Taking off the wedding ring Junhyeon had given her was the difficult bit, Boyoung thought. It really felt like the end of one life and the beginning of another. She looked down at her left hand as it rested on the steering wheel, at the white band indelibly printed on her skin, marking where her ring used to be. Practically all her adult life she’d worn Junhyeon’s ring and now it was really over.

She was now driving towards a new life. A new daughter.

“Are we nearly there yet?” Ahra asked, lifting her head from the awkward angle it had fallen to while she slept.

“Very close now, sweetheart.”

They had left the highway and were weaving through closely populated suburban housing. It was dirtier and greyer. And this was her new life?

“How much longer?”

“It’s not far, honey. Let me concentrate for a minute. There’s a turning off to the left somewhere near here.

She’d always hated the idea of living in the huge city. For her, Seoul seemed to be a grubby place to live. Some people saw opportunity, but all she saw was the claustrophobia of it all. Yet this was what she’d chosen. For the good of Ahra—and Naeun.

The road whipped round and the houses became more spaced out, some even attractive.

It was a strange feeling. Almost like the first day of a new job. A mixture of excitement, anticipation and pure fear. Since the moment she’d opened her eyes that morning a feeling of nausea had settled deep in her stomach.

Within the next few minutes she was going to meet the little girl she and Junhyeon had created together. But for an administrative error it would have been this little girl she’d spent the last six years loving. Would she feel anything for her? Would it be enough to sustain her, spending her future with a man who didn’t love her and who openly admitted he didn’t want to?

She rounded another bend and turned into a wide, tree-lined avenue. “This is it,” Boyoung announced in complete disbelief.

“We’re going to stay here?”

Boyoung looked down at the awe in Ahra’s face. It was an emotion she shared. She reached into the side pocket of her car door and pulled out the sheet of paper she’d written is directions on before turning to look back at the huge windows and curved brickwork of Junmyeon’s home.

She took a deep, shaking breath. “For a while. Come on, let’s go and meet Naeun.”

She turned the car up the wide drive and brought it to a halt outside the imposing front entrance. She’d never fit in here. Never. She hadn’t given Junmyeon’s financial status much thought. Her mind had been preoccupied with everythi