CHAPTER 6 – THE WOMAN WHO NEVER STOPPED LOVING HIM
CHAPTER 6 – THE WOMAN WHO NEVER STOPPED LOVING HIM
The attack ended after forty-three minutes.
Eight of Dae's guards were wounded.
Two had died protecting the estate.
Every surviving attacker had either escaped or taken their own life before interrogation.
Too clean.
Too organized.
Someone powerful had erased every trail.
Hours later...
The twins sat inside the medical wing coloring with crayons a nurse had found in storage.
Children recovered in remarkable ways.
Hana was drawing flowers.
Haru was drawing...
Dae.
Or at least a tall stick figure wearing an enormous black suit.
She proudly held up the picture.
"Look!"
Dae accepted it carefully.
"Is this me?"
She nodded enthusiastically.
"You forgot your smile."
"I don't smile very much."
She frowned.
"Then I'll teach you."
The room laughed softly.
Even Dae.
It lasted only a second.
But Amara noticed.
She had missed that sound.
Later that evening...
The twins finally fell asleep.
For the first time all day...
Dae and Amara were alone.
The ocean crashed against the cliffs outside.
Neither spoke for several minutes.
Finally...
Dae broke the silence.
"You kept my sweatshirt."
Amara looked up in surprise.
"You noticed."
"You were wearing it."
The oversized gray sweatshirt was hidden beneath her jacket.
The sleeves were faded.
The fabric was worn thin.
She smiled sadly.
"It still smells like cedar."
He remembered.
It had been his favorite.
She had stolen it the night they watched the rain from his penthouse balcony.
"I thought if I forgot your voice..."
"...I could remember your scent."
His chest tightened.
"I never stopped looking."
"I know."
He looked at her sharply.
"You knew?"
"Once."
She reached into her bag.
Inside was a folded newspaper.
Yellow with age.
On the front page...
A grainy photo showed Dae standing outside a collapsed warehouse.
The headline read:
BUSINESS TYCOON OFFERS $50 MILLION REWARD FOR MISSING WOMAN.
Amara brushed the page gently.
"I found this almost three years ago."
"You knew I was searching."
"I cried all night."
"Then why didn't you come?"
She wiped away a tear.
"Because the next morning..."
She unfolded another piece of paper.
A photograph slid onto the table.
It showed Hana as a baby.
A rifle scope's red dot rested on the infant's forehead.
Written across the bottom were six words.
We never miss twice.
Dae stopped breathing.
The picture shook in his hands.
"They mailed this to me."
Amara whispered.
"No return address."
"No fingerprints."
"Just that."
"I knew they were watching."
"If I contacted you..."
"They would kill our daughters."
For the first time since she returned...
He understood the full weight of her loneliness.
She hadn't abandoned him.
She had sacrificed everything to keep their children alive.
Without thinking, he reached across the table.
She took his hand.
Neither noticed the security monitor mounted high on the wall.
In another room...
Joon was reviewing footage from the attack.
One frame caught his attention.
He zoomed in.
One of the retreating mercenaries had briefly removed his mask.
Joon's face lost all color.
"No..."
He enlarged the image again.
It wasn't one of Chairman Min's soldiers.
It was someone from Dae's own organization.
Someone who had worked beside him for nearly ten years.
Someone who had personally supervised the search for Amara after her disappearance.
Joon immediately grabbed the secure phone.
Before he could dial—
The lights across the entire estate went black.
Emergency generators failed.
Every monitor died.
Every lock disengaged.
In the darkness...
A calm male voice echoed through the compound speakers.
"Good evening, Mr. Han."
"You've spent three years looking in the wrong direction."
A pause.
Then the voice spoke the words that made Dae's blood run cold.
May you like
"The man who ordered Amara's disappearance..."
"...has been living under your roof all along."
