Chasing Hearts

Seventeen

I had rushed home after school to speak with my father, but to my surprise, my mother was already there as well. They were chatting together at the dining room table, a scene I hadn't seen in 8 years.

"Maia, good, you're home," my father said and stood with a smile.

My mother glared at him. "Her name is Han Ma Ri. When did you have her change to an English name?"

"Haeun, please, not right now."

She slammed her hand against the table. "Is this how she was to live the entire time she was here? Being oppressed by you and your new wife? You knew she wasn't going to be here forever, yet you dared to try and strip her identity away!"

They started to argue back and forth, which allowed me to slip into my bedroom to wait for it to settle down. I took out my phone and tried to send a text to Reign, but like all the others, it was sent back as undeliverable.

I needed him to know what was going on. I wasn't sure what I expected, but I didn't want the chance of me leaving without at least having told him I was. My only option was to tell Xiuying and have her pass it along to him when he got back.

But that meant I wouldn't be able to see him, and who knew when was the next time we would ever see each other if we ever did. If I left with my mother, I could say goodbye to my scholarship and goodbye to everything I worked so hard these past couple of months to achieve.

What was the point of her sending me here for a better education, when she was just trying to bag a rich guy and have it, so we never had to work again? Why did she ever think I could live a life like that?

"Ma Ri, can I come in?" It was my father. I scoffed at the use of my real name, something he hadn't done since I arrived.

I didn't answer him, but he welcomed himself inside anyway.

"I'm sorry for what happened, I didn't want you to see that," he said.

I chuckled. "It isn't any different from the way you always acted together."

"That isn't what I want to talk about. Look, your mother is here to take you back and since I was only granted temporary custody, there is nothing I can do."

"Dad, I'm 18 now, I can make my own decisions."

He shook his head. "You know your mother is going to fight this until the very end, and the laws in Korea aren't the same as here. You are still her daughter by name and by legal law, it would just be easier to go with her and finish school. Then you can do whatever it is you want to do."

I wanted to both laugh and cry at the fact that my father still didn't know what it was that I was passionate about, even when I lived here for months.

"Dad, please, I don't want to leave. I like living here, and I've made friends. I don't want to leave everything behind again."

He laughed. "You are never home, and you constantly fight with your stepsister. When you are home, you never come out of your room and never eat a family meal with us. Now, you're saying you want to stay here and like it here? How am I supposed to believe that?"

I got down on my knees. "Please, Dad, I beg of you. Don't send me away."

He just sighed and frowned. "Like I said, this is out of my hands. You better pack your things and go with your mother."

I gaped at him as silent tears rolled down my face, but he just turned and walked out the door.

What the hell was I going to do now?

~*~

2 days had gone by, and my mother was getting ready for us to leave. I had tried frantically to get a hold of Reign before then, but I resorted to telling Xiuying that she would need to pass it along for me.

I told her to also pass along my feelings and to tell him how I really felt about him before I left, so I wouldn't leave with any regrets. I gave her all of my contact information so we could try and stay in touch as much as possible, and that there was still hope that Reign and I could meet again.

Xiuying met me outside the school gates on my last day and gave me the biggest hug while she cried into my shoulder and asked if there was really nothing I could do. I told her there really wasn't unless she had the space for one more person, I had nowhere else to go if my father was going to kick me out.

He wasn't technically kicking me out, but if I had refused to go with my mother to the bitter end, I doubt he would've let me stay. Chances were he would've put me in a box and shipped me to my mother himself just to avoid dealing with her drama and temper. My father was content with his new lavished life, and he was willing to eliminate anything that threatened that peace.

Even if it meant his own daughter.

~*~

That night I lay in bed and went through the pictures and memories from my day at the amusement park with Reign. I had taken so many pictures, maybe because I had felt deep down it was going to be the last time we would get to see each other. If I had truly known then, I would've made sure that night never ended and done so much more.

I stopped at the picture of us on the Ferris wheel. When we stopped at the top, I asked him to take a picture with me.

Only now did I realize that in the picture, he wasn't looking at the camera, but rather at me. The look in his eyes told me everything I had wondered that night and after.

I couldn't just let everything end like this. Why was my mother so cruel? She couldn't even let me finish the semester when there was only a week left anyway, then it would be the New Year.

There had to be some way I could convince her to let me stay until then, argue with her that it would be best for my education, and then I would go with her wherever she wanted me to. She just had to give me until then.

With that in mind, I grabbed my phone and went to see my mother who was still in the living room.

"Mom, can we speak?"

"If you're here to talk out of leaving, I am too exhausted, Ma Ri."

I shook my head and took a seat across from her.

"Not exactly, I just had a thought. Could you at least let me stay here until the New Year is over? It's only a week away and my semester will be over, then I promise I won't make a fuss and go back to Korea with you."

She frowned and hummed to herself. I crossed my fingers under the table and prayed silently that she agreed.

"Fine, but on one condition."

"Yes, of course, anything," I said.

She pointed to the table as if to make her point further.

"You are to live with me for that time, your father no longer has any custody over you." She slammed down a piece of paper; the rights to me that my father signed away.