What to do. What to do. What should I do! She had bitten her nails so much that there weren’t even any left to bite.

“Aaaagh!”

Screaming, Alicia shot up from the bed, her eyes bloodshot. She must have loved Heo Kyung-soo. Because when she heard he was dead, it felt like her soul had left her body, and she had unknowingly almost given up on life. But love doesn’t put food on the table. Your love might be able to handle me, but your ability can’t. If you loved me that much, you should have waited with the determination to die. You always looked into my heart, so why couldn’t you see that? You idiot, fool, moron. Heo Kyung-soo was her only sanctuary to return to if this marriage didn’t work out. But she never thought things would get this twisted. She was scared of Madam Jo’s anger if things went wrong, but she was even more terrified of that man who had vowed revenge. Even her mother, a tough girl who could endure anything, had said it was hard.

“I can’t. I absolutely can’t handle it.”

Neither this marriage nor that man. Just imagining going back to her place made Alicia tremble. She remembered that man she had seen only twice in Korea. A man whose background, wealth, specs, looks, and personality were all so perfect that he didn’t seem human. A cruel man who could wipe out the Inno Group if he set his mind to it. If she told her mother, she might be abandoned and blamed for everything. So, she thought of that girl. A girl who could endure even in the gutter, shrewd and vicious to the bone.

“Sister, I’m here.”

A knock was heard, the door opened, and that girl came in. After climbing on top of her, subduing her, speaking informally, and threatening her. Now, she was acting like a docile lamb, which was disgusting. She probably maintained a similar weight to herself, yet she still looked vibrant and pretty.

“Why are you so late!”

“The traffic was a bit heavy.”

Alicia’s stomach churned at the girl’s composed face and too-calm reply. How much she had struggled with the obsession to avoid that man’s suspicion! How scared she had been! She wanted to argue, but since she was the one in need now, she asked as calmly as possible.

“Are you sure about what you said back then? That the man isn’t certain, but just suspicious.”

“I don’t know for sure, but it seems like it. That’s why he keeps digging into my sister’s past and probing me with all sorts of questions as if testing me.”

Things that Taeryeong had initially thought were fortunate now felt unpleasant. A husband who was confused about why his wife was acting this way but couldn’t imagine her being someone else. That meant that even if she returned to her original place, her husband would maintain this marriage.

“Tell me how I can make that man stop suspecting me and give up on revenge.”

“I think it would be best to discuss that with your aunt.”

“Are you crazy? What kind of trouble would I get into if I told her that!”

Alicia seemed to know very well. That Madam Jo was the kind of woman who would abandon her own daughter if she deemed her useless.

“Then you have no choice but to act like me and pretend to be innocent. Later, when you return to your place, you can even act it out with your body.”

Then he would think of her even more disgustingly. Alicia didn’t know that he had already admitted to her husband that he knew Heo Kyung-soo.

“I’m managing to avoid him by using work as an excuse, but you have to sleep with him and have his child.”

She thought he would understand this much. But Alicia just blinked her large eyes, seemingly still clueless.

“I mean, act innocent even in bed. Who knows, maybe Kangjoon-ssi will drop his suspicions then?”

Alicia Barton’s promiscuity was famous in Germany. Only then did a different light flicker in Alicia’s eyes, as if she had finally caught on.

“Why didn’t I think of that?”

But Taeryeong pretended not to notice and calmly waited for Alicia to speak first.

“You’ve never even held a guy’s hand, let alone kissed him, have you?”

“......I have held hands before.”

Alicia grabbed Taeryeong’s hand, who replied with a slightly embarrassed but innocent expression.

“You sleep with that man instead of me. What could be more solid proof than that?”

Taeryeong had finally heard the answer she wanted.

“It would be even better if you got pregnant and had a child. I heard the Hanshin family values heirs, so a husband wouldn’t hate his wife who’s pregnant with his child, right? I’d be happy because the suspicion would be gone, and you...”

Getting pregnant and having a child seemed too far-fetched. Seeing how they treated her like an object, the mother and daughter were truly a nasty pair.

“How much do you want?”

Instead of answering, Taeryeong stared intently at Alicia. Her real goal wasn’t money or Seo Kangjoon. She wanted to leave evidence for her husband. That she wasn’t Alicia, nor Yoo Taeryeong, but a completely different woman. Unless he was as foolish as Alicia, her husband would come to that conclusion. This method was the most certain way to draw out that conclusion. Then her husband would be the one to break off this marriage first. It might be a bit of a headache if he tried to find her, but that was a slim possibility. He wasn’t the type to tattle to the adults, so Madam Jo wouldn’t suspect anything. Alicia was an accomplice, so she wouldn’t be able to say anything.

“My aunt told me not to even touch Kangjoon-ssi’s fingertip. The same goes for sleeping with him, and if I get pregnant, my aunt might try to kill me.”

Madam Jo might really do that. Because her daughter had done the same thing her younger sibling had done. And to her own daughter.

“Don’t worry about that. We’ll keep it a secret between us, so how would your mother know? Once you’re pregnant, the game’s already over.”

“We keep it between us and a secret from my aunt?”

“Isn’t that obvious?”

It was Taeryeong’s other goal. To create a secret that Madam Jo didn’t know, driving a wedge between the mother and daughter. Everything was going according to plan.

“What will you do for me, sister?”

“300 million won if you sleep with my husband often, 1 billion won if you even have a child. Isn’t that a more than generous deal?”

“You don’t have that much spare cash, sister.”

Madam Jo’s only weapon to control the extravagant Alicia was her purse strings.

“Didn’t Inno Fashion’s stock go up quite a bit? If I sell all my shares, it should be enough, right?”

“I don’t trust people’s words in general. So, write it down in a contract.”

As if she had been waiting for those words, Taeryeong took out a document envelope from her briefcase.

________________________________________

Chief Yoon gave a report in the office.

“The Minister of Industry and the Head of the Investment Agency of Indonesia are scheduled to arrive in Seoul by private jet tomorrow morning. We have a meeting scheduled for 2 PM at the Hyatt Hotel’s Ruby Convention Hall.”

What determines the sales of electric vehicles, the main focus of automotive companies, is the battery. While Germany and China were pursuing business agreements, Kangjoon had been steadily targeting Indonesia. And now, with plans to establish a factory in Indonesia right around the corner, even the Indonesian president was actively supporting this project, which was also related to the mining industry. It was one of the projects he had painstakingly prepared with Kyung-soo in Germany for a long time. But that guy was dead now.

“If you were alive, you would have laughed at me.”

His younger brother had asked him for revenge, but he himself was feeling love for that woman. He knew it was crazy, but he couldn’t stop. It was his wife who put a brake on that feeling and pushed him away. So Kangjoon had also tried to cut off this feeling, before it dug deeper and sharper into his heart. But his wife shook him again. Lingering in his mind all day, persistently.

‘I hate you. Very much.’

While saying she hated him, she tenderly caressed his face.

‘But I like you. I like Seo Kangjoon so much I could die.’

She confessed with those lips that she liked him to death.

‘Because I’m going to kiss you.’

It was so vivid. His wife from last night, carefully kissing him with trembling lips. The soft touch, the sweet scent, and the trembling whisper. That moment when they held each other’s hearts, when their feelings became intertwined, suffocating and poignant. But even in that moment, Kangjoon had no choice but to pretend to be drunk. Her tearful eyes, her trembling lips that couldn’t utter a word, bothered him strangely.

“What on earth is it?”

That was preventing his wife from finally taking off her mask. Arriving home, throwing up everything inside him, showering with cold water, and lying in bed, he was about half sober. As his mind cleared a bit, he lay in bed and pondered again. What he should do starting tomorrow. For himself, and for his brother. But his wife, thinking he was asleep, confessed to him again.

‘I hope you’ll divorce me in six months.’

Confessing she liked him, even kissing him, and then asking for a divorce. The more Kangjoon thought of his wife, the more he felt a sinking, dizzying sensation, as if he were slowly drowning in a swamp. He wanted to talk to her, but it was obvious she would refuse. He wanted to approach her with his feelings, but it was obvious she would refuse, so he couldn’t. If he acted coldly, she would have hurt eyes, and he couldn’t bear to see that either. He couldn’t do this, and he couldn’t do that. What on earth did she want him to do? Just then, his personal phone rang.

“Report.”

It was the private investigator he had hired to look into his wife, assuming she was someone else. He hadn’t dismissed even the smallest possibility, and so he had found out a few additional things. After ending the call, Kangjoon stood by the large glass window and looked out.

“She visited the hospital because her stomach wasn’t good, and was even advised to get a biopsy...”

Was that why she had avoided food, claiming to be on a diet with a body that looked like it would blow away in the wind? This needed to be checked. For his wife’s health too. Recalling the investigator’s next words, Kangjoon’s brow furrowed involuntarily.

‘They say she has twin red birthmarks right below her right breast. All ten of the men Alicia met gave the same testimony, so it’s certain.’

Leave it to an investigator, they seemed to have dug too deep. The thought of another man seeing and touching his wife’s body disgusted him.

“I don’t think I saw any red marks.”

When he had applied ointment to her back, his wife had turned around, and he had seen her half-naked. He had been too flustered then, he seemed to remember seeing something, but his memory was hazy. In any case, it wouldn’t hurt to check this too.

________________________________________

Why was the timing always like this? When Taeryeong entered the bedroom, her husband was just coming out of the bathroom. He had clearly been showering before her, so why was he coming out now? It seemed to be a problem with her husband taking longer showers than women.

“I saw you were showering, so I went upstairs to the second floor without saying hello.”

As Taeryeong spoke cautiously with her eyes lowered, her husband nodded indifferently. Today too, her husband was shirtless, as if giving her eye candy. She couldn’t get used to this sight, and her face flushed every time she saw her husband. Especially today, the conversation she had with Alicia kept replaying in her mind, making the symptoms even worse. Her face felt hot, and her heart was pounding.

“Looks like you had another busy day.”

Taeryeong replied politely to her husband’s polite remark.

“It’s always the same, what else.”

Even when she heard Alicia ask her to sleep with her husband, she hadn’t taken it seriously. But seeing her husband now, she keenly realized it was her misjudgment. If this was the effect of just seeing his bare upper body, how could she possibly sleep with that man? She even thought she might die of a heart attack. The bigger problem was how to bring up the idea of sleeping together. Alicia was better at this than her, so should she ask her for some seduction techniques? Or should she just revise this plan? If she thought about it more deeply, there might be another way. Sighing at these various thoughts, Taeryeong looked at her husband. But her husband was also staring intently at Taeryeong with a thoughtful expression. Not at her face, but somewhere lower. Where on earth was he looking? Just as she was about to follow his gaze, her husband’s eyes slowly moved up. The moment their eyes met, as if by promise, they both blushed and turned their heads away. Taeryeong covered her flushed cheeks with both hands, and Kangjoon covered his mouth with his large hand.

“......”

“......”

Whenever they met in the bedroom, Taeryeong was always like this. Her face would flush, she couldn’t look him straight in the eye, and her heart would pound for no reason. Every time that happened, her husband would stare at her even more intently, making her embarrassed. But why was he acting like this today? Today, the atmosphere in the bedroom felt strangely subtle and alluring. The bedroom was bathed in soft light, a cool breeze blew in through the slightly open window, and the pure white curtains fluttered in the breeze. Even the moderately heated air in the bedroom and the large, plush bed.

‘You sleep with that man instead of me.’

As Alicia’s words came to mind, Taeryeong pulled the sheets up to her chest and lay down with her back to her husband. She even fanned her face with her hand at the unfamiliar heat she felt. It felt like a night she would toss and turn, and then her husband greeted her.

“Good night, Taeryeong-ssi.”

“......You too, Kangjoon-ssi.”

In the subtle and alluring atmosphere, the bedroom light went out. Kangjoon, lying with his back to his wife, was also unable to fall asleep. The moment he saw his wife, his gaze seemed to inadvertently drift below her face. He was curious if his wife had twin red birthmarks below her chest. He was clearly looking with a sound mind. But the longer he looked, the more his body slowly heated up and his muscles ached. It was at that exact moment that he had met his wife’s eyes, and lying in bed only made the symptoms worse. He was bewildered by the physical symptoms he was experiencing for the first time, yet he felt like he knew what they were. Thinking that he wouldn’t be able to sleep comfortably, Kangjoon earnestly wished. Please, tonight, don’t let my wife burrow into my embrace.