to close their accounts and pull their investments.”

  “I see,” Sunshine murmured setting the menu aside. Her appetite was completely gone. All of this was her fault. She wanted her grandmother to treat her like an independent woman and she behaved like a child by ignoring her grandmother’s calls in hopes that it would simply go away.

  “Sunshine, do you know how many businesses will go bankrupt if Yoon can’t delegate to new investors. In this city there aren’t many that aren’t influenced by your family’s power?”

  “I do understand, Leslie,” Sunshine snapped. “I will take care of it.”

  “Do you love Yoon?”

  She looked Leslie in the eyes. “Yes, I love Yoon with all my heart.”

  “Then I know I can count on you to do whatever is necessary to save him,” Leslie state.

  “Of...of course,” Sunshine nodded. “You still love him don’t you?”

  “I do,” Leslie admitted.

  Sunshine nodded again. “Leslie, promise me that you will be there for him if he should need someone.”

  “Even though he never realized it, I have always been there since I was old enough for him to notice I was no longer a child.” Leslie smiled sadly. “He may never love me like he does you, but I do hope that at some point he will see how well matched we are.”

  “He doesn’t love me,” Sunshine confessed. “We’re just well matched in bed.”

  “I find it hard to believe a man would lose his company over a woman he just had good sex with, Sunshine.” Leslie pushed away from the table. “But believe whatever you need to believe as long as you help Yoon.”

  “I will,” Sunshine pushed away and stood also. “I promise you I will take care of this as soon as I leave here.”

  “I trust you to keep your word.” Leslie waved away Sunshine when she saw her hand going in her purse. “I will leave a tip and tell the waiter we changed our minds. Thank you for meeting me today.”

  “No, thank you,” Sunshine murmured.

  Numbly sitting in the taxi cab, Sunshine dialed her grandmother.

  “It’s about time you called me, Sunny girl.”

  “Nana what have you done?”

  “Ah...I knew that would get your attention if nothing else would,” Sophia Dupree stated. “I told that man you married without my permission that if he wanted me to take your marriage seriously and give the two of you my blessings, you would be at my home for dinner the other night. I couldn’t believe he would have the nerve to defy me.”

  “Nana, Yoon did as you asked,” Sunshine said. “We were there, but I couldn’t make myself go inside. I wasn’t ready to face you yet. I didn’t want Yoon to meet mother yet!”

  “If he cannot do as I instruct him to do, then he is not the man I thought him to be, Sunshine. Did you not know he refused to change his last name to Dupree?” Sophia Dupree tsked. “That just won’t do. I thought we could talk about it. After all, if he truly loves you, why would this be such a difficult request?”

  “I didn’t want him to change his name!” She raised her voice in anger. “It is my choice to take his name. You know what else I don’t want? I don’t want to be your heiress anymore, grandmother. I’m through with all of this!”

  “Are you out of your mind? Sunshine Sophia Dupree I already have had my lawyer to draw u
p the papers to have this marriage of yours dissolved.”

  “What right do you have to end my marriage?” To her dismay, her voice broke slightly.

  “Listen missy, if you don’t do as you’re told, I will destroy this man. Do you hear me?”

  “If you love me just a little bit, Nana, you will leave Yoon out of this,” Sunshine’s eyes filled with tears.

  “I didn’t get this man involved in our private lives Sunshine, you did. Did you know he has been married before? Also, did you know in some small capacity he worked for me? Don’t you think it was a little convenient that he met you and married you in such a short time?”

  Sunshine knew what her grandmother was implying but she refused to believe it. She was sure only they knew about the marriage contract for it was a private matter between them. She refused to rise to the bait and reveal the contract to her grandmother.

  “Sunny, dear child you are so naive when it comes to men. You think they are all soft hearted and kind like your father was. Trust me and my experience to know in the end you will look back on this time in your life and see that all of it happened for the best.”

  “When I become old and bitter like you, grandmother and stick you in a home somewhere when you are no longer able to wipe your own ass like you did your own mother, you will see you were wrong to kill the last part of me that was my father.”

  “Bravo!” Sophia Dupree laughed out with a gleeful clap that could be heard over the phone. “Spoken like a real Dupree Woman.”

  “You’re sick!” Sunshine tried to keep hold of her fragile control, but she was failing miserably. “You make everything right! You hear me? You make sure Yoon has everything he had before I ruined his life!”

  “Or what?”

  Her chest felt as if it would burst. “Or I will make sure your Dupree female bloodline stops with me!” Sunshine yelled. She breathed in shallow, quick gasps.

  “What are you saying?”

  “Nana Sophia, I will have my tubes cut and burned so that no child will ever be conceived in my belly and when I die I will leave everything you left to me to charity with the stipulation that the Dupree name is never uttered or mentioned in the contribution. I will make sure your name and contribution to this family is undocumented as if you never existed.

  “Okay, you are taking things too far,” her grandmother warned. “Stop with the drama. I’ve had enough melodrama with your mother being in town this past week.”

  “Then you are welcome to disown me,” Sunshine spoke coldly. “Let me go right now and adopt someone that you can mold to be who you want them to be. I don’t want your money.”

  “Only because you are depending on the money your father left for you,” he grandmother reminded.

  Sunshine found herself saying, “You can have that too if you let me go and leave Yoon alone.”

  “You really do love this man, don’t you?”

  “With all that I am,” she admitted passionately.

  “Would he still love you once he finds out I disowned you? Will he want you as his bride once he discovers you won’t even be getting your father’s inheritance?”

  “As you know already, before your interference, Yoon has money of his own. He didn’t marry me for mine.”

  “Not Dupree money,” the elder woman countered. “If he had Dupree money, my interference wouldn’t have been noticed and if he had Dupree power, I would have never been able to infiltrate his business affairs.”

  “We have all we need to be happy,” Sunshine said speaking for herself of course. Yoon didn’t love her, so she definitely couldn’t say that he found giving up all he’d worked for was something he would have done willingly.

  As if reading her mind, her grandmother said, “I will give your man a chance to prove his love to you.”

  “What?”

  “Tell him all he has to do to remain married to you, to have his business turned to rights and to become a member of the Dupree board and a shareholder of the Dupree fortune is to forsake his father’s name and take on the name of our family. If he agrees to this, he too shall become my future heir.”

  Sunshine swallowed hard, trying to manage a feeble response to her grandmother’s very generous offer. “He is the only son of his father and mother. He is also Korean. Do you have any idea what you are asking?”

  “That is my final offer, Sunshine,” she said in clipped tones. “If his family name is more important to him than you are, then he truly does not love you and dear, wouldn’t it be best if you knew the truth now?”

  “But if he accepts, will I know the truth?” Sunshine asked. “If he refuses to do it before but chooses to do it after I tell him all that you are offering to him, how am I supposed to know he is doing it because of his love for me and not because of the money and power?”

  “You speak as if you are unsure of his love now,” her grandmother said bluntly. Sunshine cringed.

  “That’s not what I’m saying,” she murmured chewing on her bottom lip.

  “Love or no love, these are my final terms, but either way Sunshine Sophia Dupree, I want you home before the night is out until everything is legally resolved to my satisfaction. If the young man agrees, then we will have an appropriate wedding...Dupree style.”

  Before Sunshine could say anything else the line went dead. The Great Madam has spoken and any threats, pleading or insults she had to say would be left unsaid.

  As far as Sunshine was concerned, Yoon need never know about her grandmother’s offer. She already knew he didn’t love her the way she loved him. She couldn’t ask him to do something as drastic as changing his last name legally. The Youngs had welcomed her into the family for the most part. She still had yet to meet Yoon’s father because of his busy schedule, but Yoon assured her as long as she had his mother’s blessings his father would go along.

  She wondered if the man would go along if he knew her grandmother was basically cutting his namesake off at the knees to save her own. The entire situation was primitive and insane in this century.

  By the time the taxi arrived in front of Yoon’s place, Sunshine had made up her mind. She would do what was best for everyone. She would leave Yoon and allow her grandmother to choose her future husband and do her damndest to become the next heir to the Dupree fortune so she could end this ridiculous ritual.

  Her children will be allowed to love and live their lives in peace. She would make sure they all gained their inheritance to do with what they will without stipulations except for an adequate age.

  Sunshine decided she would not use wealth and power to control her family and also she would be wise and have lots of children. That was the advantage to being born average in a family of beautiful people. Sunshine didn’t have a secret fear of losing her figure by having several babies. Nor did she fear growing old, fat and happy. She would happily turn the reigns over to her children if they wanted the responsibility and was not above selling off everything if they didn’t.

  A sad but resigned grin came to her lips. As long as she had a plan in place she knew she would survive leaving the man she loved. What was the difference? It would have been even harder for her to let go of Yoon a year from now.

  Except for his desire to keep his word to her, she didn’t know why he was suffering in silence and putting his livelihood at risk for her when he wasn’t in love with her.

  Well, maybe she did. Yoon was the most honorable man she’d ever met with the exception of her father. It was why she trusted him with her heart, her mind and her body. Her love for him was just as strong as his honor. There was only one way to end all of this. She would release him from the contract.

  Chapter 15

  A love contract is as binding as the love itself...

  Yoon, tired and exhausted, finally made it home well after midnight. His entire office was in disarray from the recent upset. His neglect of late wasn’t any help but it wasn’t because he didn’t want to do anything about it. Basically he didn’t know what to do about it.
/>
  He tried reasoning with Sophia Dupree, but she had made up her mind. She wanted him to dissolve his marriage to Sunshine, which his lawyers made it sound like that would be the easiest and smartest thing for him to do under the circumstances.

  The thing was he couldn’t even bring himself to discuss it with Sunshine. At first he thought it was because he felt honor bound to give her the year she asked for and God knows with that tyrant of a grandmother he could understand her reason for wanting her independence.

  Never in all his years had he come against a finer business component. Mrs. Dupree had managed to block his every movement, but today he believed he finally caught a break; his trump card against Sophia Dupree. He would know for sure tomorrow and once the information was confirmed, he would tell Sunshine everything.

  He hated keeping things from his wife, but she worried more than any one person should about that family of hers and he was sure finding out what her grandmother was up to this time would truly devastate her. She might even be foolish enough to think leaving him would be the answer, just like his stupid lawyers who weren’t worth the money he paid them.

  Yoon walked into his office and removed his shoes, shirt and tie. He did something he rarely did when he wasn’t entertaining clients; he poured himself a stiff drink.

  Once he finished, he would go and join the warmth of his wife’s body in bed. The first smile he had since leaving her this morning appeared on his face. Damn, she was something else. There were a couple of times he wasn’t sure he could keep up with the crazy things she wanted to try in bed.

  Sunshine had to be the most sexually curious woman he’d ever slept with and he found it very easy to accommodate her wishes for in the end he seemed to greatly benefit from the adventure.

  However, Yoon was prepared to draw the line if she had suggested bringing another person into their marriage bed. Oddly enough, he wasn’t a man that had any desire to share his marriage with a third person, be it another female or male, and it pleased him that she seemed just as content with it being only the two of them.