“Didn’t I tell you to just get pregnant?”

It was nothing more than the act of sowing his seed.
A mere act of reproduction.

What took place between them was not an expression of love, but a cold and merciless release.

“What do you think I could possibly want from you?”

As though the only thing he desired from her was a child, her husband’s face remained ice-cold.

Watching him through the feverish heat that felt almost painful, Yeon-ha slowly shook her head.

“…Then live your whole life never knowing.”

His hand covered her eyes.

“…What it means.”

Beneath the heavy body tightly built with muscle, a creak echoed softly.

The weight pressing against her back disappeared.

Soon after, she sensed him leaving the room, but Yeon-ha never opened her eyes.

At some point, she must have fallen asleep.

Chirp, chirp.

The sudden chirping of birds pounded against her fading consciousness.

The moment Yeon-ha opened her eyes, memories of the previous night came crashing back.

“I want a divorce.”

“You don’t love me anyway.”

What had he said to her?

Driven by nothing but selfish possessiveness, he had cruelly rejected her desperate plea for a divorce and refused to let her go.

As always, afterwards he would try to soften her heart with gentle words.

That was the kind of man her husband was — someone who inflicted wounds without hesitation, only to carefully soothe them afterwards as though that could undo the pain he had caused.

The mere thought of his face, of a husband who had never hesitated to hurt her, made Yeon-ha bite down hard on her lip.

‘…What it means.’

What did he mean by the words that lingered faintly in her fading consciousness?

It would have been a lie to say that she wasn’t curious.

But she no longer had the energy to find out.

After hurting each other time and again, all that remained between them were numb echoes of emotions that had long since faded.

Bzzzt.

The insistent vibration made Yeon-ha reach for her phone; she was unwilling to stay in bed any longer.

[The thing you asked for has been taken care of, Ms. Ji Yeon-ha. I brought it with me, so come downstairs.]

Finally!

What she had been waiting for so desperately was now within reach.

Pushing her aching body to its limits, Yeon-ha made her way into the bathroom.

She knew she could not erase every trace of last night, but she still wanted to wash away the remnants he had deliberately left on her body.

Having left the bedroom furthest from the main hall, she stepped onto the cold marble floor.

The moment she did so, her gaze fell upon three women enjoying tea together elegantly — two of whom looked so much alike that they could easily have been mother and daughter.

“Mother.”

At her call, the graceful woman’s face twisted unpleasantly.

The woman who slowly turned toward her with raised brows was none other than the mother who had given birth to her husband.

“You’ve gotten quite lazy. Life really has become comfortable for you.”

Mrs. Go curled her lips as her gaze dropped to Yeon-ha’s lower abdomen.

“You’re living under the same roof as your elders, yet you still have time to do those kinds of things.”

Yeon-ha lowered her head and instinctively covered her stomach with both hands beneath the sharp stare directed at her.

“What? Are you going to run crying to President Seong again?”

“…No, Mother.”

“At least you know your place, so I’ll let it go this time. But I’ll be watching you closely, so behave yourself.”

“Yes, Mother.”

Beside Mrs. Go—who would never acknowledge her as a daughter-in-law—the woman whom her mother-in-law had already chosen as the ideal bride smiled softly.

“Mother, I made a reservation at the spa. Let’s go together and get some treatments.”

“Well, if you prepared it for me personally, I suppose I should make time for it.”

Her heart, long hardened by their constant contempt, remained eerily calm beneath their cutting words.

As the two women—untouched by even the slightest shadow—rose from their seats, Seong Ah-jin, her sister-in-law, quietly bit her lip.

“What are you doing, Ah-jin? I booked yours too. Let’s go.”

“Mm… okay.”

While Seong Ah-jin slipped on her shoes, Ryu Jin-hee approached Yeon-ha and discreetly pressed something into her hand.

Clutching it tightly, Yeon-ha met the warning in her eyes—the silent threat not to run away.

“You haven’t changed your mind at the last minute… have you?”

“There’s no need for Ms. Ryu Jin-hee to worry.”

“Good. Then I’ll trust you.”

Only after Yeon-ha nodded did Ryu Jin-hee finally turn away with relief on her face.

‘As long as I disappear, everything will be over.’

There was not even the slightest part of her that wished to remain trapped here any longer.

‘Just endure a little more.’

Death was near for Ji Yeon-ha.

Soon, she would disappear from this world entirely.

The thought that the day she could finally escape the man who would rather destroy her than let her go was drawing near made her heart ache as it pounded violently in her chest.

***

Several days later, Tae-moo faced a despair so horrifying it shattered his entire world.

—“…Madam has passed away.”

His wife was dead.

“Stop joking.”

At first, he refused to believe it.

There was no way she would leave him.

His wife—his Yeon-ha—would never abandon him.

But no matter how desperately he denied it, the truth eventually descended upon him like a merciless sentence, destroying his life completely.

‘You loved me.’

Ji Yeon-ha had loved him.

‘After taking my heart, how dare you leave me?’

His innocent wife still had never truly understood the kind of man he was.

“Even if you’re dead, do you think I can’t follow you?”