All the wrong places episode 30

🌼ALL THE WRONG PLACES🌼
🌻EPISODE_THIRTY🌻

“I couldn’t destroy it,” Jin said behind Julianne. “After
what happened between us there, I just couldn’t bear the
thought of breaking it down.”
She turned around to face him. His eyes looked teary
as well.
“Like you, The Arabella belongs here,” he whispered.
Julianne stared at the familiar glasshouse that used to
sit in the gardens of White Rock Hotel.
She couldn’t find the words. She turned around and
threw herself in Jin’s arms. He wrapped his arms around her
in a tight embrace.

“Why?” she asked looking up at him. “Why are you
doing this?”
“Is it not obvious?” he asked back. “I’m making it
easier for you to have a life with me. This is going to be our
home here in Chicago. I want you and Jared to be here. And
if you will allow it, I would like to live here with you.”
“Why? Why me?”
He took her hand in his and put it in his chest to
where his heart is. “Because you captured this from the
moment I laid eyes on you. I didn’t believe that love at first
sight was possible at all. But the moment I saw you, I went
out of my skull. I instantly fell in love with you.” He pulled
her hand to his l-ips and gave it a gentle k-ss. “When you
left, I was devastated. I changed into this—mean, ruthless
man, even I do not recognize.
“And now that you’re back, I realized what happened
to me. I was broken beyond repair for anyone—but you. I am
sorry. But I admit that when I found you again, I was so
angry. When I came back to the States to confront you, I
wanted you to feel the pain of what you did to me. I wanted you to feel sorry for choosing another man over me. I was
being selfish. I wanted revenge—and at the same time, I
wanted to possess your body one last time so I could finally
get you out of my system.

“But after we’d been together that night—in The
Arabella—I couldn’t bear the thought of hurting you. I
wanted to see you smile, laugh… I wanted to see happiness
shine through your eyes. I realized that after all these years,
I was still very much in love with you. And I couldn’t stay
angry at you.
“I wanted to give you plenty of reasons to stay with
me, more than I wanted you to feel sorry about leaving me.
I wanted to see you happy more than I wanted to make you
feel the pain I felt when you fled my studio that night,” he
shook his head. “I would rather die first than cause you pain
or sorrow.”
He k-ssed her l-ips, tasting her tears in them. He
leaned his forehead against hers and then he breathed, “I
love you, Arabella. I am incapable of loving another woman.

And I would rather lose everything, even my family’s legacy,
than lose you or Jared. I love you so much. Even if you do
not love me back, I will wait. I will wait until the day that you
could love me, feel for me—even half of what I feel for you.
That’s more than enough!”
Julianne couldn’t speak. She just kept on crying,
listening to what Jin was saying to her. She was happy to
hear him say he loves her, but at the same time, she was
scared because he’s risking so much for her.

She looked into his eyes. He had been crying too.
Gone was the devilish look, the expression of arrogance or
the devil may care attitude he usually sported. He looked
humbled, open and sincere, like he was baring his soul in
front of her..”
“Jin…” she whispered. “You’re risking too much.”
“I don’t care,” he said. “Round Ten can kick Starck
Corp. out of their circle. I’ll just move on. Keep doing i
do best. A foundation like ours would take years of
mismanagement and more than a dozen of bad decisions to
fail.”
“But you wanted to be number one in the world.

Choosing me will hold you back.”
“So, I stay number two for a long time. So what? One
day, the McKenzies will make a mistake and I will be there,
breathing down their necks.” He shook his head. “It was
very wrong for me to use marriage as a leverage to up my
game. If you hadn’t showed up at that party, I would have
made the biggest mistake of my life. You saved me from a
life of misery.”
He k-ssed her l-ips again. Then he looked into her eyes
and said, “Damn, I love you so much!”
In spite of her tears, she giggled. Then she leaned
forward and k-ssed him. She savored that k-ss. She poured
all the love she has in her heart for him. Then she
whispered, “I love you too.”
He gently pulled away from her. “What did you say?”
She bit her lip and smiled at him shyly. “You heard it.”
“I did. But I want you to say it again.”
“Why?”

“Because I want to hear it again. Just to convince
myself that it was real. That I didn’t just dream it.”
She pulled away from him. Then she started walking
towards the glasshouse. She felt him pull her by the wa-ist,
spinning her around so she could face him again.
“Say it,” he insisted.
“I already said it.”
“Please, love. I need to hear it.”
Finally, she decided to relent and tiptoed so she could
k-ss him again. Then she looked into his eyes and said, “I
love you. I don’t have any more legacies or inheritances to
give away to prove that I love you. But if I did, I would givethem up for you too.”

He smiled at her widely. “I don’t want anything, love.
Just you, and our son,” he said. “And of course, more kids in
the future.”
Then he gave her a long, passionate k-ss, while he
held her captive in his arms.
When she pulled away, she was positive that she was
blushing from head to feet. She took a step away from him
and started walking down the path towards The Arabella.
“Come on. I want to see her again,” she said, referring
to the glasshouse.

When she opened the glasshouse, she was
mesmerized. There were s₱0tlights in,side. Butterflies made
of glass were hanging from the ceiling, reflecting the lights.
It was full of roses in bloom. Trees with leaves of different
colors line up the glass walls to obscure the view from
outside. Flowers lined up the pathways that led to the table,
the fountain and the bar. The same sofa they made love in
sat in the middle, under a four-post canopy frame with white
curtains. It looked like they have a bedroom in the middle of
a garden.
She turned to him. “You added a curtain?”
“Well, in case you want to secure our privacy even
more while we—you know.” He winked at her.

She laughed. Then she turned away from him to hide
her blush. Just looking at the sofa now made her want to do
things in it already.
He hugged her from behind. She felt him k-ss her
neck, gently nipping at her skin.
“I wanted to replace that with a bigger bed,” he
whispered. “But every time I look at it, I’m reminded of that
night we got trapped here. So, I couldn’t let it go. I’m
sentimental that way.”
“No. It’s perfect the way it is.”
He turned her around to face him. She could see love
shining in his eyes and she hoped he could see the love in
hers.
“There’s one thing I have been meaning to ask you.
The most important thing that I couldn’t discuss over the
phone when you asked me about it.”
She drew her brows together. “What is it?”

He took a step away from her. Then he took a deep
breath, looking rather nervous for a confident man.
“Arabella, when I told your father that Jared needed to
change his name to carry my surname, I didn’t just mean
him. I wanted you to change your name too. You’re the only
woman who deserve to be Missis Jin Starck. I want to make
love to you at nights and see your smile in the mornings—in
all nights and mornings of my life, from this point forward.
“I love you so—so much. You are worth every risk,
every fight. I should have told you this seven years ago, but
you are worth every second of the wait. You deserve the
best things in life. You deserve to live without limits and to
be loved without end.”
Then he pulled something out from his pocket.

Julianne’s heart started pounding very loudly in,side her
ribcage. And when he knelt on one knee and opened the
box, her heart stopped beating altogether.
Tears filled her eyes as she looked down at the ring he
was holding out in front of her. The band was made of
yellow gold with a trinity knot. Halfway, it weaved into a
swirl made of white diamonds until it formed the shape of
butterflies on both sides. The wings were paved in yellow,
pink and black naturally-colored diamonds. Then small pink
diamonds made out the flower petal shapes surrounding a
five-carat clear-cut diamond in the center.

Julianne couldn’t take her eyes off from the ring. It
was exquisite, it was ethereal.
“If you allow me,” Jin continued. “I want to be that
man who will love you without end, without limits, without
reservations. Julianne Arabella, will you please—please
marry me?”
Tears rolled down her cheeks. She covered her mouth
with her hands. She wanted to say something but no words
came out.
Jin was staring at her, holding his breath, waiting for
her answer.
Slowly, she nodded. Then finally, she found her voice.
“Yes! Oh God, yes!”
He took her hand in his and put the ring on her finger.

It fit her perfectly. Then he stood up and snatched her into
his arms and crushed his l-ips to hers.
Julianne wrapped her arms around his neck and in
spite of her tears, she k-ssed him with as much intensity as
he was k-ssing her.
Then he leaned his head against hers, and breathed in
the scent of her. “I love you,” he whispered. “It feels good to
say that freely now. I have been wanting to say that for a
long time.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because I was scared that you would reject me. You
wouldn’t even accept my gifts, how could I expect you to
accept my love? Or my marriage proposal?”
“And today you just decided to be brave about it?”
He nodded. “When you ignored my calls, I was scared
I was losing you. I realized how fragile our relationsh¡p will
be unless we got these old issues out of the way. Today, I
did plan to ask you about Jared. To tell you that I know he’s
my son. I planned to propose. You didn’t have to answer
right away. I just wanted you to know that I’m dead serious
about us.”

“Vanessa told me you’ve already finalized everything.
She said, you left her apartment late and made it sound like
you… advanced your honeymoon or something.”
“You should trust me, Arabella,” he said, pushing a
lock of stray hair away from her face. “I do not want
Vanessa. She did see me on and off in the past. So did other
women. I will not deny that. But nothing was serious. I couldn’t fall in love. Now, I understand why. I was still in love
with you.”
“Me too. For years, my world revolved around Jared. I
didn’t date. I think the very first time I was out with another
guy was with River. And it wasn’t even a date. Justin set us
up. But we ended up just friends. He was the one who made
me realize that I was still in love with you.”

“So, after all those years… you didn’t see anybody?”
he asked, his eyes twinkling.
“No. Not even a date.”
He pulled her to him. “So… after me in Paris, after
your first time, the next time you went to bed with a man
was here, at The Arabella?”
She blushed from the roots of her hair. She pinched
him on the side.
“Owww!” He laughed. Then he gathered her in his
arms and k-ssed the top of her head. “Well, aren’t I a lucky
guy?”
“Conceited too!” she murmured as she buried her face
on his chest.

“I’m not. I’m just proud! You’re beyond beautiful, did
you not know that?” he said. “How you kept your V-rginity
beyond the age of twenty was actually beyond me, even
seven years ago when I took your innocence from you.”
“Maybe most of the guys I met were d*cks.” She
laughed. “I was waiting for the right guy.”
“And thank God you did,” he beamed.
Julianne held her hands up to admire her ring. “This is
exquisite.” She was afraid that it was very expensive. “The
design is unique.”
“It is,” he said. “I had it especially made.”
She pulled away from him. “What?”
“I have this idea in my head. And Frederic Beaumont
is a good friend. I asked him to make the design for me.”
She blinked back at him. Frederic Beaumont is one of
the world’s most famous jewelry designers. “Frederic Beaumont designed this ring?”
He nodded.

“When did you get this done?”
They’ve only been together for a month. Surely, that’s
not enough time to design and make a beautiful ring such
as this.
“Seven years ago,” he replied in a low, serious voice.
“What?”
He smiled at her sheepishly. “I told you I was planning
on proposing to you. While we were still seeing each other, I
had my idea drawn up in a piece of paper. I asked Fredric to
enhance it and actually make it into a proper ring design.
Even after you left, I still had him work on it. I was hoping I
would see you again someday. And this is the ring I would
use to propose to you.”
“And even when you didn’t find me, you kept the ring
all these years?”
He nodded. “I’m glad I did. It’s perfect.”

“It is.”
“It’s a ring that was made just for you,” he continued.
“As unique and as beautiful as you are. All the Starcks use
my great grandmother’s ring to propose to their brides.”
“The ring that Vanessa couldn’t wait to wear.”
“Well, she’ll never get her hands on it. Because that
ring belongs to you now, too, as my fiancée. You own it but I
just want to propose with a ring that I chose for my bride.
The one that suited her, spoke about her—just as ethereally
beautiful as she was.”
“Well, I love it,” she whispered.
He k-ssed her nose, then he pulled away from her and
pulled her towards a corner of the glass house. “Come, I
want to show you something.”
“Really? Of all the surprises you gave me tonight,
there’s more?”
“Uh-huh.”
There was a shelf sitting in one corner. It was covered
with a white blanket.
He pulled the blanket and revealed a glass cabinet
containing a collection of at least one hundred pieces of
mouth-blown glass perfume bottles.

Julianne gasped. “Oh my God!”
Jin turned on the s₱0tlight in,side the shelf so Julianne
could better view the different bottles which came in
different colors, shapes and designs. Many of them were
adorned with Austrian crystals, which made them sparkle
under the s₱0tlight.
“Jin, where did you get these?”
He shrugged. “I travel a lot. Every place I went to, I
collected a bottle or two.”
“Why? You weren’t a collector of these babies.”
“I wasn’t. But you were.” He smiled at her wistfully. “I
guess, I was collecting them for you.”
“Really? What was the last bottle you got?”
He looked at the collection, looking for a bottle. Then
finally, he pointed at a heart-shaped cobalt blue bottle with
crystal lining.
“That one,” he replied. “I got it in Yerevan.”

“When were you in Armenia?”
“Three months ago.”
“You were still collecting it for me three months ago?”
He nodded. “Love doesn’t make sense sometimes.”
“I thought, you turned into a heartless monster after I
left. You were so mad, it changed you.”
He pulled her to him and wrapped his arms around her
wa-ist as they both admire the collection.
“I guess I just couldn’t shake you out of my system,”
he sighed. “I haven’t stopped loving you all these years.”
Julianne was deeply touched by what he did. Tears
rolled down her cheeks again.

“Damn it, Jin Starck!” she giggled in spite of her tears.
“I have been through so much these past years and I barely cried. Now, I lost count of how many times you’ve made cry
today.”
He spun her around and k-ssed her gently on the l-ips.
“Well, I will be making you cry more tears of joy from now
on.”
She leaned forward and gave him a hug. “Thank you.”
He pulled away from her and then he took her hand in
his. “Come. You must be starving. I think dinner is ready.”
“Dinner?”
He merely smiled and led her back to the gazebo.
There was a waiter there, and a guy that played violin.

“How did you arrange all this?” she asked in surprise.
“Gatwick is a very efficient assistant. I think he may
partly be a magician. He can conjure things out of
nowhere.”
She laughed. “Remind me to thank him when I see
him again.”
They had steak and wine over diner while being
serenaded by the violinist. After dinner, they danced under
the lovers’ moon and the starlit sky.
“I can’t wait to bring Jared home,” Jin whispered
against her ear.
“Me too. He already loved it here the first time. He
loved his room. Oh my God, I haven’t even seen the
bedrooms yet.”
He smiled at her wickedly. “Oh, don’t worry. You will
definitely see a lot of the bedroom tonight.”

She smiled at him evenly. “Seriously? Just because
you gave me a huge rock doesn’t mean you’re gonna get
some tonight.”
“I didn’t give you a rock just so I could score tonight. I
gave you a rock because I love you and there’s no one else I
would spend the rest of my life with but you.” He gave her a
smoldering gaze. “Besides, I don’t think I need a rock to
sed-ce you. I can do that with just pure s€× appeal.”
She laughed. “Jin Starck, you conceited prick!” She
pinched him on the side again.
He laughed and then he bent down and carried her in
his arms like she was weightless.
“Let’s see the second floor,” he said, carrying her
in,side the house.
“Don’t you dare drop me!” she warned him when he
began climbing the steps.
“How could I drop something so precious to me?”

He reached the top of the stairs. Her eyes w¡dened
when she saw the hall. There was a white cabinet with
lamps in the center. Beside Jared’s room were two other
rooms. He put her down on her feet so she could explore.
The two rooms were the same size as Jared’s room.
They were decorated simply, both with queen-sized beds in
the center, a bedside table and lamps.
Jared’s room remained the same except for the bed,
that now has a headboard with square drawers painted in
different colors to match a Rubik’s cube. She noticed the
sixty-five inch screen on the wall, along with different game
consoles in front of it.
“Oh no.” Julianne shook her head. She raised a brow
at Jin.

“I know. We’ll set ground rules,” he said. “But please…
I want him to have these.”
“You’re going to spoil him.”
“Why not? He’s my son. And I have six years to make
up for,” Jin reasoned. “Jared is a first-born Starck.”
“Oh, yes. He is.”
“Soon, he will have responsibilities. He will handle the
Starck Empire when I retire. So, let him have his fun while
he’s still young.”

“Okay. As long as we set boundaries,” Julianne agreed.
Jin beamed. “I cannot wait to see his face once he
sees all this.” He hugged her to him. “In fact, I cannot wait to see what his reaction is going to be once we tell him that
I’m his father.”
“He will be happy. You know he loves you already.”
“I loved him even before I found out he was my son,”
he said. “I regret every single day I wasn’t with the two of
you. I wish we didn’t give each other fake names seven
years ago.”
“I’m not sure we would have worked out if we knew
each other in the first place. I would have known you were
Adrienne’s brother and you’d have known I was Justin’s
cousin. You wouldn’t have pursued me. We have a common
family.”

“I doubt that I wouldn’t pursue you eventually. I fell in
love with you at first sight, remember? One way or another,
I would act on my feelings.”
“And I don’t think I would have been able to resist
you.”
“No, you wouldn’t,” he teased. He spun her around
and then he pulled her towards the bedroom.
When he opened the door, she gasped. The bedroom
had been extended too. It was now more than twice its
original size. A brand new California king bed covered in rich
white covers sat in the middle of the room. There was a
white leather couch at the feet of the bed. A white plush fur
area rug sat in front of the fireplace.
“Oh my God, Jin,” she breathed. “This is… beyond
amazing!”

“Do you like it?”
She nodded. “I love it!”
He pulled her on one corner and showed her a white
dresser with a mirror and drawers.
“I wanna show you something else.”
He pressed a hidden button at the back of the mirror
and a secret drawer snapped. Julianne slightly pulled the
drawer and revealed a jewelry compartment. She was
shocked to see the necklace and the bracelet that he once attempted to give her. But now, there’s a matching ring and
earrings too. And some other jewelry from Van Cleef and
Arpels, Cartier and other brands.
“Jin…” she shook her head. “I don’t…”
He leaned forward and silenced her with a k-ss. “I
want to. You’re going to be my wife, Arabella. You deserve
nothing less. You’re just gonna have to accept that I promise
to give you roses all the time, but sometimes, they’re going
to be accompanied by gold or diamonds.”
She stared at him for a long moment. He held her
stare. Then finally, she sighed and gave up.
“Okay?” he asked.
She nodded. “Okay. But don’t go overboard okay?
Stick to what’s… reasonable.”
“Okay. What I find reasonable.”
Julianne had a feeling that their definition of
reasonable could be two totally different things.

She turned around and faced him.
“Thank you,” she whispered. She tiptoed so she could
k-ss his l-ips. “I love you.”
“I love you more,” he said.
Julianne was bursting with love and happiness. Finally,
she would be able to give her son the future that he
deserved—and a complete family! She knew she did the
best that she could. But with Jin beside her, together, they
can give their son a better and happier life.