His Trophy Wife
Kaya didn't even know that the hospital had a big lounge-waiting room on the top floor. She always thought the top floor was just for fancy hospital suites. However, what surprised Kaya the most was the fact of how well Sylvan seemed to know the hospital and its staff. Every staff member greeted him with a slight bow as he led Kaya to the waiting room and as soon as they entered the spacious room, the staff, who were already there, bowed to Sylvan and instantly left him and Kaya alone. Kaya couldn't help anymore, she needed to ask,
"How does everyone knows you here?"
Sylvan looked at her hearing the question but he didn't answer, instead, he motioned at a grey couch.
"Take a seat. My Assistant would be here any minute."
Rolling her eyes, Kaya sat down.
"You said you would answer my questions if I agreed," she muttered under her breath but Sylvan caught it.
"You agreed but still didn't sign the contract. I can't trust you unless you are legally bound to me," Sylvan sat down in front of Kaya crossing his legs.
"Bound to you?" Kaya repeated the words, knitting her eyebrows together. The way he said it made Kaya nervous. What was she really signing up for?
Before Kaya could debate more with herself, someone knocked on the waiting room door and entered. Kaya recognized the man. It was the driver of the car. Kaya guessed he was Sylvan's assistant as he presented a document and a pen to Sylvan.
"I double-checked the entirety of the contract, sir. But if you like you can check again," The man said politely bowing.
"Yes, I will, Oliver," Sylvan said without looking at his assistant as his eyes scanned the document.
Oliver, his assistant nervously readjusted his glasses and then turned to Kaya. His eyes got sympathetic as he looked at her, and he offered a small smile to her. Automatically Kaya smiled, but with a little bit of confusion. Seeing her expression, Oliver opened his mouth to say something but glancing at Sylvan, he didn't say anything.
Kaya turned to look at Sylvan as well. He looked engrossed while reading the contract. For a moment, he looked like a painting, with his broad shoulders, slender waist, perfect long crossed legs, and not even a single hair looked out of place in his neatly side-parted wavy hair that framed his gorgeous sculpted face and the sharp jawline. Kaya let herself observe the man just for a few minutes wondering where had she seen him before.
Feeling her eyes on him, Sylvan looked up and their eyes locked. It was his eyes, Kaya concluded. His eyes were the most dangerous part of him and the most familiar to Kaya. not only his eyes were simply gorgeous but Kaya thought he could see through people with them. She felt weirdly exposed under his gaze.
"Here Miss Sah," Sylvan extended the papers towards Kaya, breaking the moment.
Kaya quickly looked away and took the papers haphazardly, hoping that Sylvan didn't think too much about the eye contact just now. Kaya scanned the papers as well, going over the clauses. As promised, the consent part of their relationship was pretty straightforward, then there was a clause about how every expense of Kaya would be taken care of by Sylvan, clothes, food, travel, everything. Reading this Kaya couldn't help but grimaced, she felt like a trophy wife.
"Everything okay?" Sylvan raised a perfect eyebrow at her. Of course, the frown didn't escape his eyes. He noticed everything.
"Um . . . I was wondering . . ." Kaya struggled to phrase her problem. No matter how fierce she appeared, was there her say in anything in this situation? Her own thoughts startled Kaya, she scolded herself for thinking like that. 'If you don't ask you will never get anything,' she reminded herself before looking up at Sylvan. "This point says, you will be taking care of my all expenses. Does that mean I have to quit my jobs?"
"Of course, you can quit your jobs. You and your mother can live comfortably —" Sylvan stopped mid-sentence and for the first time, Kaya saw Sylvan surprised. "Wait, you don't want to quit?"
"Look, I know it will be weird if some hot-shot person's wife works at a cafe or bake at a pastry shop but I really want to continue my teaching job," Kaya explained breathlessly. "I like teaching piano to kids. I know it probably won't look good with my trophy wife role but it's just on weekends and I —"
"Miss Sah, I never asked you to be a trophy wife," Sylvan interrupted her calmly. "If you want to keep teaching, you can. The clause of expense is for me to provide for you. For what you agreed to. It's not to restrain your freedom in any way. You can still do what you like, but you do have to keep up appearances in my world to look convincing. In your free time, how you live your life is up to you. Unless it affects me, I won't interfere, as I would expect the same from you."
Now, it was Kaya's turn to be surprised. The sincerity in Sylvan's voice caught her off-guard. Maybe it was her past experiences with people in power or the way Sylvan talked from the beginning, or maybe both, that she didn't expect these words from him. It was Kaya's first time seeing a man, young, rich, and good-looking, who had power in this situation, considering her feelings.
She didn't know how to react, so blinking a couple of times, she nodded and mumbled,
"Fine by me."
After a few more minutes of silence, where Kaya hurriedly finished reading the contract, and they both signed it.
"Oliver, make a copy and give it to Miss Sah," Sylvan ordered handing over the contract papers to Oliver, who was still quietly standing there. "And you know what else to do. Also, send the nurse in."
"Of course sir," Oliver nodded and left the room.
"Nurse?" Kaya looked at Sylvan but before he could answer a nurse bustled in and gave a slight bow to them.
"Mr. Park, good evening."
"Yes, good evening. Kindly please check her waist, she had a small accident this morning," Sylvan gestured at Kaya whose eyebrows shoot up in surprise.
"What? Me? I'm fine," Kaya spoke hastily as the nurse moved toward her with a smile.
"Don't worry, it wouldn't take long. Let me just check."
"No. No. I'm really fine," Kaya stood abruptly.
"Then what's the harm in checking? If you are right then you just get to confirm it by checking," Sylvan stood up as well and head for the door. "I will be outside."
"Didn't you just say you wouldn't force me for anything?" Kaya called out bewildered.
"Yes, however, medical attention is something everyone needs and I would rather have my bride unbroken," Sylvan smirked closing the door after him.
With an exasperated sigh, Kaya turned to the nurse, only to see her mouth hanging open.
"Are you ok?" Kaya asked and the nurse's shock turned into a nervous laugh.
"Yes, Ma'am. Don't worry, I will take extra caution and if you feel uncomfortable in any way please let me know."
Kaya stared at her confused as she helped Kaya sit down and lifted her shirt to check her side.
"Oh, it's forming a bruise, Mr. Park wasn't worried about nothing," the nurse smiled looking a little giddy.
"Yeah . . . but it just a bruise. Nothing serious, right?" Kaya asked wondering why the hell was she giggling.
"Nothing seemed to be broken but still we would need to do an X-ray and . . ." the nurse went on and on about a list of tests that Kaya wasn't even sure was related to her bruise. Kaya was about to interrupt the nurse and ask her to go when the nurse said something that stopped Kaya. ". . . but of course, since you're Mr. Park's fiancee, everything will be done by professionals and because Mr. Park owns the hospital, there will be —"
"He what?"
"What, ma'am?" The nurse looked at Kaya startled.
Kaya was about to ask what did she mean by Sylvan owning the hospital, but that was when Kaya realized what Sylvan was trying to do. Sylvan called her "his bride" before leaving and his smirk definitely meant something. He practically told the nurse that they are going to be married. Did he want to see if Kaya could handle situations like this without him? Was this a test?
"Ma'am? Are you alright?" The nurse asked alarmed.
"Yes, yeah," Kaya nodded, and steeling herself, she tried to look confident as she answered. "I was thinking these many tests are unnecessary. I am sure it's just a bruise. I mean, I would feel if I had a broken hipbone, no?"
"Yes, of course, but —"
"Please finish this up quickly. I need to talk to my fiance." Kaya gave a fake smile and the nurse nodded looking terrified.