“No,” he said.
“I took it from his office two weeks ago.
I’ve been trying to decide what to do with it.” He looked up at me.
“I think I was waiting for someone else to make the decision.”
I looked at him for a long moment.
“Where is it now?”
“In my coat pocket,” he said.
I held out my hand.
He reached into his coat.
The envelope was thick, slightly worn at the corners, and Emily’s name was written across the front in Joon’s handwriting. OfficeSupplies
Young-ho placed it in my hand.
From the kitchen doorway, Emily appeared with two cups of tea.
She looked at her father-in-law.
She looked at me.
She looked at the envelope.
I set the envelope on the table between us. OfficeSupplies
Emily put the cups down.
She didn’t sit.
She stood at the edge of the table and looked at her name written across the front in her husband’s handwriting.
“Where did that come from?” she said.
“Young-ho gave it to me,” I said.
“Emily, I need you to sit down.”
“Tell me what’s in it first.”
“Sit down, sweetheart.
Please.”
She sat.
Her coat was still on.
She hadn’t even taken it off since she’d walked through the door.
I told her everything.
I told her what I’d heard in Korean while I stood in the doorway with the appetizers. ForeignLanguage Study
I told her about the debt, the failed business, the people Joon had borrowed from.
I told her what Young-ho had just explained to me about the documents.
I told her she might have signed a financial guarantee without knowing it.
She didn’t speak.
She sat completely still, the way people do when they are trying very hard to keep themselves together.
When I finished, she reached across the table and opened the envelope herself.
There were six pages inside.
She read them slowly.
I watched her eyes move across the lines.
I watched her face.
She got to the third page and stopped.
“This is my signature,” she said.
“Yes.”
“He told me these were residency forms.” Her voice was flat.
“He sat next to me at the kitchen table and he told me to sign here, and here, and here. Kitchen& Dining
He said it was just paperwork.” She set the page down.
“I believed him.”
Young-ho, who had been standing near the window, said quietly, “Emily.
I am sorry.
I should have come to you sooner.”
She looked at him.
“Did you know when he married me?”
A pause.
“I suspected.”
“Did you know for certain?”
Another pause.
Longer.
“Yes.
By the end of the first year.
Yes.”
Emily nodded slowly.
