Chapter 58 - Parents

"Someone like my father?" Yun Xuan was dumbfounded. "It would make sense if he did that after my return but..." she didn't know why she shut up.

"I'm sorry. I don't mean to drive a wedge between you and your family but your father is not a good person." Tyler said straightfowardly.

Yun Xuan raised an eyebrow. "What makes you think he is not a good person?"

Tyler took a deep breath and looked at her helplessly "I don't have any reason to slander my future family. Just trust me okay?"

Yun Xuan was annoyed "On what grounds do you make such a claim? Tell me right now or keep it to your grave and never say such a thing to me."

Tyler thought about it. It was going to be very difficult and cruel to shatter a girl's perfect image of her father. "Forget it, it's just my intuition." he smiled.

The girl became even more annoyed. "You know, you can't just use your intuition to cast judgement on people. Is that how you were trained?"

"I know, I'm sorry." he just couldn't bring himself to tell her what he knew. Sigh, as long as that old man doesn't hurt Yun Xuan, he shouldn't care about his other deeds.

"Let's meet my parents tomorrow." he said after a while.

"Okay" she said as she casually sat on his lap and kissed his lips.

...

The next day, the two rose a bit later than usual thanks to their nighttime activities. After taking a warm bath to refresh her worn out body, Yun Xuan wore the black knee length dress Tyler had prepared for her. It was elegant and not too bright, showing off her beauty but at the same time not standing out too much. She looked quite pretty.

"Let's go," Tyler said after she was done dressing up and helped her into his car.

Tyler laughed at her nervousness. "Stop being so nervous. My parents will definitely like you."

"They will? They aren't going to reject me, and they won't be overly hard to please?"

"They can't do that. Though I must give you a heads up. My parents are...." he couldn't find the right words "....a lot different from your imagination"

"I see. As long as they accept me." she sighed. She didn't know why she really feared that they may not like her.

"Shouldn't we get some gifts for your parents?" she asked as they passed by a shopping centre.

"Don't worry about it, the flowers are enough." he casually said. He had bought two bouquets of white roses. She figured those were obviously for his mother. Perhaps his family was so wealthy that they did not care about presents and could only accept things like flowers? It was quite possible considering his own lifestyle...

"Ok" she didn't think too much about it.

As the road advanced into a remote area, she started feeling something was odd. She thought about the white flowers Tyler had bought and glanced at her black dress. Was it what she was thinking..... could Tyler's parents be.... Were they heading to the cemetry?

Tyler noticed her curiosity and gripped the steering wheel tightly taking a deep breath. "I didn't know how to explain it to you." he looked carefully at her facial expressions "We're indeed going to the cemetry." The car stopped as they arrived.

She was more scared than shocked as she trembled slightly.

She suddenly recalled a long forgotten incident of her childhood.

...

She had come to this very place with her mother when she was five. It was her father's memorial, or so she thought.

After a short while, her mother's phone rang and the woman had a troubled expression on her face. She told her that she had a little problem to settle and that Yun Xuan should wait for her for a minute and not go anywhere.

However, she waited for a long time and her mother did not come back. She waited till the sun set, the moon rose... she began getting scared. She was hungry and cold and could only remember her mother's worried expression when she left?

Who had called earlier? Was it a bad person? Was her mother in danger? She decided to look for her. In the cold night, the lonely little girl could only rely on her own instincts to get to the main road in search for her mother.

However, even after searching till late at night without even knowing where she was going, she didn't see any sign of her. Luckily a traffic officer took notice of her just as she was about to break down from hunger, fear, tiredness and cold.

The man took her to his home and gave her food, even bought her some clothes to change into as he coaxed her to wait for a while as he will investigate her mother's whereabouts the next day. Yet it was not sure what the five year old girl thought of as she ran away early the next morning to look for her mother on her own.

...

"Yun Xuan?" Tyler had called her several times but the girl was in a daze for so long with tears rolling down her face prompting him to shake her arm.

"Are you okay?" he asked worriedly.

She wiped the tears she hadn't known were falling and said in a chocked voice "Am okay. Let's go"

"No." he could pretty much guess that she had a bad memory about this place and from the looks of it, it must be one that still traumatized her. "I'll only tell you their story if I have to." he looked at her guiltily.