The sound of clicking heels echoed through the six-person hospital room filled with the scent of disinfectant.

With her back straight and her chin held high, her elegant gait drew the attention of the patients in the room.

Standing in the center of the six-person hospital room, Young Ran checked the name tag hanging at the end of the bed.

‘Lee Jung Hye.’

Jung Hye, who was sitting on the diagonally propped up bed, looked at Young Ran standing at the foot of her bed.

As the gaze fixed on her grew longer, Jung Hye pushed the bed away with her right hand and raised her upper body.

“You’re Shin Joo’s mother, right?”

“Yes. What brings you here…”

Jung Hye couldn’t help but be quite surprised when a stranger suddenly mentioned her daughter’s name.

Young Ran spoke with a soft smile on her lips.

“I have an urgent matter to discuss regarding your daughter. Could you spare a moment?”

Since it was about Joo, Jung Hye followed Young Ran out without a word.

Jung Hye, sitting in a wheelchair, entered the empty hospital lounge with Young Ran.

Before sitting down, Young Ran gave an order to Secretary Kim.

Then Secretary Kim placed a prepared fruit basket with beautiful colors next to Jung Hye.

“I thought I should bring something. Please take it.”

“Oh, thank you. My daughter and I will enjoy it.”

Unable to straighten her stiff body, only her shoulders jutted forward.

Looking at the fruit basket placed next to the wheelchair, Jung Hye asked what she had been curious about all along.

“By the way, may I ask how you know my daughter?”

“I’m the wife of the chairman of Anshine Resort. The CEO is my son.”

Jung Hye looked even more perplexed, unable to understand.

“Ah. Madam Chairman, why are you… Did something happen to Joo?”

Even after saying this much, Jung Hye couldn’t guess why Young Ran had come to see her.

Young Ran, who had been acting appropriately friendly, drained her emotions and recited in a dry tone.

“My son says he wants to marry Shin Joo, your daughter.”

“What? That, that’s absurd!”

Confused and dizzy, the words got stuck in her throat.

“I guess you haven’t heard from your daughter yet.”

“No. So I’m a bit… taken aback.”

“That makes two of us.”

Was she seeing things?

Jung Hye thought Young Ran’s lips curled up like an arrowhead, as if she was smirking.

“That fruit basket looks quite tempting. But the inside is even more tempting.”

The topic suddenly jumped to the fruit basket out of nowhere.

Young Ran uncrossed her legs and tapped the fruit basket with the tip of her shoe.

“There’s about 30 million won under the fruit. If it’s not enough, tell me now. I’ll match the amount as much as possible.”

Jung Hye’s stomach churned.

Now Jung Hye understood why Young Ran had come to see her.

She felt foolish for gleefully accepting the fruit basket, which was essentially a compensation for breaking off the engagement.

Jung Hye’s parched lips trembled with humiliation.

“Is the marriage our daughter wants to have not one to be welcomed?”

“Put yourself in my shoes. Why would I welcome your daughter with open arms?”

“Don’t look at me, look at our child. Although I have nothing and my body is useless, Joo has grown up to be very diligent and responsible.”

“Lee Jung Hye. I’m not doing charity work with my son.”

Charity work.

She was treating the marriage of two people in love as charity work.

It felt as if the sky was collapsing. She could clearly see what path her daughter was going to take and wanted to stop her right away.

However, because she was the mother of the person her daughter loved, Jung Hye couldn’t utter a single vulgar word.

“Our child hasn’t lived wickedly enough to be treated like that.”

“And have I lived wickedly enough to bring your daughter into our family?”

“……”

“If she comes to our house, she’ll get sick of this treatment. Do you still want to send her?”

Her head felt hot and dizzy.

Jung Hye put her hand on her forehead, feeling like she was about to faint at any moment.

“I’ll talk to Joo first.”

“Talking to your daughter won’t change anything. That’s why I came here.”

With a pale face, Jung Hye asked.

“Did you meet our daughter in person?”

“Yes. Until recently, she said you weren’t on speaking terms, and now she’s going behind my back like this.”

Jung Hye’s hand on her thin thigh trembled.

Despite hearing this insult to her face, Joo hadn’t said a word to her.

Jung Hye, who had been trying to appease Young Ran until now, was gone.

“Since you met our child, I now have a reason to meet your son as well.”

For the first time, Young Ran was shaken.

“Can you even go to my son in that condition?”

“What can’t I go to? These days, as long as you have wheels, you can go anywhere.”

Jung Hye lowered her head and looked down at her wheelchair.

“I have a wheelchair too, so I’ll be able to reach your son.”

“What are you going to say when you go there? That his mother tried to ruin the marriage?”

“No. I won’t say that.”

Even if she was angry, even if she was sad, he was her daughter’s precious person first and foremost.

She didn’t want to throw a stone for revenge and risk hurting her daughter.

“I’ll tell them to love each other without regrets. Without holding back, without leaving anything behind.”

“……”

“Because that’s the only blessing I can give them as an adult.”

Jung Hye turned the wheelchair and gently pushed the fruit basket away with the wheel.

“Please take this and share it with your son.”

Jung Hye put all her strength into pushing the wheels and left the lounge.

Seung Hee, who had been eavesdropping on everything outside the lounge, couldn’t help but be amazed as she entered.

“What. Mom, you got completely beaten by that lady?”

Unable to contain her anger, Young Ran trembled with rage as she grabbed her handbag.

“Where are you going this time?”

Young Ran stood up from her seat with a determined face.

“I need to see Do Hyun.”

“I just called Do Hyun and he said they’ve booked the wedding hall for next month?”

“How could Do Hyun decide without a word to me? I have to tell him to cancel it right away.”

“Dad already gave permission, how can you object?”

“I’m Do Hyun’s mother. I have a say in expressing my opinion!”

As Young Ran shouted, thumping her chest with her palm, Seung Hee pointed it out.

“To be precise, you’re the mother who raised him. Don’t get called a stepmother for no reason. Hold it in.”

It wasn’t wrong, so she couldn’t even open her mouth.

Do Hyun’s birth mother passed away from an illness before he entered elementary school.

Young Ran was Nam Jong Pil’s personal secretary and married Jong Pil the year Do Hyun turned fifteen.

It took a whopping 13 years for Do Hyun to call her mother.

Young Ran had been working tirelessly to this day to not betray the hard-earned trust.

“So you’re telling me to just watch?”

“You want the Seongsu-dong land, right? First, get that from Dad and then break them up.”

Young Ran, who couldn’t hide her excitement until just now, calmed down.

“How are you going to break them up?”

“Mom, you know the saying that a sister-in-law who stops you is more hated than a mother-in-law who hits you.”

She felt a new joy wiggling in her usually boring daily life.

“But a sister-in-law who hits you along with the mother-in-law is even more hated.”

Seung Hee stretched her lips to the side.

“I’m confident in playing the role of that hitting sister-in-law.”

She would watch for exactly one year. The period from when Shin Joo set foot in this family until she fell out.

[This is the timeline separator]

Joo, who was working, was trying hard to ignore the glances coming over the partition.

The rumor that she was in a relationship with Nam Do Hyun and even promised to marry had already spread widely in the company.

Since the marriage with Do Hyun was already planned, there was no need to correct it.

Still, the endless attention she was receiving for the first time since joining the company was gradually increasing her fatigue.

‘I should go home early today.’

When Joo was organizing her desk, noticing the time in the corner of the computer screen.

Her gaze shifted to the vibrating cell phone on the desk.

[Seoul Yangjin Hospital Nurse’s Station]

As soon as she saw the text on the screen, her heart felt like it had fallen to a bottomless pit.

Without even thinking of turning off the computer, Joo grabbed her handbag and left the office.

Joo immediately pressed the call button and brought the cell phone close to her ear.

“Hello?”

[Are you the guardian of patient Lee Jung Hye?]

“Yes. Did something happen to my mother?”

In that brief moment before the answer came, her heart felt like a deflated balloon.

[You need to come to the hospital right away. The patient is in an emergency situation.]

Joo, her mind turning blank, spoke in a trembling voice.

“I’ll be right there.”

She took the elevator coming down from the upper floor and went down to the lobby.

She hadn’t even run yet, but her breath was coming out in a mess.

As soon as the elevator doors parted to the sides, she came out and crossed the lobby.

Nam Do Hyun, who happened to be entering the company, noticed Joo running out of the lobby, filled with fear.

“Shin Joo.”

Before he could even say her full name, Joo ran out of the company without looking back.

Joo was half out of her mind, to the point where she couldn’t even hear his voice.

Just as he was about to follow her, noticing Joo’s unusual behavior at a glance.

Team Leader Kang, who had walked out to the lobby, spoke to Do Hyun.

“CEO, the chairman is waiting for you upstairs.”

“I understand.”

Joo, stretching her arm towards the main road, hurriedly got into a taxi and left.

Only after the taxi Joo was in drove away did Do Hyun take his eyes off it.

Joo’s eyes were red as she rode in the taxi to the hospital.

She handed the bill she had been holding to the driver in advance and ran into the hospital after getting out of the taxi.

Her body, drenched in cold sweat in this heat, was trembling like an aspen tree.

Unlike other times, the area in front of Jung Hye’s hospital room was packed with patients.

“Wait, just a moment.”

Joo squeezed through the people and her feet abruptly stopped at the doorframe of the hospital room.

Seeing Jung Hye lying on the white bed with a pale face, Joo was terrified.

“Mom.”