“Junho, I need complete information on Dr. Park Min-young from Seoul Presbyterian Hospital. I want to know everything: his finances, his family, his every secret. I need the complete file on my desk within two hours at the most.”
He abruptly hung up the phone, then turned his gaze towards Zara. His eyes were nothing like the ones she knew. They were dark, piercing, filled with a glimmer of pure danger, a world away from the caring and calm boyfriend she saw every day.
“Daehyun… Who did you just call?”
“My real name is Kwon Daehyun,” he replied in a low, calm voice, taking her trembling hands in his. “My family controls most of the clandestine operations and the underworld in Seoul. I never told you any of this because I desperately wanted you to love me for the man I am, not for my power, influence, or money. But if that doctor dared to steal our daughter, I will deploy and use absolutely every resource and force at my disposal to get her back. Do you understand?”
Normally, Zara would have been terrified by such a revelation; she would have asked dozens of questions about the exact nature of these criminal activities and this secret organization. But at that precise moment, stripped of everything except her maternal love, she looked him straight in the eyes and uttered a single sentence:
“Get our baby back.”
“I will do it, I solemnly promise you.”
Exactly two hours later, a serious-faced man named Junho arrived at the penthouse, carrying a particularly thick folder of confidential documents under his arm. The reports were damning. Dr. Park was literally drowning in a mountain of colossal debt, caused by a severe and uncontrollable gambling addiction and disastrous financial investments. She was desperately trying to maintain an aristocratic lifestyle she absolutely could not afford. To cope, she had set up a monstrous scheme: she stole newborn babies from highly vulnerable mothers and sold them for exorbitant prices to wealthy families seeking quick adoptions. If she had kept Lilly with her instead of selling her, it was solely because she had become attached to her immediate physical perfection.
“How many?” Zara whispered in a gasp of pure horror. “How many babies has she stolen like that?”
“Seven in the last two years,” Junho replied, her jaw visibly clenched with anger. “All her victims were single mothers or from extremely poor backgrounds. Isolated women whom she knew perfectly well would have neither the financial resources nor the networks necessary to defend themselves and conduct an investigation.”
“She targeted you because you weren’t married, because you had no family here in Korea to support you, and she foolishly thought you were completely alone in the world,” Daehyun added, his voice like a block of ice. “She made a monumental mistake. She had no idea who your partner was. This is her downfall. Now we’re going to make her pay dearly.”
“We can’t just show up and take Lilly back by force,” Daehyun continued, pacing the living room of his penthouse, his mind racing with tactical thinking. “If we do that, Dr. Park could immediately turn against us and cry kidnapping to the authorities. We need irrefutable, legal proof. Evidence that will stand up in court without any possibility of debate.”
“So, what are we going to do?” asked Zara, searching for a glimmer of hope.
“We’re going to force her to confess her crimes in front of a hidden camera,” he explained, turning to his trusted associate. “Then we’ll send the recording directly to the police with physical evidence they simply can’t ignore or dismiss. Junho, are you able to sneak us into her house?”
“I could take you straight into the presidential Blue House if you asked, boss,” Junho replied with a broad, confident smile. “His private security system is a joke to my guys.”
The plan they devised was deceptively simple. Daehyun would pose as a wealthy prospective buyer, an influential businessman seeking to discreetly adopt an infant through unofficial, private channels. Dr. Park, desperate for cash to repay his creditors, would readily introduce him to Lilly to seal the deal. Zara, meanwhile, would be hidden nearby, equipped with high-tech recording equipment to film the entire scene. Once the confession was recorded, they would deliver the final blow.
Three days later, the scene unfolded. Daehyun sat in Dr. Park’s luxurious living room, perfectly embodying the role of the arrogant and aloof financial tycoon. The female doctor wore a greedy smile, convinced she had just struck gold.
“I have at my disposal a magnificent little girl, barely three months old, in perfect health, absolutely without any defects,” she boasted as she went to collect the child.
When she returned carrying Lilly in her arms, Zara, hidden behind a one-way mirror that Junho had installed the previous night when infiltrating the house, had to put both hands over her mouth to stop herself from screaming in rage and pain at seeing her child held by this criminal.
“How many do you want?” Daehyun asked coldly, without betraying the slightest emotion.
“For someone of your stature? Two hundred million won,” she announced without batting an eye.
“And what about her biological parents?”
“They died instantly in a terrible car accident,” the doctor replied, the lie flowing from his lips with disconcerting and revolting ease. “A truly tragic story. But don’t worry, all the administrative documents have been falsified and handled with care. It is legally my responsibility to place her.”
“You’re lying.”
Daehyun’s voice had just dropped several octaves, adopting a flat calm of deadly danger that instantly froze the atmosphere of the room.
“This baby was cowardly stolen from her real mother three months ago in your own hospital ward. You officially declared her stillborn and selfishly kept her for yourself. Her real name is Lily Williams Kwon.”
Dr. Park’s face instantly decomposed, becoming deathly pale.
“I… I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about. It’s absurd.”
It was at that precise moment that the hidden door flew open. Zara strode into the room, tears of rage and love streaming down her cheeks.
“She’s my daughter! Give her back to me immediately!”
“Security! Help!” shouted Dr. Park in panic, but none of his guards appeared.
Daehyun had already personally ensured that all of his protection personnel were neutralized well before entering.
“It’s over for you, Dr. Park,” Daehyun declared, rising to his full height, towering over the woman with his imposing and menacing stature. “Everything said here has been filmed and recorded in high definition. Your confession, your blatant lies, your fraudulent financial transactions—absolutely everything is on tape. I’m giving you one last chance to make things right before the sky falls on your head. Immediately hand Lily over to her mother, and I’ll personally ensure you only spend twenty years behind bars instead of a life sentence.”
Zara didn’t wait for the slightest permission or any gesture from the culprit. She crossed the room with a determined step and literally snatched her daughter from the trembling arms of the terrified doctor. Lily looked up at her, her beautiful brown eyes observing that face with serene curiosity and surprising calm. For three long months of torment, Zara had mourned her imagined death, sinking a little deeper each day. Today, she held against her the living, warm, pulsating proof that a mother’s instinct never fails.
“Hello, my little girl… Hello, my sweet Lily…”
Zara’s tears of relief fell gently onto her child’s face.
“Mommy is here now. Mommy is holding you and will never let you go again.”
Lily reached out her small hand, firmly grasped Zara’s finger, and offered her a smile of absolute purity. A smile of immediate recognition, as if she too had been waiting for this precise moment for months, confined in this unfamiliar house.
Dr. Park literally collapsed onto her sofa, seized by a nervous tremor.
“I… I didn’t want to sell her… She was so unique, so beautiful. I thought… I sincerely thought I could be a good mother to her. That I could offer her a much better life than… than the one her real single mother could have given her.”
Zara’s voice then became sharp as tempered steel, although masked by an apparent calm.
“You dared to declare my baby dead. Do you have any idea what that made me go through every day? I wanted to die every single day. I couldn’t sleep a wink, I couldn’t swallow a single bite of food. I buried an empty dream and an absent coffin because of your monstrous lies.”
“I’m sorry…”
“Your apologies will never give me back the three months of his life that you cowardly stole from me. Three precious months that I will never get back.”
Zara held Lily tighter against her heart, seeking to fill the temporal void.
“Daehyun, call the police immediately.”
But Daehyun was already on the line, not with standard police services, but directly with his top-ranking personal lawyer.
“I need our entire top legal team at this address immediately. Bring all emergency custody documents, criminal case files, and contact Judge Kim directly. Tell him it’s Kwon Daehyun himself requesting the alignment of his favor.”
In less than an hour, the once tranquil living room was swarming with an army of elite lawyers, senior police officers, and a renowned judge who had known Daehyun’s family for decades. Faced with this relentless and inescapable show of force, Dr. Park made a full confession, recording every detail in the official report. She admitted to child abduction, the systematic falsification of birth and civil records, and the lives of entire families she had destroyed for money.
During the immediate search of the premises, investigators uncovered irrefutable evidence concerning the seven other stolen children. Thanks to the fortuitous discovery of Lily’s case, several families would finally be able to be reunited after months or years of suffering.
“Ms. Williams, in view of the exceptional circumstances, the irrefutable video evidence and the official testimony of Mr. Kwon, I hereby grant you immediate and solemn legal custody of your biological daughter,” said Judge Kim, signing the official documents with a fluid and solemn gesture.
The magistrate then turned to the accused with a look full of contempt.
“As for you, Dr. Park, you will be prosecuted for child abduction, falsification of official documents, and large-scale human trafficking. I will personally ensure that you never see the light of day again outside of a high-security cell.”
Dr. Park was handcuffed and escorted to the police vehicle, bursting into pathetic sobs. Zara felt not a single ounce of pity for her, not even for a fraction of a second. She looked at the official papers, then turned to the man she shared her life with, the man she thought she knew so well.
“She’s mine… She’s officially and legally mine. You did all of this… You saved her, Daehyun.”
“We saved her together, Zara,” he replied gently, wrapping her in his protective arms.
That evening, after Lily had fallen peacefully asleep in her crib in the nursery that had been set up three months earlier, Zara finally decided to ask the question she had kept buried inside since the afternoon’s revelations.
“What exactly do you do for a living, Daehyun? And please, don’t give me that import-export business story again.”
He poured two glasses of wine, took a deep breath to gather his thoughts, then fixed his gaze on hers.
“Get our baby back.”
“I will do it, I solemnly promise you.”
Exactly two hours later, a serious-faced man named Junho arrived at the penthouse, carrying a particularly thick folder of confidential documents under his arm. The reports were damning. Dr. Park was literally drowning in a mountain of colossal debt, caused by a severe and uncontrollable gambling addiction and disastrous financial investments. She was desperately trying to maintain an aristocratic lifestyle she absolutely could not afford. To cope, she had set up a monstrous scheme: she stole newborn babies from highly vulnerable mothers and sold them for exorbitant prices to wealthy families seeking quick adoptions. If she had kept Lilly with her instead of selling her, it was solely because she had become attached to her immediate physical perfection.
