Chapter 16
For a long time, I stood beneath the high walls that seemed to reach the sky, lost in thought.
“……”
Why was the sky so unnaturally clear today, unlike any other? The brilliant blue that should have warmed my heart instead pressed my shoulders down with crushing weight.
Even when I wrapped my scarf tighter around my neck, my entire body trembled from the cold. The pregnancy had made everything worse.
I could have gone straight to my parents’ house, but the thought of it turned my stomach.
Nothing good ever waited there, and now that my father knew I was pregnant, I wasn’t sure I could hide it from him or my stepmother.
‘Bring my son-in-law!’
Last night, the father who rarely called me had personally dialed my number and shouted through the phone without waiting for my reply: “Bring my son-in-law!”
I hung up on him before he finished. If he hadn’t ordered my mother to do it, this would have been the last thing he ever asked of me.
I didn’t know what his true intention was, but if I didn’t come, he would raise hell. I pressed my hand gently over my belly.
I still couldn’t believe there was a life inside me. I sat in the waiting room, then stood when the nurse asked if the pregnancy notebook was needed. I couldn’t refuse.
Every line on my face had already told them everything, but I still hesitated.
… I had to protect them.
My father, my stepmother, and the man who had hurt me so badly. I had to shield the child from them all. Even now, the idea made me dizzy with fear and dread, but the real terror wasn’t being hurt.
It was the possibility that he would take the child or have it terminated.
The thought of him using our baby the way he had used me turned my blood to ice.
I had been broken before, but I would never let him break my child.
I made that vow over and over again. The moment I decided to protect it, the child became more precious than anything in the world. It was the only child I would ever have.
I had never been loved by my parents, but this baby would be different. I had a mother, even if she had been lost for a while, and my grandmother was still there.
“……So please be born healthy.”
I would raise the child no matter what it took. I would do anything.
I lifted my head and looked at the sky. The painfully clear blue made my eyes sting with tears.
“Grandma… I’m pregnant.”
How happy she would be. The moment she heard, she would rise from her sickbed and dance. My chin trembled, but I bit my lip hard to keep from making a sound.
Mr. Baek, our baby is inside me. The angel came to find us.
‘He said we would have one daughter and one son, or maybe three. Four would be nice too.’
When our parting was approaching, I used to dream aloud while holding his hand, not knowing that nothing would change. More children would be better, I would say, and we would eat bentos on the park grass, ride bicycles, plan futures like that.
How would he look if I told him the truth? I didn’t want to know, but I refused to let him hurt the child even more.
So from now on, I had to stay completely sharp. I had to hide the pregnancy perfectly. No one could know. I would hide it until I could run away.
I took a deep breath of the perfectly clear air and closed my eyes tightly, then opened them again.
Straightening my posture, I left the wall and walked with quiet strength toward the entrance of my parents’ house. My face was calmer than it had ever been in my life.
Passing the perfectly arranged doorman, I arrived in front of the ostentatious building that looked as if every penny had been spent on it. The materials around the structure were just as expensive as solid gold.
When I opened the door and stepped inside, several of the pictures my father cherished lined the walls. Along the long corridor, more paintings and ceramics caught my eye, but I didn’t let them linger.
To me, they were nothing but displays.
“You’re back?”
Sitting on the sofa with a cup of tea, Jin Yeon-a turned to me with a knowing smile. If I could, I would avoid even meeting her eyes, but I knew her well enough to nod slightly.
“Why are you alone? Where’s my son-in-law?”
Jin Yeon-a’s face twisted in a way I couldn’t quite read as I glanced at her back.
“What? You came alone? Your husband doesn’t want to come?”
Her tone dripped with mockery.
“Your husband must really hate you. The chairman even called, yet he still didn’t come. Did he find out that Baek Do-hyun’s real woman is you?”
My eyes, which had never shown emotion, flickered with something I quickly hid. How did she know? I had never let anyone see.
“My friend saw him with some woman entering the apartment building near the company. They looked so close that no one could ignore the way they held hands and kissed in public.”
I could easily guess why Jin Yeon-a had stayed silent even after hearing about it. She wanted to see me suffer in front of her eyes, the way she was doing right now. She wanted me to twist my face in pain, wanted me to break.
“It doesn’t matter who he meets. We’re only living together for one more year anyway.”
My quiet murmur that the contract would end in divorce somehow made Jin Yeon-a’s face look even more monstrous.
“Father! Father! Yeon-woo is here!”
Once, I had wondered if Jin Yeon-a wasn’t even human. The way she tormented me was inhumanly cruel.
“Yeon-woo came alone! She didn’t bring her husband!”
Father’s voice rang out, demanding I be punished. How typical. Even after all these years, Jin Yeon-a never changed.
“What nonsense is that?”
My stepmother appeared before my father could reply. She was wiping her hands on a perfectly fine apron after preparing food.
“You didn’t bring your husband?”
The piercing gaze made my lips tremble. I had to speak.
“Y-yes… I was busy.”
“At least call ahead! Do you deliberately do this?”
As if the apron were just another display, she threw it at me. It struck my belly and fell to the floor. I stared at the apron rolling around at my feet.
Even if I had been beaten with a hundred clubs, it wouldn’t have hurt this much. My quick-thinking stepmother always made me cautious.
“He said he wanted to come too. He’s sorry he couldn’t make it because of important plans.”
Lies poured from my lips. I hated the man, yet I refused to let anyone else dislike him because of me.
“Yeon-woo!”
My father advanced with heavy footsteps, anger clear on his face. There was no shield beside me, so it was only natural, but the bitterness remained.
SLAP!
My head snapped to the side. My body swayed violently from the force, and my vision blurred. I collapsed onto the floor.
“You ungrateful wench! How many times did I beg you?! You personally called, and you still dare to ignore me?!”
Father’s hand rose again and again. With each strike, my body shook like reeds in the wind.
“You dare to be obedient and call out a few times, then suddenly can’t handle even one thing and turn me into a fool?”
I couldn’t escape his blows, but I refused to move. If I did, the rage would only grow. So I closed my eyes tightly and waited until the beating stopped.
Face, head, shoulders, back. No place on my body was spared.
“Do you want to kill your grandmother?”
The moment I heard those words, my head lifted from the floor.
“Exactly. You react only when I mention your grandmother. What now? Should I kill the old woman?”
“Eek… Don’t you dare touch Grandma!”
“What are you going to do? You don’t even know where she is. If I kill the old woman, what will you do?!”
My stepmother and Jin Yeon-a’s laughter echoed cruelly in my ears. It was too, too chilling. They were laughing while I was being beaten half to death.
They were monsters, not humans.
“Useless girl. What exactly are you doing? Didn’t I take care of that matter myself back then?”
Fear of being hit again had long since disappeared. I was used to it now. But the anger that rose instead was another matter entirely. I clenched my fists and glared at my father with all the strength left in me.