The Wicked Wife

Chapter 9: One Man's Trash Is Another Man's Treasure

Jennie knew that she needed to be careful with her actions, that she shouldn't let others suspect that she knew things that they didn't. They might think that she had lost her mind and she would be forced to be separated from her mother again. It was something that she didn't want repeating in this life.

When she came downstairs to join her mother for lunch, she found Hye Kyo speaking frantically in a low voice over her phone, her back facing Jennie. She was pacing back and forth, her whole body was tense as she pondered how she should explain his absence yet again to their daughter.

"Didn't you promise?" She hissed to whoever she was talking to, but Jennie surmised that it was her useless adoptive father.

Dong Wook wouldn't be back until a week after New Year's Day. He wasn't aware that Ji Ah along with their daughter were coming here, to Qiying City, to meet him and his wife, only for them to meet Hye Kyo alone. However, he must have been aware of Ji Ah's health condition, considering how he ignored Hye Kyo for the following months in favor of looking after his lover.

"You promised you would come back from your business trip as soon as possible, why would you need to stay there for another week?" Hye Kyo asked in a frustrated tone.

If there was something Dong Wook was good at, it was to make his wife frustrated. This was one of the reasons why Jennie wasn't impressed with nor had any respect towards him. Every time the man saw her, Dong Wook would look away and wouldn't bother to give her the attention he should have as her father.

Whatever Dong Wook said on the other end of the line caused Hye Kyo to sound disappointed. She chose to hang up the call, turned around and saw Jennie standing at the bottom of the stairs with a blank expression on her face.

"Jenjen, take a seat and have lunch with me." She coaxed her daughter, hoping that Jennie hadn't overheard her conversation with her father.

Jennie obediently took a seat across from her mother and remained silent. She was thinking of ways to protect her mother from Dong Wook. She needed to convince her mother to divorce this excuse of a man who only cared about himself.

"Mama, is Papa not going to be home for New Year's Day?" She asked solemnly, knowing that her distress would add another layer of disappointment to Hye Kyo's existing one towards her husband.

Hye Kyo felt guilty hearing her daughter's question. She knew that her Jenjen rarely saw and interacted with her husband, and it made her frustrated that Dong Wook was purposely ignoring their daughter.

"Jenjen, don't be angry with your Papa, okay? He's still on a business trip and only called to inform us that it would take him another week before he could return home." She said in a gentle voice.

"It's okay, Mama. I know you and Papa are working hard to give me a better future. I just hope that Papa will be okay on his own." Jennie decided to play the filial daughter card in order to drive a wedge between Hye Kyo and Dong Wook.

'Yes. You better be okay on your own once I'm done with you.'

The more Jennie played a meek and filial daughter towards them, the more Hye Kyo would feel pity for her. What better way to make her mother see how incompetent Dong Wook was aside from this?

'Mama, I'm sorry for deceiving you, but this is for the better.' She thought as she took her mother's hand into hers.

Hye Kyo's heart ached and thought how unfair it was for their Jennie to be treated this way by her husband.

"Okay. Mama will stay with you today, is that okay, Jen?"

"Don't you have important work to do, Mama? I don't want to disturb you." Jennie smiled at her mother.