To Be or Not To Be A Family - Chapter 52

The whole house was in chaos. No one understood what happened right now. Everyone was staring at the door from which Ashma exited. Vidhi ran towards Baek-Hyeon and picked him up.

“Are you alright?” asked Vidhi. Baek-Hyeon stood up and looked at Vidhi. He was too shocked to answer her. He just looked at her.

“She punched me, she punched me, she punched me,” he kept repeating in different tonal qualities. He had his palm over his face hiding the redness from the punch. No one else spoke. Everything was in anarchy and mayhem. No one knew what to do. Vidhi made Baek-Hyeon sit on the couch.

“Someone please get him an ice pack,” she shouted and ran towards the main door. “Ashu! Ashu! Please come back,” she screamed but it was too late. She had already left. The second one to come out of shock was Young-Soo. He too ran after Vidhi. She was about to run outside the main gate to find her daughter. Before she could cross the threshold, he grabbed her and pulled her back towards him.

“She is gone. Calm down. You can’t run after her. Look at me. Vidhi, look at me. Don’t worry about her. We will look for her. You might have another panic attack,” shouted Young-Soo.

“My Ashu! My daughter,” she grabbed his collar and started crying loudly. Her knees gave in, and he fell to the ground.

Young-Soo too knelt in front of her and grabbed her face in his hands. “She will be fine. I will go find her. We all will go find her. Please calm down.” He pulled her in for a hug and hugged her tightly.

After seeing that Young-Soo ran after Ashma, Eun-Kyung too came out and saw Young-Soo holding Vidhi in his arms tightly. She was crying her eyes out. Tears were streaming down Young-Soo’s face too. They both were concerned for their daughter and gave hope to each other through their touch.

Eun-Kyung averted her eyes. She understood what Young-Soo was doing was necessary, but she didn’t have to see it. No matter Young-Soo didn’t love her, but she loved him. She was the mother of his children. Moreover, her jealousy or her discomfort was not important, they had to go and find Ashma. She was driving in an unknown country. She was driving a car that she had no idea how to drive. The steering wheel was on the left side. Cars in India were driven on the left side whereas cars in Korea were driven on the right side. She might break traffic rules or worse get into an accident.

Suddenly, Vidhi raised her head and broke the embrace. She ran inside and stood in Young-Jae’s face.

“Are you happy now? You wanted her out of your house, and she is gone. I don’t know where my daughter is. No one knows where she is. She is all alone driving a car which she is not supposed to. What if my daughter gets hurt? What if my daughter gets killed? Who will take the responsibility? You? Why did you do it? Why do you hate her so much? No one of this is her fault. She is just a child who had no idea what any of us did. If you want to hate, hate me, not her. I was the one who stole your kid, not her. Is this some kind of revenge? I took your son from you, and you are going to take my daughter from me. Why did you do that? Why?” She grabbed his collar and demanded answers from him. All he could do was look at her in dismay. He grabbed her hands and was hearing to her every word. It was like a dagger to his heart.

It was difficult to look at Vidhi. She was broken, dejected. Water was coming out of her eyes and nose. Her whole face was red. She was sobbing uncontrollably. She was not even trying to wipe her face.

Meanwhile, Chin-Sun ran and brought an ice pack for Baek-Hyeon. He was standing near the couch and looking at Vidhi and his grandfather. Everyone knew this time it was all Young-Jae’s fault. He had no right to slap Ashma.

Vidhi’s knees gave in again and she fell to the ground. Young-Jae tried to touch her to help her get up when Young-Soo shouted, “don’t touch her. You did this. First, you took away my love and now you took away my daughter. I hate you.” Young-Jae looked at him with an open mouth. Never his son ever said that he hated him. He knew he should not have slapped Ashma, but he was angry. He was afraid that because of her their secret might come out. He was not thinking at that moment.

Young-Soo held her from her back. She let her body fall on his body. She was completely broken thinking of her daughter and her safety. She couldn’t get up on her own. Young-Soo picked her up in his arms and carried her to her room. He placed her on the bed, and she kept sobbing.

“Please find my child,” said Vidhi, crying.

“Trust me, I will find her,” said Young-Soo and kissed her on her forehead. She curled into a ball and kept crying. Young-Soo didn’t want to leave her like this, but he had no choice. He had to find his daughter. He patted her back and left the room.

He came out and looked at his father in disgust.

“Youngsoona!” said Young-Jae in a guilty tone. “Trust me I had no idea this would happen.”

Young-Soo clenched his teeth and gritted at his father, “What did you think would happen? Huh? You called my child a bastard, a bastard. And who made her a bastard, you. I think you forgot. I left her in India because of you. You are the real villain in our story.”

“Youngsoona!” Said Young-Jae defeated.

“Don’t say my name.” He screamed and looked away from his father. He looked at his son and addressed him, “Baekhyeona! Now that everyone knows she is in Korea, send all your friends in every direction and find her.”

“I will help too. Baekhyeona can come with me in my car,” said Chin-Sun.

“I will come with you, Ahppa,” said Bong-Cha. Tears were streaming down her face. She constantly kept wiping them away.

“No bongie, you have to stay here. Someone has to look after Vidhi,” said Young-Soo.

“But dad I lost her.” Bong-Cha contorted her face and began crying loudly. She was crying and speaking in a sad voice, “I got my sister, she was trying to know us, helping us with marriage stuff maybe she would have attended the marriage. I lost my sister, I lost my sister.” She hugged Young-Soo and cried in his arms. Tears started flowing from everyone’s eyes after seeing Bong-Cha crying like a baby.

Young-Jae’s heart broke after seeing her crying. “Don’t cry, Sonnyuh.”

Her crying persona was lost in an instant. She wiped her tears, looked at Young-Jae, angrily and shouted, “You don’t get to open your mouth. You were angry at her when she called me words. That was nothing compared to what you said to her. If I lose her today, I am never going to talk to you. If anything happens to her, I will never forgive you. She is all alone, God knows where and you did this.”

“She had a plan. She was going to tell the world that she came for the wedding, she was going to design cocktail dresses for us to show the world, but you never listened and hit her. Bongie is right, all this is your fault. She is injured and she is driving. Her hands have minute cuts, her knee is injured, she just had a tetanus shot, what if she hurts herself more. What will you do then? Apologise? Will that apology do any good? I doubt that you will even apologise. You are too proud, too egotistic for apologises. She at least acknowledges her mistake. When have you ever done that?” reprimanded Chin-Sun. This was for the first time, the whole house was against him.

Everyone stared at Young-Jae, but he had no answer. Everyone averted their eyes away from him, refusing to talk to him.

Chin-Sun, Baek-Hyeon and Young-Soo went out of the house to look for her. They kept driving and keeping an eye out for Baek-Hyeon’s car. Where the car will be, they would find Ashma nearby, at least they were working on that presumption. On the way to the search, Baek-Hyeon informed all his friends and asked them to keep a lookout. Young-Soo called all his contacts, his head of security and asked them to search for Ashma. Baek-Hyeon and Young-Soo kept coordinating with each other.

Chin-Sun informed her parents and asked them to look for her. Jong-Woo too took out his car and went to look for Ashma. Hae-Won directly reached the Park Mansion to be with Vidhi and Eun-Kyung. Last but not the least, Baek-Hyeon called Yong-Sun.

“What? He did what?” screamed Yong-Sun on the phone.

“He hit her,” sobbed Baek-Hyeon.

“What did she do next?” asked Yong-Sun.

“She punched me,” sniffled Baek-Hyeon. Chin-Sun kept patting his things with one hand and kept driving the car with the other. They asked their driver to stay put in the Park mansion.

“She has a mean punch,” Yong-Sun tried to make Baek-Hyeon laugh.

And it worked. “Yeah, tell me about it.” He smiled. “Wait! How did you know?”

“Um… I could tell by her hands,” lied Yong-Sun. He was not ready to tell anyone that the first recipient of her punch was him. “Well, any idea where she might be?”

“Do I look like a GPS to you?” shouted Baek-Hyeon. “She snatched my keys and ran away in my car. Everyone is so scared. Chin-Sun and I are looking for her in the east, ahppa took west, go find her north or south, your choice but inform me which direction you are going so that I can coordinate with ahppa and keunahppa.”

“Is her mom, okay?” asked Yong-Sun.

“She was crying her eyes out. I feel bad for her,” said Baek-Hyeon in a miserable voice.

“I feel bad for both of them.”

“Yeah, he called her b… he called her a bastard,” Baek-Hyeon started sobbing on the phone. “My sister is a bastard, Hyung. Will I lose my sister before I even get her?”

“Hey! Baekhyeona! We will find her,” said Yong-Sun in a soft tone. It seemed as if he was caressing Baek-Hyeon with his voice. “Everything will be alright. I have to tell her that I have a crush on her.”

“Will that make her stay with us if yes, then don’t tell you have a crush, tell her you love her. Stop her from leaving, please,” begged Baek-Hyeon.

“Leaving, what if she is going to the airport,” a literal bulb lit on Yong-Sun’s head.

“Our head of security has sent our security personals to the airports, seaports and hospitals,” informed Baek-Hyeon.

“Okay don’t worry, keep looking, I am leaving from house to look for her. I will inform mom, she will reach your house immediately,” said Yong-Sun.

“Yes, uhmma needs someone. All are looking after Ashma’s uhmma but she was uhmma’s daughter too. I can’t even fathom what she must be feeling now.”

The morning changed into the afternoon, the afternoon changed into the evening but there was no news of Ashma.. Everyone was growing restless.