Chapter 3 - Shadows in the Boardroom
While the east wing of the Kang estate was suddenly reawakened by the presence of a child, the west wing hummed with cold, calculated fury.
Serena Yoon stood by the floor-to-ceiling windows of the master guest suite, looking out over the private lake that bordered the estate grounds. Her manicured fingernails tapped a rhythmic, impatient tattoo against the glass.
Her phone buzzed against the marble table. She snatched it up instantly.
“Talk,” Serena commanded.
“Miss Yoon,” a smooth, sycophantic voice answered from the other end. It was Director Park, the elderly, traditionalist head of the Yoon family’s legal and financial division in Seoul. “We received the reports regarding your arrival in Chicago. Is the alliance secured? Has Daniel Kang finalized the engagement terms?”
Serena’s jaw tightened. “The engagement is announced, Director Park. But Daniel is... distracted.”
“Distracted by what? A North Side dock dispute? The municipal zoning vote?”
“By a maid,” Serena spat, the venom in her voice leaking out despite her best efforts to sound composed. “And a brat. A four-year-old peasant child who somehow appeared in the private corridor this morning.”
A sharp intake of breath hissed through the phone speaker. “A child? In the Kang estate? Does Daniel recognize her?”
“He looked at her,” Serena said, her eyes narrowing as she recalled the split second in the hallway when Daniel’s face had shifted. “He looked at her the way a general looks at a lost battalion. For three years, I have played the part of the perfect, untouchable fiancée. I endured his silences, his midnight meetings, his coldness, because becoming Mrs. Daniel Kang means controlling half the shipping lanes between Seattle and Busan. I will not let some nameless domestic worker and her bastard child upend my future.”
“Control yourself, Serena,” Director Park warned, his voice hardening. “Daniel Kang is not a man you manipulate openly. If he has an heir—even an unrecognized one—it complicates the succession trust we drafted. Find out who the mother is. Investigate her background. If she has skeletons, expose them. If she has family, pressure them. But do it quietly. The wedding is in two months. We cannot afford a scandal that reaches the Seoul headlines.”
The line went dead.
May you like
Serena lowered the phone slowly, her reflection in the dark glass staring back at her with unblinking hostility. She walked over to her twelve pieces of Louis Vuitton luggage, popped open the brass latches of the largest case, and pulled out a sleek, encrypted laptop.
If Daniel wanted to play domestic protector, she would remind him of what happened to people who brought weakness into the House of Kang.
