Chapter 163 - Getting Past Her Past (1)

Shen pulled away and shook his head. He raked a hand through his hair, pushing it back from his face, revealing the worry lines on his forehead, betraying his distress.

Lina clasped her hands together, wanting badly to comfort her husband, but scared to touch him if he pushed her away. 

She couldn't bear for him to keep her away from him, but could she expect another reaction? She felt like she had broken his heart. 

"Please, just tell me anything to make it better, please" he begged quietly. "I...I have our marriage certificates right her!" he said, in a pained voice, still reeling in disbelief. 

Lina took a deep breath, she had to tell him the entire story today before she hurt him anymore. He had waited so patiently, never spied on her or pushed her to reveal everything and this was his reward -- her betrayal. 

"My name is not Lina Mito, it's Lina Dai. You married my undercover identity...but Lina Mito doesn't really exist." she whispered. 

"So....you were going to just disappear one day, when you were done with me? When you got what you wanted?" he exclaimed, the pain in his voice obvious. 

He couldn't fathom her having disappeared into thin air one day as if she had never existed in his life. As if their whole relationship had been only in his mind. 

"The Agency would have helped me fake my death and that would have been the end" she said softly, guilt and shame clouding her eyes. 

Tears rolled down Shen's eyes as he looked down into his palms. He remembered what it was like, to get that call that Lina was attacked and fighting for her life in the hospital. 

He remembered what it was like when she hadn't woken up for days, weeks, months...and every minute that she remained like that, he had died a little more inside. 

Lina could see how his heart was breaking, she couldn't hold back any longer. She hugged him tightly. 

"Darling, please forgive me, I loved you almost instantly, and I knew I could never let anyone hurt you. I just wanted to keep you safe. I wanted to leave, give up my status at The Agency, I wanted to come home to you every day and night of my life...I wanted to go on normal dates, have babies, and never ever lie to you again." 

Shen was still too shocked to respond. He knew she meant it. Or they wouldn't have tried to kill her. But she was still...someone else's wife. 

Lina continued her story. He had to know. 

"I was sixteen...my parents died when I was a child and my aunt took me in and we lived in a small village. She and her daughter hated me, they beat me, starved me and used me as their slave. I wanted to escape and that's when I met Tachi. He taught me how to fight, to be strong. But I wanted more. I wanted to get out, I wanted to make a difference like I had seen him make to some people. I didn't want to see the weak be abused like I had been. He was only ever like an older brother to me, I promise" she said, holding her husband tighter than ever, scared to lose him...and lose his trust. 

"Then why did you marry him? Who marries someone like their older brother? You were sixteen, a young girl still! How could he be so perverted!" Shen was trying to hold back his anger. Had that man laid a finger on his beautiful Lina when she was just a budding teen? 

"There was no choice! The Agency doesn't allow outsiders! Agents were only allowed to reveal it to their immediate family members. So I had to be his wife, but it was only a contract marriage. I was supposed to divorce him before I went on this mission, but he promised me he would sign immediately after we finished" she hoped the explanation would calm the demon her husband could turn into. 

So he had never touched her, or taken advantage of her. Shen was relieved. But there was still a burning sensation in her heart that her name was connected to another man instead of his. 

"When can you divorce him?" Shen asked, his voice cold as stone. 

He wouldn't stand for it another minute. 

Lina closed her eyes and sighed deeply. 

"There's something else. This is the hardest part. I can't go back to Dr. Hayama again" she said, her voice trembling, partly in fear and partly in anger for putting herself and Shen in such direct danger. 

"Why?" Shen asked, wondering what connection that had to anything they had discussed. 

"Because he's my boss. He's actually...everyone's boss. He runs the Agency. I don't even know his real name. Nobody does. But he's the most dangerous man I have ever known." Lina's hands quivered as she held on to her husband. 

But she wasn't done.

"And his assistant...he's a real psychopath. We call him Senior. He's the only one who can match up to the Boss. I can't believe I brought you so close to them." she said, as she tried to control her anxiety. 

Suddenly, Shen stood up. He had realised that what Lina had just told him put something into place. 

The security camera footage from Country A twenty years ago...a thin serious looking man with Victor Tachibana had been found using the facial recognition software operated by James. 

This was the only thing he hadn't told Lina about so she wouldn't worry or think about Victor while she was recovering. 

But that man, he was the assistant...it all made sense. Victor Tachibana and Senior had been close to the crime scene where a family house had burned down. Senior was the other man on the footage! 

'Should I tell her what happened twenty years ago? She would have barely been six years old.'

"When did you begin living with your aunt? How old were you?" Shen asked, suddenly. 

He was so close, he knew intuitively that this whole thing was far bigger than anyone could imagine. 

"I was just six at the time. My aunt told me that I was thrust upon her from her "no-good" sister, who was my mother. I was brought to Country J. I don't know anything beyond that, and my aunt didn't care to help me find out" Lina said, a lost, sad expression in her eyes. 

Shen's heart went out to her, she had lost her life twice, with no recollection of where she even came from. 

No matter all her lies, and her secret life and identity, he couldn't stop wanting to hold her and give her everything he had. 

"Baby, I have something to tell you too"