"Oh, my God! This place has my favorite Korean food. Have you tried this place before?"
"Nope." Rafael said, his lips twitching in a smile when he knew why she loved it so much. Everything on the chalkboard said spicy before the name of the dish.
"Allow me to introduce you to the best of the best!" She gestured dramatically while she ordered chicken katsu for herself and a beef bulgogi bowl for Rafael. He looked at her in awe when she placed the order in broken Korean.
"You love Korean food so much that you even learned to speak their language?"
"I love Korean food and language because I love K-Dramas. You have no idea how sad I was when Ji Chang Wook had to leave for some mandatory military service."
"Who the fuck is that?" He pulled his phone out to see how good the actor looked.
"Your jealousy fits are quite amusing." She pinched his cheek while he raised his brow at the google image search.
"Harry and Co. You won't be d
"Ruhi... Eva is here. Calm down.""You should have told her to shut the fuck up when she talked shit about my country."He pushed on the gas, knowing she was scared of speed,but she didn't care how fast he was going. She was throwing daggers at his ex, going on and on about how she should sue the makers of the slumdog millionaire movie for showing a slum in India to make it look like that's how the entire country looked."You are a broke ass charity case who---""Ruhi, that's enough! I don't care what she said. Evie is here and you needto stop, now!""Why the hell don't you care what she said. She started it.""I don't care because I wasn't even listening to her talk. Evie looks like she's going to cry. If you don't shut up, I'll throw you and Kimmie out to finish your argument.""Why am I the one you always ask to shut up when your exes throw insults at me? Alisha called me cheap trash and---""I don't remember wha
Rafael woke up feeling exhausted. His alarm clock said he still had an hour to go, but sleep was an elusive thing. It felt like the longest night in a while. He walked over to Ruhi's room and tried her door again.Hoping that she was getting the much needed rest, he sank into the chair in his study.He then texted Aaron to check if the doctor on call gave him any updates about his dad's condition.He had a lot of things on his mind, but there was a ton of work piled up from taking time off yesterday. Logging into his desktop, the first thing he noticed was the paparazzi's cooked up stories about"The billionaire daddy's outing with his missingwife and the crazy runaway ex-girlfriend."There were way too many articles speculating about his upcoming divorce fromRuhi. Some even went to the extent of saying that he was secretly married to Kimberley and hiding his heiress for safety. There was one appalling rumor that Antonio forced Ruhi to leav
"Daddy, I'm back!" Eva dropped her stuffed monkey when she saw him eating breakfast with Ruhi."Mommy was crying because she will take you away from me." She blurted out, and fat tears rolled down her chubby cheeks."What the fuck, fucking Kimmie!" Rafael muttered and got up from his chair, taking Eva away before she hurled out more hurtful words in front of Ruhi. It took him a lot of effort to cheer Ruhi up, but one sentence from his daughter undid everything.He was sure he would have strangled Kimmie for more than one reason if she wasn't Eva's mom. Her cheap tricks made his opinion about her cheaper, and he made sure to text her what he thought about her. He threatened to take Eva away from her if she repeated her obnoxious behavior, playing with a five year old's mind.On his way out to work, hekissed Ruhi. Shefaked a smile to stop him from making a fussand then watched him dote on Eva as she climbed down the two big steps near the
A strange surge of relief coursed through Rafael. He felt all over the place without his dad around. Not being able to get to his dadbefore he went in for surgery bothered him a lot, wondering if he would never see him awake again."Whoa! Two good news right as we wake up. Dad is up and Lucas de Mello is dead! It was a mistake to have spared him when he cheated on us. I must be the fool to have told dad to spare him for Alisha's sake when I was with her."He squeezed Ruhiin a tight hug, feeling much better when she reciprocated his hug."Is dadcompletely fine? No complications anymore right?" She couldn't help feeling bad for Alisha's dad. He had been fighting death for weeks before finally giving up.Rafael didn't agree with her. He believed it was long overdue and regretted putting Ruhi's life in danger. Every time his eyes fell on the scar on her shoulder from the bullet wouldand surgery, he felt like a failure. His memori
"I didn't get a good look at him. Must be some rich dude you saw on the news.""He does have that important person type of aura," Ruhi said, still thinking hard."Who cares? He's a douche if he runs people over and is unapologetic. Unlike Uncle Tony HERE!" Anna screamed and ran into Antonio's arms when she turned around and saw him in the hallway."Dad, why aren't you in the bed?" Ruhi scolded him before giving him a hug as well."All my kids forgot about me, so I thought of driving myself home. Where did the jackass go?""The jackass got delayed because of a meeting," Anna replied."I'm here!" Rafael wrapped his arm around Anna's neck, strangling her for calling him names before hugging Antonio. "Stop being so dramatic dad. Let's get out of here."Placing a kiss on Ruhi's cheek, he called Aaron and went tolook for him when Aaron didn't answer his call. Antonio couldn't help asking business-related questions to make sure Anna an
"Wait, what?" Anna grabbed Rafael's phone from Antonio's hand."Oh, my god! It is him. You mean, my supposedly dead dad wants to claim me as his daughter after twenty two years? I don't know what to say. Where was he all these years?"She pulled out her phone to show the pictures of some old photos that she got scanned and saved in her gallery. Swiping throughpictures of when her dad was in his late twenties and posing for a family photo while holding her in his arms, she was baffled how she didn't pay attention to the man who ran into them at the hospital.Ruhi moved closerto look at the Indian woman the capo got married to."He might have presumed you were dead too. Rafael and Ruhimade these connections only a few days back and we weren't even sure. And Dylan found out from our conversations... wait, where's that darn monkey Eva used to carry everywhere?" Antonio remembered only now that Dylan bugged the stuffed toy."Gone... To
After a few more minutes of fumbling around, Ruhi came out with four drinks on a tray, with no alcohol in hers. She was profusely sweating and breathing in shallow spurts."Are you okay? No more drinks for you." Rafael snatched her glass away and pulled her into the space next to him, wrapping his arm around her and trying to calm her down.His touchfelt so warm and comforting,she was temptedto just snuggle up and forget about the rest."I'm fine, just a little tired. Maybe we should all go to sleep after finishing these drinks."She hoped they did not show any effects from the pills right away because she was sure one of them would fall asleep first and alert the others. If only it was as easy as they showed in the movies, where people just fell like flies after taking a sip.Antonio yawned, looking tired."Right, I better go to bed early." He downed the drink, not wanting to know how terrible it tasted, and go
Ruhi's eyes were wide open in fear as she turned around to see the source of that deep voice. "G-Gus...???" He looked even more intimidating from up close to her. She immediately reached for the door to open it, but hehad locked it from his sideandfloored the gas to take off at high speed. Making a sharp U-turn at the divider, he almost flung Ruhi over the dashboard. "I don't like to repeat myself. Put that damned seatbelt on." "W-where are you t-taking me to? My bag is still on the sidewalk." Her eyes were locked on the deep scar that ran from his temple to the earlobe. She saw that they were going in the opposite direction from where the San Francisco International Airport was. Banging on the glass window and looking back at him, she askedagain, "Where are we going? Are you mistaking me for someone?" His lips sealed into a thin line when she tried to open the door again and didn't put herse
SEVEN YEARS LATER It was a quiet Sunday afternoon with some cooling summer showers pouringdown outside the window whileRafael spent a good amount of time in his study. He was lagging behind quite a bit because he spent all day at the water park yesterday and left work early even on Friday afternoon to attend his daughter's ballet performance. He got up from his seat and stretched before stepping out to see what Ruhi and his little Snookums were up to. Even though he wanted to finish all the piled up stuff, he had gone two hours without seeing them and it felt like too much on a Sunday. He walked down to the kitchen to see what all the excitement was about. Ruhi was watching something very seriously on her daughter'spink laptop while the little girl was busy whisking butter and molten chocolate. She got chocolate mousse on both her chubby cheeks while Ruhi got a good amount on her nose. "Papa! You were not supposed to come out until w
Rafael had always imagined death to start with some blinding light where all the best moments of his life wouldflash by him and then follow with an abyss of darkness. At least that's what he heard people say it would be like.The gunshots were still ringing in his ears long after the darkness, but the blinding light never came. The pain and the hopelessness sure felt like death.Among the many regrets he had, he regretted not being able to say a proper goodbye. Ruhi had never believed how unconditionally he loved her. He knew he did a poor job showing his feelings toher, except that he could prove that he would die for her, willing to do so over and over.He wanted to hear Ruhi's voice one last time before falling unconscious. His body was going numb, but a shooting painunfurled in the deepest pit of his stomach when he thought about the image of Ruhi lying on the floor.Was she conscious? He couldn't remember. Everything happened too quic
"Oh, I seriously loved what you fed me. I don't know what this is.""Well, let me fix something light so that you don't go hungry. The doctor will be on his way if you throw up again." His voice trailed off as he walked back into the kitchen.Pushing the stray locks of her hair out of her sweaty forehead, she looked at the time on her phone and groaned, her head still slightly spinning. She slept for almost ten hours last night after getting rid of her dinner and felt exhausted at barely ninein the morning.Rafael stepped into the bedroom with a bowl full of chicken soup forty minutes later, and she was in for another surprise. She wished she knew how to cook a soup withthat perfect consistency and flavor he achieved seemingly effortlessly. Watching the heavy raindrops hit the window panes persistently, she stared out at the dark sky while sipping on the warm liquid."Huh, so no sightseeing today?" She asked Rafael, who was looking at her with
No matter how much Rafael hated to move to a different room, Ruhi was super adamant, and hehad no other option but to leave the room. He hoped the next morning to be better and planned a day full of fun things to do. He missed the good old times where all she wanted was to eat a good meal with him at a restaurant and make him watch some kids' movies.She answered his call after deliberately missing it the first two times. He assumed she was sleeping. Sleep was the last thing on her mind. Without him by her side, she tossed and turned until the stormy predawn sky gave way to some daylight outside the huge glass windows."Wake up, sleepyhead. We have reservations for breakfast at a lakeside cafe here.""What makes you think I'm still in my bed. I ate breakfast already."Rafael's face fell when he heard that. It was barely 9 AM and Ruhi was still in bed on weekends, so he didn't expect her to be out already when on vacation."Where are you
"Do I really want to talk to her? I don't think so." Ruhi crumpled the paper with Adira's number on it."Well, we can't trust anything she says, but I think we should hear her out. Also, I need to track her location. So just talk to her for a few minutes and---""I don't want to help you kill her, Rafael."Rafael entered the number into Ruhi's phone and made the call before turning the speaker on."Ruhi... I-I'm sorry. Please, please, help me. There are some half a dozen men with guns chasing me. I feel scared. Ruhi? Are you there?""How could you lie to Gus about something like that? Don't you know he still hasn't moved on?" Ruhi asked reluctantly,confused about how she felt when talking to her sister. She never wanted to talk to her again after finding outshe wanted Gus to kill her."It was... Um, it was Alisha's idea. I just told her Raina had a sister. She came up with this idea to make a deal with him
It took a lot of courage for Ruhi to utter those four words, knowing full well Rafael wasn't going to let her go that easily. If he was a person to reason with and walk away with mutual understanding, she would have never tried so hard to run away from him. As she expected, his eyes flared, smoldering with what seemed to be fury, and his body grew rigidabove her, taut with tension."What?"He rolled onto his side and forced her to meet his gaze."You heardme. I can't live like this anymore. I want out, and I mean it."He flinched slightly at the steely resolution in her eyes. His gaze was feverishly raking her up and down, with disbelief clearly written all over his face. She was equally baffled that he hadn't seen this coming. She wondered if he was being deliberately dense."Ruhi, I know you didn't deserve the treatment you got from me." He stroked her cheek back and forth with hislong thumb. "It's not fair that I make a mistake
"A honeymoon..."Ruhi quietly pushed Rafael's hand away and put her seatbelt on. He expected her to put up a fight orrun out of the car and was shocked to see her stare out of the window in resignation.Zack approached the car but was blocked by Harry. He handed Ruhi's cellphone, laptop, and money back to Harry. Rafael told him to hold on to them as he believed Ruhi wouldn't run without those things. He also wanted to make sure she didn't call her sister and ask her to run instead."Drive!" She told him in an impatient voice when he stalled inside the car, checking his work emails quickly."Ruhi, I don't mean to force you into---""What part of my intentions isnot clear to you? Doyou really think I'd run away from you to show you I want to go on a honeymoon? What kind of logic is that?"Rafael opened his mouth to defend himself but closed it when he saw the look on her face. She was royally pissed, unlike all those ot
"Are you serious?" Ruhi couldn't believe her ears.He ignored her and focused on his phone when Zack texted and then called him."No, no weapons and none of his men. He can go back if he doesn't agree."She waited for him to finish talking on the phone while peeking into the coffee mug he left on the table."Was that dark rum or black coffee? Didyou really mean it when you said I can go?""Pack your stuff before I change my mind."She darted upthe stairs but stopped when she heard Zack enter the house with a pissed off face and announce something to Gus. When did he ever look happy? She wondered and turned back to the room but stopped dead in her tracks when she thought she heard Rafael's name.Climbing back down the spiral staircase, she walked towards the door to listen to their conversation."Just one then. Check thoroughly.""Check who?" She asked Gus, who ignored her again and went to grab some stu
"Gus, she's gone." Ruhi held her breath when she heard Zack's infuriated voice. She was surprised to hear him address his boss by his name.Gus closed the bathroom door and walked over to the bed. Unlike Zack who wanted to kill Ruhi if he saw her again, Gus was relatively calm as he picked his cellphone up from the bed. Checking his messages on the locked screen and dismissing them, he opened the 'Tracker'."I'll get Nash to check the surveillance camera. She may still be on the premises if---""She's right here." Gus cut him off whileRuhi's heartbeat skyrocketed. "You can get back to work. I'll take care of this."Leaning down a bit, he grabbed Ruhi's wrist firmly and pulled her out from under the bed. She didn't dare to meet hiseyesand stared at the door Zack exited from.Gus moved a strand of her hair from her cheek while she froze.'Crap, crap, crap! He's probably twenty years older than me and wants to either kill me k