Chapter 5 - The Woman Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
Min-jae did not move.
The woman did.
She stepped into the chapel light.
Older now.
Gray threaded through black hair.
A thin scar crossed her neck.
But Min-jae knew her face.
“Seo-yeon.”
Han Tae-sung whispered the name like a curse.
Grace looked from Min-jae to the woman.
“No.”
Min-jae’s voice cracked.
“Mother?”
Seo-yeon’s eyes filled.
“My son.”
His gun lowered.
For the first time since Grace had met him, Kang Min-jae looked completely defenseless.
He took one step.
Then stopped.
Twenty-seven years stood between them.
“You died.”
“I had to.”
“You died.”
“I know what you were told.”
“I buried you.”
“No.”
Min-jae’s eyes sharpened.
“What?”
“The coffin was empty.”
Han Tae-sung laughed.
“You always were dramatic.”
Seo-yeon turned toward him.
“And you were always cruel.”
Grace moved beside Min-jae.
He barely seemed to notice.
Seo-yeon looked at her.
Recognition softened her face.
“Grace.”
Grace swallowed.
“You remember me?”
“You slept holding my hand for nine nights.”
Grace’s eyes filled.
“You saved me.”
Seo-yeon nodded.
“And your father saved me.”
“Michael?”
“Yes.”
Han’s expression darkened.
“Enough.”
Min-jae raised the gun again.
“No. Not enough.”
He stared at his mother.
“Where have you been?”
“In hiding.”
“For twenty-seven years?”
“Yes.”
“You could have contacted me.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because he would have found you.”
Min-jae laughed bitterly.
“He found me anyway.”
“And you survived.”
“Without you.”
Seo-yeon flinched.
Grace took Min-jae’s hand.
He looked down.
She almost released it.
He tightened his fingers around hers.
Han noticed.
His expression became pleased.
“There it is.”
Min-jae’s gaze sharpened.
“What?”
“Your weakness.”
Grace rolled her eyes.
“For the record, I’m getting tired of being called that.”
Han looked at her.
“You think this is amusing?”
“No. I think you’re very old and weirdly obsessed with controlling everyone.”
Jun-ho coughed.
Min-jae stared at Grace.
Han looked offended.
Grace shrugged.
“What? He is.”
Something almost like pride crossed Min-jae’s face.
Han lifted one hand.
Armed men appeared on the balcony.
Jun-ho’s men responded.
Guns everywhere.
Grace exhaled.
“Great. Very healthy family meeting.”
Seo-yeon said, “Tae-sung, stop.”
“Give me the notebook.”
Grace held it tighter.
“What’s inside?”
Han’s gaze fixed on it.
“Nothing that concerns you.”
“Then you probably don’t need it.”
“Grace,” Min-jae murmured.
“What?”
“That was not helpful.”
“I know.”
Seo-yeon looked at Eleanor.
“You kept it.”
“I kept my promise.”
“What promise?” Grace asked.
Eleanor pointed toward the notebook.
“Michael didn’t just record witnesses.”
“He recorded children.”
Grace frowned.
“What children?”
Seo-yeon answered.
“Children whose parents disappeared because of Tae-sung.”
The chapel went silent.
Han’s expression hardened.
Grace looked at the notebook.
“Disappear how?”
Nobody answered.
She understood.
“Oh.”
Seo-yeon continued.
“Some were hidden. Some were moved. Some received new names.”
Grace looked toward the photograph.
“The girl in the window.”
Han’s daughter.
“Yes,” Seo-yeon said.
“What happened to her?”
“She was removed from Korea.”
“By Michael?”
“And me.”
Han stepped forward.
“You stole her.”
“We saved her.”
“She was mine.”
“She was nine.”
“She was my blood.”
“She was terrified of you.”
Han’s composure finally cracked.
Grace saw it.
Not grief.
Possession.
“You never found her?” Grace asked.
Han looked at the notebook.
“Her location is inside.”
Grace opened it.
Min-jae caught her wrist.
“Don’t.”
Han shouted, “Give it to me.”
Grace smiled.
“Oh, now I definitely want to read it.”
She flipped through pages.
Names.
Dates.
Aliases.
Locations crossed out.
Many marked SAFE.
Some marked DECEASED.
One section had been removed.
Pages cut cleanly from the binding.
Grace held up the notebook.
“Oops.”
Han’s face changed.
“The pages.”
“Gone.”
He turned toward Eleanor.
“Where?”
Eleanor smiled for the first time that night.
“Michael never trusted paper.”
Han raised his gun.
Min-jae moved instantly.
Grace heard three shots.
She ducked.
Jun-ho pulled her behind a pew.
People shouted.
A stained-glass window shattered.
Grace crawled toward Eleanor.
“Mom!”
“I’m okay.”
Min-jae fired toward the balcony.
Seo-yeon disappeared behind a pillar.
Han’s men retreated.
Then the chapel filled with sirens.
Real ones.
NYPD.
Han froze.
Grace looked at Min-jae.
“You called police?”
“No.”
Jun-ho said, “I did.”
Min-jae stared at him.
Jun-ho shrugged.
“Chef Miller has influenced me.”
Grace grinned despite herself.
Han fled through the sacristy.
Min-jae started after him.
Grace caught his coat.
“Don’t.”
“He’ll escape.”
“You’ll get shot.”
His eyes met hers.
“I cannot let him disappear.”
“Then don’t chase him alone.”
Min-jae hesitated.
Police flooded the chapel.
Han escaped anyway.
But they captured six of his men.
And the notebook.
At 5:42 a.m., Grace sat in Haneul’s kitchen drinking coffee that Min-jae had made.
She took one sip.
“This is awful.”
He looked offended.
“You drank it.”
“Because I nearly died and I don’t have standards at sunrise.”
Seo-yeon sat across from them.
Min-jae had barely spoken to her.
Grace understood.
Some wounds could not be closed in one morning.
Eleanor slept upstairs.
Jun-ho coordinated with detectives.
Grace looked at Min-jae.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Same.”
He stared at his coffee.
“My mother is alive.”
“I noticed.”
“I spent twenty-seven years hating a dead woman.”
“She wasn’t dead.”
“That makes it worse.”
Grace reached across the table.
This time, she took his hand intentionally.
He looked at their fingers.
“I’m sorry.”
He said nothing.
“But she came back.”
“Because Han found you.”
“Still counts.”
Min-jae looked up.
Grace smiled softly.
“Take the win.”
His thumb moved once across her knuckles.
Tiny.
Careful.
Her heartbeat changed.
She noticed.
So did he.
Then Grace remembered.
“The date.”
Min-jae’s eyes darkened instantly.
She laughed.
“Oh my God. Seriously?”
“I am not jealous.”
“Daniel was literally sent to manipulate you.”
“That is irrelevant.”
“You were jealous before we knew that.”
“No.”
“You stopped breathing.”
“I was surprised.”
“Your bodyguards thought you were having a stroke.”
“They did not.”
Jun-ho entered.
“We did.”
Min-jae looked at him.
Jun-ho immediately returned to his phone.
Grace laughed.
It felt good.
For six seconds, everything felt almost normal.
Then Jun-ho’s smile disappeared.
“What?”
He held up his phone.
“We found Joon-seok.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
Grace exhaled.
“Where?”
“Brooklyn.”
“Seung-won?”
“No.”
Min-jae stood.
Jun-ho continued.
“But Joon-seok says Han never had him.”
Grace frowned.
“What?”
“He escaped the security room by himself.”
“Why?”
“Because he discovered who hired him.”
Min-jae’s expression hardened.
“Who?”
Jun-ho looked toward Seo-yeon.
Then at Grace.
“Not Han.”
Grace stood slowly.
“Then who?”
Jun-ho turned his phone around.
A security image appeared.
Daniel—Joon-seok—meeting someone in a parking garage.
An older American man.
Silver hair.
Grace recognized him from the internet photo.
David Mercer.
But he wasn’t alone.
A second person stood beside him.
Grace leaned closer.
Her stomach dropped.
“No.”
Min-jae took the phone.
The timestamp was from three weeks earlier.
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The second person was Eleanor Miller.
Grace’s mother.
