Chapter Text
As the CEO of his own company, Kim Taehyung seemed to have it made. He had a spacious and luxurious house, the car of his dreams, 3 of them in fact, a beautiful wife whom he loved and would do anything in the world for and together the two of them had the most precious little baby boy. Everything he could ever want was within his grasp, And it wasn't by chance either. He didn't have everything just handed to him and none of it casually fell into his lap either. Taehyung worked his ass off to get where he was in life and they were happy….or at least he was.
The usual 6-8 hours of sleep one is supposed to get at night should be resting and preparing your mind and body for the next day. That was the case for Taehyung. He woke up that morning feeling like he'd slept on clouds of magic. Little did he know that his entire life was about to be flipped upside down and turned inside out completely.
*****
Taehyung slowly opened his eyes, rubbing them softly to try and get the sleep out of them. The sun hadn't quite risin yet which was typical for him. His alarm, the one he never really needed to set because his body's internal clock always woke him at the same time each day out of habit, hadn't gone off yet either. He groaned as he pushed himself to sit up in the bed. It only took the man a split second to notice that something was off. Looking over to the other side of the bed, he saw that it was empty. There wasn't even an imprint in the memory foam mattress that suggested another body had even been there and when he reached over to move his hand over the spot, the sheets weren't warm at all.
Taehyung sleepily got out of bed, his tired mind whirling. Had his wife mentioned working overnight or going in early? He couldn't remember. She was there when he came home the night before but he was so tired from a long day's work full of conference calls and business meetings, he went straight to bed after giving both her and their son a goodnight hug and kiss. She had told him to get some rest, that she would put their son to bed; and he had been grateful to her for that.
"Chae?" He called out as he walked through their home, but no one answered. He was the only one there. Even his son, Jonghyun, was gone. Tae tried calling her but her phone went straight to voicemail. He was quickly growing worried. He hadn't found any notes or messages from Chae letting him know what was going on or anything. He sighed deeply and tried not to pay attention to any negative thoughts. Everything was ok, he was just an overthinker and worried too much sometimes.
He sent a few messages from his phone to her before he got ready and headed out to go to work. On his way there he stopped to get gas. He was lucky that he had some cash on him because for some reason his card was declined even though he knew for sure he had money in the bank. He figured that he would call and check about that once he got to work on top of trying to call Chae again. He had a little voice inside of him that said maybe she had taken the baby and gone to her mom's, it wouldn't be the first time and with how tired he was last night, she could have mentioned it and he just didn't remember. Yeah, he was sure that was the case. He always tried to rationalize his thoughts when he felt that he was at the point of over thinking about things.
Once he got to work though he had a different problem. When he tried to get through security, it denied his key card and he ended up having to call someone to let him inside the premises. Things just got worse from there.
"What do you mean my access has been denied? You've gotta be joking right? Quit playing around and let me in. I have important things that I need to take care of today." He said, feeling rather annoyed by the whole ordeal.
"I'm sorry sir but I can't allow that. We were given specific orders to keep you out. You don't have authority here."
Taehyung looked at the man like he was stupid. "I am the CEO of this company. You mind explaining to me how I don't have authority here? Last I remembered, I'm the one who signs the checks and runs this company. Now, I'm only going to say this once more, let me in." Taehyung was in no way a naturally confrontational man and honestly he didn't like pulling rank either but this was getting ridiculous.
The guard took out his phone and made a call then a couple of minutes later a car pulled up to the gate. When Taehyung saw who got out and walked up, he could only stare in silence for a few seconds in a confused manner. "Chae? What are you doing here? I missed you this morning."
Chae looked at Taehyung through cold heartless eyes "That's CEO Kim Chae to you. This nice gentleman has told you once already that you are not allowed here so remove yourself or I will have you removed by force." The once sweet soft voiced woman had a whole new attitude about her. Tae didn't recognize her other than by physical appearance. The poor man was utterly confused as he tried to process just what the hell was going on." I have no idea what you're talking about but if these gates do not open then I'll--"
"You'll what?" She interrupted him, crossing her arms over her chest. " You don't seem to listen very well. You have no power here at least not anymore you don't." She simply waved her hand to the car behind her as two men got out and walked up to her side. "Escort this man away from here and if he proceeds to cause a problem, have him arrested." With that she turned and walked back to the car, sliding into the back seat and shut the door. "Yes, ma'am." They replied to her then approached Taehyung to do as she told them.
Tae bit his tongue to keep from saying what he wanted to. He thought it better to just leave for now. He didn't know what was going on but he was determined to find out. While driving, his phone kept ringing and ringing so eventually he pulled over into the bank parking lot. It was perfect because he needed to check and see what was going on with his account anyway. He answered the phone, surprised to see that It was his mother calling him since it was still so early.
"Taetae, baby. What in the world is going on? I've been trying to call you all morning."
"Eomma, I'm sorry. A lot has been going on already. Chae-" He didn't have time to finish what he was saying before his mother cut him off
"That girl." she scoffed into the phone. " Do you know she showed up at my door at 3:00 a.m. with Jonghyun and just left him here? No explanation or anything. The nerve of that girl. But that's not what's concerning me. Honey, have you seen the news? What happened with your company? Surely everything they're saying is not true. There's no way it could be. Please tell me what's going on."
Taehyung was confused once more. "I haven't. I woke up this morning and went straight to work. When did you see?"
The woman went silent for a moment before speaking again, "Baby, come over and I'll show you." She didn't want her son stressed out even more than what he already seemed plus just for him to get there it would be an hour and a half drive and he needed to focus on the road. She didn't want her son putting himself in danger from stress and trying to drive.
Tae gritted his teeth as he gripped the steering wheel and his phone at the same time. "I need to go to the bank real quick and see what's going on with my account but I'll be right over afterwards."
"Ok Taetae. Be safe baby. See you when you get here. I love you"
*****
It was hard for Tae to see through his tears but 2 1/2 hours later he finally made it to his mother's. He had to sit in the driveway for a good 30 minutes to collect himself before he could even come in. He didn't even think about coming until his mother had called again to see what had been taking so long because she knew how long it usually took him to get there. After wiping his face and drying his eyes, he went inside. He was instantly greeted by high pitched giggles from his son who hadn't seen him since the night before.
The 10 month old clung to Tae when he picked him up and Tae did the same. After everything that had happened today, he was grateful he still had his baby boy, and now he was finally in his arms where he belonged. He kissed the top of Jonghyun's head and just held him there until he noticed his mother watching him.
"Taetae, honey. Why don't you let Appa take Hyunie for a little bit." She could tell that her son was distraught. Tae was clinging to his baby boy but she could tell that right now she needed to cling to hers. Silently, Tae nodded then handed Jinghyun over to his father who took him into one of the bedrooms so that the other two could talk.
The older woman led her son over to the couch to sit then pulled him into her arms for a tight embrace. "Talk to me sweetheart."
There was something about him being in his mother's arms that brought out the inner child in him. He thought he had composed himself well enough before he came in but as soon as she took him into her arms, his tears started to flow again. "Chae...She took everything." he finally said after a few minutes of silent crying onto his mother's shoulder as she held him. "I went to the bank to see why my card was declined this morning and it had been closed and all cleaned out. My checking account is gone. My savings are gone. My assets...everything….I have nothing…."
Hearing her son break down like that broke her heart but also filled her with a rage like no other. PShe knew that girl was bad news from the very first time she met her but her son loved Chae with all his heart. So much so that he proposed and later married her then they even started their little family when Jonghyun was born. She wanted her son to be happy even if she never got good vibes from that thing. She couldn't stand her and now she had all the more reason not to. "Oh baby...my baby...shh shh, there there." She said softly, rubbing Taehyung's back comfortingly. "I had a feeling that money hungry devil woman would pull something like this."
"Why...why would she do this...I got a call too...from a lawyer. She wants– she wants a divorce..." More tears started to form in his eyes and he was barely even able to get those last words out. He was still in shock from everything. His heart was shattering into a million pieces and his world was crumbling all at once. He felt so lost snd helpless to stop any of it.
Chae was his first love. The two of them had met while he was in college. He was majoring in business while she was majoring in law and they had hit it off fairly quickly. She was such a sweet and kind girl to him. Never in a million years would he have ever imagined her doing something like this. She always seemed so happy when she was with him and he was just the same. Almost from the time they met, he was a lovesick puppy for her.
"Eo-Eomma...what am I going to do…" he asked, a quivering tone lacing his voice.
His mother kept most of her other thoughts about Chae to herself. Now was not the time for "I told you so"'s. She needed to be there for her son. "It's going to be ok, little bear. You will get through this. Appa and I will help you in every way we can."
It took him a bit to finally calm down but once he did his mother told him about what he partially already knew. Chae had finagled her way in and had taken the company right out from under him. Everything he had worked so hard for was gone, taken from him seemingly overnight. He wasn't aware of the months of planning that she had gone through to do everything. There was one thing she hadn't taken and he was grateful. He still had his son, his baby bear and as long as he had Jonghyun, all hope wasn't completely lost. That's what he wanted to believe anyway.