All Chapters of The Nation Took My Wife Away: Chapter 1 - Chapter 5

Han Seoyoon replaced the candles on the cake for the third time.It was their third wedding anniversary.The braised short ribs she had prepared because they were Jaeheon's favorite had long since gone cold, and the wine had lost its aroma. As the clock crept past eleven, the ticking of the second hand seemed unnaturally loud in the silent mansion."Madam, would you like me to warm the food again?"Butler Kim Junho asked carefully from the entrance to the dining room."It's all right. He said he'll be home soon."That was what Seoyoon said, but even she wasn't sure anymore.The only message Kang Jaeheon had sent all evening was a single line.The meeting is running late.For the past three years, they had lived under the same roof without ever truly living like husband and wife.They slept in separate bedrooms. The only photograph they had taken together was their wedding portrait.Jaeheon had told her that he needed time to forget his first love—the woman he believed was dead.Seoyoo

The light in Seoyoon's study remained on until dawn.There wasn't much she needed to take with her to the National Science Strategy Agency.Three research notebooks.Two encrypted micro-USB drives.And several experimental records from graduate school.That was all.Yet those few items contained years of work—the part of her life she had abandoned when she married Kang Jaeheon.Seoyoon placed everything carefully into a small hard-shell security case.She checked the two USB drives once.Then again.Both were there.Four hours until six.She only had to endure four more hours in this house.After that, she would leave."Seoyoon, are you still awake?"A soft voice came from outside the study.Seoyoon's hands stopped.Cha Yuri.She opened the door.Yuri stood in the hallway wearing a thin robe.Seoyoon's gaze immediately dropped to it.She knew that robe.It was hers.The one she had left in the master bedroom."That's mine."Yuri looked down at herself as though she had only just reali

4:30 a.m.The Kang mansion was as silent as the moment before a storm.Han Seoyoon stood in the middle of her room with one small suitcase beside her.That was all she was taking.A few changes of clothes.Her personal documents.And the hard-shell security case containing what remained of her research materials.She left the wedding photographs behind.She left the jewelry Jaeheon had bought her.She left the expensive dresses his family had chosen for her.None of them felt like hers anymore.Finally, Seoyoon removed her wedding ring.For a moment, she held it in her palm.Three years of marriage.Three years of waiting.Three years of telling herself that patience would eventually become love.She placed the ring on the bedside table.The small metallic sound seemed unusually loud in the empty room.Seoyoon looked around one last time.The room she had once desperately wanted to call home now felt like a hotel room she had stayed in for far too long.There was nothing here she want