Chapter 4: Headlines and Heartbeat
1142 Words
Ariella woke up to chaos.
The sound of heels pounding down the marble hallway echoed through the east wing. Doors slammed. Voices rose. Phones buzzed.
She sat up in bed, rubbing her eyes. Her door burst open before she could stand.
“What did you do?” Hyejin barked, brandishing her phone like a weapon.
“What are you talking about?”
“This!” Hyejin shoved the screen in Ariella’s face.
A news article. Blazing headline. Red font.
> Billionaire Han Min-jae’s Illegitimate Daughter Exposed: Secret Heiress Arrives in Seoul.
Below it, two pictures: One of Ariella at the airport, eyes down, and another of her sitting next to Jae Min on the rooftop, laughing.
Ariella’s stomach twisted. “Where did they get those pictures?”
“From every gossip outlet in Korea!” Hyejin hissed. “You're viral. You're ruining everything.”
Ariella shook her head. “I didn’t leak this.”
“Then who did?” Hyejin demanded.
She had no answer.
Behind them, Soojin appeared, already dressed in a pale gray suit, hair pulled tight.
“Get dressed. Now. Your father’s calling an emergency meeting.”
Ariella didn’t argue.
Because deep down… a part of her wondered if someone wanted this leak to happen.
---
The Han boardroom was cold and unforgiving—glass walls, high ceilings, a long black table surrounded by people who looked like they hadn’t smiled since the stock market crash of 2008.
Ariella sat at one end, awkward in her crisp blouse, facing executives, lawyers, and her father.
“This leak,” Min-jae began, “puts the company and our family at risk.”
He didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t have to.
His tone was lethal enough.
One of the executives cleared his throat. “The market opened with a dip. Investors are panicking over scandal rumors.”
“She’s not a scandal,” Min-jae said, eyes fixed on Ariella. “She’s my daughter.”
That should have comforted her.
It didn’t.
Soojin folded her arms. “Then control your daughter before she drags our name into the dirt.”
“I didn’t leak anything!” Ariella snapped.
“Photos of you and Jae Min are circulating like wildfire,” Soojin continued. “Do you know what the press is calling it? ‘The secret daughter and the successor’s son.’ You’re creating a headline romance.”
Ariella flushed. “There’s nothing going on between us.”
Min-jae cut in. “The damage is done. From now on, you’ll have a media handler, a stylist, and a monitored phone.”
“A babysitter, you mean.”
“If you want to be part of this family,” he said coolly, “you’ll act like it.”
Ariella bit the inside of her cheek hard enough to taste blood.
She didn’t belong in this world.
But they were going to make her play their game anyway.
---
After the meeting, Ariella walked through the Han garden alone. The sky was gray, wind catching the hem of her skirt. She didn’t know where she was going only that she needed to breathe.
“Rough day, princess?”
She turned. Jae Min stood under a cherry blossom tree, blazer draped over one shoulder, tie loose as always.
“You saw it, didn’t you?” she asked. “The article.”
“I did.”
She studied him. “Did you leak it?”
He looked genuinely offended. “You think I’d blow up my own life just for attention?”
“I don’t know what you’d do.”
Jae Min took a step closer. “If I wanted you ruined, I wouldn’t do it through the press. I’d do it quietly. Thoroughly. And you wouldn’t see it coming.”
Ariella blinked. “Wow. That’s… terrifying.”
He smirked. “That’s honesty.”
They stood in silence.
Then he said, more gently, “You okay?”
“No,” she whispered. “Not really.”
Jae Min sighed, pulling something from his blazer. A chocolate bar.
“What is this?”
“A peace offering,” he said, handing it to her. “You looked like you needed it.”
She took it. “You always carry chocolate?”
“You never know when a PR disaster will strike.”
Ariella laughed, a soft, unexpected sound.
Then her phone buzzed.
Unknown Number.
She hesitated. Answered.
“Hello?”
A raspy voice came through the line.
“You don’t know me,” the woman said. “But I knew your mother. And I know why she left.”
Ariella froze. “Who are you?”
“Someone who saw too much. If you want the truth about your father meet me tonight. Alone.”
The call cut off.
Jae Min raised a brow. “You okay?”
Ariella slowly lowered the phone.
“No,” she said again. “But I think I’m about to find out why.”
---
That night, Ariella slipped out of the Han mansion through the servant’s entrance, hoodie up, heart racing.
She followed the location the woman texted an old teahouse tucked into the side streets of Seoul, far from the glow of the skyscrapers and flashing cameras.
The woman was already waiting.
Older, with tired eyes and hands that trembled slightly as she poured tea.
“You look like her,” she said.
“My mom?”
“She worked for the Han family once. Years ago. That’s how she met him.”
Ariella sat, tense. “Why did she leave?”
The woman’s gaze sharpened.
“Because they told her to. Because the moment she got pregnant, she became a liability. They offered her money. Silence. She took the first and ignored the second.”
Ariella’s stomach dropped. “They knew?”
“Min-jae knew. Soojin knew. Everyone did. But the scandal? The press? The perfect Han image? Your existence threatened it all.”
“But he told me he didn’t know”
“He lied.”
Ariella’s hands clenched. “Why are you telling me this now?”
“Because you’re walking into a snake pit, girl. And I’d rather you fight than get swallowed whole.”
The woman stood, dropping an envelope on the table.
Photos.
Clara. Min-jae. Meetings. Letters. Receipts.
Proof.
“If they come for you,” she said, “don’t play by their rules. Burn the board.”
Then she disappeared into the night.
---
Back in her room, Ariella stared at the envelope like it was a ticking bomb.
Everything had been a lie.
Her father didn’t find out about her after her mom’s death.
He knew.
He knew the entire time.
The rejection wasn’t an accident. It was a decision.
She was never a secret.
She was an inconvenience.
And now… she was holding the truth.
And for once, she had the power.
- Writer
