By Zephyria He completely misunderstood why Yu-jin was shaken. But instead of correcting him, Yu-jin just gave a weak smile and said, “You’re right.”
Standing in the cold air and taking deep breaths, his mind gradually cleared.
Get a grip, you’re just hearing a name, how are you going to handle things if you fall apart like this?
Instead of slapping himself, he emptied the remaining water in one go. There’s only one reason I came back to this godforsaken place. To hear the contents of the will and get some money, even if it’s just a little. Just focus on that.
Winston Campbell has nothing to do with my life anymore.
Yu-jin took another deep breath before finally turning and walking back to the car.
“I’m sorry,” he apologized again for taking up time, and Brown smiled, telling him not to worry, and started the car. Angela looked up at Yu-jin, unable to hide her anxious expression. Yu-jin gave her a genuine smile this time.
“I’m really okay, Angie.”
There was no reason for him not to be okay. He had his daughter, whom he loved more than anyone in the world.
*
It was almost night when they arrived at the mansion. Looking up at the towering mansion against the backdrop of a dark sky filled with stars, Yu-jin’s heart was filled with a complex mix of emotions.
On the way, it was dinnertime, so Brown took them to a modest restaurant by the roadside. There, Yu-jin had grilled cod, and Angela had a cheeseburger from the kids’ menu, followed by strawberry ice cream. He wasn’t really hungry, but he had to eat when he had the chance. This was a lesson he had learned from harsh experience, but also because he thought it was important to build up energy in advance, not knowing what might happen in the future. In any case, it was obvious that the situation awaiting him would not be friendly.
While Yu-jin forced the cod down his throat, Brown devoured a large, well-cooked steak all by himself. And then they got back in the car and drove for several more hours before finally arriving at the mansion.
As Yu-jin stood there, holding his sleeping child in his arms, looking up at the mansion after getting out of the car, Brown, who had handed the car keys to an employee, approached him and said,
“Let’s go inside, I wonder if everyone is already asleep.”
Yu-jin silently followed him as he readily led the way up the steps to the front door. From what he had heard on the way, Brown had been scouted by McCoy’s law firm three years ago and had been in another city before that. So, of course, he wouldn’t know anything about when Yu-jin was kicked out of the Campbell family. McCoy, of course, and none of the family members would have said anything about it.
They probably erased me as if I never existed in the first place.
Yu-jin thought, but he wasn’t particularly hurt. He had erased them from his life as well. They could have left the past buried forever and gone their separate ways, but he was forced to relive the past. Because of the will left by Harold Campbell.
What on earth is written in it?
The fact that McCoy went out of his way to find Yu-jin and even said that he would be at a disadvantage if he didn’t attend the funeral meant that the contents would be beneficial to Yu-jin. And that would be a great help in his current desperate situation. At least, Yu-jin believed so. Otherwise, he would never have returned to this mansion.
Knowing full well how he would be treated.
“You’ve arrived, Mr. Brown.”
The butler, who had walked across the hall, greeted the lawyer first. He must have seen Yu-jin standing behind him, but he didn’t acknowledge him at all. Yu-jin stared blankly at the butler, who completely ignored him as if he were invisible, and greeted the lawyer. He probably wanted to turn around and leave if he could, as if he hadn’t seen anything. But of course, that was impossible. There was a third party between him and Yu-jin who knew nothing about the situation.
“Kane, this is Yu-jin, who I spoke to on the phone. Yu-jin, this is Kane, the Campbell family’s butler. He’s been working here for a long time, do you happen to know him?”
“Of course.”
After exchanging a few formulaic words, the lawyer introduced Yu-jin to the butler. Yu-jin answered before Kane could speak.
“Kane was the butler when I was here, too. Long time no see, Kane, still alive, I see.”
He added it like a joke and smiled brightly, but Brown was the only one who laughed. Of course. Because it was the truth. Kane stood there with the same expressionless face as ever. Yu-jin also became serious and looked back at him. Brown, who had been laughing without thinking, belatedly noticed the strange atmosphere and looked back and forth between the two with a flustered expression. Sensing the unusual situation, he quickly changed the subject.
“I’ll be going now. Kane, well… take care of him. Goodbye.”
Brown greeted Yu-jin and Kane in turn and quickly turned and left the mansion. Yu-jin fixed his gaze on Kane, thinking that he was quick-witted, as expected of a lawyer.
He hadn’t changed much since the last time he saw him. At that time, he was loyal to Harold, the owner of the Campbell family. It was obvious to whom this man was pouring out his loyalty now that Harold was gone, without even asking. Therefore, it was perhaps natural that he treated Yu-jin coldly. Kane was just following his master’s wishes.
“Where is my room? I want to put my child down.”
Yu-jin looked straight at him and asked. I’m just here according to the will. Don’t worry, I’ll be gone soon. Yu-jin sneered inwardly.
The butler glanced at the little girl sleeping soundly in his arms and then turned his gaze back to Yu-jin.
“This way, please.”
The butler didn’t say anything more, turned around, and started walking. Yu-jin also silently followed the butler, holding the child. His arms, holding his daughter, were numb, but the warmth and weight of the sleeping child gave him endless courage and strength.
There were only the two of them in the world. Before, and in the future.
The butler opened a side door at the end of the hallway and began to climb a spiral staircase. Yu-jin felt extremely tired as he continued to turn and turn on the stairs, not knowing how many floors he was climbing, but he silently followed. In the past, it was difficult for him to even get close to the mansion, let alone inside. So, all he could ever see was the splendid and massive exterior and the fragmented interior that he could glimpse through the occasionally opened doors or windows.
Nothing much has changed, though.
He was surprised that he was walking inside such a mansion, but at the same time, he felt that it was still the same. There was a wide and comfortable staircase in the center of the mansion. There was also an elevator on one side, but the staircase that the butler was taking him up was narrow and steep, with no windows in sight, as if it had been deliberately hidden.
It must be a passage used by the servants.
He knew well enough that they had no intention of treating him as a guest. In the past, he would have cried from misery, but not now. All that was on his mind was a cynical thought that ‘these people are still the same’ and the desire to rest with his child as soon as possible.
Finally, the butler barely opened the door, and a sigh of relief came out involuntarily. As he followed the butler into the room with the child in his arms, the surroundings were as silent as death. All he could hear were the footsteps of the butler and Yu-jin. Just when it felt like they had been walking endlessly down a wide and long hallway, Kane finally stopped in front of a room. Just as Yu-jin was about to sigh out loud, he quickly came to his senses, and the butler took out a bunch of keys from his pocket, inserted one of them into the hole, turned it, and twisted the doorknob to open the door. Yu-jin hurriedly carried the child into the room.The interior was different from what he had expected. Unlike the antique-style room befitting a mansion built over 100 years ago, it was a cramped space as if hastily made, with only one piece of furniture. The bed, pushed tightly against one wall, was a single size at best. The meaning was clear.
Despite the obvious contempt directed at them, Yu-jin remained calm. Trying to torment them in such a childish way was futile. After all, Angela and he had always fallen asleep embracing each other tightly in a narrow bed.