Our Heartstrings Undone

"Throw that junk out immediately. How can a lady ride around in that-that treacherous motorcycle?!" Madam Sara of the Jin household demanded furiously. With her black hair neatly rolled in a low bun and modest, purple cheongsam emanating her sternness, Madam Sara pointed her finger like a dagger towards the entrance of her home.

Quickly, the middle-aged butler in front of her, Lyle, held out his hand to Leah who had cowered into the corner of the lobby with her luggage.

She had just turned twenty-three. Her glossy, big, light brown eyes shrank back in this unknown territory. Her naturally wavy, long, brown hair hung loosely against her slim figure covered in a leather bike jacket.

He was gesturing and waiting for her to hand over the key with his head slightly lowered because the situation was also uncomfortable for him.

Leah was frightened and reluctant to hand over the matte black-on-black motorcycle, a rare make called Python, that was her late grandparent's last birthday gift on her eighteenth birthday. Leah cherished and took great care of the bike. It had been with her for a few years and now her new mother-in-law, Sara, was going to dispose of it.

Leah's frightened eyes lit up for a small moment as she gathered all the courage to inch closer to Sara, who was full of fierce dignity, to plead if she could store her motorcycle in a storage unit she would solely pay for.

Although Sara was much shorter stature than Leah, her angry and beady eyes sent chills down Leah's spine. After a second's thought, Sara surprisingly said, "Then get it off my property this instant." Leah rushed off to relocate and store her bike elsewhere.

Moving from her late grandparent's smaller villa into the Jin’s gigantic and lavished villa made Leah feel like a small insect stepping into someone else’s territory. Her short time in that villa was excruciatingly suffocating as she had just sold her soul to members of the elite class. She didn’t fit in.

She was from a failing family both in name and financially during the time after her father passed on and no one could stabilize the company. And that’s exactly the predicament Leah’s grandfather failed to see when he asked Grandfather Jin to help marry Leah into the Jin family for security after their passing.

Leah’s parents were taken away from her at the tender age of six from a horrible motor accident. Her grandparents raised her with the privileges that boys would have such as an expensive and rigorous education, and beneficial hobbies: martial arts and professional racing. They calculated and planned for her to support herself in the long run. This was how she could protect herself: an education and physical skills.

Having been in her elderly grandparents’ care until her late teen, marrying her off into a wealthy family was the only route they could make sure Leah was taken care of for a long time. Little did they know that their decision would set in motion heart-wrenching trauma for Leah to live with.

Leah walked through the threshold of the Jin villa alone to marry the young master, Adrian Jin, who was the current most influential CEO and business tycoon of Blooming City in A country.

Another disturbing scene of the past flashed in Leah’s nightmare after seeing her young self walk through the Jin’s threshold.

She was reliving the night spotting and following her drunken husband who was carried by two unknown ruffians into a sketchy hotel. She was overcome by her drugged husband’s assault all late evening.

In the middle of the night, Leah remembered struggling with a presence that had tightly cupped her nostrils and mouth with a damp and foul towel. She lost consciousness afterward and woke up the next day in a different room with the side of the bed next to her ruffled.

When she returned home looking disheveled, scandalous photos of an unfamiliar male body hugging her, while she was unconscious, were thrown in her face. His face was cut off in the frame on purpose. She pleaded on her knees crying in front of Sara, her husband, and his first love, Beth Li, to believe her testimony.

“Adrian, please, believe me. I met with Nora across from the bar you were dragged out of. I followed you being carried away. You were in and out of it drugged. We spent the night together, but in the middle of the night someone attacked me and I woke up in a different room. That’s all I remember,” Leah sobbed desperately.

Her indifferent husband remained seated on the sofa noble and undisturbed. Leah moved closer and put her hands on his arm to plead, but Adrian suddenly shoved her kneeling body onto the cold, marble floor ruthlessly. “I don’t know what pretense you are spewing but I went to the bar with Beth and woke up with her beside me. I’ve already given my word to be responsible for her.” He stood up and towered over Leah on the marble floor.

Beth approached closer half hiding and clenching onto Adrian’s arm with a sorrowful expression like a helpless child. Leah knew best what a great actress Beth was.

Adrian lowered to level with Leah and clenched her jaw slightly. He mocked her indifferently.

“Since you and I were no different last night, let’s go our separate ways since we have not consummated our marriage for the past year. Don’t you get it? I’m not into you. Beth will be accompanying me from now on. I will propose an engagement to her soon. You can remain here if your face is thick enough. If you still have any sense of self-respect left you should leave. I’m not short of money. I can provide you with a hefty amount to live comfortably for the rest of your life.”

On the tiny bed, Leah sweated profusely with a sour face struggling to wake up from the same nightmare she battled with for the last three months.

Adrian had just returned home when Leah gleefully approached to welcome him home and receive his jacket as she routinely did. Being shoved away forcefully, Leah looked aggrieved at him asking, “Why are you treating me so coldly, Adrian? I’m still your wife legally. Could you at least treat me like a stranger and not as a criminal?”

After a slight sneer, he replied, “Don’t touch me. The person who should be next to me is Beth. Not you. A lowly, conniving, money-hungry person.” He went to change his clothes quickly and exited the home as quickly as he came.

Then, another horrendous scene…

Sara, Adrian, and Harrison, Adrian’s father, sat Leah down with a lump sum of money and her positive test results on the table trying to convince her to abort the baby conceived just a few months ago. She had tried to keep it a secret but her heavy morning sickness gave it away.

Harrison, clean kept and tall stature, like Adrian, spoke politely to Leah. She was, again, shaking in tears. Her knuckles flashed white from her fists clenching onto the hem of her dress while her head hung low. “My dear daughter-in-law, it’s not your fault. Unfortunately, we don’t know who that man is in the photos…We can’t bring anyone to be responsible for your baby.”

Leah interrupted helplessly, “No! I’ve said it before. I spent the night with Adrian. This baby is his. And whether it’s his or not, I’m not getting rid of it. This baby is innocent.” Her tearful eyes darted pleadingly at Adrian while he continued to look out the window with a mocking smirk.

Adrian finally stood up still in his work attire and looked disgustingly at Leah, “You’re fucking delusional. I never touched you. Stop trying to pin your bastard child on me.”

He walked towards the stairs going to the second floor and stopped as he suddenly remembered something. “Ah, Mom. Dad. I’ll be on a business trip to H Country with Beth for the next few months. Don’t expect to see me until then. Please, get this mess resolved so I can arrange an engagement soon. Maybe get Grandfather to talk to Leah since it was his great idea in the first place.” Adrian loosened his tie as he turned away coldly.

Finally shaken out of her continuous nightmare, Leah was covered in sweat heaving for breath on the lonely, small bed. She quickly wiped her forehead with her arm and looked at the time on her phone. The sun was already high up and beaming into her small bedroom.

‘I need to hurry. I overslept.’ Leah thought.

She put her long, straight, brown hair in a loose bun, caressed her protruding belly through her long, flowy fall dress, and made her way out.