At that moment, Gyeo Wool felt as if her heart had fallen off a thousand-foot cliff.

Her unfocused eyes began to tremble violently and wander in the air.

“You know that if I try to find it, that mere address could be in my hands in just a few minutes.”

“Please, don’t touch my mother.”

“If you’re afraid of that, then listen to me and leave Tae Wook’s house right now!”

“I can’t do that now. Just until the Chairman’s memory returns……”

Gyeo Wool was naturally worried about Myung Sook.

However, she couldn’t go back without finishing Tae Wook’s work.

“Are you really going to make me go find your mother!”

“What are you saying right now?”

The car door opened and Tae Wook appeared, shouting like a roaring angry beast.

“Ta, Tae Wook……”

Surprised by Tae Wook’s sudden appearance, Ki Bum stammered.

His bewildered gaze darted back and forth between Tae Wook and Gyeo Wool’s faces.

“Aren’t you asking now? Why did Father say he was going to find a secretary’s mother?”

Tae Wook spewed out his boiling anger without holding back.

He immediately sensed something was off when he saw the familiar car and Ki Bum’s secretary standing nearby.

The fact that Ki Bum had called Gyeo Wool to the car.

And he instinctively felt this wasn’t the first time.

When Tae Wook came to the car, Ki Bum’s secretary tried to alert Ki Bum.

But Tae Wook subdued Ki Bum’s secretary with his gaze and eavesdropped on Ki Bum and Gyeo Wool’s conversation.

-Please, don’t touch my mother.

The moment he heard Gyeo Wool’s pleading voice, Tae Wook’s patience shattered.

-Are you really going to make me go find your mother!

Tae Wook couldn’t hold back any longer and had to fling open the car door.

“You must have misheard. When did I ever say such a thing?”

Ki Bum tried to wriggle out of it by denying.

But Tae Wook wasn’t one to believe Ki Bum’s words.

“Secretary Han trembling at just the mention of Father’s name… Was it because you’ve been calling her like this to threaten her all this time?”

“What threat! As the saying goes, a thief is wary of his own footsteps, she must have been afraid of me because she did something wrong. Why blame this blameless father!”

Far from admitting his wrongdoing, Ki Bum spoke as if Gyeo Wool was the one with the problem.

Did Ki Bum know how much such an attitude angered Tae Wook?

Tae Wook’s fist, clenched with all his might, was trembling.

“Because you keep defending her like this, she doesn’t even realize she’s done wrong by shamelessly deceiving us.”

“What exactly did Secretary Han deceive us about?”

“Everything but her breathing is a lie, and you’re the only one who doesn’t know. Do you even know that the woman who appeared at the wedding as her mother was also fake?”

Tae Wook raised one eyebrow diagonally.

“See that. It must be something you didn’t know either.”

Seeing Tae Wook’s expression, Ki Bum assumed that Tae Wook also didn’t know about it.

“Would I have imagined such an absurd lie? But she did it without even blinking an eye.”

Ki Bum pointed at Gyeo Wool, who was looking down and saying nothing.

“Secretary Han, go out.”

“Representative……”

“Listen to me.”

Gyeo Wool followed Tae Wook’s words. Even as she left the car, she didn’t forget to bow her head to Ki Bum.

Ki Bum looked at her with a face as if he had bitten into a bug.

“I already knew that Secretary Han’s mother who attended the wedding was fake.”

“What?”

“It wasn’t Secretary Han, but I who orchestrated it.”

“Talk sense!”

Ki Bum’s face was contorted as if he couldn’t believe Tae Wook’s words.

“Not just Secretary Han’s mother, but all the guests on the bride’s side were people hired for money.”

“I, it can’t be. Did you really……”

“Yes. Do you now understand that it was me, not Secretary Han, who deceived you and the family?”

“That can’t be. Why would you do such a thing……”

Ki Bum’s face still looked like he couldn’t quite believe Tae Wook’s words.

“Whether you believe it or not is your choice, Father. But the fact that it was my doing, not Secretary Han’s, remains unchanged. So!”

Tae Wook cut off his words and glared fiercely at Ki Bum.

The air around them seemed to freeze, his aura as bitterly cold as the north wind.

“If you ever call Secretary Han without my knowledge and threaten her again, I will never forgive you, even if you are my father. Do you understand?”

“Wh, what do you mean you won’t forgive me? Is that how a son should speak to his father?”

Tae Wook did not react to Ki Bum’s furious words.

“Please go home safely. And I hope you never come here again.”

Tae Wook slammed the door he had opened shut and turned around.

Then he approached Gyeo Wool, who was watching him from a distance.

“Representative, you shouldn’t do this.”

Gyeo Wool looked at Tae Wook with worry written all over her face.

Tae Wook silently took Gyeo Wool’s hand.

By now, Ki Bum had opened the window and was shouting at the two of them.

“No matter what you say, I won’t stand to see that woman by your side. Do you understand? You must marry Choi councilor’s daughter no matter what!”

Tae Wook, with a terrifyingly cold face, pulled Gyeo Wool’s hand and walked forward.

Tae Wook and Gyeo Wool entered the company building and got on the elevator.

Tae Wook pressed the floor button in the elevator.

Changing his mind about going to the representative’s office, he pressed the button for the top floor of the building.

Gyeo Wool noticed that Tae Wook was conscious of the eyes and ears of the employees.

The rooftop of the building.

The afternoon sunlight was unusually warm for early winter.

But the wind hitting their faces was as sharp and chilling as a knife.

How far was he planning to go?

Tae Wook kept moving forward like a person walking endlessly.

Gyeo Wool’s steps, walking while looking at his back, were gradually slowing down.

Then at some point, Gyeo Wool’s steps completely stopped.

The distance between the two widened, and the strength of the wind passing between them grew stronger.

Perhaps noticing that Gyeo Wool’s footsteps could no longer be heard.

Tae Wook also stopped walking at a point just short of the rooftop railing.

“Since when?”

Tae Wook’s voice, pushing up from his vocal cords, was severely cracked.

“It’s already in the past.”

“Tell me. Since when did Father threaten you about Secretary Han’s mother?”

He barely suppressed his voice that was trying to rise in anger as he recalled it.

Behind him, only the sound of breathing could be heard, no words.

He realized that Gyeo Wool wanted to cover up the incident with Ki Bum.

But his thoughts were different. He needed to know everything.

Since when and how his father had been tormenting Gyeo Wool all this time.

“I’ll stand here like this until you tell me. Even if night falls and dawn comes.”

“Representative……”

The sound of Gyeo Wool’s deep sigh, pondering, reached Tae Wook’s ears on the wind.

Tae Wook stood silently looking up at the sky, which was lively and bright, so different from his mood.

How much time had passed?

“It was probably about two months before the divorce.”

“Really? You’re saying he wasn’t tormenting Secretary Han before that?”

“No.”

At Gyeo Wool’s answer, Tae Wook narrowed his eyes.

Suddenly he felt like he was trapped in a maze.

Perhaps Gyeo Wool turning her eyes to another man, not himself.

He thought that maybe even her demand for divorce was because of Ki Bum.

Maybe he was secretly hoping that was the reason.

But if it was two months before the divorce, it was already after Gyeo Wool had demanded the divorce.

“How did Father find out that woman was a stand-in?”

“It seems he went to a gathering by chance and ran into the woman who was also doing stand-in work there.”

“Huh……”

Tae Wook let out an empty breath in disbelief.

If no one else, he had given a large sum of money to the woman who stood in as Gyeo Wool’s mother at the meeting with the in-laws and the wedding.

On the condition that she quit that job.

But she must have broken her promise and gone out to work, only to be spotted by Ki Bum who happened to come there.

“And then?”

“He found out that I had deceived even my mother and married you. He said he would go find my mother and nullify the marriage……”

Just recalling that time seemed to intensify her emotions, as Gyeo Wool’s voice trailed off with a sobbing sound.

“That can’t be all. Secretary Han wouldn’t be dragged around by Father just for the matter of visiting your mother.”

There was no way Gyeo Wool would have been scared by such words from Ki Bum.

His hating and yelling at her was a common occurrence after the marriage.

Tae Wook finally turned around.

“Tell me what words he used to threaten Secretary Han.”

“If I didn’t leave you… Mom, Mom… would be in danger, he said.”

Gyeo Wool struggled to continue speaking.

“She’s my only family… To say he would… harm my mother… Hic!”

Gyeo Wool’s slender shoulders shook helplessly, and finally, she burst into tears.

“Huu……”

Tae Wook let out a long breath, drawing up stuffy air from deep in his chest.

Then he approached Gyeo Wool one step at a time.

He stood face to face with her, close enough to touch.

“If such a thing happened, you should have told me first.”

It’s not meant as a rebuke.

But he couldn’t help but be angry that she hadn’t told him about such a threat.

“How… could I tell you that?”

“Why couldn’t you tell me?”

“At that time, I had already decided to leave you. So how could I……”

“Until you stamped the divorce papers, I was Secretary Han’s husband. So you should have told me!”

“No. That’s not true.”

Gyeo Wool shook her head vigorously.

As a result, the tears flowing down her cheeks scattered wildly to her ears and chin.

“We weren’t even a real couple… How could you be my husband?”

At Gyeo Wool’s words, Tae Wook felt a pain as if his heart was being torn apart.