Chapter 4.4

Her husband’s call had ended. But her sighs continued.

Today, she really hoped her husband wouldn’t come. When she had seen her half-brother and his wife come together before, she had felt somewhat envious.

But not today. It was a gathering where all the children of her father’s legal wife were present. She hadn’t expected to see everyone, but recently her father’s second son had been divorced by his wife.

The reason for divorce lay with her father’s son. She had only known he was immature and lacking in sense, but she hadn’t known he would have an affair with a bar woman while having a wife he had married in a shotgun wedding.

For that, her father was furious, saying how dare he shamelessly crawl back home.

Of all times, her half-brother had to get divorced now. The situation wasn’t good.

Setting aside the problem of acting like a harmonious family in front of her arriving husband, if she brought up her divorce announcement in such a situation, there would definitely be chaos.

If her husband were to see such a scene…. She didn’t even want to think about what would follow.

Even before deciding on divorce, it hadn’t been a family worth showing to her husband. She was truly an ambiguous existence in this house. She couldn’t even be considered a dependent, yet she didn’t receive guest treatment either.

“Um, Sister Ah-jin. They’re asking you to come down and eat.”

It was her father’s youngest daughter who opened the door to the guest room where she was waiting. She thought the girl was supposed to enter middle school now. Still, she was the only child who called her ‘Sister’.

Following the child into the kitchen, all of her father’s family members were seated except for her. For a moment, she felt breathless, but she didn’t show it.

She went and sat at the very end seat next to the child. Since she didn’t come often anyway, it didn’t matter where she sat.

“But hey, President Choi isn’t coming again today?”

Though it was obvious he never came, her father’s legal wife, as always, prodded her.

“All business people are like that.”

Her father, who had been stirring the soup with his spoon meaninglessly, took her side.

“Still, isn’t that a bit much? It’s not as if we have nothing better to do than eat with that woman.”

“Hey!”

However, even her father couldn’t stop his legal wife’s eldest daughter’s mouth. “That woman” was definitely a term referring to her. She thought the girl was preparing for college entrance exams this year—an age of heightened sensitivity.

“Mom said the same thing when talking to Aunt before. Even after spending all that money on a marriage above her station, it hasn’t benefited us at all. That she still shows the mark of being brought in from outside.”

The legal wife sitting to her father’s left avoided eye contact with her.

These were exactly the kinds of situations she didn’t want to show her husband.

She was definitely her father’s child, but at the same time, she couldn’t become part of her father’s family.

After marriage, her only family was her husband. So if she separated from her husband, she would be thoroughly alone in the future.

“Father. I have something to tell you.”

Perhaps the painkiller’s effect had worn off, as the pain in her molars started again. Biting down on that stinging feeling, she looked at her father.

It was awkward to bring up such words right after the comment about showing signs of being brought in from outside, but she had to do it before her husband arrived.

“I’m thinking of getting divorced.”

Thud. Her father slammed his spoon down on the table with a sound. At that sound, everyone stopped eating.

“What does Mr. Choi say about this?”

“I’m planning to proceed regardless of Jin-wook.”

At those words, her father shot up from his seat. He reached out, grabbed whatever he could get his hands on, and threw it toward her.

“How dare you think such a thing!”

“I’m truly sorry.”

“Nonsense!”

Crash. It was a glass cup. As it grazed her head and fell to the floor, shattering into pieces, her father’s legal wife screamed. It was something he had brought back as a souvenir from a European trip and she had been quite fond of it.

She stood without moving. She had prepared herself to receive this level of anger.

“You worthless thing.”

Finally, her father strode over and raised his hand. A hit to the head would be fine. It was when she squeezed her eyes shut at the sound of cutting through the air.

“Father-in-law. It’s been a while.”

“M-Mr. Choi, you!”

Unexpectedly, her husband was holding her father’s arm.

“Is this how you educate your children?”

There was no way her aged father could match her husband’s grip strength. Her husband released her father’s arm as if throwing it away, while her father grimaced in pain. Her father’s body swayed unsightly.

“N-no. She was saying such nonsensical things that I unknowingly… But what brings you here?”

“I came to pick up Ah-jin.”

She was the most surprised by her husband’s attitude, as if asking what kind of obvious question that was. He must have heard her trying to talk about divorce just now, yet she couldn’t understand how he could say such words so calmly.

“You, is what Ah-jin said true? Are you really going to divorce?”

“Divorce requires mutual agreement between the parties involved.”

“Then what you’re saying is…”

“There is no agreement.”

With those words, her husband grabbed her shoulder and embraced her. She ended up being held in his arms unexpectedly. She felt embarrassed to see her father’s dumbfounded face.

“Let’s have a meal together sometime later.”

Her husband arranged a separate meal time with her father right there.

Even as they headed to the entrance, her husband pretended not to see her father’s family members. Pretending not to notice her father’s legal wife’s incredulous face, she followed her husband out.

“Get in.”

Outside was cold and chilly. Compared to her husband’s coat, her coat wasn’t warm. She sat down as her husband opened the passenger door for her.

“Since when were you listening?”

“From the moment they called you ‘that woman.’”

Then he must have heard everything.

He would have also heard that child’s words about being brought in from outside. She felt relieved, making all her efforts to hide it seem meaningless. Perhaps because of that, she could speak a bit more openly.

“I… I deceived you all this time. Although I was registered in my father’s legal wife’s family record, I didn’t grow up with them from childhood. My mother was… my father’s mistress. I am my father’s daughter but… I was never family. So… that child wasn’t wrong.”

The plan to tell her father had fallen through, but her husband would now know. How sincere she had been.

Her husband said nothing. He just opened and closed his clenched fist, making cracking sounds as he bent his fingers.

“You must be very disappointed in me. You’ll… grant me the divorce now, won’t you?”

She could understand her husband’s feelings of not wanting to deal with her, but she hoped he would say something. That way, she felt she could hide her anxiety.

“I was never deceived by you.”

After a long while, those words leaked from her husband like a sigh. White breath came from her husband who spoke without turning on the heater.

As she pondered what he meant and shivered from the cold, her husband turned on the heater. Gradually, warm air began to circulate inside.

But the shock that swept over her remained.

“I don’t understand… what you mean.”

“Do you think I wouldn’t have noticed that much?”

“If you knew everything… why did you marry me?”

Every time her husband spoke, her heart pounded. If he had known all along, why had he pretended not to know? There was absolutely no reason for her husband to look after her.

“If you’re curious, enter the address.”

Her husband extended his finger and pointed to the navigation screen. After hesitating for a moment, when she habitually tried to enter their Pyeongchang-dong house address, her husband shook his head.

“The place you ran away to.”

As she moved her hand to search, she saw the search history. Mia Intersection area. Come to think of it, her husband had called earlier.

So when he asked where she was, he had already known.

“At your age, you want to run away from home?”

Looking at her husband’s face as he asked that, he was speaking with his eyes slightly crinkled. She thought she had seen wrong. When she rubbed her eyes and looked again, her husband had returned to his usual expressionless face.