His hidden mistress

chaper 4

📘 Episode 4: The One He Wouldn’t Let Go

Rain kept falling that night.

Ares stood alone in Irene’s living room—wet hair, jaw clenched, fists shaking—while behind him, Yena’s heels clicked away down the corridor.

She was gone.

But so was Irene.

Not physically. She was just behind that door.

But something in her eyes… in her voice… had already walked away from him.

And it broke him.

For the first time in years, Ares Ji—CEO, tycoon, cold-hearted king of Korea’s tech empire—knocked on a door with trembling hands.

“Irene,” he said softly, his forehead against the wood. “Please open it.”

Silence.

“I’ll leave her.”

Nothing.

“Irene, I swear to God… it’s you. It’s always been you. I married Yena because my father threatened to ruin everything—”

Click.

The door opened.

Irene stood there, eyes swollen, lips trembling, but her voice? Icy.

“You married her to protect your business.

But who protected me, Ares?”

He opened his mouth, but no words came.

“I wasn’t your mistress,” she whispered. “I was your lover. Your friend. Your home. And you burned me like I was nothing.”

Tears spilled down his cheeks before he could stop them.

“I’m sorry,” he choked.

“I don’t want sorry,” she whispered. “I want to be chosen.”

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✦ Flashback – Three Years Ago

Ares had once asked her,

“What’s your biggest fear?”

She smiled. “Being someone's secret.”

He had held her hand and promised,

“I’d never make you feel like that.”

Promises. Lies dressed in tenderness.

---

✦ Yena’s POV – The Next Morning

Yena didn’t cry.

She didn’t scream.

She planned.

Sitting at her father's long marble dining table, she scrolled through Irene’s photos. Employment history. Address. Financials.

“Destroy her quietly,” she told her assistant. “But thoroughly.”

The assistant hesitated. “What if Mr. Ji—”

“He cheated on me. I won’t divorce him yet. I’ll ruin the reason he betrayed me first.”

The devil didn’t always wear horns.

Sometimes, she wore silk and smiled while she burned you alive.

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✦ Irene’s Apartment – The Next Morning

Ares hadn’t left.

He sat on the floor outside her bedroom like a ghost who refused to leave.

And inside, Irene didn’t sleep.

She listened to the rain.

And wondered how much love you needed to survive something like this.

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✦ END OF EPISODE 4