The gentle breeze whispered across the rooftop, early afternoon—carrying the faint scents of the city below. Calm, as much as calm could manage at least.
Amirah leaned against the railing, her gaze fixed on the stream of cars gliding along the streets far beneath her perch. The rhythmic flow of traffic held an almost hypnotic quality, lulling her into a pensive reverie.
From her vantage point, she could make out the life of Singapore unfolding before her – a never-ending dance of motion and potential threaded from a million disparate series points. Nurses and orderlies scurried across the hospital's rear entrance, figures blurring like dervishes amidst the run of activity.
Somewhere in the distance, the song of construction echoed from yet another ambitious high-rise project etching its dominance into the city's skyline.
A familiar pair of footsteps approached from behind, and Amirah tilted her head slightly in silent acknowledgment as Seul-hee joined her at the railing.
For several heartbeats, the two women simply stood in companionable silence, united in quiet observation of the vibrant metropolis sprawling outwards in every direction.
Finally, Seul-hee cleared her throat, "You know..." she began, her fingers toying idly with a stray lock of hair that had escaped her normally immaculate coif. "When you asked me why I was doing all of this for you...helping you establish this new life..."
Amirah nodded slowly, a as she continued looking around. Seul-hee exhaled deeply, using the moment to gather her hair into a loose bun at the nape of her neck.
With deft motions, she extracted a small cloth from her pocket and began polishing the lenses of her glasses, her gaze distant.
"Hyun-woo saved Cho-hee before," she said at last.
Amirah's brow arched quizzically.
A wry chuckle escaped Seul-hee's lips as she shook her head, her mouth curving into a rueful smile. "Yun," she clarified with a nod. "Yun Cho-hee. My little sister."
" Ah... right... I've gotten so use to... calling her Yun."
With a soft sigh and chuckle, Seul-hee replaced her glasses and turned to face Amirah fully, folding her arms across her chest as she tipped her head back to gaze skyward. "I don't know if you ever figured this out, but Soo-Jin was adopted by the Yoons to replace their first daughter."
"He actually had another daughter before Soo-Jin?" she asked incredulously.
Seul-hee inclined her head, her expression growing somber as she seemed to retreat inward – the memories playing vividly behind her eyes. "My mother used to work as a secretary for Mr. Yoon after my father passed away," she began.
As she spoke, Seul-hee's fingers absently plucked a stray leaf from the railing's edge, methodically shredding it into smaller and smaller pieces that fluttered away on the breeze. "She got pregnant with his child, but it was...complicated. An affair, I suppose you could call it – though I doubt either of them viewed it through such a moralistic lens at the time."
She paused, squinting against the glare of the sun as she focused on the fluttering fragments dispersing into the air currents between them. "Eventually, my sister started showing signs of illness – that left her increasingly frail and debilitated."
Amirah frowned, leaning in closer as she followed the thread of Seul-hee's narrative – observing the minute shifts in her mentor's body language, the way her shoulders tensed ever so slightly as she waded deeper into the recollection's turbulent undercurrents.
"Mr. Yoon tried his best to care for her at first," Seul-hee continued, her tone hardening into embittered edges that sliced through the tranquil atmosphere. "He pushed her to be stronger, to transcend her limitations in the name of becoming an heir."
أنت تقرأ
Vengeful Desires
العاطفيةA devoted wife is arrested and disowned by her in-laws after her young son's tragic death, serving years in prison for his death.
