Prologue

“We……………… had a child?”

He swallowed the curse he could not bring himself to utter and grabbed Yeon-jae roughly by the shoulders.

“Answer me, Jeong Yeon-jae!”

The force of his grip digging into her shoulders twisted Yeon-jae’s face with pain.

But he should have been the one in pain.

Yet the expression on his face as he looked down at her, as if it might burst apart, and the thick veins bulging across his neck made him look as though he were suffering even more.

“………………How long were you planning to keep deceiving me!”

He was clearly holding himself back.

He clenched his teeth, trying to suppress the emotions surging up inside him.

Then, seeing Yeon-jae standing there stiffly, he seemed at a loss for what to do.

“Why did you do it! How long were you planning not to tell me?”

He asked her.

Why had she done it?

His usually calm eyes and composed lips twisted.

He was a man who rarely allowed his emotions to show on his face.

Yet now, different emotions appeared on that man’s face one after another.

But Yeon-jae was cold-hearted.

For five years, she had been forced to raise a child alone.

The tears that had flowed endlessly every night, as though someone had left a faucet running, had finally dried up.

She had spent years without her child’s father, becoming numb little by little each day.

I don’t love this man anymore. I’m alone.

She stubbornly reminded herself of her circumstances, gradually letting go of her lingering attachment.

She had to, so that she would not collapse.

“……Forever.”

Her stiff lips finally parted, and Yeon-jae forced out her voice.

She finally spoke the words she had kept buried in her heart for so long.

“Because you were the one who forgot me.”

Yeon-jae bit down on her trembling lips.

She had once wondered if there would ever come a day when she could let him go.

She had loved everything about him.

She had wondered how she could possibly let go of the man she had loved more than herself.

“I really am sick and tired of it now. You, and your family.”

Now, she felt as though she could finally say it.

That the Jeong Yeon-jae who had once looked only at him no longer existed.

“So please, stop now.”

At last, I will let you go.

Chapter 1. Mixed Emotions

“Heart rate 186. That’s normal.”

At the voice ringing in her ears, Yeon-jae’s vision grew hazy. She closed her eyes and then opened them again.

On the pitch-black screen of the monitor, a tiny white dot continuously pulsed.

Whenever the white dot swelled and contracted, the powerful sound of a heartbeat echoed through the room.

“The heartbeat is strong, too. The baby is healthy. It’s 3.6 centimeters right now. It still doesn’t feel real, does it?”

“Yes…………….”

Yeon-jae stared somewhat blankly at the monitor before shifting her gaze.

The ultrasound device was being moved across her stomach. The female doctor, who had been looking at the monitor with her, turned her head, and their eyes met.

The doctor smiled, her eyes crinkling at the corners, then pulled out a tissue and wiped Yeon-jae’s stomach.

“That’s normal. You should be able to find out the sex in about six weeks.

Even if you’re busy, you need to come for your appointments on time. The early stages are important.”

It was the first time Yeon-jae had heard her child’s heartbeat.

And hearing about the baby’s sex as well.

She had been ten weeks pregnant, yet the reality of her pregnancy had never truly sunk in until now.

When she had first seen the two clear lines on the pregnancy test,

and even when the hospital had confirmed her pregnancy,

she hadn’t felt this way.

She had lived alone for twenty-six years.

The fact that another life was growing inside her was something she simply could not comprehend.

“Next time, come with the baby’s father and let him hear the heartbeat, too. It feels very different when you hear it together.”

The doctor spoke carefully as she studied Yeon-jae’s expression.

Understanding the intention behind those words, Yeon-jae bit down on her lower lip.

At the words the baby’s father, a man’s image appeared before her eyes.

A man she had loved passionately, like a moth throwing itself into a fire despite knowing it would die.

“You’re unmarried. You’re going to have the baby, right?”

As morning sickness appeared despite never having existed before, and as she felt her body changing, Yeon-jae didn’t know what she should do.

The matter of the child was not something she could decide on her own.

She had kept postponing her appointment, but when the hospital told her she could no longer delay it, she had no choice but to come.

Seeing her like this, the doctor seemed to assume that Yeon-jae had made up her mind to give birth.

“Then I’ll see you at your next appointment. Make sure you take your folic acid.”

After finishing everything, the doctor left the ultrasound room first.

Left alone, Yeon-jae gathered her clothes and swallowed a low groan.

Then, when she closed her eyes at the overwhelming feeling washing over her, her eyelashes trembled endlessly.

If she could have followed her heart, she would have wanted to come here with him hundreds of times.

But the baby’s father couldn’t come.

He had been lying in the hospital for two months after an accident had left him in a vegetative state.

I have to tell him today.

Yeon-jae looked down at the ultrasound photograph and let out a deep sigh.

From now on, her belly would grow day by day, yet she was still the only person who knew she was pregnant.

She stared at the photograph with a troubled expression until the taxi driver announced that they had arrived.

She put the photograph into her handbag.

As she got out of the car, a familiar scene came into view.

The entrance to the residential neighborhood of Seogye-dong, where houses were packed closely together.

She walked through the narrow alley and stopped in front of a small, one-story house.

A luxurious sedan was parked in front of the modest house.

Yeon-jae could immediately imagine who the owner of that sedan was.

She was the person who had summoned Yeon-jae here.

Yonggung Shinnyeo, Hyeonwoldang.

Yeon-jae looked at the name written on the signboard before pressing the doorbell.

Within a few seconds, the gate, sturdy as a fortress, opened with a metallic click.

As she passed through the entrance, Yeon-jae clenched her sweaty fist.

Her heart began beating faster from tension.

Because of the woman who was waiting for her.

A woman who always made Yeon-jae feel as though she were a sinner, shrinking her down until she felt unbearably small.

As Yeon-jae passed through the inner door and headed toward the living room, Min-young, the secretary who had been pacing back and forth, recognized her and approached.

“Why are you only coming now? And why haven’t you been answering your phone? I told you Director Pyo had a schedule today.”

In truth, Yeon-jae knew that the phone inside her handbag had been ringing incessantly throughout her entire medical appointment.

She avoided Min-young’s gaze and shifted her eyes farther inside.

At the end of her gaze was a single room.

The owner of the sharp, ringing voice that occasionally drifted through the old wooden door.

Pyo Myeong-hee, the only daughter-in-law of Gu Ji-gang, chairman of Gu-il Group, and the director of the Gu-il Foundation.

Even though Min-young, her secretary, was present, the woman had summoned Yeon-jae as though she were a servant.

Yeon-jae’s stomach already felt uneasy even before facing her.

She swallowed.

“I wasn’t feeling well, so I woke up late.”

She couldn’t tell her that she had gone to the hospital, so she made up a plausible excuse.

That was when a highly excited voice came from beyond the threshold.

“Is it really going to happen?”

“Of course. When have I ever been wrong? There will probably be only one……………… but Halmaesin says she’s the real deal.”

“Shinnyeonim, thank you. Thank you.”

“What a blessing for a family that has been lacking an heir. From now on, only good things will happen, Director Pyo.”

Excited voices were mixed with occasional laughter.

Yeon-jae couldn’t hear everything clearly, but she could tell that the atmosphere was cheerful.

Myeong-hee often became hysterical whenever she visited Hyeonwoldang.

After her husband died and her only son was involved in an accident as well, she had relied even more heavily on Hyeonwoldang.

Whenever she received bad news, the following week would become a living hell for everyone around her.

Thinking that this was a blessing in disguise, Yeon-jae breathed a sigh of relief.

She sensed someone approaching from inside, and as the voice drew closer, Min-young headed toward the room first.

It seemed the fortune reading was over.

Yeon-jae followed and stood beside Min-young.

The door opened, and Myeong-hee emerged.

Yeon-jae immediately lowered her head toward her.

“Jeong Yeon-jae.”

The deep resonance, almost like a roar, made Yeon-jae shrink back.

When she raised her head, their eyes met.

Myeong-hee glared sharply at Yeon-jae.

“What on earth are you doing? Didn’t I tell you I was going to Hyeonwoldang at two today?”

“I’m sorry. I woke up late.”

Yeon-jae lowered her head again.

Expecting the criticism that would follow, she squeezed her eyes shut.

“Woke up late? Jeong Yeon-jae, who do you think you are to wake up later than me?”

Since she couldn’t tell her that she had gone to the hospital for a pregnancy checkup, Yeon-jae added another excuse.

Perhaps irritated by that excuse, displeasure seeped into Myeong-hee’s voice.

She stepped closer and lightly pushed Yeon-jae’s forehead with her fingertips.

“Do you know how much money I’ve spent on you? I even held a recital and got you a debut, and you can’t even play the piano.”

Whenever Myeong-hee pushed her, Yeon-jae’s slender body was helplessly forced backward before she regained her balance.

“Then you should at least be quick and useful. What exactly do you do? This is why you shouldn’t take in people who have nothing. Leeches, all of you.”

Her shrill voice was filled with irritation.

For a moment, hysteria surged across Myeong-hee’s face.

If they had been at her residence in Cheongdam-dong, she surely would have thrown whatever object she could get her hands on.

Fortunately, because they were at Hyeonwoldang, she was suppressing her anger.

“I’m sorry……………….”

“Does saying sorry make everything okay?”

Yeon-jae lowered her head.

Then she clasped her trembling hands together.

In truth, this kind of criticism didn’t bother her anymore.

It had already been more than ten years since she had first encountered Myeong-hee.

During that time, she had grown so accustomed to it that she had become numb.

There was another reason her hands were trembling.

The resolve she had made to herself today—to tell Myeong-hee—was crumbling helplessly in front of her.

How could she tell a woman who hated her this much?

That the lowly sponsored girl she considered beneath her had become pregnant with her son’s child?

Gu Je-heon.

The only grandson of Gu Ji-gang, chairman of Gu-il Group, and Myeong-hee’s only son.

Je-heon was the child’s father.

At fourteen, Yeon-jae began playing the piano under the sponsorship of the Gu-il Foundation, where Myeong-hee served as director.

And when she was sixteen, she set foot inside the Cheongdam-dong mansion for the first time.

Yeon-jae had been playing the grand piano in the spacious living room when she first saw him coming down the stairs.

“You really suck at piano. There’s no emotion in your playing. What are you supposed to convey with technique alone?”

His low voice was cold enough to make her heart go numb.

The man approached so closely that she could feel his breath.

He lowered his head and pressed a key.

His long fingers danced gracefully across the keyboard.

The melody was so enchanting that it could melt her eardrums, yet Yeon-jae couldn’t tear her gaze away from his eyes.

It felt as though the entire world had stopped.

“You’re Jeong Yeon-jae, right? The sixth sponsored beneficiary in our family.”

A sneer curled his smooth lips.

And when those ink-dark eyes turned toward her, the man was etched deep into her heart.

Although she had never met him before, she recognized him immediately.

Gu Je-heon, the only son of her sponsor.

From the moment she met him until now, ten years later, Je-heon had been her entire world.

Just thinking about him made her heart ache this badly.

He was the man who had been her first love—and whom she believed would be her last.

She had believed their love could never come true.

Then, one year ago, a single night of reckless passion became the beginning of their relationship.

They continued seeing each other in secret, and Yeon-jae had been happy.

At least, until Je-heon became unconscious after his accident.

“Ha. What’s the point of telling you? Nothing’s going to change!”

The deep voice, laced with irritation, brought Yeon-jae back from her thoughts.

She raised her head and saw Myeong-hee irritably running a hand through her hair.

“Go inside and get the talisman the Shinnyeo-nim is writing for me.”

After saying that, she left Hyeonwoldang.

Min-young, who had been standing nearby with an awkward expression, soon followed Myeong-hee.

Only after their footsteps had completely disappeared did Yeon-jae finally release the shallow breath she had been holding.

It felt as though she could finally breathe again.

Just facing Myeong-hee was enough to make her like this.

Could she really tell her about the pregnancy?

If that man would only wake up, all of her worries would be resolved.

But she couldn’t simply wait for Je-heon when no one knew when he would wake up.

Yeon-jae bit down on her lower lip.

She was frustrated and miserable because even she couldn’t find an answer to her situation.

Thinking that nothing would change if she continued standing there, she approached the room.

She had to find the talisman and deliver it to Myeong-hee.

When she turned the doorknob, the smell of burnt incense seeped through the gap.

Yeon-jae entered the room and raised her head.

Directly in front of her was a magnificent altar, where a candleholder cast a faint, flickering glow.

“The talisman?”

She immediately looked at the statue of the celestial maiden before shifting her gaze.

“Take this.”

When she looked down, she saw a middle-aged woman sitting behind a long table.

Her eyes were fixed stubbornly on Yeon-jae, so direct that they were almost burdensome.

Countless ritual implements were placed beside her.

Although Yeon-jae had accompanied Myeong-hee to Hyeonwoldang several times, this was her first time meeting the shamaness.

Myeong-hee had always been the only one who entered the shrine.

Even as Yeon-jae approached the table, the shamaness’s gaze remained fixed on her.

Feeling something strange, Yeon-jae reached toward the white envelope on the table.

That was when—

“Don’t tell anyone about that.”

“Pardon?”

Tell anyone about what?

Confusion appeared on Yeon-jae’s face at the shamaness’s sudden words.

The shamaness placed her wrinkled hand firmly over the envelope Yeon-jae had reached for.

Straightening her body toward the table and leaning closer, the shamaness gestured toward Yeon-jae with her chin.

“I’m telling you not to say anything if you want to protect it.”

Her words were directed toward Yeon-jae’s stomach—

still flat enough that there was no visible sign of pregnancy.