"Why did you show up here? Who are you to stop me? Why can't you just let me go since I have no place in your life and…" I was angry, I was hurt, and I was tired of keeping my emotions hidden. Everything that I had suffered since I left my father=in=law's yangban finally seemed to hit me all at once like bricks falling onto my head and suddenly I couldn't stop shouting about everything my husband had put me through, only for him to abandon me just as he wanted what he wished for all along and when I needed him the most. But he still hardly looked at me, even though he personally came over to the carriage that I was in and blocked my path. He simply overtook the driver and drove us back to his home where he picked me up in his arms and took me back to my bed where I had been waiting for him all along. "Please say something to me, look at me even!" "Something will happen." That was all that he could say as he undressed me and tucked me into bed himself. "What will happen?" "Something will happen…that will be quite humiliating to you and something that you will resent me for, for a very long time. But if it is twins that we are binging into this world, then we need to get The Emperor's acceptance, and the rest will not matter. Once the news of the twins spread, everyone will d everything and anything for you to terminate your pregnancy, even if it means they will take matters into their own hands. You have already been through so much wife and I am sorry for that, but you will need to face one last humiliation for the sale of letting Seo Geom's grandchildren live and roam freely in peace, just like I never got to, and I do not need to remind you what that was like, do I? Unless you want our children spectated or worse, growing up to be twisted versions of us? If you can survive brothels, then you can do this for…" "You planning all of this…does that mean that you already accept them? Your children? Husband?" "Wife I…will do anything to get you the hell out of here and carry out your pregnancy in peace, and I do mean anything. So no matter what happens, you cannot questions me about it and we will never bring it up again. If you this for me, for us…then I will also never bring up your brothel situation again…" "Even if you were the one who transported me there yourself? Husband?" "I…am not worthy enough to be your husband; I never have been and I never will be, not in this lifetime anyway. But what can I do? I just cannot seem to let go of you no matter what, even if it will cost me everything that I have worked hard for my entree life?" "Are you saying…do you mean…" I could hardly believe my own ears even as he made his way towards me and held me in bed so that I could catch up on my sleep.
"I promise you that it will not be easy but…I am tied, wife. I am tired of chasing a dream that the palace and this kingdom is not ready for and the palace is wearing me out, especially since my downfall. I am sorry that I groomed you the way that I did even though I do not regret a single interaction of ours and I promise you that as soon as I destroy my family clan and I get our revenge on the Prince, that I will retire and I will take you to your father's village where we will raise our family in peace and we can both put our intellect to much better use." "Do you promise me husband? Do you really mean it this time?" "You can kill me yourself if I go back on my words." "But our children's education…what do you aspire for them to be then?" "You leave that to me, you just do your part and I will take care of us all for as long as you need me to." "I cannot kill you no matter how frustrated I am with you." "And why is that?" "We have both been through so much together that I simply do not know how to function without you; I was so lost without you in the brothels that I simply just show down and I was so angry without you, that is truly why I was determined to stay there instead of coming home earlier." "What do you mean?" "We finally had a chance to be together before you were taken away from me in the war and myself in the brothels that I was is filled with anger and I did not want to taint you with that at all. I never wanted you to see that side to me, specially with how much you were the target of your father's anger your entire life and I was jus filled with so much of it right there and then and…husband? Are you listening to me?" "You…are the only one who has ever tried to save me from anger, to shield me from anything at all. And even in your anger, you managed to accomplish things that I never could have, you didn't fail me at all. Everyone…has always failed me in life, apart from you, even when you made me chase you halfway across the kingdom. My parents abandoned and traumatised me, and so did your brother at one point in time, although I cannot truly blame him for that at all. I have tried to build an empire around myself so that nobody can hurt me again and guess what happened? I was bought o my downfall when I was parted from you, so I have tired to never make that mistake again but…" "But what husband? What are you saying? No, I cannot be away from you anymore, I refuse!" "Wife, I chose you for the qualities you have that you can pass down to my children, but I also need you to protect them with everything that you have in you…even against myself sometimes." "You are asking me to choose between my husband and my children?"
"I know that I made you a mother before you were ready to be one, but it was still a wish of yours that you have always wanted, even I forced it upon you. And the truth is that I haven't completely recovered from my addiction; I am no longer the man that you are waiting to return to you and I may never be that man again. But I am the same man that you can always rely on, even if it looks like I am turning on you instead. And you need to raise our children to expect the worse from me, even though that is the furthest person that I will be to them. And once I reclaim the embroidery shops, I am putting all of them under your name so you will receive the shares." "Husband you are scaring me now, please tell me what is going on?" "If I tell you, you will never agree to it, you just do what I say and I will hold onto you as much as I possibly can." "Do not leave me husband, not now." "I shall hold you when until you fall asleep and I will find you when I can, do not forget this. If you dare to forget me, then I shall make you pay dearly for that." "And how will you do that?" "Those babies of yours that you carry in your womb, they are technically my property under Confucius Laws, and I can take them away from you whenever I wish to." "You wouldn't dare!" "Wife, I have crossed all sorts of boundaries in my life just to have you, what makes you think that I have any sort of limits set upon myself? Hush now and go to sleep, my babies need all of the rest that they can get." "You only care about your babies and not me anymore, I fear that you will be the one to forget me first." "I have clearly spoilt you far too much wife…" "As you should after everything I have done for you…" I fell asleep with him so wrapped up around me that he couldn't possibly leave even if he wanted to. I wanted to sleep in his arms where I could take in his smell with every breath I took and I took every single opportunity I could do get into his neck, which was his weak spot…one of them anyways. I dug my fingers into the arms as if to mark him somehow as mind and I led his hands to rest on my swollen belly as if to remind him what we were fighting to protect. And it was the first time that he was informing me of his bigger plans beforehand instead of just throwing me into it blindsided, and for that I was willing to do anything as long as it guaranteed that I had him by my side.
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I watched her wrap herself around me so that I couldn't leave even if I wanted to; I smelt horribly since hadn't bathed in a few days and she still refused to let go of me. She was finally letting her guard down around me more since I had gotten her pregnant and showed her our legal marriage certificate and I was happy about it. But we were going to go through some rough times right now and I did not now haw to proceed without ensuring that she wouldn't resent me for this at all.
"…what are you talking about? The Senior Scholar's wife was the one who came here to accuse The Madame Nam of pairing her maid with theirs, but now we are finding out that it is The Lord Nam's female cousin who was having an affair with The Prince?" "I just saw them do the act in the temple that madame goes to of all places!" "We should tell someone!" "And prematurely alarm the enemy of this household? A Prince in involved for goodness sake, they can surely dissuade everyone of their crimes!" "That is right; the female cousin is the worst sort of mistress to serve and now that we have their weakness, we should hold their neck tightly and not let go!" "Seeing is better than hearing, we must take this issue up to our master so that he can get justice for us!" "Since they have tasted sweetness, they are sure to do it again and I checked myself! They dared to bring a huge mattress into that room and they were in there alone for an hour! And I only recognised her due to her hair accessories, other than that she wore her own maid's clothing! Anyone from these households could have recognised her as well as I did at first glance!"
Finally, anther part of my plan was about to come to fruition, and it was just as I had expected when I instructed my servants that it was good for my wife to take her daily walking exercise not just around our own courtyard, but a public temple for prosperity as well and where there were plenty of witnesses. Of course I grew to knew about my cousins' stubborn and headstrong natures, which is why I put them to good use of my own. Just because I was willing to give up my place in the place for a little while, it didn't mean that I was going to let my Nam Clan's extraordinary talent s of being self=destructive go to waste. By the time my children were old enough, my cousins should have brought down most of The Royal Family with their actions, specially the ones who were closest to The Third Prince so that I could lure him out to face me and can get my revenge and that of The Seo Family, no. matter how long it took. "Servant! Bring those servants who are gossiping outside to me and tell them to expect handsome rewards from me if they tell me about every single piece of gossip that they know about my female cousin, and spread it around to others." "Yes, My Lord Nam." You see what I am doing father? This is how you get results; not by using ones friends and spiritual families, but using the bloodies that weighted us down too much, but it was a good thing that you died miserably before finding that out.