chapter 12

“What? That can’t be right. Daeryong Group?”

“It’s probably not a mistake. The address and family ties match. You said he never told you about his family?”

Kang So-young nodded at that. Well — of course he would have never talked about family if he’d clearly intended to treat her as nothing more than a one-night stand.

“We met when I was working part-time at a convenience store.”

“So you were the clerk and he was a customer.”

Obviously. He liked her, used her, and when she got pregnant he told her to get rid of it and ran away.

‘That bastard — even at the end he leaves such a mess.’

But now that the father in question turned out to be Yoo Min-taek, Noh Hyung-jin couldn’t help but be taken aback.

“So then you’re not getting child support?”

Kang So-young’s face clouded. True, even if she got some money from Lee Gyu-seong, that was only enough to help rent a room. For immediate needs—diapers, formula—child support was desperately needed.

“Sigh…well, we could get it.”

“Then ask for it.”

“It’s not that simple.”

“Not simple?”

“Guhng… this is about inheritance. Simply put, Yoo Min-taek had three sons. Well — he did. One of them died young in an accident. The remaining two—one of those two is the father of this child.”

“And?”

“That doesn’t automatically stop child support… The bigger problem is that when a father dies, inheritance rights go to his sons — that is, Yoo Min-taek’s grandsons. The eldest son couldn’t marry and died, the youngest son married but only had two daughters, and the second son died before getting married, at least officially.”

“Officially?”

“Yoo Sang-min. He’s Young-min’s father. Officially he never married, but genetically he’s the father…”

Noh Hyung-jin watched Young-min with a worried look.

“So he’ll still give child support, right? Even if the grandfather is rich, would he refuse? What if they don’t give it?”

Seeing Kang So-young focus only on child support, Noh Hyung-jin felt exasperated. Of course she wouldn’t know the ruthless legal world; she was just thinking of raising her son well.

‘Of all people…’

In the original timeline, she probably didn’t receive child support. If she had, she would remember it — because the only son who remained eventually inherited the company after Yoo Min-taek’s death, and due to greed and incompetence he ran the company into the ground within ten years. Ten years later Daeryong Group vanished with the label of bankruptcy.

“The problem is Daeryong Group — or rather Yoo Min-taek’s assets. You might think getting, say, a million won a month would be fine.”

“That honestly would cover Young-min’s diapers and formula. I can earn the rest.”

She was a confident mother, but her grasp on reality was a bit weak. That’s probably why men could take advantage of her easily.

“Let me be blunt: Yoo Min-taek’s official assets are 1.2 trillion won. The unofficial assets—no one knows.”

“What?”

“The problem is that of the three children, one died, and of the remaining two, one also died.”

“So?”

“If three people were to split 1.2 trillion, each would get about 400 billion won. But since one died, two would split it, making 600 billion won per person.”

“And?”

“The problem is that among those two, one died. That leaves one person set to inherit the entire 1.2 trillion — and then suddenly the child of the deceased son shows up. Under current law, that child has inheritance rights of his father.”

“You mean…”

“This child is an heir to 600 billion won.”

Kang So-young stood speechless, mouth open. She didn’t even have six million won, yet she was supposedly an heir to 600 billion.

‘But that’s not the real problem.’

If it were only an inheritance matter, Noh Hyung-jin wouldn’t be this worried. The real issue involved Yoo Sang-ho, Yoo Min-taek’s youngest son.

‘At the time the evidence was insufficient, so nothing came of it.’

Isn’t it suspicious that two heirs of a huge conglomerate died in accidents? Both were car accidents. Both hit-and-runs, with no witnesses or culprits found.

‘Damn, this is getting messy.’

Naturally people became suspicious, and rumors said the prosecution investigated. But after Yoo Min-taek died and Yoo Sang-ho inherited the money, he used massive funds to lobby and everything fizzled out.

‘If the rumors are true…’

The reason prosecutors had to investigate was precisely because there were rumors that Yoo Sang-ho was directly involved in their deaths.

‘If that’s true…’

If a paternity suit revealed Young-min’s identity, Yoo Sang-ho wouldn’t let him be. In the original history the matter never surfaced, and Daeryong’s heir inherited and later destroyed the company, but if it had been exposed, Yoo Sang-ho would not simply accept it.

‘Come to think of it, there were even whispers that Yoo Min-taek himself might have been poisoned.’

Some speculated that a rare poison, hard to detect, was used. One odd clue: Yoo Min-taek was cremated immediately after death. For someone so wealthy, burial would normally be expected; choosing cremation was suspicious. He claimed it was to change burial culture in Korea as a noble act, but few believed it.

“You should know this: inheritance might not be the most important issue.”

“Hm? What then?”

Half-absent from the shock of hearing 600 billion won, Kang So-young asked again as if she’d missed Noh Hyung-jin’s point.

“What should I know?”

“Young-min is the only male descendant of Yoo Min-taek.”

“What do you mean?”

“The eldest has no children, the youngest has only two daughters. Considering the patriarchal reality and Yoo Min-taek’s conservative views, if genetic tests confirm it, Young-min — as the only male — would not simply be an heir, but the successor.”

“Su-successor?”

“Yes. Young-min would be the only male direct descendant of Daeryong Group. Moreover, Yoo Min-taek was known as the clan’s main line — the family name carrier. The family line was on the brink of extinction. Suddenly, a grandson appears who can carry the line.”

Korean society still valued male succession; families expected a man to carry the family. In that context, having a male descendant would make Yoo Min-taek likely to designate him as successor. Yoo Min-taek, deeply schooled in the idea of continuing the family line, had even publicly lamented the possibility of the line dying out.

‘Then… he’d probably leave more than 600 billion — maybe over a trillion.’

No matter how much he doted on his granddaughters as grandchildren, they were still daughters — not heirs to the family and company. One of the main reasons for the poisoning rumors was that Yoo Min-taek reportedly intended to hire a professional CEO to run the company, because his third son, Yoo Sang-ho, lacked ability.

‘And a week after that announcement he died.’

Circumstantial evidence was everywhere, but huge money and lobbying smothered the case. The scandal became notorious.

‘I tried to go after the rapist, but I stepped on a landmine I didn’t expect.’

She had intended to press charges, but a mine went off unexpectedly.

“What?”

Yoo Sang-ho’s eyebrows trembled as he read the report.

“A paternity confirmation lawsuit for Sang-min?”

“Yes. The suit was dismissed because the plaintiff was recorded as deceased.”

“But?”

“The claimant is a woman named Kang So-young.”

“Never heard of her.”

“She might have been one of Sang-min’s playthings when he was alive…”

“What the hell, if he was going to die, couldn’t he at least go peacefully?”

He had thought everything ended with Sang-min’s death, but an unexpected problem had surfaced. A paternity claim?

“Are you sure? Is she really his child? Maybe she’s just some woman who wants something.”

“I don’t know. But the request includes a DNA test, which suggests they’re pretty confident.”

“Jesus!”

That confidence implied a high chance the child was Sang-min’s. If so, all of Yoo Sang-ho’s prior machinations could be undone.

“Where is she?”

“She’s listed as living in a single-mother facility.”

“A single-mother facility?”

“According to a former secretary to Master Sang-min, about a year ago there was a woman who got pregnant. He told her to get rid of it and cut off contact that same day…”

“What an idiot!”

If it were him, he’d have made the pregnancy seem like an accident and removed the problem. But Sang-min had been reckless, continuing to gallivant even after such a thing happened.

“Find her.”

“And what then?”

“Find her and try to persuade her verbally first. If that fails… use force. Also — intercept any court documents that come under my father’s name. If he finds out, it’ll be trouble.”

If things escalated, he wouldn’t avoid the issue; he’d act.

“What an idiot he was.”

He could only curse his foolish brother who kept tying him up to the end.

“Stay here?”

“Yes.”

“Why? The single-mother facility provides what we need, doesn’t it?”

“That’s the problem.”

Even if she got some compensation, she wasn’t rich. She didn’t understand why she had to stay in an expensive motel.

‘I want to think “maybe,” but…’

Given a conglomerate’s information network, it wouldn’t be hard for them to learn a lawsuit had been filed and dismissed. And if the rumors about Yoo Sang-ho were true, they wouldn’t ignore it. He would never kindly accept a grandchild; he’d be ruthless.

‘If they want to save me, at least send me back to when I had a lawyer. What is this.’

Back then, she could play to the media. Put it in the papers and even Yoo Sang-ho wouldn’t dare touch them; they’d have to wait for a DNA test. But now she was just an unheard-of second-year middle-schooler and Kang So-young was a socially stigmatized single mother. If they went to the media shouting “We have Daeryong’s heir,” they’d be laughed at as crazy.

“I need to check a few things. Please stay here.”

In the end, Noh Hyung-jin had to handle it himself.

‘They’re quick.’

That evening people barged into the single-mother facility. Officially, they brought support — hundreds of thousands of won worth of goods — but unofficially, from Noh Hyung-jin’s sharp-eyed perspective, they were there to hunt someone.

‘Probably So-young.’

With Daeryong Group’s intelligence, getting a photo wouldn’t be hard. The question was who sent them: the chairman or Yoo Sang-ho.

‘Probably Yoo Sang-ho.’

Given Yoo Min-taek’s personality, he wouldn’t quietly come and peek; he’d proudly call them to the house and order official DNA tests. If tests proved the claim false, he would ruin them. He was the type to confront things head-on, not sneaky.

‘First we need to figure out who sent them.’

But there was no way to know. In the midst of it, Noh Hyung-jin’s eye caught a discarded cardboard box — the boxes used to carry those donated goods were being thrown outside.

‘An opportunity!’