Chapter 14

“If you insist on the divorce, I’ll have no choice but to cut off business with your father as well.”  

But this time, he had struck the wrong target.  

“Taeheon, you’re not seriously calling that a threat, are you?”  

Yaein let out a hollow laugh. Her father? At this point, what did he matter?  

She had never seen Taeheon try so hard before. He was always the one who assessed situations more coldly than anyone else.  

“I’m tired. I’m going to bed. I’ll sleep in another room tonight.”  

“If your grandmother hadn’t passed away, would you be reacting differently?”  

It felt like something scalding had been poured down her neck.  

Yaein, who had just stood up, stiffened instantly.  

“How could you bring up my grandmother right now?”  

He wielded her greatest weakness as if it were nothing. She thought she had grown numb to his indifference, but even now, her heart crumbled.  

Yaein turned to stand in front of Taeheon, lifting her head high to glare at him.  

“You know, even while loving you, I’ve thought about this—what if I hadn’t been the girl who abandoned her mother and ran away?”  

What if she had been someone with fewer scars, someone who lived with a little more dignity? Someone who had people she could trust, who wasn’t desperate, who wasn’t so painfully starved for affection?  

“What if I hadn’t been so lonely that I ended up being stupid enough to love a man like you?”  

He was never the affectionate husband she longed for. He was never the savior who would ensure she never got hurt.  

She had known that.  

But she had done it anyway. Before her thirst consumed her entirely, she had chosen to drink the poison that might just kill her.  

Taeheon froze as if he had been caught off guard by an unexpected attack.  

She condemned him with her silence, turning on her heel without looking back.  

She swiftly entered the guest room and shut the door. The breath she had been holding finally escaped.  

Leaning against the door, Yaein pressed her hand against her chest as she had earlier. Her heart pounded relentlessly.  

For some reason, she felt as though Taeheon was right on the other side of the door. As if he was standing there, palm resting against the same spot she leaned on, staring at the door in silence.  

Yaein swept her gaze across the darkened room.  

As her eyes adjusted to the dimness, the furniture gradually took shape.  

Secrets never last forever.  

Time was not on her side.  

No one had noticed yet, but in a few more weeks, it would become impossible to hide. 

She had to leave before the truth came out.

***

Gyeongju glared at the office door.  

That morning, out of nowhere, Taeheon had contacted her, summoning her to his workplace without any further explanation.  

She had left the hospital room in the care of the nurse and made her way here, but she couldn’t shake the sense of unease. What reason could Kwon Taeheon possibly have to call her in?

The office, usually bathed in sunlight, had its blinds partially drawn, creating a stark contrast between light and shadow.  

Unlike the sunlit half of the room, the space where Taeheon stood was steeped in darkness.  

A memory from decades ago suddenly resurfaced.  

The day she first met Taeheon.  

It was the day she moved into Seonghwan’s house after their hastily arranged marriage. Though it was afternoon, the house was dim and gloomy, casting an ominous shadow.  

Taeheon had stood in that darkness, motionless.

A boy barely ten years old, his expression eerily blank, his pale face ghostly in the dim light. The sight had nearly made Gyeongju recoil in shock.

Even when Seonghwan entered behind her, the child hadn’t greeted his father. Without a word, Taeheon had simply turned away.

The place where he had stood carried a faint yet unmistakable scent—something stale and metallic, a lingering, cloying odor.  

A smell akin to that of a corpse.  

Even after the boy had left, Gyeongju couldn’t shake the unease.  

Is that child really alive?  

“You’re here.”  

Taeheon’s voice pulled her back to the present. Gyeongju blinked, shaking off the old memory.  

The Taeheon before her now was far different from the boy she had met back then.  

He was taller, his frame solid, his presence heavy. The faint yet rich scent clinging to him now was nothing like the one she remembered.  

His once sickly complexion had given way to a refined sharpness, his already distinct features now honed to an almost cutting precision.  

Yet, despite all the changes, one thing remained the same.  

That boy was still unsettling.  

“What do you want? You know your father is unwell, and I can’t be away from the hospital for long. If this isn’t urgent, you could have just called.”  

“Hold on. Come in.”  

The sound of knocking interrupted her.  

Taeheon cut her off mid-sentence, not even bothering to glance her way.  

Gyeongju felt her temper flare. He had summoned her all the way here only to ignore her like this?  

A subordinate entered hesitantly, briefly glancing at Gyeongju before stepping closer to Taeheon.  

Leaning in, the man spoke in a hushed tone.  

“We investigated… It appears that the madam has an additional phone registered under her name.”  

“The purpose?”

“I’ll gather and organize the details of the communications that went through that phone.”  

Hearing that, Gyeongju frowned. The content of the conversation was intriguing.  

As the subordinate left the office, she crossed her arms, unimpressed.  

“Are you investigating your wife now?”  

Despite her sharp tone, Taeheon remained unfazed and spoke only what he needed to.  

“Is there anyone around my wife?”  

“What?”  

Realizing what he was implying, Gyeongju scoffed and shook her head.  

If there had been another man, she would have noticed.

In her younger days, at least one in three women she knew was either a mistress or had multiple lovers. If there was one thing she had a keen eye for, it was affairs.  

“And you think you know your wife so well?”

“I’m doing this because I know her. She’s not the type to suddenly decide on a divorce unless something or someone pushed her.”  

“Have you thought about your father? About me? We’ve done everything short of physically throwing her out.”  

Even so, Taeheon still looked unconvinced.  

His persistent skepticism left Gyeongju feeling unsettled.

She had always trusted her instincts, honed by a lifetime of reading people.  

But had she known that Yaein was hiding the truth about her birth mother?  

No, she had been completely fooled.

They say you can gauge the depths of water, but never the depths of a person’s heart.  

Could she really be certain about that girl?  

“So, you don’t know anything in particular about my wife?”

“What the hell are you getting at?”

“You used to spend a lot of time with her. I was wondering if she ever said anything to you.”  

So, he had summoned his stepmother here just to dig into his wife’s past?  

Even as she stared at him in disbelief, he remained utterly unmoved.  

“Is this about alimony?”  

Gyeongju probed cautiously.  

That girl already had nothing—was this really necessary?  

After living together for four years, couldn’t he at least give her a little something to make her new start easier?  

Had he inherited his father’s obsessive refusal to take a loss?

She had never pegged Taeheon to be a money-obsessed miser like Kwon Seonghwan. 

“No. I’m not divorcing Yaein.”  

The way he omitted her last name felt oddly unfamiliar.

She was sure he hadn’t addressed her like that when they were together.  

“Tell my father to give up. I will never agree to a divorce.”

“Never? Yaein already promised your father. And yet you’re acting as if you know nothing?”  

“It wasn’t agreed upon with me.”  

Now she understood.  

He was sulking because his wife had dumped him.  

The last time she spoke to Taeheon was when he had angrily demanded what she had done to his wife.

Now, hearing about the divorce, she finally understood why he had been so furious that day.

But instead of running after her to beg her to stay, he was investigating her—trying to find some leverage.

A smart man like him, behaving like this?

This was exactly what unsettled her about Taeheon.

Where there should be clear emotions—joy, anger, sorrow—he reacted in strange ways.  

Even as a child, he had been like that.  

The eerie first impression she had of him hadn’t changed, even after living together for years.

Seonghwan treated his son just as harshly as he did everyone else.  

Even while eating, Taeheon would get beaten, or he would be dragged by the neck down to the basement—yet he never reacted.  

Even after throwing punches, Seonghwan would look at his own son with disgust.  

‘Disgusting brat. Just like his mother—completely insane.’

No matter how much Gyeongju tried to suppress her unease and take care of him, Taeheon would only observe her with an emotionless gaze.  

His unnatural demeanor as a child had sent chills down her spine, and she had ended up keeping her distance.  

She had thought he had learned to behave like other people as he grew older.  

But no—he had grown up exactly as he was.  

Gyeongju shook her head slightly.  

Still, seeing how obsessed he was with his wife, maybe he had changed after all.  

The way he had threatened her to never contact Yaein again—such a thing would have been unimaginable in the past.  

“How do you plan on holding on to someone who’s already decided to leave?”

Yet, his way of handling people remained just as bizarre as before.  

Even as she voiced her frustration, Taeheon remained as impassive as ever.  

“Even if she’s seeing another man—so what? That only matters if you want to take her money or child away. But what does it have to do with refusing to divorce? She seemed pretty firm about her decision.”

“I’m considering it.”

Taeheon spoke briefly.  

“Considering how to make her stay.”

Hearing that, Gyeongju clicked her tongue in exasperation.  

“Do you really have to go that far?”

A lingering trace of affection for Yaein compelled her to say more.

Even if she couldn’t forgive, she could understand.  

She could guess that Yaein hadn’t set out to deceive anyone from the start.  

People who have no support or roots often find themselves in situations beyond their control—Gyeongju knew that better than anyone.  

“What more is there for you two to gain from this? Those in-laws of yours only know how to take, treating your father like a walking wallet. Your father’s been waiting for an excuse to deal with them. You’ve had to handle their messes often enough yourself.”

“Not really.”

Taeheon replied as if it was nothing, but that wasn’t the case.  

Yaein’s father was a fool who only knew how to flaunt himself.  

How he even managed to run a business was a mystery.  

And his vain wife was no better—if only they had the sense to quietly take the money and stay out of trouble.  

But they caused problems constantly, and Taeheon had to clean up after them.  

Seonghwan resented it deeply.  

Part of why Yaein was hated so much was because of her family.  

“The chairman has already selected some suitable women for you. You don’t even have kids—these days, remarrying is no big deal. If she doesn’t want to be with you, let her go live her own life—”

“And I should just go along with Father’s wishes?”

His dry question cut her off.  

Gyeongju bit her tongue.  

“Why do you always twist my words?”

“Isn’t that what you meant?”

If he had at least shown a hint of irritation, she could have scolded him for talking back.  

But Taeheon remained utterly indifferent.  

If she pushed the issue, she would only end up looking like the unreasonable one.  

His unreadable expression made it impossible to guess what he was thinking.  

If he sat down at a gambling table with that face, he could make seasoned players sweat bullets.