Landing in Your Inbox

79 - inheritors

"Okay. Take care on the road."

Seri brought her phone down, saw her manager offering a bottle of cold coffee from the front seat. She thought of refusing but decided to just get the drink out of thanks to her manager. "You had to work on a holiday, Mr. Hong."

"It's no problem, Ms. Yoon." Her manager grinned sheepishly at the rearview mirror. "I don't have anything to do today."

"Were you not discussing camping with the team?" Seri asked doubtfully.

"Ah..." Her manager faltered. "I didn't...join them eventually."

"You didn't join or you rushed back to Seoul?" Seri quizzed.

"I uhm, it's really fine Ms. Yoon. I'm happier to do this."

Seri sighed. "You should rest once in a while."

Deep down, Seri was thankful to him. It would have been disastrous if she had to ride something sent by her mother. Or even the most comfortable alternative, riding on Kwang-beom's jeep. The whole thing was turning out to be a scandal of gigantic proportions and she didn't want Jeong-hyeok and his friends any closer. But first she had to know if her father was well.

The ride proceeded in silence, until Manager Hong broke it with some reservation. "Ms. Yoon...I didn't want to impose, but there was something that happened with Queens Group just before this all happened."

Seri's eyes looked up to the rear-view mirror. "Tell me."

***

March 1, 2021 5:26 PM
Queens Medical Center, Seoul

Even through nonstop rains, media personnel and journalists camped out at the main entrance of the hospital like vultures huddling in big umbrellas, desperate for a big scoop.

Seri was dropped off at a staff-only entrance. The heiress instructed her manager and the bodyguards to wait elsewhere and not follow her. She made her way inside alone with her sunglasses on, dressed in a brown trench coat, white funnel neck sweater and jeans, still the same outfit from her flight that seemed lightyears away. She took the private elevator going up to the VIP wards.

One of the last things Seri told her father before she left home for good was to look after his health, rather harsh considering her departure from the family estate was against the patriarch's wishes. But even as Seri cut herself out and washed herself off the responsibility to be involved with the family company, her father did not consider her exiled, insisting to call upon her on special occasions. Seri did not always show, which only served to offend the other family members. Who did she think she was? Saying no to the head of the family? The child born out of wedlock?

Yet she was never condemned by her father. She would always be allowed the seat at his left, the closest he would ever permit a human being that was not a server refilling his drink. It was obvious from Seri's scholarly accolades that she was primed for success. She would reiterate back then that besting her brothers was not the original plan. The youngest Yoon only yearned for acceptance, everything she did was to make them love her, be proud of her as a sister and daughter. Only her father saw this, and it would backfire on Seri's end. Because the more her father showed her favor, the more her brothers and mother ostracized her. Favor, the patriarch would display in terms of rewards: of garish gifts, of wish fulfillments, of shares—things that money can buy. But parental love? Well, there were other people he hired for that. He was first and foremost a businessman.

Seri would not want to lose him, no. Not especially now. It would be detrimental to the family and to the company. That's how she would see it at a surface level.