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“Why are you here, Hana?” Jae demanded, and I stared angrily up at him.
“Why are you? I can make one goddamn choice in my life, can’t I?” I said, getting up.
Jae stared at me, his hands clenched into red-stained fists at his sides. “Not at nineteen you can’t, and not about a man like him.”
“A man like him? Do you mean a man like you? And yes, I’m nineteen. How old is Kat? Besides, nineteen is clearly old enough for Dami to send me back to Korea to live with grandmother and take care of her,” I accused. Jae jerked, clearly taken aback by that news. He hadn’t known, then. It was a little comforting at least.
“You don’t have any right to tell me not to choose him,” I ground out, my hands curling into fists. The fact that I was pregnant might have made me feel vulnerable, but instead, I felt stronger than ever. I wasn’t fighting just for me. I was fighting for the baby inside, and that gave me strength I’d never had before. I remembered Kon’s words from the night we met.Don’t make yourself small to please others.
“And don’t try to make me feel too young to know my own mind. I’m the smartest person in this room – you don’t have to explain to me the consequences of my choices. I’m well aware.” My voice rang out, and it didn’t sound like me at all. It wasn’t nineteen-year-old sheltered Hana, virgin and biddable shut-in.
It was the future Hana Ivanova, mother of Konstantin’s child, future doctor of Mathematics, and protective mama bear.
Jae stared at me as if he’d never seen me before. “He doesn’t deserve you, Hana,” he said quietly, but the fight was gone from his voice.
I shrugged. “It doesn’t matter, because I love him. It’s too late… I already love him.”
Jae tore his eyes from me, and turned them to the ceiling, his breath leaving his chest in a long exhale. “Fuck,” he cursed quietly.
I turned from my brother and knelt back down beside Kon. “Are you ok?’
“I’m great. Your brother can’t punch for shit,” he chuckled.
“Only you could be making jokes with a broken nose.”
“We all have our talents, pumpkin.”
I reached out and wiped a drop of blood from under his eye. “How could you think this was a good idea?”
“I didn’t have a lot of options, Hana. I’m never going to hurt you. I can withstand anything for you… I had to show your brother that.”
“He’s a lunatic,” Jae called from behind us, just as the sound of ringing heels rang out. “Shit,” Jae muttered softly.
“Jae Han Song, you better not have killed my brother,” Kat’s voice filled the space, as she strode into the room. “How dare you have someone drive me away off in the other direction-,” she launched into her husband, as Konstantin laughed, his breath wheezing in and out his lungs.
“I might be coughing blood for a week, but I don’t envy your brother right now,” he said and grimaced. “Though, just to be sure, maybe we should stop by the hospital on the way home.”
“Of course, we’re stopping by the hospital, you madman,” I said, helping Kon up. He’d come here alone, without a single Ivanov man and the idiocy and bravery weren’t lost on me. I was in love with a madman, and there was nothing I could do about it.
Katya barked out an instruction to the Song men watching us, and they rushed forward to take Kon’s weight from me. She reached out and pulled me into a hug. I’d always liked Kat and now, her touch was comforting.
“I’m so sorry, Hana. I had no idea Jae was going to do this.”
‘It’s ok, I think Konstantin knew exactly how it was going to go down, and still went ahead. I think this was his way of making peace.”
“Letting Jae take his pound of flesh? Men,” Kat muttered dismissively. We walked through the warehouse toward the exit.
“About my parents,” I started, as we followed Kon to the car outside.
“I’ll deal with them,” Jae said, rolling down his blood-covered sleeves. “I’ve accepted the match, as head of the family. You won’t be going anywhere, and that man had better marry you, as soon as possible, in front of the entire Song and Ivanov families,”
“Oh, a wedding! We’ll let Dami plan it, and that’ll make her happy. It can be the biggest, most ostentatious event of the year,” Kat suggested.
As we got outside, Jae looked around for Rocco.
“I think he got a little distracted,” I noted, wondering what the hell had happened to Kira as well. Kon let out a grunt of pain, as he was put into a car. I hurried away from my brother and sister-in-law to slide into the car after him. I took his hand and held it tightly.
“Take us to the hospital,” I told the driver, turning to Konstantin, and frowning at his rapidly bruising face. “I can’t believe you let my brother do this.”
