Chapter 1.  The Missing Heiress

Kwon Jiyong dropped down into the chair in his room and shut his eyes. It’s been four days now since Park Sandara, the daughter of wealthy businessman Park Sanjin had left home in the middle of the night. Her father was going out of his mind. He had private investigators and the police searching for her but all to no avail. She had vanished in the night leaving behind only a note saying, “I’m sorry for being such a disappointment and embarrasment to you. –Sandara.”

No one knew Sandara was missing until the evening of the next day. Jiyong had come home from work and, not seeing her at dinner, asked one of the maids if Miss Sandara was at home.

“I’m not certain, Master Kwon,” the maid answered. “She’s not been around all day but her car is in the garage.”

“Did no one check on her?” he asked, irritation beginning to creep into his voice. It was no wonder the girl was so wild since she was left to do what she wanted with no restraints. The help were fearful of her temper and her father had no idea how to raise her.

“We knocked on her door for breakfast and again for lunch but there was no answer.”

Jiyong had an uneasy feeling about this. True Sandara often locked herself in her room when she was upset – which was almost every other day. But never for this long. And yesterday’s fight between him and Sandara that resulted in Park Sanjin slapping his daughter was nothing like any of the other fights she’d had with her father. There had been a look of shock and then hurt in her eyes, quickly covered up by coldness before Sandara turned and retreated to her room.

“Go get the master key,” he instructed the maid. Jiyong quickly walked up the stairs and made his way over to Sandara’s bedroom door.

“Sandara?” Jiyong knocked on the door and listened for any sound. Nothing.

“Sandara, are you in there? It’s Jiyong, open the door.”

Still nothing.

He turned to the maid who arrived holding the master key and handed it over to him. Jiyong quickly unlocked the door and swung it open.

The room was empty. Her bed neatly made. Jiyong looked toward the bathroom and saw it was dark and empty. She wasn’t there.  So she’d gone out again…

He was about to leave when his gaze landed on her desk and the items scattered there.

Jiyong walked over and the lamp to get a better view. It was Sandara’s phone, her credit cards, and her car keys.

If she went out, why did she leave these behind, he wondered?

Then his gaze caught sight of a plain white sheet with one sentence written on it. ‘I’m sorry for being a disappointment and embarrassment to you.   S.’

Jiyong’s brows furrowed as he reread the note. He grabbed his phone and placed a call immediately to Park Sanjin. “Uncle, you need to come home. It’s Sandara.”

Mr. Park had been at a business dinner when Jiyong called him. He came home immediately and ran to his daughter’s room, needing to see for himself that she had actually left home. And when he read her note to him Mr. Park sat on her bed, too weak to stand.

“Should I call the police?” Jiyong asked. He didn’t know if Sanjin wanted the police involved and the word to get out there that Sandara was missing. It could be dangerous for her if the public knew. They already had their own security team searching for her and Jiyong had called in a private investigator as well. So far they had been able to determine that she had left by way of her bedroom window. The footprint in the dirt by her window showed she was wearing sneakers.

They searched security camera and found she had evaded all but one. The photo from that one camera was grainy considering it was night but it showed her dark clad figure jumping over the north wall of the estate at 2:37am that night. They were able to determine that she was alone – she had not been forced off property – and that she left with only the clothes she had on.

“Sandy,” Park Sanjin whispered his nickname for Sandara as he held an old photo of her from when she was nine years old. He hadn’t even realized this was the last photo he had of her. The investigator asked for a recent photo of Sandara and he had gone to fetch it then stopped and realized there were none. The few photos he had of her were of when she was nine or younger. He had no photos of her after his wife had died. And then when they asked for Sandara’s age and her birthday he realized that he didn’t even know. He had to think a few minutes. “November 11^th – no 12^th.”

The investigator looked up at him. “So she just had a birthday two days ago, correct?”

Sanjin’s mouth formed a thin line. He had forgotten her birthday?

He’d gotten so used to his secretary taking care of these sort of things for him over the years that Sandara’s birthday had slipped by him again unnoticed this year. Sanjin swore as he sat down on the nearest chair.

Was that why she had acted out that day? He looked up at the detective and then over at Jiyong. “I forgot her birthday…”

“You’ve been busy,” Jiyong offered, seeing the devastation on Sanjin Park’s face. But the older man closed his eyes and shook his head.

“It wasn’t just this year. I… I don’t even recall when I last celebrated her birthday with her.” He’d been trying so hard to save Sandara from the destructive path she had been on but it was only dawning on him now that he may have been a big part of why Sandara had been behaving that way in the first place. “I’ve neglected her.”

“I’m sure it wasn’t your intention to do so,” Jiyong answered.

“Maybe not,” Sanjin sighed.  “But regardless, that’s the ugly truth.”