Chapter 25

“Exactly how long do you intend to loiter here?” Chairman Lee Ik-hyeong demanded from the head of the dining table.

“This is my home.” Jaeha delivered the reply in a flat monotone without once looking up from his pristine porcelain bowl.

Lately, he seemed to be shedding his immaculate corporate veneer at an alarming rate, devolving into a man stripped of even the most basic filial courtesy. Summoning a dry, brittle response demanded an immense expenditure of energy, like peeling petrified bark from a rotting tree. Producing anything resembling a respectful answer for his father was therefore impossible. Besides, the land beneath the sprawling Seongbuk-dong estate had been donated entirely by Jaeha’s maternal grandfather.

“What kind of insolent answer is that?” Chairman Lee slammed his chopsticks onto the table with a sharp crack. “Are you telling me to get out of my own house? When everyone in this family vehemently opposed that pathetic gangster marriage of yours, you ignored every last one of us. Now you’ve suddenly crawled back to the main estate, and I cannot understand what the hell you’re plotting. That is why I’m asking!”

“Everyone opposed it?” Jaeha mused, icy indifference saturating every word. “My stepmother offered me her most sincere and enthusiastic blessings. Isn’t that right, Mother?”

Without disturbing his flawlessly blank expression, Jaeha redirected the full force of the Chairman’s aggression toward Kim Ranhee. The ambitious woman, who had been silently and nervously maneuvering her chopsticks, released a tight, suppressed sigh and squeezed her eyes shut. Her weary expression conveyed a single unmistakable thought.

Here we go again.

Across the table, Jaeho stirred his soup with unnecessary force and rolled his eyes at the latest outbreak of domestic warfare. At the sight of his wife’s grimace and his youngest son’s blatant disrespect, Chairman Lee clicked his tongue with loud, aggressive displeasure.

The coarse sound at a formal dining table was a damning testament to his father’s fundamental lack of breeding. Whatever microscopic trace of appetite Lee Jaeha might have possessed vanished at once. He merely maintained the mask that had become second nature to him, his features frozen, indifferent, and impenetrable. Lately, that lethal expression had settled so deeply into his face that even the oblivious Jaeho had noticed.

“Hey, why the hell do you look so terrifying these days? Stop making that face. You look like some cartel gangster.”

The younger Alpha had physically shuddered as he spoke. At those particular words, Jaeha nearly lost his absolute composure, momentarily forgetting his ironclad rule never to reveal so much as a sliver of vulnerability in front of the illegitimate heir.

Today marked the tenth consecutive day of his self-imposed exile. With no message, no whispered rumor, and not a single scrap of information concerning Jang Taegeon’s condition, Jaeha clung desperately to his dwindling hope of completing the total annihilation of Myeongwon Construction.

He could not return to the matrimonial estate empty-handed. Tactically, it would be far better to arrive carrying the severed head of their enemy before pleading his case. He intended to kneel before Taegeon and apologize without reservation.

I didn’t want you to bleed for me.

Jaeha believed that begging forgiveness for anything that might have displeased the massive Alpha was the only viable path left to him, even if the fragile intimacy between them could never be restored to what it had once been. If Jang Taegeon somehow granted him forgiveness, Jaeha knew he would be unspeakably happy.

Within that prolonged and desperate silence, he had finally recognized the pathetic, all-consuming depth of his longing for absolution. He had arrogantly assumed he could complete the corporate slaughter first and weather the emotional consequences afterward, laboring under the delusion that Taegeon’s rejection would not break him.

He had been catastrophically wrong.

I never knew I possessed such a shameless core. Am I actually becoming like that man?

Jaeha cast a brief, glacial glance toward his corrupt father at the head of the table.

Forcing a spoonful of premium rice into his parched mouth, he chewed mechanically. Even the finest ingredients had lost every trace of flavor.

Jung Mihee, the head housekeeper responsible for the Lee estate’s kitchens, had once served as his late mother’s devoted wet nurse. Although several years older than Jaeha’s mother, she was the loyal daughter of a servant who had spent her life working in his maternal grandparents’ household. His mother had regarded Mihee as an elder sister and brought her to Seongbuk-dong when she married into the Yooshin dynasty. Even after his mother’s tragic funeral, Mihee had stubbornly remained at the estate, bound there by her profound affection for Jaeha, who bore such a striking resemblance to the woman she had loved.

Because Jung Mihee was not someone who served merely for a paycheck, she had become a revered fixture within the household. Neither Chairman Lee, Kim Ranhee, nor even the spoiled Jaeho dared treat her with disrespect.

Jaeha had spent his formative years sustained by Jung Mihee’s cooking. Delighted that her “adopted” son had remained in Seongbuk-dong for nearly ten consecutive days, the elderly woman had poured exhausting care into every meal. She prepared only the side dishes Jaeha favored, a desperately heartfelt effort that left him burdened with guilt whenever he failed to eat. He wished he could force down more, if only to honor the labor she had invested, but his throat felt so dry and damaged that swallowing even a single bowl of rice became an agonizing ordeal.

In the end, Jaeha blamed his untouched plate on a fabricated lack of morning appetite. He wiped his mouth, rose from the suffocating table, and prepared to leave for work.

“Live moderately out there for a while, then return to the family properly,” Chairman Lee ordered, halting him before he could leave. “I understand that this little marital rebellion of yours comes from never having been allowed to rest in your entire life, but you do not need to waste away in that filthy den of street thugs. If you aren’t psychologically prepared to reclaim control of the Electronics Division, I can quietly place you in Logistics and Distribution for a couple of years before transferring you back.”

Before the Chairman could continue, Jaeha cut smoothly across him.

“Associate Director Lee Jaeho, didn’t I mention that a highly anticipated promotion announcement was approaching on the corporate calendar?” He ignored his father’s manipulative olive branch entirely. “Mother, Jaeho is officially being promoted. Congratulations, little brother.”

With surgical precision, Jaeha redirected Lee Ik-hyeong’s suffocating demands toward Kim Ranhee’s ambitions once again.

This promotion represented the exact political victory she had pursued with ruthless determination. Instant, unrestrained delight burst across her pale and meticulously maintained face, which had remained withered and tense throughout breakfast as she endured the simultaneous presence of the stepson she feared and the husband she likely wished to murder.

Watching her ecstatic reaction, Jaeha stepped forward and gave the stunned Jaeho a firm pat on the shoulder.

“Mother is clearly thrilled, so you had better execute your new responsibilities flawlessly, Associate Director.” Jaeha’s voice lowered into a solemn and disconcertingly sincere register. “I apologize for not attending the celebration, brother. At the very least, make certain you marry into a powerful family, exactly as our ambitious parents expect.”

Because genuine gravity underpinned his advice, Kim Ranhee appeared to recognize that he was not mocking them. She regarded Jaeha with an unusually impressed expression that bordered on respect.

Finding the entire domestic pantomime both deeply laughable and unbearably tedious, Jaeha turned on his heel and left to make the commute alone. It felt strange and hollow to guide his sleek secondary sedan out of the sprawling estate garage, the same vehicle he had driven exclusively before his marriage.

Jaeha had never forgotten the venomous malice Kim Ranhee had harbored when she actively tried to hasten his bedridden mother’s death. Even so, the fundamental reason he repeatedly yielded the political floor to her and Jaeho was his objective acknowledgment that the dim-witted younger man was not truly responsible for his parents’ sins.

That private tolerance was deeply embedded in Jaeha’s conservative system of values. Raised primarily by his rigidly traditional grandfather, he regarded it as his unshakable duty as the dynasty’s eldest son. By instinct, he became the first and most impenetrable line of defense protecting Kim Ranhee’s fragile ambitions.

So they’ll use their own child as a flesh-and-blood shield until the bitter end.

A contemptuous sneer touched his thoughts.

He knew far too many members of the elite who were desperate to elevate their children to the pinnacle of society, yet cowardly thrust those same children in front of themselves whenever corporate shrapnel began to fly.

Perhaps it is a profound relief that I legally bound myself to another Alpha.

Somewhere deep within Jaeha’s cellular makeup, Chairman Lee Ik-hyeong’s vile, petty, and abusive genes undoubtedly remained buried. They might not have manifested physically, but Jaeha knew with terrifying certainty that the darkness existed inside him. In that case, it was infinitely better for the world if he never sired biological children.

The only unpredictable variable in that conclusion was Jang Taegeon.

If I quietly adopted a child and brought them into the estate… If the child happened to resemble him, I think I could raise them remarkably well.

Since natural conception between the two Alphas was biologically impossible, any heir they raised would inevitably have to come from outside their marriage.

As he considered the possibility from behind the wheel, Jaeha realized it would not be such a terrible fate, especially if the child inherited Taegeon’s dark, piercing eyes.

But that kind of domestic fantasy will never become reality.

Jang Taegeon did not seem cowardly enough to sire an illegitimate child and conceal the truth. However, because the massive Alpha harbored no romantic feelings for Jaeha whatsoever, if he ever accidentally fathered a child outside their marriage, he would simply tear up their marital contract, divorce Jaeha without hesitation, and legally marry the child’s mother.

At that devastating point, Lee Jaeha would be discarded into the gutter without a second thought.

It is unavoidable. This is precisely the possibility I prepared myself to endure.

It was the cold, unvarnished truth. Jaeha had rigorously braced his mind for total annihilation before ever setting foot at the altar. Because he had prepared so thoroughly for rejection, he had clenched his jaw until it ached on the night he formally proposed the merger to the gangster.

Jaeha had willingly accepted the role of Jang Taegeon’s spouse while fully prepared for every conceivable catastrophe their union might produce. He had steeled himself to endure everything a normal partner might experience, along with the singular and agonizing torments unique to an unhappy, loveless family.

There seemed to be no limit to what he was willing to suffer. Taegeon’s inevitable betrayal, a sudden and frigid dismissal, or even the sting of verbal abuse had all been included in his calculations. In exchange for surrendering the entirety of his existence, Jaeha had expected absolutely nothing from the man.

“……”

While waiting at a red light, Jaeha obeyed an ingrained impulse and rubbed the smooth platinum band on his left ring finger with the pad of his thumb. The simple physical confirmation that the metal remained secured around his flesh offered him an indescribable measure of comfort.

The instant the light turned green, he pressed the accelerator and shifted gears. Executing the day’s brutal corporate purges remained his absolute priority. Before he could earn the right to kneel before the Alpha and offer a sincere apology, he needed to present tangible and bloody results.

For ten agonizing days, Lee Jaeha had lived and breathed for that singular purpose alone.

***