Chapter 7

Tiffany took a sip of her orange juice, set it back down & flipped through the folder of papers. She intended to go back to work just as soon as she finished reading. Her lunch wasn’t over until the next fifteen minutes. Taking a sip of her spinach artichoke soup, she smiled at the taste.

She had been promoted. Of course, not by the rules but by hers & Yuri’s rule book. She had climbed to the top unexpectedly, shocking the heck out of her boss but nonsense, he never did have any idea that she had worked for his business at Kim’s Comp. Enterprise. It only tells her that he never paid any attention to his employees, though there were thousands of people working for him. He should have known about the life of his wife’s sister.

“Do you want more juice, ma’am?”

Tiffany shook her head, her whole attention on the paper in front of her. She grimaced & then wrote something down obviously.

“I thought you were dead.”

Tiffany shot her head up & her eyes met the brown, almond-shaped eyes of Cho Kyuhyun, the owner of the nightclub where she had shot a guard. A grimace appeared on her face. The man had the look of seeing a dead ghost, all paled. He wore a face of guilt as she studied him, something she couldn’t quite understand & obviously, by the words he had let out, Stephanie had never told him about her twin sister.

That was one thing she had been wondering about ever since the paled faces of the people at her sister’s funeral. Hannie have always loved to talk about her to other people, even to strangers she had just met.

She placed a smile on her face then, “I guess you must know Stephanie.” He didn’t respond. Her smile widened, “I’m her twin sister.” His narrow oval-shaped face seemed to turn back to his normal color but then, he turned red. The smile on Tiffany’s face disappeared, “Is it something that I had said wrong? You seem distraught.”

He stood frozen for some seconds then he shook his head, “I’m so sorry. It’s just that you gave me the shock. I...I never knew that Stephanie had a twin sister.”

Tiffany shrugged her shoulders, “Well, she does & you’re staring at her right now.” She smiled again, “Stephanie never talked much about me, though we’re really close & you are?”

“Oh, I’m sorry again.” He reached out his hand, “I’m her friend. Cho. Cho Kyuhyun.”

She shook his hand then pulled back, “I’m Tiffany. Why don’t you sit down? My lunch isn’t over until the next eight minutes.” He nodded his head & took the offer. Tiffany closed the folder, placed her hands on top of it & looked up to find him staring at her firmly. She eyed him quizzically, “How long have you known Stephanie?” “For three years now.” He shook his gaze away from her & took a sip of his ice water, “She’s a nice woman.” “She was.” Somehow, Tiffany empathized the ‘Was’, “That’s weird. I didn’t see you at her funeral.”

His face changed again, “I...I was away on work. I would have come but the business couldn’t be delay.” Tiffany grimaced behind her cup, raising her brow. Wrong, he was the man that was talking to Jaejoong. He wasn’t a good liar anyhow; by the way, he had stuttered & he wasn’t a businessman; he was a club owner, even a drug dealer.

“I’m really sorry about her death.” Kyuhyun said, converting his voice back to normal.

“It’s fine.” She took a glance at her fossil cecile multifunction stainless steel watch, “It’s past my lunch time. It was nice talking to you.” She smiled, angling her head a bit. It’ll be nice to learn more about the man. Besides, from the news of the police, the last place Stephanie had been at was his club.

She blinked her eyes & smiled seductively, “I guess I’ll be seeing you around?”

“I come here every morning & lunch break regularly.”

She smile again, “That’s nice”

He nodded, “Then I assume you’re not just visiting?”

“I’m staying here for a bit until I feel that it’s time to go back to San Francisco.” She stood up, “I’ll have to go now. Bye.” Throwing her donna sharp women’s reese handbag across her chest & with the folder in her hands, Tiffany ran out of the cafe. She walked with the others across the street & entered the building. Her lateness for the first time to the meeting wouldn’t be so bad, hopefully, but when she opened the doubled doors into the conference room, Jaejoong stopped his talking & turned around. Every eyes were on her. She smiled thinly & walked to her seat.

“That’ll be all for today. Tiffany, I need to talk to you.”

She kept her eyes from rolling. Getting up from her seat, she walked over to him. He pushed his pointing stick in & threw it onto the long table. The room went silenced.

“You were more than late to the meeting. It was over before you even stepped into this room. There’s no warning & you should know that.”

“I apologize.”

“There’s no need to say it when you don’t mean it.” His face was stern, “I expect this not to happen again. You’re responsible for your own lateness.”

“I said I was sorry, Mr. Kim.”

He walked pass her, stopped & turned around to glare at her, “No need to call me that. I…”

“Stephanie’s twin. It’s a surprise to see you working here, Tiffany. I never knew.” Tiffany turned around slowly. She didn’t need to guess who it was. Yoona Im walked over & stopped before her. She smile, “I had been wanting to meet you for a long time now. Stephanie was a kind woman. It was too sad that she died.” “Unfortunately, there’s you, Yoona Im.” Tiffany remarked.

The woman narrowed her eyes at her, “How do you know my name?”

“The same that you know mine.”

Yoona gritted her teeth together. With her index finger, she flipped her hair back. She walked over to Jaejoong with her black charles albert heels on. Tiffany studied them, nice & sharp. Yoona tucked her arms about Jaejoong’s & smiled up at him, “I bet you haven’t had your lunch yet, have you?”

“I had some avocado, prosciutto & egg sandwich.”

“That isn’t enough to fill you.”

“Excuse you, Yoona.” The two turned their heads her way. Tiffany gritted her teeth. Her eyes fired at Jaejoong. He stood still, “I was talking to Jae Oppa. If you don’t mind, please leave. I’m a person who doesn’t like to be interrupted nor does your boojaejoongie right there.” She waved her hands at Jaejoong.

“Please, we just haven’t given out the good news yet.” She gazed sweetly up at Jaejoong. His eyes turned hard, “I told you to shut up about it, Yoona!”

“But I’m sure your dead wife’s sister would love our good news.”

His face reddened. He pulled his arm free, “It’ll be better if you leave.”

“It’ll be better if Tiffany knows the news first.” She angled to meet Tiffany with the indictable smile on, “We’re getting marry.”

“God dammit, Yoona!” Jaejoong threw his hands up & turned around. He raked his fingers through his hair & turned back around to face her madly.

“What, Oppa? She’s going to find out sooner or later & I say sooner is better off.” She jerked her chin up & averted to glare at Tiffany. A smirk of a smile appeared on her small, thin glossy pink lips. Slowly, she walked over to her. Her eyes blinked restlessly, “I hope you love our good news. The wedding is planned a month away. We’ll sent you an invitation as soon as we can.”

Tiffany took in a burning breath. Her eyes moderately scanned over to Jaejoong. Somehow, his eyes were directly firing back enraged confrontation. burned with rage. Straightening her back & lifting her chin, she sharply turned around with closed fist.

“Can’t think of anyone being your sister’s husband’s wife, huh?”

“Shut the hell up, Yoona!”

Tiffany swallowed a fireball down . Collecting her stuff lying on the table, she angled her face to glower at them, “My sister may have died eight years after marrying that man but Yoona, you’ll die on the day of your wedding,” Half satisfaction covered her heart as the woman screamed at the top of her lungs. She jerked her gaze to Jaejoong, “& trust me, Oppa, I will find the evidence of my sister’s true murderer & don’t you dare think that you’re off of my list of murderers.”

“Who do you think you are talking to us like that?” Yoona pointed a finger at her, “You, you’re just a useless woman twinned to a sister of a !”

“That’s enough, Yoona.” Jaejoong grabbed her by the shoulders, shaking her hard, “Never talk like that about my wife. You’re the one who’s damned! By god.”

Eyes wide opened, Yoona stood unmoved. Her lips were parted with surprise. The room had went silenced. Not wanting to stare at them any longer, Tiffany angled her head to the side. Jaejoong, knowing fully well that he would explore any second before then, freed his hands away from her arm slowly. He bit his bottom lips, raked his fingers through his hair & murmured an apology.

Afraid, Yoona raised her hands to her lips. She shook her head fanatically & ran out of the conference room. Back facing each other, Jaejoong raised his head & looked up at the ceiling. A feeling of hatred for himself climbed up. He looked down at his black bill derby shoes & sighed.

“I apologize for that.”

“There’s no need to apologize when you know you don’t mean it.” Tiffany remarked highly. She turned around, staring at his back intently.

“I have to marry her.”

“I rather don’t care. It’s clearly said that you never loved my sister, remarrying another woman so fast not just some weeks after her death. There was no need to lie earlier.”

“You don’t understand.” He whispered.

“What the hell do you mean that I don’t understand?! I understand clearly well, Mr. Kim.” She fanatically threw out her arms, “It’s an affair. You were having one three years ago with that damn woman! Do you think that I don’t know? Oh, you’re so wrong there.” She threw the pointing stick that was on the table onto the floor, “Stephanie had informed me everything about your little affair. Every letter she wrote to me, there wasn’t a tear that didn’t swear the ink. I’m surprise how she could have ever lived with you for all those years. If it weren’t for your father, I would have never signed that damn contract & if it wasn’t for him, my father wouldn’t be in jail now!”

“My father didn’t do anything to sent your father to jail. I would have known it if he did.”

“Bull ! You’re just like your father. Your father, being the egoistic man he was, stole my dad’s latest development & placed a false one at it! The damn little thing cost billions of dollars & to the full extreme, your father, to get revenge back because my father had stole his girlfriend, critically pushed that contract under my nose! If only I had spoken up that it was useless for him to make Stephanie’s life miserable & that you & Stephanie were already in love, I wouldn’t be here now & I bet you don’t even know the real reason why your father forced you to marry a woman you have already loved.”

“I do.” Jaejoong turned around, “But my father would never do anything like that; stealing a chip & placing a false one at state.”

“Wrong. He did, Oppa. You just never knew.”

“You’re being unreasonable.”

“How do you know? I maybe speaking the damn truth! You…”

A knock came at the door. Kyungmi’s head poked in. She smiled apologetically, “Sorry for interrupting. Meeting in here in three minutes, Mr. Kim, & you have a phone call & five messages.”

“Hold them for me please.” Kyungmi nodded & closed the door. Jaejoong took in a deep breath, his gaze tightly on Tiffany, “We’ll talk about this later.”

“There won’t be any later.” She lifted her stubborn chin, gritting her teeth together, “I believe the time will come when everything will be let out.” Walking to the doubled doors, she stopped, “Your second will be more of a trouble. Good luck, Mr. Kim.” Tiffany walked out, her mind fully on the thought of terminating the wedding.