TO 44

Chapter 44

Seung-hee quietly snatched Jeong-hyeon’s phone while he was fast asleep and stepped outside. Then, she began typing out a message to Seo-ah.

[Seo-ah, I’m so sorry to reach out to you like this. It seems my health is really taking a turn for the worse. If I could just see Su-bin one last time while my mind is still clear, I would die with no regrets. Tomorrow at two o’clock, the house will be completely empty for an hour. Could you please swing by quietly and let me see the child’s face? Even just ten minutes would be enough. I beg of you.]

[Message Sent.]

Sending the text, Seung-hee’s eyes flickered with a fierce, predatory gleam. She nervously checked the time. She had to get a reply before Jeong-hyeon woke up from his medication.

It was right as she was anxiously staring at the clock that the notification chime rang.

[Father-in-law, I’m so sorry. I really don’t think I can make it.]

Seung-hee’s face contorted in anger.

This damn wretched girl…!

Seung-hee quickly hammered out another reply.

[Then I will come to you myself. Please, just allow me to see her, even for a brief moment.]

Swallowing down her surging rage, Seung-hee forced herself to type out another text. Fearing that Seo-ah might grow suspicious, she sent a bluff, pretending she was ready to barge over right that second.

The wait for a response felt agonizingly heavy.

Even after a long while, no reply came. Seung-hee grew increasingly desperate.

Did she catch on? Is that why…?

Just then, a new notification popped up.

[Then just for ten minutes. I will be there at two o’clock sharp.]

Seung-hee’s eyes lit up instantly.

Seo-ah set her phone down and let out a small sigh.

“Are you alright?”

Seo-ah looked up to see Jin-soo and Jin-won sitting across from her.

Jin-soo, who was Jin-won’s older brother, was the exact opposite of him in almost every imaginable way. Where Jin-won was warm and gentle, Jin-soo was sharp, cold, and aloof.

Yet, he was still the reliable older brother who had rushed straight over the moment Jin-won called him for help.

“Are you still planning to go?” Jin-won asked carefully.

Seo-ah nodded quietly.

“Though I wonder if it will go smoothly,” she murmured.

The paper resting in Seo-ah’s hands was a relinquishment of parental rights agreement. It was right while she had been talking with Jin-soo that the text from Jeong-hyeon had arrived. Though Seo-ah had intended to decline, Jin-soo had advised her to meet Jeong-hyeon and ask for his help instead.

His idea was to have Jeong-hyeon convince Taehyuk to sign the document waiving his parental rights.

“Still, it’s a relief that your father-in-law is on your side, Seo-ah. He’ll have a much better chance of convincing Taehyuk than you ever would.”

Seo-ah stared at the document with anxious eyes.

“I’ll go with you,” Jin-won offered, picking up on her unease.

Seo-ah gently shook her head. “No, it’s fine. I’ll just pop over with Su-bin. It’s only for ten minutes, anyway.”

Lately, Jin-won felt as though Seo-ah had been drawing an even firmer line between them, but he forced a reassuring smile regardless.

“Alright, if you say so.”

“Since he previously helped you get the divorce papers signed by Taehyuk, it should be possible this time, too,” Jin-soo added in his crisp, matter-of-fact tone. “Their side will likely claim parental and custodial rights. If you can get him to sign this waiver, we’ll have it notarized to give it full legal effect.”

“Will that really keep them from taking Su-bin away?”

“First of all, the fact that the biological father knew nothing about the child for seven years, while the grandfather provided financial support equivalent to child development funds, will be key variables in our favor. It serves as an absolution for the father’s failure to contribute to raising the child.”

“But I’ve saved up all that money to pay it back…”

“That may be so, but it remains undeniable that the funds initially allowed you to establish your independence. Even though you’ve now covered that money with a bank loan, it would have been difficult for you to make it this far without Chairman Jang’s initial support.”

Seo-ah bit her lip lightly at Jin-soo’s relentless, logical breakdown.

“Still, what about everything that family did to Seo-ah?” Jin-won chimed in after listening to it all.

Jin-soo pushed up his horn-rimmed glasses.

“Legally speaking, none of that holds any real weight. A medical certificate showing she miscarried back then might have served as evidence, but based on what Seo-ah described, it’s unlikely she can even obtain those records now. While there are records of her receiving psychiatric treatment afterwards, the hospital where she miscarried has most likely destroyed the medical logs by now. Plus, there are only verbal accounts of the circumstances surrounding her being pushed seven years ago—there’s no direct evidence proving that woman actually pushed her.”

Seo-ah recalled the security camera footage. There was no way a seven-year-old video recording would still exist today.

“If I had that footage, would it put me in a better position?” Seo-ah asked, desperately clutching at straws.

“Naturally, we’d need to leverage every single detail we can get our hands on. After all, our opponent is K-Asset Management Group,” Jin-soo replied, his tone growing heavy.

Just hearing the name made Seo-ah feel utterly crushed under the weight of it all.

Seeing how dark her expression had become, Jin-won quickly cut in. “Don’t worry, Seo-ah. My brother is a ridiculously talented lawyer with one of the highest win rates in the field!”

Jin-soo glanced sideways at Jin-won before adjusting his posture. “If we’re lucky and the biological father willingly signs the relinquishment form, we won’t even need to go through all these legal procedures. It simply means he’s giving up his rights voluntarily.”

“In that case, what about his mother…?”

“That’s precisely why we’re securing this document in advance. If the biological father waives his rights, not even the grandmother can forcibly take the child away.”

“I see…”

Seo-ah let out a soft sigh. Deep down, she knew all too well that Taehyuk wouldn’t sign it so easily. On top of that, it weighed heavily on her conscience to dump such a heavy burden on Jeong-hyeon while he was sick.

No, focus on Su-bin. Just think about Su-bin.

“Thank you so much. I know how busy you must be, so I really appreciate you taking the time to help me,” Seo-ah said, bowing her head deeply.

Jin-soo looked at her, then threw a sharp, raised-eyebrow glance at Jin-won, signaling that he wanted to talk in private.

“Is she the one?” Jin-soo demanded the moment they stepped into Jin-won’s workshop.

“What do you mean, ‘the one’?”

“The woman you’ve been pining over for years like a fool,” Jin-soo asked, already knowing the answer.

“Why are you interrogating me?”

“If you know it’s an interrogation, then just confess cleanly. This is Dad’s order.” Jin-soo crossed his arms. “Do you have any idea how many major cases I’m handling right now? A routine custody dispute like this is something I could hand off to a brand-new junior associate at the firm. Yet here I am, handling it in person. Who do you think ordered that?”

“Father, obviously,” Jin-won muttered, pouring coffee.

“Spill it. You swore you’d never step foot back in this direction, cut off all contact, and ran away from home… and suddenly you reach out out of nowhere? It’s all because of her, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Jin-won admitted openly, handing a cup of coffee to Jin-soo. “So what? Are you gonna file a report against me?”

“Well, I imagine Dad will try to talk some sense into you first. A mutual agreement is always the cleanest way out.”

“Go ahead and try.” Jin-won smiled faintly, folding his arms.

“She’s a divorced mother with a child.”

“Yeah.”

“She’s noticeably striking.”

“Yup.”

“And from the look of it, her kid seems to know you pretty well. You two seem to have a great relationship.” Jin-soo glanced at a drawing hanging on the wall of Jin-won’s shop—a portrait of Jin-won that Su-bin had drawn for him.

“She’s a sweet kid,” Jin-won added softly.

“And her biological father’s family happens to own K-Asset Management Group.”

Jin-won simply shrugged at Jin-soo’s words, implying he couldn’t care less.

“Are you aware that her child’s biological father is slated to become the next chairman of K-Asset Management Group?”

“I saw the news.”

“You saw that, and you still want to fight this battle?”

“What, are you scared, Jin-soo? Did all that skill you built up uncovering corruption in massive conglomerates just rust away?”

“This is completely different. My own younger brother could end up getting hurt in this.”

“I won’t get hurt. No one is going to get hurt,” Jin-won said firmly.

Jin-soo pushed up his glasses with a sigh. “Keep it reasonable. Don’t dig yourself in too deep.”

“I want to marry her.”

Jin-soo’s forehead creased instantly. “Did what I just say go in one ear and out the other?”

“You know I was never the sharpest tool in the shed. That’s why I became the black sheep of a family of legal elites and ended up doing leatherwork instead.”

Jin-soo scowled. “I don’t care what you do as long as you’re happy. But the opponent…”

“Jin-soo, do you know what scares me even more than the chairman of K-Asset Management Group?”

Jin-soo raised an eyebrow, waiting for the punchline.

“Lee Seo-ah.”

Jin-won breathed out her name like a heavy sigh.

“Seo-ah is what scares me the most. If I don’t use everything I have—even the family I’ve lived without all these years—I feel like she’s going to vanish out of nowhere. It’s driving me crazy with anxiety.”

“Park Jin-won.”

“I know it sounds stupid. But what can I do? I like her. I love her. I want to protect her.”

“Haah…” Jin-soo let out a long, exhausted sigh and stood up, heading toward the door.

“What’s this? Are you rejecting the case?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Even if it’s the President himself instead of K-Asset Management, I’ll make sure we win. Provided that woman isn’t the only thing you care about.”

“Of course not. I won’t ever let them take Su-bin away,” Jin-won declared resolutely.

Jin-soo gave a faint chuckle. “As if you’d let them, you stubborn idiot. I’m leaving.”

“All of a sudden?”

Having just gotten home from kindergarten, Su-bin opened her eyes wide in surprise. Seo-ah was currently digging through Su-bin’s closet.

“Yeah. Tomorrow, you and I have to go somewhere together.”

“Where are we going?”

“I’ll tell you tomorrow. Goodness… why do you have so few clothes, Su-bin?”

“What do you mean ‘so few’? The closet is full of clothes!” Su-bin argued.

Seo-ah let out a helpless laugh.

They were clothes, alright—but almost all of them were casual sportswear.

“This won’t do. Let’s go out right now and buy you some nice clothes.”

“Right now?”

“If we hurry, we can make it to the department store before it closes. We’ll just eat dinner out tonight.”

Seo-ah hurriedly grabbed Su-bin’s hand and pulled her toward the door.