True Marriage After Divorce (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 4

[Is that really true?] [Hey, why would your mother lie to you about something like that?]

He couldn’t believe it.

Yet, Jae Hyuk didn’t want to think of his own mother as a shameless liar.

[So Ah Rin really said that too?] [Then who else would’ve said it? She came together with her mother, so of course she felt the same. Anyway, they demanded money. So…]

He was confused. He didn’t want to believe his mother was lying, and above all, he couldn’t fathom Ah Rin doing something like that.

He trusted her—she wouldn’t use their child as an excuse just for money, not over something as trivial as money.

But his hopes were soon shattered completely.

On the day he’d arranged to meet Ah Rin, deep down, Jae Hyuk actually hoped she wouldn’t show up.

But she appeared.

He was furious. For the first time in his life, rage blinded him so thoroughly he couldn’t see straight.

[Was money really that important to you? So desperate for money you’d make a deal using a life as collateral? Hah. I must’ve completely misjudged you. I never thought you’d sell your whole life for a few coins.]

Still, holding onto one last, final sliver of hope, he asked her.

He deliberately used harsh words to tear into her heart.

He desperately hoped she’d deny it.

She didn’t deny it. In fact, she seemed to affirm it.

[I’ll do my best going forward—as a mother and as a wife.]

His heart plummeted.

Ah Rin had been like his sacred first love. Her clear, gentle face always carrying a soft smile had been the sole hope in his dry, barren life.

She had also been the goal he always knew he’d someday reach for.

Even though he practically ran the company, the real power remained in Madam Jeong’s hands. Jae Hyuk didn’t yet have enough strength to openly defy Madam Jeong and bring Ah Rin to his side.

He’d planned to go fetch Ah Rin once he fully secured enough power to stand firm against Madam Jeong without fear of being cast out from the VAN Group.

He hated her.

He loathed Ah Rin.

And yet, love was such a strange thing.

His love for her didn’t cool one bit—in fact, it only grew stronger.

After much deliberation, he reached a conclusion.

Though his disappointment in Ah Rin was immense, his love for her was even greater.

From the very beginning, letting her go had never been an option for him.

‘Fine. The order’s just a little out of sequence. You belong by my side. When the time comes that I can sort through this hatred I feel for you, I’ll tell you everything.’

Jae Hyuk concealed his true feelings and kept Ah Rin close.

Ever since he could remember, she’d always been within his sight. The thought of her vanishing without a trace—of never seeing her again—was something he’d never once imagined.

But this time, something felt off.

He was uneasy. A wave of anxious dread—this overwhelming fear that he’d never see Ah Rin again—crashed over him like an angry tide.

Jae Hyuk pressed his hand over his closed eyes, deliberately pretending he didn’t notice the anxiety sprouting inside him.

“It’ll be fine,” he told himself, just as it always had been… just a passing incident.

Jae Hyuk thought.

[This is the timeline separator]

The next day.

When he opened his eyes, the familiar gray ceiling came into blurry focus above Jae Hyuk.

“Haa…”

Jae Hyuk lifted his arm to cover his eyes and let out a deep sigh.

He’d come home in the early hours of dawn after drinking late into the night. The moment he walked in, he headed straight for Ah Rin’s bedroom—but after hesitating for a long while, he turned toward his study instead.

Maybe it was because he’d been so furious at her divorce proposal that he drank until his head pounded?

His head throbbed unusually hard.

After showering, Jae Hyuk paused again outside Ah Rin’s bedroom before heading downstairs to the kitchen. As he reached for the doorknob, an inexplicable wave of unease washed over him.

Ah Rin always woke at six every morning to prepare breakfast with Madam Chungju. No matter how much pressure Madam Jeong applied, she’d never skipped this duty.

Therefore, she shouldn’t be in her room right now. Jae Hyuk released the doorknob and went downstairs.

“Vice Chairman, you’re up? Please sit down. I’ll serve it right away.”

Madam Chungju spoke as she sensed Jae Hyuk entering the kitchen.

Jae Hyuk’s eyes fell on the empty seat beside Madam Chungju.

“Where’s she? Did she go to the restroom?”

Ah Rin was never absent from her usual spot standing by. His inner anxiety instantly swelled.

Jae Hyuk forced himself to stay calm as he asked.

“She hasn’t come down yet.”

At Madam Chungju’s reply, Jae Hyuk’s heart sank.

“Not yet?”

“No.”

He felt deeply uneasy about the situation across from Ah Rin’s room, where he hadn’t sensed any presence.

“I’ll go check.”

Jae Hyuk took a step toward the kitchen door—but suddenly remembering something, he turned around just before leaving.

“Madam.”

He called out to Madam Chungju, who stood by the sink.

“Yes, Vice Chairman?”

“Has anything unusual happened recently?”

Madam Chungju hesitated at Jae Hyuk’s question. But only briefly—she quickly composed her expression and answered.

“No, nothing. Madam Ban isn’t the kind of person to say such things.”

“Be honest. I’m not blind, and I’m not deaf.”

At Jae Hyuk’s cold words, Madam Chungju finally opened her tightly shut lips.

“…Madam prepared dinner as usual and went up to her room. She didn’t come down again before dawn. She did talk with Madam Ban a while ago, but really, she didn’t say anything out of the ordinary.”

Jae Hyuk knew well that no one in the house would take Ah Rin’s side.

He also knew Madam Chungju was loyal to Madam Jeong and looked down on Ah Rin.

At first, he hadn’t pointed this out. But as the days passed, the servants’ increasingly disrespectful behavior made him furious.

It was truly contradictory.

He could hurt her himself all he wanted—but no one else was allowed to.

Jae Hyuk despised himself.

Seeing Jae Hyuk’s suspicious gaze still fixed on her, Madam Chungju preemptively continued.

“Even if you ask if something happened, there really wasn’t anything. That person’s always been like this—acting aloof, playing the victim. What did we even do?”

At Madam Chungju’s overstepping remark, Jae Hyuk’s eyes turned icy cold.

“Madam.”

He called her in a voice so cold it seemed he was scolding his own servant, clearly disgusted by her casual disrespect toward Ah Rin.

“I believe I mentioned this before.”

At his low, grating voice, Madam Chungju instinctively swallowed hard.

“Ah Rin is my wife. In this household, she ranks second only to my mother. You’re not her friend, so please don’t treat her like one. I expect you to speak and act accordingly.”

“…I’m sorry.”

Although Madam Chungju disliked Ah Rin, she felt differently about Jae Hyuk. She quickly bowed her head toward Madam Jeong’s precious only son.

“Next time, I won’t overlook it with just words—please remember that. I’ll have breakfast a bit later.”

Jae Hyuk quickly left the kitchen, clearly uninterested in hearing her response.

After leaving the kitchen, Jae Hyuk climbed the stairs. His heart pounded from an inexplicable unease.

He went straight to the terrace on the second floor first. He searched every corner outside, but found no one. He scanned the garden below—Ah Rin was nowhere to be seen.

He quickly checked the bathroom, terrace, and dressing room one by one.

“Haa… Where did you go?”

A deep sigh escaped his dry lips. Seeing no trace of Ah Rin, his heart began racing abnormally.

As a last resort, he flung open the bedroom door.

His hand trembled violently as he gripped the doorknob.

A note he hadn’t seen last night was stuck to the mirror on the vanity. The moment he walked over and read it, despair instantly engulfed him.

Why were his ominous premonitions never wrong…?

Jae Hyuk reached out and plucked the note off with a flick.

[Let’s get a divorce. I’ve left the divorce papers behind. When it’s time to go to court, just let me know—I won’t avoid you that day. Thank you for everything. I hope you’ll be happy.]

The tear-blurred note waited for him in the empty room.

His fist clenched around the note trembled.

“You’re… lying…”

He shook his head, unable to accept this reality.

“This can’t be happening.”

Jae Hyuk ran his hands through his hair.

“No, she just stepped out for a bit. That’s all.”

What had her expression been like when she talked about divorce…?

It was different from usual. It was different…

That’s all he’d thought.

He’d believed without doubt that she loved him. No matter how much he pushed her away, why had he arrogantly assumed she’d always love him?

Jae Hyuk refused to face the harsh truth.

“There’s no way Ah Rin truly wants a divorce… Maybe she went to see Manager Seo.”

Until yesterday, he’d never imagined he’d never see her clear, gentle eyes again.

His vision blurred gradually.

“There’s no way Ah Rin would leave me…”

Ah Rin’s final trace—neat handwriting densely filling the page—caught his eye.

[I just… can’t do it anymore. It’s too hard.]

That particular sentence was especially soaked in tear stains.

“Haa…”

Jae Hyuk buried his face in the note Ah Rin left behind and sighed deeply.

Even without deeply pondering what she’d felt as she wrote this note, her pain came through clearly.

“No, no, Ah Rin—it’s a misunderstanding…”

Overwhelmed by surging sorrow, Jae Hyuk clutched his chest.

He couldn’t even begin to name the storm of emotions raging within him.

All he knew was the unbearable agony, as if his heart were being ripped to shreds.

Dazed and numb, Jae Hyuk’s legs gave out. He collapsed onto the floor.

No matter how harshly Madam Jeong treated her, Ah Rin had always smiled through the hardship. So he’d simply brushed it off, saying she was fine.

He hated his past self for ignoring her.

[“Yoon Kyung Suk came with Ah Rin and demanded money.”]

He hated her for ruining his pure first love—and yet, even now, his heart helplessly swayed at the sight of her clear eyes still looking at him gently.

He was tormented by a reality where he couldn’t purely love her or purely hate her.

While holding such uncertain feelings toward her, he’d selfishly believed Ah Rin would stay by his side for life.

He’d foolishly assumed she’d never leave him, no matter what happened.

“What should I do? I have to find her. Where would Ah Rin go…?”

He tried to think, but his mind went blank. The man who always made precise judgments in any crisis now stood helpless at the edge of a cliff, unable to do anything.

Leaning shakily against the vanity, Jae Hyuk realized:

This ending had been inevitable—from the very moment he chose to ignore Ah Rin’s pain.

It was punishment for denying his own selfishness and turning a blind eye to her suffering.

With trembling hands, Jae Hyuk picked up his phone.

“Team Leader Han.”

[Yes, Vice Chairman.]

The voice of his closest aide, Team Leader Han Joo Hyuk, came through the speaker.

“Ah Rin…”

[Yes?]

Just saying her name made his throat tighten.

“Find her. Now.”

[…Yes?]

Team Leader Han, confused by Jae Hyuk’s abrupt command, couldn’t immediately give the answer he wanted.

There was no time to explain everything.

“Later. I’ll explain later. Right now, finding Ah Rin is urgent.”

He had to catch her before she disappeared far beyond his reach.

“She probably didn’t go far—either back home or to Manager Seo’s place. Knowing Ah Rin’s personality, she wouldn’t want to worry anyone, so she likely went to Manager Seo’s. Still, just in case, Team Leader Han, go to Yeonhui-dong right away. I’ll check Manager Seo’s place myself.”

At Jae Hyuk’s urgent tone, Team Leader Han immediately gave him the answer he needed.

[Understood.]

Team Leader Han was perceptive.

Sensing exactly how desperate Jae Hyuk was, he quickly continued,

[I’ll leave immediately and contact you again once I arrive.]

After ending the call with Team Leader Han, Jae Hyuk headed to the dressing room.

He threw on a jacket in haste and rushed down the stairs toward the front door.

“She couldn’t have gone far. So I just need to find her.”

Ah Rin didn’t have many places to go.

As long as she was still in Korea—under the same sky—he would surely find her.

Yet even as he thought this, Jae Hyuk couldn’t fully erase the fear that he might never see Ah Rin again.