“And about Kim Mi-hyang. I’ve just received word that she was stabbed during a dispute over money with some gang members in Cebu.”

The shocking news didn’t end there. Chairwoman Min’s brow twitched.

“Was she stabbed… in the side?”
“Yes, in the side. How did you know?”
“Oh… just a wild guess.”

“And there’s more.”
“What now?”
“Your daughter high school friend, Joo Hye-mi, she was in a car accident not long ago.”

By that point, nothing could surprise Chairwoman Min anymore. Her expression turned weary, almost disgusted.

“It’s been a week since the accident, and she still hasn’t regained consciousness. They say her lower body is paralyzed.”

So he’d repaid the old wound on her thigh with paralysis from the waist down, an eye for an eye, only crueler.

A beast in human form. No, even that word beast might not be enough to describe him.

“They’re apparently hiring a replacement for Joo Hye-mi at CEO Seo’s office.”

Well, at least that much was convenient. The thorn in her side had finally been removed. Had Joo Hye-mi continued working as Seo’s secretary, Ye-jin would have kept worrying herself sick.

“Fine. Anything else to report?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Then you may go.”

Chief Jeong bowed politely and left the mansion.

Chairwoman Min picked up her phone and dialed a number. After several rings, a curt male voice answered. She ground her teeth as she spoke.

“Get over here. Now.”

⟡⟡⟡⟡⟡⟡

Seo Jung-hoo didn’t show up for hours.

Despite her saying ‘right now’, he sauntered in four hours after her call. He entered the study wearing the same insolent look, as if to say, ‘Why are you bothering a busy man like me?’

Without so much as a greeting, he strode across the room and sank onto the sofa.

Chairwoman Min had always known he was a man who had long since swallowed his manners whole, but seeing that arrogant expression in person still made her blood boil.

“I called you because we need to talk.”
“About what?”

His tone was insolent, too.

Chairwoman Min’s eyes flashed. She pulled several photos out of her desk drawer, stood up and took the seat opposite him. Sitting down, she threw the photos onto the table in front of him.

He glanced down at them with a flat, unreadable gaze. The images showed a shattered skeleton scattered across the dirt, but not a flicker of surprise crossed his face.

“My husband,” she said coldly, gesturing toward the photos. “He died fishing off the tetrapods. Or so they say. A very spectacular end, wouldn’t you say?”

She wasn’t overwhelmed by grief at the desecration of her husband’s remains. Rather, she was disbelieving of this man’s reckless audacity.

It was far too dangerous. It was too depraved.

“Unfortunate.”

He replied dryly, his voice devoid of emotion.

Chairwoman Min let out a bitter laugh. Was he pretending ignorance?

“They say Ye-jin’s birth mother, who lives in Cebu, was stabbed during an argument with gang members.”
“How unfortunate.”

He said it again, his face expressionless. His apathy stoked her fury. Chairwoman Min bit down hard on her lip.

“And your secretary Joo Hye-mi. I heard she’s paralyzed from the waist down.”
“Yes. There was… an unfortunate car accident.”
“Unfortunate? You call that unfortunate? Everyone can see it was deliberate! Don’t you dare play dumb with me! I know who’s behind all this—it’s you, Seo Jung-hoo!”

“Do you have proof?”

He asked, his lips curving into a faint, mocking smile.

Chairwoman Min’s shoulders trembled.

Not long ago, he had appeared out of nowhere and asked her about the scars on Ye-jin’s body. She had told him everything: about Yoo Nam-woo, Kim Mi-hyang, and Joo Hye-mi. But none of that amounted to real evidence. It was all circumstantial; at best, it was intuition and suspicion.

Even if she searched every corner of the earth, she wouldn’t find proof. He was too precise and calculating. He was a man with no weaknesses.

“Don’t jump to conclusions without evidence. It makes you look petty… and rather pitiful.”

“You insolent bastard—! That’s no way to speak to your mother-in-law!”

Her body trembled with rage as she raised her hand, but he caught her wrist midair, his grip iron-tight.

“The only woman allowed to strike me is Ye-jin. Not you.”

Then he released her hand as though discarding something unworthy with a flick of his wrist. Even from that brief contact, her wrist throbbed from his strength. Grimacing, Chairwoman Min slowly rotated her aching hand.

“Are we done here?”

He asked, rising from the sofa. Although he had phrased it as a question, his tone made it clear that he was leaving.

She didn’t answer. He didn’t wait for one. Instead, he turned and began walking towards the door.

She didn’t stop him; she didn’t even want to look at him anymore. The only thing she wanted was for him to disappear.

He had just reached the door and placed a hand on the doorknob when Chairwoman Min had a sudden thought.

“Wait.”

The sound of her voice made him pause in the middle of turning around.

“Would you like to see Ye-jin’s old room before you go?”

He slowly turned his head to meet her gaze. Her eyes gleamed with feigned innocence, but there was a sharpness behind them.

“Aren’t you curious about the room Ye-jin used before she got married?”

⟡⟡⟡⟡⟡⟡

Even a beast the size of a mountain could be caught if the trap was set just right.

Suppressing a smirk, Chairwoman Min led him upstairs, her laughter bubbling silently in her chest.

She wondered what reaction the arrogant man would have if he found out that her precious Ye-jin had carried a torch for her first love ever since she was a girl.

He wouldn’t be able to keep his composure — not this time. He would lose his temper and burn with jealousy, perhaps even feeling a crushing sense of inferiority when he realized that no matter how hard he tried, he could never measure up to her first love.

Chairwoman Min swung the door wide open. He stepped into Ye-jin’s old room and the first thing that caught his eye was a black leather biker jacket hanging neatly on the wall. It was clearly a man’s jacket — large and broad-shouldered.

“What… is this?”

Just as she had expected, he reacted exactly as she had hoped. With a barely concealed smirk, Chairwoman Min replied lightly.

“Ah, that. It’s Ye-jin’s treasure.”

She took the jacket off the wall and ran her palm slowly over its smooth leather. It felt as soft as silk. Even after all these years, it was perfectly preserved, as though it had been bought yesterday.

“Treasure?”
“Yes. It belonged to her first love.”

Chairwoman Min emphasized the words deliberately.

“Her… first love?”
“Yes. When she was seventeen, she met a very charming man in Jinhae. He was wearing this jacket. He took it off and gave it to her.”

Her voice grew bright and animated, as though she were recounting something delightful.

“Ye-jin said she fell for him the moment she saw him.”

“……”
“She never forgot him, even after she grew up.”

“……”
“Even on her wedding day, walking down the aisle, I’m sure she was thinking of that man.”

“……”
“And when she spent her first night with you… she must’ve been thinking of him then, too.”

“……”
“Even now—yes, even now—she still longs for him.”

He stared at the jacket, eyes unfocused, his mind spiraling back through memory.

“Did you never have a first love?”
He had asked her that once.

“Of course I did.”
“What kind of man was he?”
“Someone who couldn’t stand injustice. He was kind and gentle. Tall, handsome, a great driver.”

He could still recall the clear tone of her voice as she’d said it, word by word.
“I wanted to marry him someday. Have his child…”

And in his mind, a long-buried scene flickered to life: He saw a girl wearing a baseball cap pulled low over her face, hiding half of it, her pale eyes shimmering with quiet beauty.

They had stood together by the sea in Jinhae, watching the waves crash beneath the spring sky. They had made a promise then to meet again when the cherry blossoms bloomed.

How could he have been so blind?

That lovely, unforgettable girl had been right beside him all along.

“CEO Seo.”

Chairwoman Min said sharply, cutting through his daze.

“I’m more than ready to have my daughter divorce you.”

Her voice hardened to steel.

“Soon, I’ll make sure she leaves you and finds her first love again, to marry him instead.”

He looked up at her slowly, a faint smile curling his lips.

“That wouldn’t be so bad.”

“What?”

“Marrying Ye-jin a second time. It might be… entertaining.”