Chapter 184: Seon-Ho/ Seo Yeon

As soon as I saw Nam-Kyu outside the King's chambers I knew I was in for a nightmare. She smiled at me delusional as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth. The sight of that woman who had more men than she knew how to deal with made me sick to my stomach; she wasn't like the kisengs who had no choice to do what they do but someone like her to use manipulate people sexually for her own pleasure just like my father did...out of all the women who bothered us the most she was right at the top, as if I didn't know what her intentions were from the start. I tired to control myself as I walked into the King's chambers, only to find the eunuch who was still lusting after my wife in his state and his own wife who had looked like she had been beaten to a pulp, no that anyone cared. The King was recovering from an illness so he had his eunuch speak for him. Apparently the palace maid came to confess to the King of a plot that afoot between the couple I had wed myself. I couldn't help but roll my eyes but I had to keep my composure while I looked over the evidence that my eunuch had stolen some information from me study I had one of my men tell me that there were men associated with her family surrounding my mansion. It took all of my restraint not to charge at her outside and throttle her with all of my might but I instantly knew what is was she wanted and I couldn't let the King meddling in my family and imposting his will on me so I had to really swallow my pride and announce to the King that since they were my charges it was only right that I carried on the investigation myself. Nam-Kyu was made to enter the room at the same time and made a plea to the King that the home she was serving was on the verge of bankruptcy. I was having a hard time controlling myself as I had to agree to house them myself, but before I could finish my sentence Nam-Kyu thanked me for housing her in my own mansion and the King nodded in agreement. And with that my fate was sealed as I headed home to my pregnant wife who could give birth any second and I sent out a message to Hui-Jee to come collect her boys herself as I knew she was the only woman who could stand up to Nam-Kyu face to face a is couldn't let Yeon do it, not in her condition.

The minute the guards were out of sight I tried to strangle her truly, but before I could say a word, Nam-Kyu told me that the people that were outside the mansion would disappear when they saw her walking into my home. That was a much better option than sending soldiers to my home and risking my children's lives to sort them out. I really had to control myself before the crowd dispersed and I made my way back into my home, only to see Hui-Jee waiting for me at my door with a worried look her face. I guess she got the message I was trying to get to her as her eyes laid on Nam-Kyu who was trying to stand her ground against her but was very clearly shaking when she took a closer step to her. Her family's men had indeed all dispersed the moment they saw her so there was no-one to save her as my sister-in-law grabbed both Nam-Kyu and Hyo-Sonn by their collars and threatened them if they ever harmed her children or her family again and threw them on the floor and kicked Hyun-Ki in his non-existent area, leaving them all lying on the floor before she stormed in and called for her children. I gave her the key to Yeon's room so she could unlock it and collect her boys but she surprised me by saying that she wanted to stay over until Yeon gave birth anyways. I gave her a grateful look as she nodded in return, leaving me to make all of the arrganmnts to house the idiots I was now stuck with until further notice.

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I woke up in some considerable amount of pain and my sister-in-law almost breaking down my door. Her boys ran to her immediately and almost knocked her over when she announced that she would stay with me until I had given birth under the circumstances. I gave her a confused look...but the look she had for me in return only made my heart sink...

I confided myself in my bedroom for as long as I could under the circumstances, I couldn't really move anyways. I hadn't seen my husband since he left last night as I know he was too busy running around trying to get this investigation done, or rather he was avoiding me. I could take any amount of crap that came my way but I wouldn't allow it to happen in the presence of my children. The thing was that I knew my husband wouldn't allow it either, so he must really be in a bind. I went in and out of sleep as the children were being watched very carefully by Hui-Jee who wouldn't do it alone and watch out for the women at the same time so she invited Hwa-Wol and her family over to stay and help me out until I had given birth to the baby. Nam-Kyu shared her cousin's wing along with her masters who still hand't left their room for some reason. My mind wondered back to my time in the palace where stories of how concubines would harm each other's children ran rampant around the palace. I was so scared for my children with these evil people lurking around that I couldn't help myself but burst into tears. In fact I was wallowing in my own paranoia so much that I didn't even see Hyun-Ki sneaking into my room behind me until I felt a hand caressing my hair.

I felt myself freeze on the bed; I recognised my husband's touch down to the last detail by now and I knew instantly that the man touching me was not him. In the early years of our marriage Seon-Ho was hellbent on teaching me a lesson for everything I had 'put him through' and was very...intense with me. There were times he kept me confined to my room just for himself and insisted on taking care of me personally, there were times he paraded me around in public against my will and made me surrender to him in front of some people and there were other times when he lost his mind if another man so much as looked in my direction...and he didn't hesitate to run his sword through anyone he was paranoid about. All the years I had seen that behaviour only put me on guard more when other men did actually try to approach me I couldn't help but to be frozen with fear every time it happened...and before I knew it I screamed as loudly as I could whilst Hyun-Ki tried to cover my mouth with his hands and tried to pull me out of the room at the same time, only to have my son and nephews grab him at once and pinned him on the floor before Hana ran to me and huddled herself over my belly and my husband came storming in with a face like thunder. He looked liked he had been dragged through hell and hadn't slept at all; even the children looked a bit scared of him. The tried to smile for them before told them to go to their aunt before he turned on on Hyun-Ki "what the hell were you doing with my wife? Haven't I thought you a good enough lesson for a year now? What more do I need to do to show you THAT SHE IS MINE?!" Even I couldn't help but scream a little as he walked towards me, bent down on his knees to my level and cupped my face in his hands before I did the same as him. My husband...was always paranoid himself when it came to our children and the fact that I was so close to giving birth whilst housing all the people that harmed us in the past was putting him over the edge. He was so over-protective of things he didn't have in the past and that was when his temper flared up the most and his dark side came out. And I was proven right when he told the boys to tie him up and keep an eye on him in a spare room we had for a while.

I told him over and over again what a good job he was doing to protect our family, what an amazing father he was and how much I needed him as an husband and that I couldn't live without him...but from the look he gave me he was locked up in his own mind again along with the fears of failure. And I couldn't give him the individual attention he needed on the account of my children now being housed with delusional psychopaths and myself ready to go into labour any day now, and he knew it which just broke us even more.