The Perfect Wife

Chapter 17

Her mother suddenly got up. They could hear the sound of a car stopping outside. Her father had come home. It sounded like another guest had arrived as well.

Lisa avoided her mother, who smelled faintly of alcohol, and tried to leave the room. However, her mother shot up and grabbed Lisa’s arm. She had the stubborn grip of a person who wasn’t completely sane.

“Mom!”

Even after hearing Lisa’s irritated voice, her mother still held on and stuffed her into the closet inside the room.

“Mom!”

“Watch and see. See what will unfold. See how I’ve been living up till now! See with your own eyes what the truth is. See what kind of monster Min DaeYup is… I’m begging you. Watch. See what kind of people they are. I’m asking you to see their true colors!”

Bang!

The closet door closed as the room to the bedroom opened. The closet door was a wooden louvered door. This meant that those outside couldn’t see in, but Lisa could clearly see out.

Why was she doing this? Why was she acting like an insane person?! Lisa wanted to yell out, but it was too late.

Lisa was trembling inside the closet. Shocked, she peeked out through the panels of door. For some reason, she felt a heavy dread that made it hard to breathe. Her father wasn’t alone. He was with a familiar man. She had seen this man a few times inside her home.

President Jeon…? Why was President Jeon inside her mother’s room with her father this late at night?

The men spoke for a bit. They laughed about something. They completely ignored her mother and continued to chat away. Her mother’s blank expression as she watched them looked strange to Lisa.

She couldn’t understand any of this. However, when her father left the room, leaving behind President Jeon, Lisa couldn’t breathe.

No.

She heard scary sounds. She recalled all the strange men who visited their house. Their laughs, their glances… She remembered how they had shaken hands with her father.

No!

Lisa collapsed onto the floor.

She needed to leave this closet right away. She needed to leave, but… The bloodcurdling screams, the sound of clothes ripping, the click of a man’s belt unbuckling. The sound of the creaking bed!

No!

Lisa shook her head.

Her tears silently slid down her cheeks.

No, no.

No. No way. How could this… No. This can’t possibly be happening! This is a lie. There’s no way this is true. This is all a lie! Lisa closed her eyes and covered ears as she shook her head. There’s no way! This is all a lie!

She didn’t know how much time had passed by. Creak, the door opened. Her mother blankly stared down at Lisa. Lisa felt as if she was in hell. She couldn’t take it anymore. What happened just now? She couldn’t understand what she had just seen and heard. Lisa hated everything. Her mother, her father, and even herself for being fooled.

“Don’t cry, Lisa.”

Her mother spoke coldly as if she had really gone insane.

Lisa couldn’t believe it.

Lisa glared at her. She didn’t pity her. She didn’t pity her at all. She couldn’t understand why her mother continued to stay here even though she was being treated like this. Why didn’t she just run away? Lisa couldn’t forgive her.

“Dirty.”

With that one word, Lisa shoved her mother away and ran. From that room, from the house, from all these people. She threw it all away and ran barefoot. She didn’t know where she was going. She cried and screamed as she ran off into the night like a lunatic.

Her mother committed suicide.

Someone had seen Lisa running barefoot on the Han River Bridge and called the police. She was sitting in the cold police station, completely frozen, when Taehyung came to get her. That’s when he told her.

Her mother had died. She had slit her wrists in the bathroom.

“I don’t know what you saw, but you can’t tell anyone, Lisa.”

Taehyung flatly told her as he draped his suit jacket over her shoulders.

“It’s alright. You don’t know anything. You don’t need to know anything. I’ll do everything. I’ll take care of it all. You just need to stay silent, Lisa. Forget… about what happened to Mother. I’ll deal with it by myself. Forget it, Lisa.”

Forget what? Forget it how? Who are you? Who are you really? What about the words Mom blurted out as she was losing her mind?

Lisa didn’t say anything. No, actually, she couldn’t say anything. Due to shock, Lisa had gone mute and had to undergo treatment for 1 year. The truth had pierced her heart and took her mother and her voice away from her.

It was all because of her. This was all Lisa’s fault. The reason why her mother could no longer stand to live in this world was because of what Lisa had said. Because of what she’d done. Because of what had been done to her. When Lisa had condemned her as ‘dirty’, her mother couldn’t take it anymore.

This was all for Lisa’s sake… She had endured all this for the sake of her daughter… But at Lisa’s one word, her mother collapsed.

“Ugh!”

Hunched over the ground near the cold Han River, Lisa was throwing up all the food she had eaten at President Jeon’s house. She couldn’t hold back the nausea that was making her body shake. Just seeing Jeon JaeHyuk’s face was hard to endure.

So don’t cry.

Lisa fiercely told herself.

Don’t even look back.

Her vision was getting blurry. Even though she felt like she was going to collapse, Lisa used up all her strength to move further away from Jungkook.

Jungkook is merely Jeon JaeHyuk’s son. He is merely the son of that man. The man whose body she wanted to rip to shreds, and even then she wouldn’t be satisfied. The son of a bitch who had broken her mother until she was in that state. Jungkook was the son of that two-faced beast of a man.

Jungkook had seen her as a means to obtain his business contract. Likewise, Lisa had seen him as a means to have her revenge.

She had endured this marriage for 2 years. Within that time, there were hundreds of lies between them, but one thing remained true.

Jungkook and Lisa could never fall in love with each other. They wouldn’t be able to become a real couple in this lifetime. Even if the skies collapsed and the earth shattered, Lisa would never be able to love him. Therefore, Jungkook must never love her. And he must never forgive her.

He could hate and loathe her all he wanted, but he shouldn’t love her.