CHAPTER 5: HACIENDA DE ROMERO

"She's here." The members of the family stood up as a silhouette of a woman appeared from the door of the dining room, their eyes fell into the woman who had her serious face on, everyone was looking at her in owe as her mysterious beauty radiated different in actual but the woman remained collected as she bowed down in front of them, the businesswoman introduced herself towards them and went to the vacant seat next to the eldest son of Kim's.

"Why are you late? They've been waiting for you." He whispered silently as the cook of the household started to serve their dinner for tonight.

"Weren't I allowed to do something for myself? Besides I'm going to help you tonight." Irene said smiling towards the elders seated in front of her when her eyes suddenly landed to a woman who looked a little bit younger than her with an empty seat on her side.

"Your sister?" The businesswoman asked silently as if she haven't known who she really was, they both looked towards the woman sitting a few meters away from their front.

"Yes, she was still waiting for her wife to arrive."

A woman in mid-fifties suddenly spoke, making everyone look at her. "It is a really nice evening to see both of my children here and to my soon daughter-in-law, Irene Bae, it's really great to see you here personally darling, everyone was rooting for you and your upcoming wedding with my son, you seemed to get closer with him now." The woman said as she looked towards them making the two felt so disgusted with the old woman's words. "Cheers to you and to your family's future." They all raised their champagne glass but the woman kept on looking at her food with her head hanging low.

"Raise your glass." Junmyeon whispered, but the businesswoman shrugged her shoulders and stood up throwing the napkin on the dinner's table making everyone shook to her sudden changed of attitude. "Irene!" He whispered-shouted, making the elder look at them.

"Would you mind hearing my story first Mr and Mrs Kim?" She said as she took her champagne glass and asked the maid politely to fill it, the family of Kim's became silent as they looked at her, walking inside around the dining hall. "Why don't you try to answer? The cats caught your tongue ey?" She asked, shutting the doors closed making them flinch from the loud bang.

"So there was once a known family her in Asia their family's name brought a huge impact in working industry, making them known as one of the known 'Crazy Rich Asians', therefore a lot of people believed that they made their name on top with their own blood, sweat and tears not knowing that their children were about to suffer." Irene drank her champagne and looked at the youngest of the family who had her head down. "And one of them caused harm to the other, right?" She looked at Junmyeon and her sister, Jisoo who had her eyes towards the businesswoman.

"Ir-"

"No, I may not be able to know a lot of information about your family Mr. Kim but I know your children's dark secrets." Irene stood at the back of the eldest son putting both of her hands behind his shoulders. "Let's start with this man, my fiancée." She rolled her eyes and looked at the elders who were still confused on what was happening.

"You might want to welcome your grandchild soon and accept the fact that it wasn't coming out from me." Everyone was left dumbfounded while looking at the deputy chief psychologist who had his head hanging low. "He had a girlfriend and they were having a child now, why don't you just let him be with her? At the very first place they were about to have their own family and their child will be and will always be the next in line of your succession, why bother making someone be included with your own little fairy tales if in your own child's mind you were the one's who were known as protagonist."

The family fell into silence as they listened to her when the youngest child of Kim's stood up. "Seulgi." Everyone diverted their attention to the woman who just entered the room, even the businesswoman looked at the psychologist who had her eyes bloodshot from the tears she spilled earlier.

Jisoo ran to hug her wife but the psychologist stopped herself from hugging her back but Kim's father stood to speak but the businesswoman motioned him to stop. "This is getting more interesting right, attorney?" Irene referred to the woman sitting next to Junmyeon who was just sitting and looking on the family drama that was happening in front of her eyes right now.

"Give me the papers." Seulgi said lifelessly as she removed the woman's hand from her waist. "Just please give me the papers, that's what you wanted right?" She walked towards the lawyer and gave her hand. "Tell me, that's what she wanted. I'm willing to let you go, that's what your father had also wanted me to do for a long time now." She looked at Jisoo's father who had his head dropped low, with her eyes stopping her tears from falling, the lawyer asked Jisoo to get the divorce papers but the woman reprimand her wife from doing so, with her heart loaded with hatred, Seulgi signed the papers with her name, every ink she wasted was also a memory she wanted to forget with her lover.

"I don't want to... please..." But the psychologist insisted to let her wife sign it, she put the pen on her hand and said.

"I told you, if you say so, I will do so, you've already stated it to your letter this morning and now I'm doing it."

--

"I was hoping that we'd be able to be with each other at least once in my life, I don't want her to be a memory in my mind, she's the only person I wanted but destiny did not want to permit our love story, was being with someone as same as what you are a problem? Or the society was? Judgement was always there, their eyes who were filled with disgust is killing me and I wonder if she ever felt that."

"You are packing your things because?" A voice coming from the door made the businesswoman to stop from what she was doing. After the incident inside the household of Kim's, their family was forced to cancel her marriage with their eldest son and announced the divorced of their youngest daughter to Kang's successor, Seulgi. That night was a reckless night, Junmyeon was asked to marry his girlfriend who gave birth a few months ago while Jisoo left the country without any traces after she successfully withdrew her vows as Seulgi's wife.

While Irene had faced a lot of issues about her engagement with the Junmyeon making her the 'protagonist' of the man's relationship to her civilian girlfriend, the woman had to receive a lot of bashes as media never bothered to know about the real story about it but the woman clearly said she doesn't give a about their accusations towards her as long as she's happy now.

As usual her parents were sad about the news especially her father. He's always been disappointed in her though.

"Madrid." Irene said as she laid herself comfortably to her bed. "You know, a lot of things have been happening in my life right now, and I just want to take some time to break free from those problems, those cringe drama and many more." After that night, Irene never got to meet Seulgi once again, she was not planning to do so; the businesswoman just doesn't want to add more weight to her issues and that would include not meeting that woman.

"That would be fun though, are you staying at the hotel or your parent's country house?"

"Maybe both, I will also visit Alcala de Henares, they were having a limited offer to stay there at one of the rooms inside Romero's mansion. Why not try to grab the chance and spend a spooky night in there."

"Alone? There were some rumors speculating about it being sold this year."

"Yes and why was it sold?" Her friend laughed

"I bet you wouldn-" . "Your phone's ringing." Wendy took her phone from Irene's mahogany desk and handed it to the older, seeing it was her secretary's phone number she answered the call.

"This is Irene, how may I help you?" She answered. Her friend continued to put her clothes back on her luggage when Irene suddenly stood up. "Who bought the house? Oh, okay, okay, just make sure to make all the documents clear before you let her sign." She hung up the call and sat beside her friend.

"Why?"

"The house was already sold." Irene sighed and let her body fall to the softness of her bed, the woman did not expect it at all.

"To whom? It's okay, sometimes you just need to let go of the things that causes a huge damaged from your past, I mean your family's past, they were the once who were eager to sell that house and you just did it for their own benefit. You're just being too nice though, as usual." Wendy hugged the older from her side.

"Well, that person knew something about that house though so that didn't make me sad, it's just I would miss spending a lot of time going in there whenever I'm vacant." Irene closed her luggage and put it outside of her room.

"So, it was sold to?" The woman raised her brow as she headed to the kitchen, Wendy had spent most of her time staying there at the businesswoman's unit as she found it more comfortable than staying on her own. It's already September of the year and the weather becomes colder as the days passed by, in the span of six months things went from a roller coaster ride to a boat ride, changes of things that the businesswoman doesn't expect to happen had already happened and she is glad for it.

"Seulgi."

--

IRENE'S POV

As usual, my day would start by me doing some stretching just enough to crack some of my stiff bones, I may be able to run away from my supposed to be marriage with Kim's but I also got to face a lot of public hate saying that I should have just do something that our family had wanted, I mean who the wanted to get married with someone you merely knew and with someone who already have his own family literally like what the , I don't want to be the reason of someone's broken family because I never got to use of that kind of drama, it always .

If I haven't done something to make that guy marry his girlfriend I'd probably be owning the title of 'Asia's Gorgeous Mistress'. Oh God, please, no.

"Thank you." I said as the secretary of my sister opened her office door for me, I was always glad to know that this was always doing her part as a vice president of this company, she will be following my steps sooner nonetheless my father would do something against my love life which I also don't know if that word had ever existed on my vocabulary. He better not try do that though especially now that he was capable to know about the things I can do.

"Suzy." I said as I walked towards the visitor's chair, the woman was on call probably calling some of the international investors or shareholders, I may be known for being dead serious inside and out of the office but my sister wasn't that far from what my character was. She's a hell of a , for short, she's much worse than me.

But the way we see our lives are too far from each other, Suzy is a type of woman who is adventurous and transparent, while I live the life of a private grown up woman with a different perspective from the rest, that was based on what my father said. That man was still angry about what I have done, he said I could have just shut my mouth about Junmyeon's situation where in fact I just also wanted to protect our names from further damage.

"Hey." She put her phone down to her chest and mouthed. "Let me just finish this call." Of course I let her, I just come her to clarify some things that she might be able to face in my absence for the meantime, I just want to take some break from reality, that's what I really wanted to do as of now, gladly, I know there is this one person I can trust inside our family but I couldn't risk trusting her for like the way how I trust Wendy, she is still a part of our family no matter what happen but that wouldn't stop me from protecting her from the way how our father treats me. If he ever did that, then I would make it sure that he would really know who is the real monster among us.

I stood next to the window, seeing the wide vastness of office workers who were busy doing their job silently, for five years that I've been ruling this company, a lot of things had happened, the changes of how the previous president held it and the way how the workers looked at me, at first they were brave enough to assume that I was a naïve and silent person, they were correct at the part where they thought that I'm silent but I wasn't naïve at all, I remembered that one time, after the first two months I've been holding the company, I've found out that the senior team leader of accounting department where putting some behind her reports to cover up the amount of failure that her department had done, after she got fired I've dug deeper and found out that most of the department heads behind this company were doing their tasks so wrong.

Same goes to the previous president.

I wasn't able to say that I'm a good leader of our company but I'm humble enough to say that I wasn't the same as my father, him.

"Unnie." I heard my sister's voice that made me turn around. "What made you come here?" She asked, turning her swivel chair to my direction. "How are you anyways? I wasn't able to catch up with you since there were a lot of things that happened for the past few months."

I walked towards the visitor's chair and fixated myself comfortably in there. "Obviously, the news about the cancelled wedding ruined my image, a little bit." I rolled my eyes, lol at the very first place why the they care. "And there were also some rumours that I ruined his sister's marriage." Second, why the hell they need to make a lot of baseless rumours when at the very first place they haven't been able to prove that I and Seulgi were having that so called 'affair' and said that was the reason why Junmyeon went out with another woman and her sister filed a divorce case against her wife.

Like ? That day was just my birthday, Wendy was the one who invited her and Seulgi was just so kind to bringing me home, that would be okay if they were able to hear us talked about her ed up marriage with her wife but all they did was to stalk us from a far at ing three in the early morning like who the hell on earth would have guts to do such thing, right? Well, a paparazzi of course, Korean paparazzi are crazy, a ty one. They even posted a picture of us the night after we came back from Daegu, it was a picture of us where I followed her inside her closed clinic, I wished they were able to know that her co-worker was also there.

I mean, I am able to admit that Seulgi is an attractive woman but that doesn't mean I would date her, I'm not a homophobic and I am not also that type of woman who would dare to date someone who is already married, that would be the least thing I will do as a person and also as a descent woman, like, I hold such a huge position, why would I even do that? Jisoo was also a one of a kind wife, from being a famous businesswoman to a global ambassador of some luxury brands from abroad, a model and all I knew her body was to die for, in overall context, her and Seulgi was a top-tier couple and they would forced to put me in the picture? Hell no, I'm just nobody to them.

But at least, amidst these types of problems I was facing, I was also able to save someone's love story. After Junmyeon's girlfriend found out what I did in front of the family's dinner, she closed all the boundaries she had built against me and personally invited me to attend to their wedding which I gladly accepted since all I knew at the very fist place that I didn't mean any harm against them and second, she also knew that I did it for something, a few months later, she asked me again to come over to their penthouse to celebrate their baby's first month and I was glad to see them doing fine but before I could even do that I needed to take things seriously that even before I could even their building, like , I have to wear layers of scarf, face mask, shades, jacket, sunglasses, and a bucket hat just for the sake of my ing identity, gladly that woman was too kind to tell me to do so, as she also understand how it felt to live a life in everyone's eyes.

"Unnie." Suzy called my attention. "What are your plans now?" She asked, looking at me straight to my eyes. Do I need to know something that I do not know?

"What do you mean plans?"

She sighed and relaxed her back to her swivel chair. "I mean, you are almost thirty, but you're still a..." She shrugged her shoulders. Single, I'm still single, I do not know and I'm also willing to know why the hell that Asian people get to be so problematic if they would know someone who is already or is about to enter the early thirties but still isn't dating anyone, is really that a huge problem? I mean, relationships these days anyway.

"I love the way I live, I just want to enjoy my time, I want to take things slowly, also if you have plans on getting married, just make sure that the person you'd be ending up at the end of the day understands who you really are if you don't want to get left hurting, arasso? " I said that made her nod her head, my sister might be a type of a serious person but if I were to talk about her? She has also been one of the top of the headlines almost every month with just the common issue of her having a new boyfriend to the point that she even got the hate coming from the public, saying that she could have just been like me, why do they even care? If that's what she was, that's what she was but still, despite of those issues she faced, I still do admire her just like the way she admired me as her older sister.

You can rarely see that admiration especially if you were born in a family like us.

"Belated." She said as she slid a folder towards me and went back facing her papers, my brows furrowed as I looked at it, it's confidential as that was the words written in the cover. Also this woman was full of surprises and this gift was just one of 'em. "Before you could even asked me what is that, I swore to God, I've taken some time thinking if buying that as my gift for your birthday would be enough for me to thank you from protecting me from those times that he wanted to use me as the family's bait, but for sure you'd be happy for that."

I chuckled, even just a simple gift. I would always be glad to accept it even if I would just know the fact that it came from her heart, I would truly accept it whatever it was as long as I would know that it wasn't that hard for her to give me that. I opened the folder but before I could even read the five paged paper in there I already dropped it back on the table. "No." I looked at her with my eyes wide open. "You didn't do it, did you?" I still couldn't believe the thing that I just saw.

"I did unnie that was the reason why I decided to go back to Spain to finish the papers, it was sold privately and only a few amount of people have known about that, the previous owners were the one I assigned to be the caretaker of it as they knew the do's and don'ts of the place."

"Oh God..." I whispered underneath my breath when Suzy suddenly spoke.

"Welcome to Hacienda de Romero."