Chapter 2
But that was not the end of it.
Perhaps the shock had simply been too great. The bleeding would not stop, and Mother became unable to have any more children.
From that day on, Mother and Seol-ah became sinners in the eyes of the family.
After that, Mother’s life became even more difficult.
Grandfather treated Mother as if she were invisible, while Grandmother’s sharp tongue grew harsher with every passing day.
Father’s eyes toward Mother were completely devoid of emotion. Even though Mother had poured more love and care into her stepdaughter than she had into her own daughter, to that girl, Mother was forever just a stepmother and a maid who could be treated however she pleased.
Perhaps that was why.
Before she had even reached fifty, Mother developed a terrible illness.
Even then, foolishly, almost painfully foolishly, after enduring everything for so long, the only thing she could say was:
“I’m sorry.”
Ugh!
All the resentment and sorrow she had swallowed down again and again came surging up her throat, burning hot.
Seol-ah’s body crumpled and collapsed.
Her fingers, tightly gripping the coffin, gradually turned white. Her slender shoulders shook uncontrollably.
I’m not going to cry. I absolutely won’t cry.
She bit her lips tightly, trying to hold back the sobs that threatened to burst out like a broken dam.
But eventually, a choked sound forced its way out.
Tears fell onto the floor one after another, like raindrops.
Now, when she could see her mother for the last time, her mother’s entire life flashed before Seol-ah’s eyes like a panorama.
A father who never looked back at his wife.
A mother who desperately sought love from that husband.
And Seol-ah, who had spent so long watching her mother’s back that, before she knew it, she had become just like her.
What a painful and miserable life.
If even the final moments of that life were filled with nothing but sorrowful crying, how heavy must her mother’s footsteps be as she left for that long journey?
So, wanting her mother to leave peacefully, Seol-ah forced herself to stand and smiled as brightly as she could.
But tears continued to stream down her face despite her determination, spilling endlessly from the corners of her curved eyes.
She slowly lowered her head toward her mother, who was lying among the flowers.
Then she gently pressed her lips against her mother’s cold, stiff forehead.
Go in peace. Don’t worry about me.
Then she poured all her heart into her lips.
Mom, I love you.
It was Seol-ah’s final goodbye to her mother.
Her mother had burned herself away to shower everyone around her with love, yet had ended up with no love left to give herself or her own daughter.
Along the long corridor of the funeral hall, condolence flower stands were lined up endlessly, packed tightly together in neat rows.
The wreaths were decorated mainly with white chrysanthemums and yellow lilies. On the left side, almost as if everyone had agreed beforehand, were the words, “May the deceased rest in peace.” On the right were the names of famous political and business figures whom practically every Korean would recognize.
They were rather excessive names for the death of the wife of a small chairman from Samdong, a third-tier construction company.
But the deceased was the in-law of the Taekyung Group, a first-tier construction company whose construction capability evaluation amount was a staggering 11 trillion won.
As Gicheol and his two daughters, Se-eun and Seol-ah, stood guard at the funeral altar, a steady stream of mourners continued to arrive.
Many of them had come because they were conscious of Seol-ah’s in-laws, Taekyung.
The mourners would burn incense or place a white chrysanthemum before exchanging a bow with Gicheol, who wore a white mourning armband with two black stripes.
Then they would say,
“How heartbreaking this must be. May the deceased rest in peace.”
“Thank you.”
Gicheol answered with a perfectly sorrowful expression.
Soon, people’s eyes moved past Gicheol and Se-eun and subtly turned toward the woman standing beside them with a white ribbon in her hair.
Gicheol’s second daughter, Yeo Seol-ah.
The daughter-in-law of Taekyung.
Although both sisters wore black mourning clothes with identical white ribbons in their hair, they looked quite different.
Unlike her older sister, a sophisticated and glamorous beauty, Taekyung’s daughter-in-law was plain and understated.
Her small, delicate face was completely free of makeup. She looked pale and exhausted, as though she had not even been able to drink a sip of water, and her eyes were empty.
At first, people thought she was less beautiful than her older sister, who wore light makeup.
But the sorrow radiating from her entire body made their hearts ache, and at the same time, they could not take their eyes off her.
She was clearly exhausted and haggard.
Yet the elegant and refined aura that quietly flowed from her made them think once again:
She really is Taekyung’s daughter-in-law.
Finally, when the endless stream of mourners began to thin out, Se-eun slapped her thighs and complained,
“Ugh, how much longer do we have to stay like this?”
There was not even the slightest trace of sadness in her irritated voice.
Gicheol hurriedly tried to soothe her.
“Se-eun, it must be really hard for you, right? You’ve worked so hard. Just get through tonight, okay?”
The sorrow that Gicheol had so skillfully displayed in front of other people was nowhere to be seen now.
There was no sadness over losing his wife.
All he felt was concern and affection for his beloved daughter, along with guilt that she had to suffer.
Se-eun dropped heavily into her seat and rubbed her calves, muttering irritably,
“Look at this. My calves are all stiff and knotted!”
“Yes, yes. You’ve had a hard time.”
“Ah, this is so annoying!”
The more Gicheol comforted her, the sharper Se-eun’s complaints became.
Then she glared at Seol-ah, who stood blankly beside her, as though her younger sister were responsible for everything that had happened.
“Thieving bitch!”
Whenever Seol-ah came to her parents’ home, Se-eun always called her that.
Without ever thinking about what she herself had done.
Seol-ah had heard those words so many times that they no longer even made her angry.
Besides, her mind was so numb with grief that she could barely hear anything around her.
Even if she had heard it, she had no energy left to react.
All she could do was stare blankly ahead.
“Seol-ah, you!”
Gicheol suddenly called out to her coldly.
Looking at his daughter’s eyes as they slowly returned to focus, as though she had just been splashed with cold water, Gicheol began harshly berating her.
“What on earth did your in-laws do to you? What did you do that they won’t even show their faces here when the funeral procession is tomorrow? How much do they look down on us?”
“……”
“And is Cha Seo-bang even coming? Everyone keeps asking about him. This is really embarrassing! How badly must you have behaved for him not to come even though his mother-in-law died?”
His handsome face, which had once been attractive enough to make Mother fall for him at first sight and was still handsome even now, became flushed and twisted with anger.
A faint sneer appeared at the corner of Seol-ah’s lips.
Until only a short while ago, she had been nervous over every little word Gicheol said, every glance he gave her.
But somehow, seeing Gicheol standing there with his veins bulging in anger looked strangely ridiculous.
Perhaps something inside her had become completely twisted by her mother’s death.
Soon, however, that sneer faded into something bitter and empty.
Seol-ah lowered her gaze and pressed her dry lips tightly together.
What did Mom ever see in a man like that?
His wife had died.
He might not have loved her, but how many years had they lived together, sharing their lives as husband and wife?
Poor foolish Mom. Stupid Mom. That’s why you were even more pitiful.
What did you ever see in a man like that, who cared more about other people’s eyes and his own reputation than his wife’s death?
But soon, a deep sigh escaped from Seol-ah’s chest.
Who am I to call Mom foolish?
I’m no different from her…
Before she knew it, the man Gicheol kept calling Cha Seo-bang, her own husband, filled her thoughts.
Cha Moon-hyuk, the second son of Cha Geum-rak, chairman of Taekyung Group, and now the group’s only heir.
Into Seol-ah’s ears came Gicheol’s angry scolding once again, unable to contain his frustration.
“How much do they think we’re a joke, huh? They say that if a man’s wife is beautiful, he’ll even bow down to the post of her parents’ gate! Just what on earth are you…! Tsk, if only Se-eun had gotten married…!”
Even the funeral director, who had never met them before, was worried that Seol-ah would make herself sick and told her to eat something and get some sleep.
But Gicheol continued pouring out his words without giving even a thought to the grief of a daughter who had lost her mother, or the pain of a daughter who was being completely abandoned by her husband and in-laws even at a moment like this.
To Gicheol, he had only one daughter.
Se-eun.
Seol-ah was nothing more than an emotional trash can that had taken over after her mother.
Yet today, strangely enough, Seol-ah found herself sneering again, almost as though she were going through a belated rebellious adolescence.
Ha. This is really ridiculous.
She sneered inwardly.
That’s right. You should have married my sister.
If you had, I wouldn’t have fallen in love with that man either. I wouldn’t have become involved with that family.
In the end, the true cause of all this was Gicheol’s excessive love for Se-eun.
And Se-eun also had plenty of blame to bear for irresponsibly running away with a man she had fallen for, leaving her father behind without a thought.
As a result, Seol-ah, who had been standing behind her, was the one who got stabbed by the sword that came flying at them.
It had been a marriage between two people who were never on the same level from the beginning.
Samdong was fairly successful in the provinces.
But this was Taekyung.
And, even more importantly, the man she was marrying was Cha Moon-hyuk.
Who was he?
He was the number-one marriage prospect, coveted even by the picky and demanding people of Korea’s political and business circles.
