Ga Eun looked at the two people alternately with dry eyes, as if she really didn’t know who the person in front of her was.

“She must have hit her head badly. What should we do with our daughter.”

Yun Sook made a fuss and urged the doctor. The doctor checked the chart several times, trying to hide his expression.

Yun Sook quickly went outside while making a phone call, as if she couldn’t believe the fact before her.

“Do you really not know who I am?”

Do Jun brought his face close to Ga Eun as if to confirm if her words were true. As if displeased by Do Jun’s actions, Ga Eun turned her head to the side, avoiding his body.

And she turned her body to lie down on the opposite side of where Do Jun was standing and closed her eyes.

Do Jun could only stare blankly at Ga Eun’s back, which he had never seen throughout their married life. After staring at Ga Eun’s back for a while, Do Jun went outside.

When she confirmed that there was no one in the hospital room, Ga Eun’s eyes turned cold.

The voice of her stepmother Lee Yun Sook making a phone call could be heard from outside the room. Just from her voice, Ga Eun felt she could imagine her stepmother Lee Yun Sook’s expression.

Yun Sook had a look of relief when she learned that she didn’t remember her.

Yun Sook was definitely at the scene of the accident. Ga Eun clearly remembered making eye contact with Yun Sook, who was coldly looking down at her collapsed form.

She must be overwhelmed with regret that she didn’t die, frustration that her plan went awry, and anxiety that someone might find out about all of this.

Yun Sook, who had hurriedly ended the phone call, came back into the room, forcefully opening the door as if to check Ga Eun’s condition again.

“It’s chaos trying to stop the news because of you.”

With a completely different face from when Do Jun was in the room, Yun Sook cornered Ga Eun.

When the truck driver who had been instructed to cause the traffic accident disappeared after the accident, she seemed to have changed her plan to frame Ga Eun’s traffic accident as a self-inflicted act due to depression.

“You’re not pretending not to remember, are you?”

Yun Sook asked repeatedly, as if to check Ga Eun’s condition again. Ga Eun didn’t waver at all to Yun Sook’s pressuring words. Rather, she maintained a cold gaze as if looking at a complete stranger.

“Madam.”

With a cool yet charismatic voice, Ga Eun broke Yun Sook’s spirit in one go.

“What?”

She stroked her head as if feeling a headache and continued her next words.

“You’re noisy.”

Yun Sook was relieved by Ga Eun’s completely different attitude from before, but on the other hand, she couldn’t control her anger as if dumbfounded.

“You, just try to act like this when your father comes.”

Her sharp voice gradually faded away. Her ears felt muffled as if submerged in water. The sight of Yun Sook’s retreating back seemed to flicker before her eyes.

As the door to the hospital room closed forcefully again, everything that had happened so far began to resurface in Ga Eun’s mind like a dream.

＊＊＊

4 months before the traffic accident.

Ga Eun, who had gone on a business trip to the countryside for a fashion show meeting, arrived home earlier than expected due to a problem with the foreign buyer’s schedule.

Since the materials needed for the fashion show were at her family home, she headed to her family home first instead of her newlywed home. Usually, there would be no one in the mansion at this time.

When she opened the door to the mansion, she couldn’t see any staff working, perhaps they were cleaning the second floor.

Thinking it was rather fortunate, Ga Eun was about to go straight up to the second floor with her luggage when she heard Yun Sook’s voice leaking through the slightly open door of the master bedroom.

“Yoon Ga Eun seems to be suspicious of the secret ledger anyway.”

Ga Eun had recently encountered Yun Sook coming out of a high-end Korean restaurant with a guest.

She had thought her stepmother’s behavior was suspicious when she was startled upon seeing her, and it seemed she really had created a secret ledger behind World Group’s back.

Since that day, Ga Eun had quietly observed her mother’s behavior but couldn’t find the secret ledger.

Ga Eun’s nerves were on edge at Yun Sook’s small voice, as if telling a secret.

“She’s been an eyesore for a while, but this is rather good. When she goes on a business trip to the countryside, why not just kill her disguised as a traffic accident. It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a long time anyway.”

For a moment, Ga Eun felt as if her body froze in place at Yun Sook’s calm voice speaking about killing her as if it were nothing.

“That fool Yoon still doesn’t know that Yoon Ga Eun is his own flesh and blood. His own blood is living and breathing right in front of him.”

As Yun Sook’s voice laced with sarcasm continued to be heard, Ga Eun felt a sense of terror as if her heart had dropped to the floor. Only then could Ga Eun understand why she was trying to kill her.

She must be afraid that her biological daughter would get everything from World Group. Perhaps, Yun Sook was creating a justification for herself to kill her.

Until now, she had grown up enduring all sorts of humiliation from her stepmother Lee Yun Sook and Chairman Yoon Gi Cheol just because she was an adopted child of World Group.

But, to think that she was the biological daughter of World Group.

Ga Eun’s mouth fell open in disbelief at what Yun Sook was saying now. Fearing that she might be caught eavesdropping on the phone conversation, Ga Eun hurriedly and carefully opened the mansion door again and went outside.

Only after completely leaving the mansion could she exhale her ragged breath.

Ga Eun had lived an unhappy life, playing the role of a beloved only daughter in public while being an adopted daughter. But realizing that all of this was fabricated by Lee Yun Sook, Ga Eun was overwhelmed with uncontrollable anger.

Ga Eun’s mind went blank, not knowing what action she should take right now.

As she sank into the thought that she might die, strangely, the first face that came to mind was Ji Do Jun’s. A man she had married but never held. A man she had never been able to express her feelings of liking even once. While Ga Eun was standing there lost in deep thought, her phone rang loudly. When she picked up the phone, she heard the voice of her close friend Seon Ah.

“I heard your husband is going to the U.S. branch for a year?”

Ga Eun let out a bitter laugh at the fact that she first heard about her husband’s most important schedule from her friend.

Lee Yun Sook must have already known that Ji Do Jun was being sent to work at a foreign branch. And she must have planned to kill me when I went on another business trip to the countryside.

As the hidden truths poured out all at once, Ga Eun felt as if her legs would give out and she would collapse on the spot. She barely managed to move her lips while forcing strength into her legs.

“Yes. That’s how it turned out.”

“It’s been too long since we met. Shall we meet up?”

Ga Eun, half out of her mind, couldn’t refuse her friend’s suggestion and readily agreed. She met her friend and drank a lot of wine, which she usually couldn’t drink, while letting her friend’s marriage complaints go in one ear and out the other.

The more wine she drank, the clearer her memories of Ji Do Jun became. And she belatedly realized that today was their last day as a married couple.

“I should get going now.”

Ga Eun cut off her friend’s words midway and got up from the BAR first to get into a taxi. As the thought that she might die soon crossed her mind, it became harder to hide her feelings.

She headed straight home as soon as she got out of the taxi. As she opened the front door and entered, she saw Do Jun’s shoes neatly placed in front of the entrance.

Her gaze fell on Do Jun’s tightly closed study. He often stayed cooped up in his study without coming out on days when he came home.

Even though they hadn’t made any promises, Ga Eun never knocked on the study door or called him out when Do Jun went into his study. But that day was different.

It was the first and last day she wanted to have Do Jun as her husband.

After making love with Do Jun for the first time while drunk, Ga Eun immediately packed all her things and left the house.

She planned to stay temporarily in an officetel she had prepared in advance in case of divorce. As she sobered up, strangely, Ga Eun felt that she couldn’t die like this at the hands of Lee Yun Sook.

She hurriedly made a phone call somewhere.

“There’s something I’d like you to look into.”

Ga Eun’s priority was to find out what Lee Yun Sook’s traffic accident plan was. Through an errand center, she discovered that Lee Yun Sook would hire a truck driver to cause a traffic accident.

To deceive Lee Yun Sook, she pretended to go on a business trip to the countryside for 3 months as she wished.

Even while packing her bags and going down to the countryside, she never let her guard down. Three days before the day Lee Yun Sook had planned to kill her, she received a call from the errand center.

“We’ve found out the information about the truck driver. I’ll send it to you by email now.”

“Thank you.”

After hanging up, Ga Eun hurriedly checked the truck driver’s personal information sent by the errand center.

He was a young man raising a sick daughter alone who was facing heart surgery. Ga Eun could imagine how Lee Yun Sook might have blackmailed the man.

Suddenly feeling nauseous, Ga Eun approached the bathroom again and vomited into the toilet. Since about 3 months after coming on the business trip to the countryside, Ga Eun had been feeling uncomfortable and often felt bloated and nauseous after eating.

With a bad feeling, Ga Eun checked the calendar and realized she had missed her period twice. She rushed to the pharmacy to buy a pregnancy test.

Having bought the pregnancy test, she sat on the toilet for a long time, unable to open the box of the test kit out of fear. After contemplating for a while, she let out a big sigh and finally took out the pregnancy test.

The pregnancy test showed exactly two red lines. Her hand trembled in midair.

Ga Eun couldn’t believe that a new life had formed inside her body in a situation where she might die. Strangely, the fact that she now had something to protect gave her great courage for the first time.

For the first time, she had a reason why she absolutely had to live.