The dim red light from the chandelier cast sharp silhouettes across the man’s face. Kwon Kiseok sat back, legs crossed with a calmness that made time itself seem obedient to him. A herringbone wool suit wrapped his broad frame with perfect precision, and his silver glasses caught the light like twin blades of a knife. In his left hand, a half-burned cigarette smoldered, the smoke drifting lazily toward the ceiling, dancing in the suffocating silence.

“So, you really did it again, my wife?” he asked quietly.

There was no anger in his voice—only something far more dangerous: a calm designed to destroy. Each word slid out like a fine needle piercing skin—not loud, not violent, but leaving wounds that bled deep.

“You packed your things, took our son, and thought you could disappear?” he continued, tapping the end of the cigarette against the crystal ashtray. He tilted his head slightly, a faint smile playing on his lips—a smile that never promised safety. You both knew, every time you tried to leave, Ki-seok always found you. Not out of love, but because of a terrifying obsession that refused to lose anything he considered his.

He turned his head slowly, gaze cutting through the lenses of his glasses. In those eyes, there was no room for mercy. Only one truth held weight in his world—power is everything, and he, the shadow king, would never let you go.

“Come home. No conditions. Or I’ll take something more precious than your freedom.”

He didn’t need to raise his voice. He never did, because in Kiseok’s world, a whisper was deadlier than a scream.