Chapter 7

Stolen Marriage

“You dare run your mouth like that?!”

“How dare you try to ruin my daughter’s life?!”

Her statement that she would marry Seo Jeong-hoo acted as a detonator, igniting the mother and daughter’s rage.

Lunging at her like people whose fuses had completely blown, calling them “savage” was hardly enough.

Long fingernails grabbed the front of her top, shaking her viciously. Sharp pain spread, and flashes of light burst before her eyes.

“Ugh.”

“Look at this tough little bitch, not even making a sound! Let’s see who wins!”

Rolling up her sleeves, the corners of Jin-sook’s eyes flared fiercely.

It looked as though she intended to inflict serious physical violence.

Having been habitually beaten since childhood, it was nothing new.

The brutal Jin-sook would beat her mercilessly with whatever came to hand.

“Say it again! What? You’re marrying Jeong-hoo Oppa?!”

“Do you really think doing this will break me? In the first place, Seo Jeong-hoo never said he was marrying you, Sister.”

“Aaaaagh! You bitch! Now that you’ve seduced a naive man with that worthless body of yours, you think you own the world?!”

When Hae-won struck right at the core without mercy, Chae-ryeong stomped her feet, unable to contain her rage.

Not stopping at that, her eyes rolled back as she screamed like a madwoman.

Jin-sook also violently slammed Hae-won’s body against the wall. And as if that weren’t enough, she immediately rushed over, forcefully tearing her clothes with rough hands.

“…!”

Her bright white shoulders were exposed, and blood trickled from her torn lip.

Through her disheveled hair, the demon-like mother and daughter came into view.

Rescue.

Seo Jeong-hoo was right.

Only by getting married—only by hiding behind a husband whom these people couldn’t ignore—could she escape this house.

In fact, it was an immensely favorable proposal for her, not Seo Jeong-hoo.

“What is all this commotion?!”

Even if they had been staging a scene worthy of a warzone, could her father, sitting in the nearby study, really have failed to hear it?

There was no way.

Looking at her father, who only reluctantly showed himself after a long while, Hae-won felt a bitter taste in her mouth.

He likely hadn’t wanted to get involved in a headache of a situation.

Her father had been a thorough bystander from the very beginning. Ever since Jin-sook took over the master bedroom, even when she treated Hae-won cruelly, he had never once restrained her.

It was the same right now. He merely clicked his tongue briefly upon seeing the three women tangled in a brawl.

She thought she had long since given up on her father’s affection, yet in moments like this, her eyes still stung with tears.

Because the familiar sight of him turning a cold shoulder lodged in her eyes like sharp shards of glass.

“I’m disciplining our child. Don’t interfere.”

“Jeong-hoo said he wants to get married—why are you picking on the wrong child?”

He would have done better to just turn a blind eye and pass by as usual.

At his words, which sounded almost like he was taking her side, Jin-sook exploded in fury, looking even more provoked.

She abruptly threw away the fistful of hair she had been roughly clutching.

Because her body swayed violently, a sudden wave of dizziness made her head spin.

“Are you taking her side because she’s your daughter?! That brazen girl seduced Jeong-hoo—who knows nothing but work—and even slept with him!”

“What? What on earth does that mean?!”

At Jin-sook’s explicit words, her father’s dark eyebrows arched up sharply into peaks.

No matter how indifferent a father he was, seeing his daughters fight over one man was likely hard to stomach.

Besides, regardless of Jeong-hoo’s own wishes, the couple had firmly believed that Seo Jeong-hoo was Yoon Chae-ryeong’s future groom.

Revealing his discomfort clearly, he marched over with heavy footsteps.

Even in that short moment as the distance closed, shallow breaths caught in her throat, making it hard to breathe.

“Is that true? Hae-won, did you seduce Jeong-hoo? Your sister’s man?!”

It would have been better if he had remained a bystander, as he had always been.

Her father, intruding suddenly without being on her side, only made the situation worse.

Seeing his face interrogating her based solely on Jin-sook’s words made her heart throb painfully.

Determined not to cry, Hae-won bit her already split lip and forcefully injected defiance into her eyes.

“He couldn’t be called Sister’s man in the first place. The prerequisite for the engagement is ‘our mother’s daughter.’”

“You! I told you never to bring that up!”

“Fine! Yes, I slept with Seo Jeong-hoo!”

She didn’t even get a chance to say that Chae-ryeong was the one who touched her fiancé first, or that Chae-ryeong was far more malicious.

As a thick palm flew straight at her cheek, her slender body was nearly slammed onto the floor.

It was a force incomparable to when she had been hit by Jin-sook.

“Ha! You’ve truly lost your mind! Bring me the scissors right now!”

Approaching and shoving her shoulder, her father looked around with frantic eyes.

Jin-sook, who was remarkably quick-footed at times like this, triumphantly handed him a large pair of scissors brought from the kitchen.

Breathing heavily, her father roughly grabbed a fistful of her long hair.

“Speak clearly. Are you saying you’re going to marry Jeong-hoo?!”

“Apologize to your father right now and say you won’t marry Jeong-hoo!”

It was a matter that would only end if she said she gave up.

Her father would threaten her even if it meant shearing off all her hair, and in the end, he would lock her in her room.

And if she still didn’t stop rebelling, he was more than capable of sending her to a mental hospital—just as he had consistently done until now.

So that she would lose the will to fight or resist on her own.

That was how he would ruthlessly break his daughter.

“Yoon Hae-won!”

A thunderous roar echoed loudly in her ears.

Seeing Jin-sook and Chae-ryeong wearing triumphant smiles made her stomach churn even more.

Her life had been nothing but resignation and giving up; it should have been fine to just do that as usual…

So why am I…?

Her father, not granting even a moment’s respite, finally put force into the hand holding the scissors.

At the sensation of the scissor blades brushing against her hair, a chill ran through her entire body.

And the things that were about to happen flashed before her eyes.

‘I can’t live like this!’

Biting her lip hard, Hae-won immediately stood up and pushed her father.

The man who seemed as unshakeable as a boulder was pushed back.

Hae-won bolted out of the house like a madwoman.

There was no way she had a next plan. Right now, she simply wanted to escape this horrific situation.

Even though she tried not to cry, her vision kept blurring.

Repeatedly falling and getting back up in her hazy vision, Hae-won barely made it out of the courtyard and pushed open the heavy front gate.

Before she could even take a few steps into the alleyway, her body slumped as she leaned against the wall.

“Sob.”

An exhausting sense of helplessness vaguely dominated her entire body.

The situation growing bigger than initially expected was beyond her control.

Cleaning it up was the same. She felt completely unable to handle it on her level.

She wept until her eyes stung, yet she was still at a total loss.

To make matters worse, rain began to fall. Quite thick raindrops started beating down on her body, and cold wind seeped through her torn clothes. It was a coldness that made her shoulders hunch automatically.

Far from grabbing an outer coat, she hadn’t even been able to put on shoes. Tears welled up even more at the sight of her bare white feet covered in crushed soil.

Not only had she run away, but she was also in the state of a drenched rat.

Even as she tried to pull herself together, everything was a mess.

A throbbing pain radiated from her torn collarbone, and her scalp—where a fistful of hair must have been pulled out—was also burning hot.

“….”

As Hae-won crouched down, wrapping her arms around her knees, her gaze absentmindedly drifted toward the alley entrance shrouded in pitch-black darkness.

In front of her feet, chilled by the rainwater, a pair of well-polished dress shoes came to a stop.

In that instant, the rain soaking her body ceased, and the sound of raindrops pelting an umbrella echoed loudly.

Without realizing it, her eyes moved upward along the shoes that didn’t have a speck of dust on them. Past the razor-sharp pant creases, past a crisp white dress shirt, she saw Seo Jeong-hoo’s neat, refined face.

“What are you doing here?”

Jeong-hoo’s cool, immaculate face crumpled in a moment’s frown.

She didn’t want to show this man her current state—having fled home with her clothes torn to shreds.

Biting her lip, Hae-won wrapped her arms even tighter around her knees, hiding her body.

Over those shoulders of hers, a heavy jacket fell with a soft thud.

Jeong-hoo’s large jacket covered her entire body.

Overwhelmed by fluster, Hae-won blinked her eyes heavily—and then he spoke:

“Since I made you like this, I will take responsibility.”

How on earth did he know to come here?

It was as if this man had foreseen exactly what kind of ordeal she would face.

Hae-won had never had a place to rest her heart from the start.

Like a buoy drifting in a vast ocean, she had merely floated here and there.

In a moment like this, Seo Jeong-hoo was the very first person who hadn’t left her all alone.

“How did you come here?”

“Because I thought you’d be like this.”

At his explicit affirmation, the bridge of her nose stung.

Even if it were pity or sympathy, she felt it wouldn’t matter.

If she had to play a huge gamble called marriage, this man might be the perfect fit.

If completely losing her mind was the only way to endure this terrible reality—

“You’re truly not in your right mind.”

“Not bad—hearing such words come out of your mouth.”

He loosely raised one corner of his lips.

Even in this moment, he remained composed as he suddenly crouched down to meet her gaze.

Had he been waiting outside for a long time?

A cold night air mixed with the scent of rain wafted strongly from him.

“Do you really want to marry me? There won’t be anything in it for you, Mr. Seo Jeong-hoo.”

“That is for me to decide.”

His definitive words resonated with a sharp ache at the edge of her chest.

A large hand gently stroked her limp, wet hair.

The tender touch felt somehow dry and mechanical.

It was a gamble where she staked herself as collateral on the gaming table, and there might be an even more horrific trap waiting.

Because fate had never once been kind to her.

Even so…

Hae-won, closing her eyes and opening them again, slowly parted her lips.

Though the touch stroking her hair was dry, his body heat was warm.

It was a warmth she didn’t want to miss.

“Then let’s do it—that marriage.”

Hae-won decided to willingly go mad.

Let me try stealing you.