BR - 69

“So, is that your card? Seok-kyung-ssi gave it to you. How can you splurge on a trousseau with your son-in-law’s card?”

“What’s wrong with her? Seok-kyung, no, our President Baek, told me to use it. To use as much as I want. Do you think the CEO of Baedo Group will go bankrupt from spending this much?”

“Mom, please...”

Why did she have to be the one feeling embarrassed?

Eun-chae, her face flushed, tried to stop her mother again, but it was no use trying to stop someone so headstrong.

“Please send it to this address.”

“Yes, Madam.”

The department store employee finished the calculation, took the address her mother handed over, and bowed to the two of them.

Her mother, excited by the long-awaited shopping spree with a black card that seemed to have unlimited funds, straightened her shoulders and even lifted her chin.

As the two of them moved to the next store, Eun-chae stopped in her tracks, seeing someone walking towards them.

“Why? Did you leave something behind?”

Her mother asked Eun-chae with a puzzled look, then followed her gaze when she saw her freeze.

“Madam Cha...”

Madam Cha, dressed in a navy blue suit from head to toe, walked towards the two of them alone.

“Mother, how have you been?”

“Do you think I’ve been well?”

Madam Cha retorted coldly to Eun-chae, who had bowed her head in greeting, then looked at her mother.

“You look radiant, perhaps because my son is becoming your son-in-law again?”

“Yes, not bad.”

Her mother replied curtly to Madam Cha.

“When a child goes down the wrong path, it’s a parent’s duty to correct them, but Madam, you don’t seem to have any intention of doing so?”

“Maybe I don’t think it’s the wrong path.”

“Shaking a man’s entire life to its core, and you don’t think that’s wrong?”

At Madam Cha’s words, her mother crossed her arms tightly and lifted her chin even higher.

“Well, isn’t it important how you shake things up? It’s not like Eun-chae receiving a lot of love from Seok-kyung would be bad for Seok-kyung either.”

“I wondered who Eun-chae took after to be so brazen, but it seems she takes after you, Madam.”

“Wh-What did you say?”

Eun-chae squeezed her eyes shut.

It was absolutely impossible for her mother to win against Madam Cha. Who would win between a mother who only seemed fox-like and someone who was a fox to the bone?

Madam Cha was a woman who had controlled Baedo Group from behind even while President Baek was alive.

What kind of fight could she put up against such a person?

“Even when they first got married, it was already a marriage on shaky ground. But the reason I pushed for that marriage was because Eun-chae was a pianist. It was for the sake of my son’s emotional well-being, as he had been close to and loved classical music since he was young.”

“For his emotional well-being?”

“Do you think it’s easy to live as the successor who will be responsible for Baedo Group? I simply hoped that Seok-kyung would find relief from all the pressure and stress he carried by listening to Eun-chae’s piano playing.”

“Ha!”

Her mother snorted, sounding incredulous at the words that her daughter had merely been used as a tool.

“Though even that child couldn’t do it properly.”

Madam Cha’s gaze swept Eun-chae up and down.

“Wh-Who tells you to go abroad right after getting married? Who knows what would have happened if you hadn’t gone!”

“Then shouldn’t you have just said you’d follow him? It was Eun-chae who didn’t follow Seok-kyung because of some concert.”

That was true.

It was she who had chosen to live apart from Seok-kyung because of her concert schedule and lessons.

But that was a possible choice because Seok-kyung had said he would return within a year.

“For a lukewarm couple to rekindle their spark after meeting again, how on earth did my daughter spend those three years after the divorce?”

“What are you talking about?”

Eun-chae, realizing the hidden meaning in Madam Cha’s ambiguously roundabout words, looked at her in shock.

But her mother, who knew nothing, had already asked Madam Cha what she meant.

“I’m saying, how did she manage to seduce our Seok-kyung so quickly after being so down on her luck?”

“Madam Cha!”

Her mother raised her voice.

People passing by and store employees looked at the three of them with curious gazes.

“Do you want to raise your voice loudly here? Who would be more embarrassed?”

“I didn’t know until now because she didn’t say anything, but now I understand.”

Her mother, regaining her composure, said in a trembling voice.

“I now know painfully well how you’ve treated my precious daughter all this time.”

“You know? So what are you going to do about it?”

The two women’s words were cut short simultaneously. Their eyes, blazing fiercely, glared at each other as if they would devour each other.

“Do you think I’ll just stand by and watch something ruin my child?”

“Then what about me? Do you think I’ll just stand by and watch some bitch torment my child?”

“Bitch? Did you just call me a bitch?”

Madam Cha pointed at herself with a dumbfounded expression.

“I thought you’d be refined since you were once the wife of a businessman, but you’re a vulgar person.”

“Vulgar?”

“Yes, vulgar! I think I know why your husband went bankrupt. With a woman so lacking in manners as his wife, how could his household and business have run properly? I heard he’ll be released soon, and if I were your husband, I’d divorce you first thing. Do you understand?”

“Talking about manners, you’re the one who’s fallen flat on your face.”

“What? Fallen flat on my face?”

Madam Cha’s voice, which had maintained a calm demeanor despite the argument, began to waver, as if she had never experienced such a dispute before.

“Stop it, both of you.”

“You stay out of this!”

“Mother, please...”

“I told you to stay out! It’s all your fault, all of this. Some low-class thing rolls in and tries to drive a wedge between me and my son!”

“Mother!”

“You wretched bitch!”

Perhaps sensing the dangerous atmosphere, Eun-chae heard the sound of someone in the next store picking up the phone to call security.

Madam Cha, unable to contain her anger, raised her hand. At that moment, her mother grabbed Madam Cha’s hair tightly.

“Ouch! Let go of this!”

“Were you just about to lay a hand on my daughter?”

Her mother pulled harder on her hair, shaking her up and down, and Madam Cha was dragged along.

“Ah, it hurts! Let go!”

Madam Cha struggled to grab her mother, but it was no use since both of her hair was already held tightly in both hands.

“Mom, please don’t do this. Let go now!”

“This crazy bitch dared to try and hit my daughter? Let’s die together today, you crazy bitch!”

Eun-chae tried to pull them apart, but her mother stubbornly held onto Madam Cha’s hair and shook it.

After a few minutes of screams, security guards who had come because of the report finally managed to separate her mother and Madam Cha.

________________________________________

Eun-chae threw open the front door and greeted Seok-kyung. He gave a weak smile, his shoulders slumped.

“How is Mother? Is she alright? Was she hurt badly?”

“She’s fine. Don’t worry.”

After being separated by the security guards, Madam Cha had called the police, and the three of them had gone to the police station together.

A lawyer from Baedo Group had rushed over with Seok-kyung, but since both sides were Seok-kyung’s family, the lawyer seemed flustered.

“We won’t press charges, we’ll just let it pass quietly.”

What did Seok-kyung give Madam Cha in exchange for letting it pass quietly? Eun-chae bit her lip, feeling sorry.

“It’s alright. Don’t make that face.”

Seok-kyung kissed Eun-chae’s forehead.

“What about Mother? She must have been very surprised.”

“She’s still upset and hasn’t come out of her room.”

“I’ll go in.”

“Let’s go in together.”

When she said she would follow him, worried, he smiled and nodded.

He knocked on the door of the bedroom where her mother was resting, but there was no answer.

“Mom, Seok-kyung-ssi is here. Can we come in?”

There was no answer for a few seconds, and she was about to call her mother again.

“Come in.”

A small, calm voice replied.

The two slowly opened the door and entered the bedroom. Her mother was sitting on the bed with her back against the wall, looking at them.

Her face was still frowning as if her anger hadn’t subsided, but there was a hint of sadness in it.

“I’m sorry, Mother.”

Seok-kyung bowed his head to her mother.

“Why are you sorry? I’m the one who’s sorry.”

Her mother lowered her head and said in a weak, small voice.

“I should have controlled my anger, but I couldn’t.”

Her two hands clutching the blanket tightly looked pitiful, and Eun-chae quickly went to her mother’s side and held her hands.

“Thinking about how you’ve been treated all this time makes my blood boil.”

“Mom...”

“Meeting such a useless mother wasn’t enough, you had to receive such cruel treatment too. I’m so angry...”

Her mother pressed her lips tightly, but the tears welling up in her eyes spoke for her heart.

“I’m really sorry, Mother. It’s all my fault for creating such a situation.”

Seok-kyung bowed his head again.

“Honestly, I seriously considered whether I could give Eun-chae to you. Up until now, I was just happy, but now that I know everything, I can’t just be happy anymore.”

“No. You can be happy. I will protect Eun-chae.”

“There’s no guarantee that something like today won’t happen again.”

That was true. If something like today happened again, what if Eun-chae had been alone?

Of course, the current Eun-chae had no intention of just enduring the violence Madam Cha wielded.

“Today, I made something clear again. You don’t have to worry.”

“What did you make clear?”

Eun-chae asked back at Seok-kyung’s words.

What did he mean he had made clear?

“I warned my mother to stay away from you and her.”

“What is that? It’s not like Mother has been stalking us.”

“Anyway.”

Seok-kyung continued with a stern face.