“She called me a sl*t, threw a flowerpot over my head…”
“When I heard Ye-jin was pregnant, I wondered what kind of gift to give her, so I baked some cookies.”

Joo Hye-mi had never uttered a single word of truth. She shamelessly blamed Ye-jin for her own misdeeds and even tried to make her take an abortion pill when she became pregnant.

“Chief Baek, it’s me.”

Suppressing the anger that surged up in his throat, he picked up his phone.

“There’s something I need you to do.”

He wanted to destroy her immediately, but there were things he needed to confirm first.

“Look into Ms. Joo Hye-mi. And… into Ye-jin as well.”

He had once asked his wife about her past, but she had said that she didn’t want to talk about it. Respecting her wishes, he didn’t bring the subject up again.

But not anymore. He needed to know everything about her. He needed to know everything.

⟡⟡⟡⟡⟡⟡

Chief Baek headed straight for Jinhae.

He tracked down Ye-jin’s former classmates and spoke to locals who had lived in the same neighborhood, gathering as much information as possible.

According to rumors at the time, her father sent her mother large sums of child support money each month, and she lived lavishly. But the truth was nothing like the rumors.

“Madam had been ostracized from an early age because of her mother’s profession.”

Chief Baek reported, his expression darkening as he delivered the results of his investigation.

“On top of that, they were so poor that she couldn’t afford school lunches. Her school uniform was worn out, so the other children looked down on her and treated her badly.”

“What are you talking about? I heard Assemblyman Yoo sent them a large sum every month.”

Seo Jung-hoo’s voice was filled with disbelief, what he was hearing contradicted everything he had previously believed.

“Yes, but her mother used all of it. The rumors about the mother and daughter living in luxury seem to have spread because of her mother’s behavior.”

“……”

“Madam received no care or affection from her mother. She was completely neglected.”

Chief Baek spoke in a deep voice.

Seo Jung-hoo’s face twisted with anger.

He had never imagined that she had experienced poverty.

Given her father’s status, he had assumed that she had grown up comfortably and had never lacked anything.

“At the time, Madam worked part-time handing out flyers at the weekend to earn a little money.”

“……”

“But even that income was taken by her mother. Madam often went hungry, and from lack of nutrition, she would frequently collapse during P.E. class.”

She had always been frail, how much worse must it have been if she couldn’t even eat properly? His dark eyes sharpened, brimming with barely contained fury.

“She had no friends and was always alone. Then, in high school, Joo Hye-mi suddenly approached her and they became close.”

“……”

“But, as you might have guessed, everything changed when Kang Jihoon transferred to their school.”

“……”

“From then on, Joo Hye-mi spread vicious rumors about Madam and led the bullying against her.”

“……”

“There was even an incident where she dropped a flowerpot from the rooftop, aiming for Madam’s head.”

“……”

“Fortunately, the pot missed and shattered on the ground instead, but shards flew up and left a deep wound on her thigh.”

He remembered the faint pink scar embroidered across her pale thigh. His chest tightened with sorrow and rage.

“Didn’t the school discipline Joo Hye-mi for that?”

“No, around that time, madam’s mother had left home, so she had no guardian. Not that it would have helped much anyway…”

“……”

“Joo Hye-mi’s father, a prominent local figure, donated a large sum to the school and covered the whole incident up.”

Seo Jung-hoo exhaled slowly, running his hands over his face as though trying to wipe away the bitterness.

This was the past he hadn’t wanted to share: a life scarred by pain.

Had it hurt so much that even talking about it was unbearable?

Suddenly, he remembered the other scars on her body: the sharp line on her chest and the small dotted marks on her side.

“Ye-jin has three scars on her body. If the one on her thigh was caused by Joo Hye-mi, who caused the other two? Were those her doing as well?”

“I couldn’t confirm that. From what I’ve gathered, the flowerpot incident was the only case where Joo Hye-mi physically harmed Madam.”

Seo Jung-hoo gave a slow nod.

“I see. Then I’ll look into the other two myself.”

⟡⟡⟡⟡⟡⟡

“CEO Seo, what brings you here all of a sudden?”

These were the first words that Chairwoman Min spoke when her son-in-law arrived at her home in Pyeongchang. There was no hint of a warm welcome.

Although people say that a son-in-law is a guest for a hundred years, Seo Jung-hoo could never be that kind of guest to Chairwoman Min.

She still remembered the arrogant things he had said the last time he came, when she had put on that little wrist-slashing show to win Ye-jin back.

“You think cutting this shallow will kill you?”
“Should I do it properly for you?”

He clutched her wounded wrist with a rough hand, his eyes flashing like a hawk’s and his voice full of menace. How could anyone like a man like that?

Truth be told, she had never liked him, not even from the beginning. In fact, she disliked him so much that she’d married her daughter off to him, a decision she now regretted more than ever.

“I came because there’s something I need to ask.”

Chairwoman Min’s eyes widened sharply.

“When speaking to your elders, you should ask respectfully, rather than simply asking.”

“But that assumes the person is worthy of being called an elder.”

“What did you just say?”

He strode forward, long legs carrying him across the room until he dropped onto the sofa.

“I didn’t tell you to sit.”

“Then should I speak standing up?”

He stood up and took a step closer.

A towering shadow fell over her as the man, who was well over six feet tall, loomed over her. His formidable physique was intimidating enough, and his eyes glinted with the same cold, sharp intensity as before, as if to suggest that he could break her in two at any moment.

“It’s tiring to crane my neck like this. Go sit down.”

After holding his gaze for a long moment, Chairwoman Min finally looked away, seemingly weary of the standoff.

He walked back expressionlessly and sat down on the sofa.

She took the seat of honor opposite him.

“What exactly is it you want to know?”

“It’s about the scars on Ye-jin’s body.”

He said quietly, wasting no time with pretense.

“Who caused them?”

“Why are you asking me? You should be asking Ye-jin.”

Chairwoman Min replied coldly.

“She doesn’t want to tell me.”

At that, a sly, triumphant smile spread across her lips. The girl had shown her the scars on her side on the very first day they met, lifting her shirt slightly to reveal them. Knowing that she had won, even in this small way, against her arrogant son-in-law, gave her a perverse sense of satisfaction.

“If Ye-jin doesn’t want to talk about it, I see no reason to spill the beans myself.”

Chairwoman Min said, her voice composed and self-righteous.

Seo Jung-hoo’s lips curved into a faint, unsettling smile.

“Ye-jin probably doesn’t know yet.”

“…What?”

“That you switched the liver transplant waiting list to save Hope.”

In an instant, the color drained from her face.

“If Ye-jin were to find out that you stole a twenty-five-year-old liver cancer patient’s turn just to save Hope, I’m sure she’d be deeply moved.”

It was a blatant threat.

She knew exactly what kind of person Ye-jin was: a girl with a straight and uncompromising nature. Even after entering a chaebol family at seventeen and undergoing elite education, she had never adopted its arrogance or sense of entitlement.

She wanted a world ruled by fairness and justice, and to her, every life — not just her child’s — was precious.

If she ever found out that her mother had used her wealth and power to manipulate the transplant queue, she would undoubtedly see her as selfish and corrupt, and would be both angry and heartbroken.

“Fine! I’ll tell you!”

Chairwoman Min exploded in a fit of rage, shouting as though she had been cornered. After everything she had done to win her daughter’s heart back, the thought of losing her again was unbearable.

“To think you’d dare threaten your own mother-in-law…”

Her fists were clenched tightly, and her whole body trembled with rage.

She seethed with regret, regret for ever entrusting her precious daughter to such a wicked man.