"YES! And the law?" the grandmother's voice rose, sharp as a blade. "Why not?! You are not my biological son either, Hyun-joo! Have you forgotten? Or did you choose to erase the memory of the papers my husband signed to make you his 'legal' heir? I am the first wife, the legal Matriarch of this house. It was I who allowed you to be born! I was the one who couldn't bore an heir and told your father to take another woman so the line could continue. I was the one who permitted you to be brought into this registry! Or did you think I have forgotten it all after living it for seventy years?"
The air in the room seemed to vanish. Even the lawyer stopped breathing. Hyun-joo's face went white as the foundational myth of his life was stripped bare.
"Now, wait just one moment," the lawyer interrupted, his voice sweating with anxiety. "Madam, let us not be hasty. Mr. Do, please, sit back."
"Sit back?!" Hyun-joo exploded, leaping to his feet. He began pacing the small space like a caged predator, his words spilling out in a frantic, nonsensical stream. "This is my house! My company! You're going to let this old woman babble about registries and first wives? She's senile! She's trying to steal my legacy for a bastard who doesn't even know how to tie his own shoes! I'll burn the records myself! I'll liquidate the entire estate before I let a 'Choi' sit in my chair!"
"Hyun-joo, enough!" the lawyer barked, standing up and grabbing Hyun-joo firmly by the arm. He practically forced the trembling man back down onto the sofa.
Se-na watched the exchange with a keen interest. It was clear that the lawyer wasn't acting like an employee. He was handling Hyun-joo with a physical informality that suggested they had been in the trenches together for years perhaps even childhood friends or brothers in all but name. He was the only one in the room who dared to put hands on the CEO, and the only one Hyun-joo didn't immediately strike back at.
"We are looking for a resolution, not a total dissolution of the family structure," the lawyer hissed, leaning into Hyun-joo's space. "If we go to court with these... revelations... the scandal alone would liquidate the company's stock value before the first hearing concludes. Do you want to be king of a pile of worthless paper?"
Hyun-joo tried to retaliate, his mouth opening to spew more venom, but the lawyer fixed him with a sharp, warning look a look shared between two men who knew each other's darkest secrets. Hyun-joo finally went silent, hitting the sofa cushion in impotent fury.
"Legally, if I use my power as the sole surviving signatory of the original family charter," she continued, ignoring them, "this will not be the Do estate, but the Choi estate. My maiden name. My husband bequeathed the land and the original holdings to me as a guarantee for the sacrifice I made by letting him bring another woman in. If I strike the Do name from the deeds, you become a tenant in your own house. And Ra-ik? He will be my successor. The first of the new Choi line."
"What Choi family?! What successor?!" Hyun-joo surged upward again, his voice cracking with desperation as he fought against the lawyer's grip. "That's a myth! A bedtime story my father told to keep you feeling important! You don't have the original charter, and you certainly don't have evidence of this 'signatory' power you're talking about. You're bluffing with empty air, old woman!"
The lawyer, acting more like a panicked friend than a legal counsel, reached up and yanked Hyun-joo back down by the jacket. "Hyun-joo, sit. Down."
He then turned to the grandmother, his eyes searching hers with a terrifying realization. "Madam... are you confident? Truly confident you can produce the physical proof of the original charter and the specific clause regarding the maiden estate? Because if that document exists and enters a courtroom, it won't just be a scandal. It will be an execution. But if you cannot... if you are overplaying this hand... don't say later that I didn't remind you of the horrendous consequences it will bring for both you and the boy."
The grandmother didn't say a word. She simply lowered her dark glasses an inch and looked at the lawyer. The stare was enought. It wasn't the look of someone hoping to win; it was the look of someone who had already won and was just waiting for these losers to realize it. The sheer weight of her silence affirmed the fact more than any shout could have.
"I am the one who kept the vault keys while your father played at being a businessman, counselor, I clearly remember him as my husband's close aides" she said. "Don't mistake my patience for a lack of ammunition. If you want to see the papers, we can see them in front of a judge tomorrow morning, along with the petition to freeze every operational account associated with the Do surname."
The lawyer swallowed hard, the color leaving his face. "Madam, please!" he cried, his hands up as if to stop a high-speed train. "Think of the legal chaos! We can draft a non-interference agreement. Mr. Hyun-joo will agree to cease all attempts at registry removal, and in exchange, you waive the Veto on the operational accounts? We don't need a judge to see this. We can settle this right here, privately. No Choi estate, no courtrooms, just a quiet family understanding."
Hyun joo tried to get up but lawyer had his hand on his shoulder and leaned in toward him, whispering frantically about the implications of this whole situation.
Old woman's grip on Ra-ik's hand tightened, her silence serving as a devastating answer to the lawyer's attempts at a truce. Se-na looked at the grandmother through Ra-ik's eyes, stunned. She had seen clinical sacrifice in the OR, but this was different. This was a woman who had sacrificed her own motherhood years ago and was now willing to burn down the dynasty she built to protect one boy. It was the first time Se-na felt the true weight of unconditional love; it wasn't a soft thing, it was a weapon.
As the silence stretched, and two men kept whispering, grandmother got up, "The Veto is in effect," she said. "Every cent you spend from the family discretionary fund from this moment forward will require my signature. Every business deal, every luxury car. If you want to fight, remember who holds the pen. And remember that the house you stand in is built on my ground."
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