“Don’t tell me you were going to fix it.
Don’t tell me you were protecting me.
You used me. Dictionaries& Encyclopedias
You used my job and my name and my trust.” Her voice didn’t waver.
“And I want to know one more thing.”
“Emily—”
“Did you love me?” she said.
“At any point.
Did any of it mean anything to you, or was I just a solution to a problem you created?”
The room was completely silent.
Joon looked at his hands.
He looked at his father. Parenting
He looked at Emily.
And then he said the worst possible thing.
“It started that way,” he said quietly.
“But then it changed.
I do love you.
I do.
I just — I didn’t know how to get out of the situation I’d put us both in.”
Emily picked up the envelope from the coffee table.
“Get out,” she said.
“Tonight.
Take what you need for a few days.”
“Emily, please—”
“I need you out of this apartment,” she said.
“I need to think.
And I need a lawyer.”
She walked back to the kitchen. Kitchen& Dining
I heard the door close softly behind her.
I looked at Joon.
He was still sitting on the couch, staring at the space where Emily had been standing.
Young-ho crossed the room and put his hand on his son’s shoulder.
“You need to go,” he said quietly.
In Korean.
“You’ve done enough.”
Emily didn’t sleep.
I knew because I didn’t sleep either.
I lay in the guest room and listened to the apartment — the small sounds of her moving through the kitchen at two in the morning, the tap running, the kettle clicking on. Kitchen& Dining
At half past two I got up and went to find her.
She was sitting at the kitchen table with both hands wrapped around a mug.
The documents were spread out in front of her.
She’d been reading them again.
I sat down across from her without saying anything.
“I keep looking for the part where I should have known,” she said.
“There isn’t one,” I said.
“He was so careful, Mum.
He never raised his voice.
He never made me feel small. VisualArt & Design
He was kind.” She shook her head.
“That’s what I can’t get past.
He was genuinely kind to me.”
“He may have been,” I said.
“And it still doesn’t make what he did acceptable.”
She looked at the documents.
“What if I’m liable?
What if they come after me for the full amount?”
“That’s why we need a lawyer.
First thing tomorrow.”
“It’s already tomorrow,” she said.
