It had been an awful night for Jessica. She couldn't sleep, and when she finally woke up, she woke up with a headache, but she didn't have the time to dwell on that either, because Dara walked inside her room to help her dress for the day, she had to attend breakfast with Jaejoong

Now she found herself sitting in front of her fiancé while he ate his breakfast and cut the eggs on his plate with extra force. The beautiful morning didn't erase the palpable tension that could easily be cut with a knife. Meanwhile, Dara stood motionless in the corner of the room.

"I had hoped you would have come to me last night,"

Jessica had a feeling that Jaejoong's calm tone would be the start of something much worse. It was true that she had no intention of going to his suite at all, but the thought had completely vanished from her mind last night.

"I was tired," she said with her mind already filled with memories from the night before. She still recalled the feeling of a gentle hand holding her own, Yoona's hot breath on her face, and how she rejected a kiss that she wanted with all of her heart.

"Yes, your exertions below deck were no doubt exhausting," Jaejoong said as he nodded, brow furrowed.

He set his cup down as he looked up to look at her in the eyes. Anger rose within Jessica in less than a second when she realized how he knew about what she did with Yoona yesterday.

"I see you had that undertaker of a manservant follow me," she growled out, trying to keep her cool because no good could result from an argument.

"You will never behave like that again. Do you understand?"

It was an order, and Jessica was annoyed. He was giving her an order, and they weren't even married yet. She hadn't done anything wrong other than have a little fun in the third class. She knew what he was saying; he has forbidden her from seeing Yoona again, and that's what hurt the most.

She couldn't let him treat her that way. She was not an object.

"I'm not some foreman in your mills that you can command!"

Jaejoong's face went blank, having not expected the talkback.

"I am your fiancée,"

"My fiancée?" Jessica repeated, and Jaejoong chuckled humorlessly and bitterly.

"My fiancée!" he yelled as he swapped the breakfast table to the side, sending the crockery flying to the floor, including the food and the coffee.

He pushed everything aside until nothing was separating him from Jessica. He towered over her, mad and sick with jealousy. His ego needed a boost; he needed to put this woman back in her place. She felt trapped and insignificant under his raging stare and big arms.

"Yes, you are! You are also my wife in practice, if not yet by law. You will honor me, as a wife is required to honor her husband. I will not let you make a fool out of me! Is this in any way unclear?"

The echo of his voice still resounded against the walls while Jessica shook with fear beneath him. Jessica nodded her head as fast as she could to calm Jaejoong down. He smiled at her, a half crooked smile that he probably used to recompense his other women when he did something good. It sickened her to no end.

He then stood up straight, and without a second glance behind him, he left her there, shaking and on the edge of tears. Dara ran to clean up the mess, but her real intention was to check on the woman who was trying to suppress the sobs that were threatening to come out. She had never been so scared of a man in her entire life and to think that her future husband had just done this to her.

"W-We had a little accident," she murmured as she fell to her knees on the floor next to Dara.

"It's okay, miss. I get it," Dara said as she held Jessics's hands with care.

"I'm so sorry, Dara," Jessica finally cried.

"It's okay, Miss. It's okay,"

She was numb from that point on. She helped Dara with the mess despised the maid's protests. Her hands were still shaking when Dara was helping her with her corset back in her room an hour later.

Jessica was trying to wrap her mind around everything because everything seemed unreal. Her life could certainly not be going that way. It hurt too much to think that they were trying to separate her from the dark haired girl.

"I want tea," Eunji ordered as soon as she walked inside her daughter's room, and Dara made a quick reverence before leaving.

Jessica saw her mother's reflection through the vanity mirror. The woman was furious as she pulled at Jessica's corset strings with unnecessary strength.

"You are not to see that boy again, do you understand me, Jessica? I forbid it!"

Jessica imagined that Jaejoong had gone running to her mother when he found out what happened. Despite all the chivalrous acts he has done, he was still a man child.

"Oh, stop it, Mother,"

She didn't want another argument, she didn't, but she was not a child. She needed the strength that Yoona gave her last night again; she needed to make her own decisions.

"You'll give yourself a nosebleed,"

Eunji pulled her shoulder and turned her around with force, but the treatment didn't scare Jessica as much as before. She was used to being treated that way by her mother.

"This is not a game," Eunji said, and she looked desperate; her eyes were imploring for once.

"Our situation is precarious. You know all the money's gone!" she said through greeted teeth.

"Of course, I know it's gone. You remind me every day,"Jessica fired back, and Eunji looked taken aback for a second. She wasn't used to her daughter talking to her with such disrespect.

"Your father left us nothing but a legacy of bad debts hidden by a good name, and that name is the only card we have to play," Eunji said; she was scared, and Jessica could see it.

"I don't understand you. All you need to do is marry Jaejoong, and that will ensure our survival," her mother insisted; she didn't know why Jessica was so stubborn because they needed this deal.

"How can you put this on my shoulders?" Jessica asked, and she was on the edge of tears. She was seventeen, and her own mother was selling her like a piece of meat to a disgusting man just because she needed to clean their name.

"Do you want to see me working as a seamstress to barely make our ends meet?"

Eunji knew that she needed to put it differently. Sure, in her daughter's heart, she still cared for her old poor mother.

"Is that what you want? Do you want to see our fine things sold at an auction, our memories scattered to the winds?"

Eunji covered as if she was going to cry, and Jessica felt her heartbreak. She didn't want any of that. She wanted to help, but it was how she couldn't accept it yet. It was so unfair for her and only her, seeing as everyone else was going to get something that they wanted. Jaejoong would get her completely, and her mother would clean her name, sealed her debts, and live the life that she chooses.

"My God, Jessica. How can you be so selfish?"

"Selfish? Mother! It's so unfair," she murmured as she finally let a few tears fall. She knew what she needed to do, but it hurt to think about it and its meaning.

"Of course, it's unfair, dear. We're women, our choices are never easy,"

Eunji hugged her daughter close to her chest. She saw Jessica's decision reflected in her eyes, and she knew she'd won.

-

Yoona woke up that morning with one thing only on her head, and that was to tell Jessica everything. As soon as she finished breakfast, she practically ran to the first deck and entered without much trouble seeing as there were no guards on the doors.

Despite what happened the night before, she felt good because she knew that Jessica felt the same way as her. The girl freaked out just when they were about to kiss, and not in a homophobic kind of way but more like a realization of love kind of way freak out, and Yoona knew that they needed to talk. She spotted a crowd inside a room, but two guards stood outside, and she was wearing her usual clothes that morning.

"You're not supposed to be in here," said one of the men guarding