"What're you talking about?" The words barely made it out of my mouth. It took every bit of my control and will power to not look away from Mark's face. It took even more control and will power to not hide behind something as he started making his way towards me and Luhan. He looked seriously pissed off.

"Why don't you call up your money-snatching thief of a grandpa and ask him?" Mark spat back. I saw his eyes focus on my arm and for a split second, his harden expression softened before it returned back to his glare.
"My grandpa's dead," I whispered, casting my eyes downwards. I felt Luhan tense up beside me and his hand touch my back. The two of them were unconscious and wheeled off to the hospital before I could tell them anything so they didn't know.
"_________________, I-" Mark started saying before I shook my head and cut him off.
"It's ok. You didn't know. Plus judging from what Luhan said about whatever my grandpa did," I motioned at the scattered papers on the bed, "you seem to have every right to be mad at him."
"Yeah, be mad at him but not you!" Luhan spoke up, stepping closer to me and grabbing my hand. Mark's face instantly clouded over.
"If you wanna keep your hand, I suggest you let go of her's."

Luhan scoffed, rolling his eyes at Mark, "Last time I checked, I wasn't the one who teamed up with some psycho killer who was out to get ______________ and actually put her in danger."
"And last time I checked, you're not her boyfriend now are you?"
"I might as well be considering you're doing a crap job at it!"

"Stop!" I yelled, breaking out of Luhan's hold and wedging myself inbetween the two of them, who both looked like they were gonna kill each other. I didn't need any more people getting hurt today....especially not the two people I care about the most.
"You two are acting like such kids!" I looked at Luhan then back at Mark. Both of them were breathing heavily with obvious death glares on their faces pointed directly at the other person. "We just got out of a near death experience, and you two can't just appreciate the fact that we're all still alive?"

I walked towards Mark, reaching out my free hand and touching his arm gently. He instantly reacted, his shoulders untensing and his eyes losing the murderous glare in them. He moved his hand to put over mine but I moved mine away before he could touch it because Luhan was right. Mark had been lying to me this entire time about almost everything. He was working with my dad and he was the one who basically delievered me to that psychopath. How do I know our entire relationship wasn't also a lie and that I could trust him again?

But my heart still lept out of my chest every time I saw him. The sight of Mark all bandaged up, mad, and confused was slowly killing me. I still love him, that much I can admit to myself. But I don't know if I can trust him. And what's a relationship without mutual trust?

"Now since both of you are relatively calm," I sank down onto the bit of space on the bed that wasn't covered by papers, "start talking. What happened to your family?"
Mark sat down in a chair directly across from me while Luhan leaned against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest. 
"It's basically what he was saying before," Mark shifted his gaze over to Luhan for a brief second before turning his attention back to me. "Your grandpa was tricking his customers and pulling money from people's accounts. My dad was one of those people and it happened at the worst possible time."
"When your family moved to Brazil?"
He nodded, his eyes staring straight into mine. I held his gaze, scared that if I looked away, he would go back to being angry. It was as if any sort of contact between us was the thing that was keeping him calm.

"We barely had enough money to survive in a new country. My parents struggled. A lot. Everyday I had to hear them argue over money and it killed me to see them argue. I was basically watching my family fall apart right in front of my eyes and I couldn't even really do anything to help cause I was too young and I had no idea what was going on. My parents finally split and my mom took me and my brother and sisters with her back to Cali. But the nightmare didn't end there."

Mark sighed and then brushed his eyes with the back of his hand, "My mom came back to the States with almost nothing. We came back and hoped that you were still there, but you disappeared too. We had to struggle every single day to get to where we are now. At that time, I had no idea that you were related or even connected to CE. I hated the company. I hated everything that it did to my family...."
"So you wanted revenge?" I asked, finally starting to put the pieces together. "You wanted revenge badly enough to join my dad?"
"When I couldn't reach you or your mom, I called your dad who actually picked up. He told me that he could help me find you and bring down CE at the same time in exchange for my help. I thought it wasn't a bad deal so I agreed. We spent years finding the evidence and uncovering all your grandpa's dirt but all that time, he never told me once that you were the heir to the company. I thought you weren't gonna be connected to this. Until that day I saw your dad on campus. I got suspicious that there could be a connection but I didn't think much of it. But after our little fight with him at your mom's place, I finally understood why all this time, he could trace you so easily."
"So you knew?" I stood up, feeling the heat rise in my body from anger and confusion kicking in. "You knew during my whole wild goose chase and you didn't say anything? You knew and you still tried to get me killed?"
"Yes I knew!" Mark stood up too, his eyes pleading with mine to believe him for one more time. "I faked not knowing and lied about that but nothing I did with you, nothing I said to you was a lie. I meant everything I did and every word I've ever said to you."

I froze. My breath hitched in my throat.
All I could do was stare at him, his eyes tearing up as he said those words, and his feet slowly inching their way towards me.
Every part of me wanted to believe him. Every part of me wanted to meet him halfway and tell him that I trust him.
But he sold me out to my dad. That part was the only truth I could see and the only thing that was screaming at me from inside my head. How do I know that he's not just saying this so he could get into the company again and take it down from the inside?
After all the my grandpa pulled and put his family through, I wouldn't be surprised if Mark has been lying all this time and is still lying.

He kept inching towards me, taking one hesitant step after the other until Luhan finally stepped in between us.
"You look pathetic right now," he said to Mark, his face holding the same expression of hate from before.
"This isn't your conversation," Mark retaliated, his expression mirroring Luhan's. "Back off before I make you."
"Cause you think that'll get __________________ to believe you? The only thing that's gonna do is get you a one way ticket to-"
"Luhan," I side stepped around him, putting my hand on his shoulder and meeting his gaze, "it's fine. I can handle it myself."

He shifted his eyes back to Mark but stepped back as I took another step in his direction. "I can't tell if you're actually telling me the truth."
"I a-"
"But I'm not gonna say you're lying either since my gut is telling me to believe you."
"So what're you gonna do?" Luhan said from behind me. He was picking up the scattered papers on the bed and putting them back into their envelopes. "We can't leave a lying psycho alone like this."
"He's not a psycho, and we're not gonna leave him alone either," I turned to Luhan, staring him down and silently begging him with my eyes. The second his eyes made contact with mine, he rocketed upwards, dropping all the envelopes onto the ground.

"No! Absolutely not! I can't believe you're actually gonna give in!"
"I'm not!" I rolled my eyes, watching him bend down and sweep up all the envelopes. "I still don't know if I can trust him or not but for now, he doesn't have anywhere to go and we need to keep an eye on him."

Author's Note
chapter title: My Old Story-IU [x]