The Love They Never Had: The Nam Mansion

Chapter 19: Haeng-Wi (The Act)

"My Lord? The Young Mistress confesses to finding these documents as soon as she had started her work here and has kept them well hidden for you. She says that the Young Madame has hidden them all over the home and was on her way to hand them over to someone for inspection." "What a smart girl, I shall remember to reward her well after this." "You bastard! How could you trick me to...!" "I told you what I need it for, so why did you lie to me?" "No! Do not hand over the farmlands! They can support us for a lifetime!" "Why are you in such a panic? Why are you acting like we will be living on our last pieces of silver? What have you done, wife? And how do you know which farmlands can support us or not?" "Because they bring in the most income! It says it very clearly on the..." "and here I was thinking that you were illiterate. So you can read after all it seems." He had me there and he knew it, now he only needed to kick me out and I could be free of this financial nightmare until everything settled down and I could return back to the home I had worked so hard to achieve.
"So what are you going to do now?" "You do not know how to be a wife and yet you want the big ceremony and a title. You do not help your husband in his time of need and you squander his money on useless things. You have embarrassed the both of us in the public eye time and time again and I have just about had enough of it. Get out of this home this instant and do not turn around, no matter what you do." "No! This is my home that I have worked hard for! It is mine! My shelter, my sanctuary, my peace of mind! Let me stay here! I do not need a title, I can even settle for just being a mistress..." "and hinder my chances of a real marriage? Who will marry me if I already have a known mistress before having a main wife?" You arrogant little...who do you think will tolerate you apart from myself? Who will ignore the monster that you truly are and stay by your side? Who? You and your grand delusions... "...then you can just treat me as an additional female attendant in this household..." "As I recall, you have done everything in your power to get yourself out of serving men. Because you have always seen yourself as equal to us. So how could you possibly have the patience to serve anyone as a maid." "If Yeon can do it then so can I." "STOP BRINGING HER UP! JUST LEAVE!" "But I do not have any skills; how can I survive outside and where could I go?" "If I was penniless, I really doubt that you would be shouting and screaming to stay by my side. And do not even think of causing a scene and making other's pity you, you are already a laughing stock of the entire village ever since I made the mistake of bailing you out of there. For you, I have extended all of my efforts and I had such plans for us. But how is it that my colleagues are getting ahead of me in work? The same colleges that you invite to these so-called dinner parties? Why am I being bullied all over again? And ignored? And now you are telling me that I am penniless? Whose fault is that? I am the one at fault actually, for not seeing how scheming you were. You were once the most intelligent person that I knew and now you..." "You gave me no choice! All of you men kept abandoning me! Because you were threatened by my intelligence! So I had no choice but to abandon it and live my life as a socialite! Has Yeon's misfortunes taught you nothing yet? Being that intelligent only causes you to fall into traps that you miss out on..." "if you do not leave this instant, then I swear that I will make it unbearable for you to stay here any longer!"

Now was the time that I had waited for, but I also couldn't leave without putting on one last show of arrogance and hatred before I left to get it out of my system. And the best thing was? No woman he would ever has his eyes on after myself could help him in the ways that I had done. I was the one with the most connections during my time in the brothel, I was the one who had all of the information that he needed to survive in the palace, and he wouldn't even know how to put his new robes on without me. So what did I have to loose by venting out my long suppressed anger towards him that hadn't simmered down at all since he did what he did to all 3 of us.
"You dare to kick me out as soon as you take in a personal maid? You really dare to humiliate me like this? How can you even call yourself a man? Why don't I just hand you over this chima of mine and you can wear it out in full view of the entire village that you have been desperate to win over since childhood and fail miserably every single time you do? You lowly scholar with no ambition or integrity, what else can you do! Who would look at you apart from myself! And even I am miserable with you! I would have even respected you if you had let me go much earlier! But you kept me close just to keep you company! You coward!" "So what are you saying? That I owe you? You have already gone through everything that I have given you. Speaking of that topic, you do not need to pack anything at all since everything you have and foolishly shown off was given to you by me! No wonder this home has been robbed a few times! And whilst you sleep safely at night in my bed, I do everything I can as a solider to prevent my village from falling under the sword and the fires of war! How many lives have I saved so you can live in obscene luxury like this! You half-hearted and foolish woman! I have been far too benevolent to have tolerated you thus far. So since you have thrown these parties to find another wealthy victim, you can live with these guests that you have paid more attention to than myself!"

And just like that, I had managed to avoid financial disaster by getting the hell out of there before his senior could find me. And as for that little slut that he had taken in, I knew she wouldn't last before I returned. I was at least someone who had build up a name for myself and as for her, she would forever be known as the maid who had betrayed her mistress for wealth and glory. She would never gain the respect of others as I had, so she was absolutely no threat to me at all. So I had nothing holing me back here, at least for now. I walked as calmly as I could out of the door, but not in time for me to have missed out on the following conversation that happened between Seon-Ho and his new maid. "Are you going to bring her back now?" "I will bring Yeon where she returns whether she likes it or not, only after you have finished translating everything. I might even have to take some time off of work to gather myself again." "Will you marry her this time? For real?" "A wedding will take place between us, there is no doubt about that." "How do you know that she will agree?" "Because she hasn't ever stopped loving me, even I know that."

I had to stop right there and then to make sure that I was doing the right thing. I knew that I had no choice in the matter, but I also could not have Seo Yeon in my home, wearing my things and eating off of my plate. She knew too much already and I knew that she could ruin everything that I had worked for. But I knew deep down that she was really hurt by him, and all that he had done to her. If she had even a shred of her dignity left, she would know better than to step into my territory. But if she did loose her common sense and went ahead with this, then she had better count down her last days. I had already done her a great service by letting her off with her life. But if he didn't count her blessings, then she would have nobody else to blame but herself.