“My darling,” A stern voice calls out to her as she sits in front of an ornate vanity.

“Father.” Chaerin addresses him coldly, looking at him only through the reflection in the mirror.

She watches as he takes something out from his tuxedo jacket and in delayed horror realizes what he holds. Struggling to get up in her heavy dress, she scrambles toward him, desperate to tear the ledger from his grip.

“Why haven’t you ever spoken to me about Lee Soohyuk?” He asks her in a bored tone, slowly flipping through the delicate pages.

“I hid it!” She gasps out, her heart thumping painfully in her chest as blood rushes to her ears. “You went through my room.”

He shakes his head at her assumption, a self-assured smirk on his lips.

“Why didn’t you ask me about this, weren’t you curious?” He asks her again, his finger holding the place open to a specific page. She refuses to look. “I’m curious as to why Lee Soohyuk wants to get his hands on this ledger, don’t you want to know?”

“I’m done.” She bites back. “I’m done digging up the past. I’m sure that you and Kwon paid to cover up some other murder. I don’t care anymore. I’m already living with this… shame.”

“You’re ashamed? Is that why you’re just keeping it to yourself and not going to the police to turn me in even though you have all the evidence?” He asks, amused. “Or is it that you’re living comfortably as the most powerful woman in Korea, who is about to marry a volatile puppet of a husband?”

Enraged, Chaerin thrashes her arm across the top of the vanity, throwing all of the makeup onto the ground.

He laughs.

“Like father, like daughter.” Mr. Lee hums thoughtfully. “It’s not too bad to only care about money and power, Chaerin. You know that, right? It’s not wrong to want to be powerful.”

“I don’t want to be powerful!” She spits at him but he only shakes his head.

“Oh, but in this moment who holds all the power?” He clicks his tongue disapprovingly. “Looks fade but money and influence, those are things you can have forever. If you care of it.”

“Youngbae knows and so does Hongjun. I told them both the truth so it’s only a matter of time.” She stands up straight like an animal that puffs its chest to appear more intimidating. “This is not my battle but I can still share my weapons.”

He looks at her thoughtfully as he walks toward her. She flinches as he reaches out to her cheek. He frowns.

“Don’t touch me!” She hisses, turning away from him.

“Blood is thicker than water, Chaerin.” He tells her in a low, threatening tone as he backs away. “I’ll see you at the ceremony. You make such a beautiful bride, my daughter.”

“Yes it is,” She agrees as she sits down, shell shocked. feels tight as she grips onto the edge of the vanity, knuckles turning white as she stares at her reflection. She carefully adjusts a curl that had fallen errant from her flawless coif framed by the grand cathedral veil. “Blood is thicker than water.”

She repeats the mantra to the woman in the mirror, the bride with sharp cat-like eyes. Her lace bustier squeezes her together as she fights to breath. Chaerin, the girl in the lovely lace wedding gown worn proudly like a prisoner’s smock. She’s too weak, too fractured between who she wants to be and who she has the strength to be.

“Chaerin.” A quiet voice calls out to her like a prayer and she startles, not having heard the door open. But there he is, standing before her as she wonders if it’s all a fool’s illusion.

“How did you get in here?” She finally manages to croak out as she studies his face, sullen and resolute. No, that’s not what she wants to ask. Why, why are you here?

“The side door,” Youngbae answers meekly, his head nodding toward the other end of the room. “I didn’t want anyone to see me in case you said you wanted me to leave and never see you again.”

“Why would I say that?” Her eyes narrow and she’s still not convinced this is real, not after he had turned her away. Not after the way they had parted that fateful night.

“I heard you, Chaerin. What you told your father.”

She stands again to face him in a fury of tulle and lace whipping around her form.

He’s struck by the vision of her in her white dress. He drinks her in, her skin tingling as his eyes sweep over her body. She feels the soft memories of when he had touched her skin and set her on fire, leaving her to slowly burn like a candle abandoned in the night. A small smile forms on his lips ― lips that she had kissed a hundred times in her feverish dreams.

Tears form in Youngbae’s eyes as he moves toward her.

“It’s not your fault.” He tells her, his words a barbed hook ripping through her. She thinks she might vomit. “It’s not your fault, I forgive you.”

Her eyes are dry and she knows it might be too late. This might be the end.

“I don’t forgive myself.” She tells him as if only suddenly realizing for herself. A small rueful smile tugs at her pink lips. “I don’t think this can be enough, not when I don’t forgive myself. The two of us, we’re twisted. You and I, we’re two ruined people broken into a thousand pieces. What, if we try to force our jagged edges together we’ll be whole again?”

Her tone is low and biting but he still walks toward her slowly, approaching as a eunuch at the foot of the altar.

Chaerin stands regal and unworldly in her large flowing gown, her despairing eyes avoiding his gaze for fear of lapsing into the realm of dreams. She looks like a vengeful goddess to him, tall and commanding. It was like this, too, at Jiyong’s birthday party. Chaerin the ethereal being and him, the mortal, infinitesimal in comparison to her existence.

“If I’m going to be miserable I want to be miserable with you.” He pleads impetuously. “I don’t have a plan, I don’t know what to do to get over this hurdle. I only have myself.”

“Stop.” She warns him.

“We can’t forget the past.” He continues. “But we have a future, too. You’re my future. You’re the end.”

“Stop,” She begs him. “Please, stop before you convince me.”

“Love is enough.” He says soothingly, her cheek carefully with his soft hand. “Love is enough.”

She gives into his seductive caress, her cheek molding into his hand as she surrenders her willpower to his ministrations. His fingers tangle with her own as he brings her hand slowly to his lips. He looks into her eyes and the warmth of his gaze washes over her body.

“Dong Youngbae.” A woman’s voice calls out and it takes them both a moment to realize his name hadn’t been uttered by her own lips but from the doorway he had secretly entered. In an incredulous blur, Chaerin recognizes the ghost before them.

His grip on her hand tightens painfully, the air out of the room, leaving them in a vacuum without light. They can hear nothing and see only one another. The color drains from his face as he fearfully clings onto her, his body enraptured in pain. His hand, fallen limp from her cheeks, grasps at his chest desperately. As if in slow motion, his pale fingers come back stained with blood. Trembling, he brings his wetted hand back to her face. Chaerin’s deafening screams reverberate throughout the room in terrified realization.

She watches him crumple like an autumn leaf, descending gracelessly onto the cold floor in a ruddy heap.   

“Yes, I killed him.” A woman, gaunt as the spectre she’s become, confesses to the two detectives in front of her. “I killed Dong Youngbae and I killed his mother.”

Detective Bang and Park exchange looks, informing her that she must be able to compose a written confession.

“Why would you kill her?” Detective Park asks, bewildered by the mysterious kidnapping case gone cold by over a decade.

“I hated that woman for living in my house with that boy. I hated him for being treated like a son in my house.” The woman tears up, dabbing at the wetness with his her cuffed arm. “I couldn’t let my Jiyong lose everything.”

“There was evidence that Dong Youngbae had been tortured in the shed in the back of the Kwon Estate.” Detective Bang intercepts. “A former guard with the Kwon family came forward saying that Dong Youngbae had been held there for a week before his mother’s death.”

Jiyong’s mother, returned from the dead, looks up shocked.

“No, that’s not true!” She insists shrilly. “Hyunsuk oppa brought the boy to America, that’s not true! I bragged to that I was sending her son away to the USA, he wasn’t tortured!”

She looks up suddenly, her gaze fixated on the mirror in the interrogation room.

“Is that a two way mirror?” She asks in a quiet voice. “I’ve seen it in dramas… Is my Jiyong there? Is he watching us right now?”

She pauses a beat, staring intently through her reflection.

“You’re not really brothers, he’s just the son of a ! You’re the real Kwon son, the only one!”

Jiyong storms out of the viewing room angrily, the sound of his mother’s sobs filling the intercom. Chaerin follows Jiyong out the station as he collapses in the street. She tries futilely to pick him up as he falls into her grasp.

“She’s lying!” He cries into the arms of his almost bride. “We’re not brothers!”

“Jiyong, let’s not do this here.” She begs him as people stare.

The Kwon heir rises suddenly, quiet as he moves toward the waiting car.

“Did you know?” He asks in a dangerously low voice as she follows him into the backseat. His eyes widen in dismay. “You knew!”

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“You did hurt me.” He hisses. “I can’t trust anyone. I can’t… I can’t even trust you.”

“Jiyong.” Chaerin chokes out, gripping onto his hand. “Let’s get married. We can go to the courthouse and get married right now. No more waiting.”

He looks over at her slowly and roughly shakes off her hand as if burned by her touch.

“I can’t.” He tells her, looking out the window. “I can’t even look at you right now. I need to get out, I need to be by myself for a while.”

Chaerin is quiet and hates herself for the overpowering sense of relief that she feels. Mostly she just feels a sudden dread heavy at the pit of her stomach, churning ominously. A manic Jiyong she can handle. An obsessive Jiyong she can handle.

A Jiyong that ignores and scorns her, she doesn’t know what to do with.

“Let’s put the Estate up for sale.” He says after a while.

“And move back to the apartment?” She asks cautiously.

“You may if you’d like to do so.” He tells her vaguely, still looking out the window.

She can see the agonized expression on his face through the reflection. It’s unsettling to watch the hurricane of emotions subtly pass over his features. For the first time, she truly feels defenseless and vulnerable in his presence.

“But what about you?” She wonders, afraid of the answer.

“I’ll go to Paris for a while, build our hold on Europe.” He sighs. “There’s something I need to figure out.”

“I do love you, Jiyong.” She tells him tearfully. “I really love you.”

“I know.” He says, his breath fogging on the window. He rustles through his jacket and pulls something out, glistening in the dull light. “Can I ask a favor of you, Chaerin?”

His wedding band sits in his palm.

“Anything.” She breathes out as he turns to her.

“Will you wear this? So I can feel like I’m with you no matter what, even when I might hate you.” He slips the ring onto her middle finger as she nods and he laughs breathlessly. “Your fingers are so chubby.”

She laughs, holding up her hand.

“I’ll wear it, Jiyong.” She gives him a sad smile. “Take care of yourself, won’t you? I’ll always think of you, even when I might hate you.”

By the time Chaerin returns to the apartment, Jiyong’s belongings are gone. She curls up on the couch, stiff from not having been used in months. The door slowly opens and she looks up hoping to see Jiyong.

“What are you going to do now that your world is burning down to the ground?” Lee Soohyuk asks, holding a pack of beer.

She takes a beer from him as he sits down next to her.

“All those who wronged me or hurt those I love, I’m going to burn them all.” She says holding her beer tightly in her hand. “If I’m going to hell then they’re all going with me.”

Soohyuk laughs, clinking his beer can against hers.

“Well, cheers to that!”

- - -

Author's Note: And there we have it! The dead come back to life and truths are revealed. I've been working on this chapter for a long time so I'd love to see your comments. As always, thank you to all who have supported this story, both the new and the old! The story is coming to an end but my love for you all is neverending!!! (so cheesy)

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