Prologue

"This is your last chance to redeem yourself, young lady," Chrishawn groaned, shaving a white folder on the table. He rested both of his elbows on the edges and tapped the folder, signalling Nic to take it which she immediately did.

She opened it on a wide spread and furrows formed on her forehead. "Son of Mr. Suho Byun, twenty four years old," she read the only information that she thought that would help her find the "Shadow Boss".

She could only bite her lips in frustration. She knew her mission would be hard as heck, but she didn't expect it would be to the extent.

How is she supposed to find someone who has never been seen before? No one even knows how the man looks like; neither any feature that could narrow down their options.

There are millions of men out there who are in their twenties.

"Judging by your reaction, I believe you're having second thoughts, little sister?" Chrishawn scoffed, seemingly mocking. He leaned his back on his swivel chair and crossed his arms.

"Well?"

Nic's lips thinned and drew a deep sigh. "I believe I already told you I'm gonna accept this no matter what it takes?"

Chrishawn sneered. "Very well. Just don't come running back at me when you failed again, are we clear?"

"That's not gonna happen, brother," Nic smiled mirthlessly.

"Are you certain? You haven't flipped to the next pages yet," Chrishawn's thick brows rose.

For a moment, there was twinge in Nic's throat as though it burns.

She slightly pinched the bottom corner of the pages to see five more behind the first one. She slowly flipped the first page over and her eyes wobbled to see human dismembered bodies.

The images were too gruesome to watch that Nic had to cover her mouth to prevent herself from retching.

DarkCrimson is the biggest felony organization in South Korea that runs under the facade of a sanctioned amalgamated company. It runs under the leadership of Mr. Suho Byun who is the chairman of the said endeavor. He was the one who gathered several crooks concealed within DarkCrimson.

Mr. Suho Byun has been sent to jail for multiple times, but was able to get away in all of them as the power and connections he possesses can erase evidences into thin air.

Truly, he has never been caught—not until an unknown group has successfully assassinated him. His death has become a form of mercy for the Korean cops as they thought the murders, abductions, and crimes, will finally stop.

However, things have only gotten worse. Since DarkCrimson is handled by multiple sub-leaders, all of them were interested to take over Mr. Byun's place as the chairman.

War has been set in each sub-leaders' groups. Everything has gone too chaotic that the cops couldn't even do anything but watch not until one fateful day, Mr. Byun's "butler" announced that the rightful successor has finally come and that's no other than Mr. Suho Byun's only son whom no one even knew about.

Since then, he has been running the company behind his father's shadows.

No one knew who he is exactly. He has never shown himself to anyone aside from his butler, thus, he has been nicknamed as the "Shadow Boss".

Then again, the crimes continued, but now women and children have been spared for no good reason.

The only tip that the cops have received is the man is on his twenties—twenty four to be exact. Just like that, the informant disappeared without any trace.

"Twenty four—" Nic whispered.

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"T-Twenty e-eight," Quinn stammered between words She could feel her hands shaking, holding their framed wedding photo with both hands.

Her breathings became short; her heart beats a few tics faster—she could already hear the sound of the air entering the pathways to her lungs.

"H-His hair, his eyes," Quinn swilled. "I-It can't be. This can't be!"

"EOMMAAAAA!! EODIE ISSNAYOOO?!"

Quinn flinched which caused the frame to fall down the marble floor; the glass shattered into pieces.

Sean's fast and light footsteps is coming her direction that she had to immediately squat in attempt to scour the shards away, but her son is already standing at the entrance of their room door and behind him stood Seo-Joon.

Her eyes met his and for a moment, the time seem to stopped.

"All this time, I have been living with the person I have been looking for," she thought. "Those eyes—that hair—he looks exactly her."

"Honey, are you okay?"

Her eyes batted when she finally snapped back into reality. She didn't even realize Seo-Joon is already squatting in front of her.

"What happened here? Are you hurt?" His eyes dropped to her hands and checked them for injuries. Once certain that she didn't have any, Seo-Joon looked at her, heaving a sigh of relief.

"Don't scare me like that, I thought you're already bleeding because you seem fazed and..." he paused and squinted his eyes, staring at Nic's lips. "And extremely pale."

"Gwaenchanhayo, eomma?" Sean, who stood behind Seo-Joon, worriedly asked.

"Y-Yes, baby. Eomma is okay," Quinn replied and managed to smile at her two-year old son.

"Eomma will just clean this up and we'll make your favorite snacks."

"It's okay," Seo-Joon shook her hands, so she looked back at him. He is wearing that usual sweet smile of his.

"Leave this to me and after I'm done, I'll do Sean's snacks myself. I'll be quick, I promise. You look like you need some rest, so that's what you are going to do."

Seo-Joon's sweet smile widened and stretched Quinn's hands towards Sean which the little man cheerfully took.

"Take care of, eomma, okay? And get eomma a glass of water, too, because she is not feelingw well," Seo-Joon pouted through his baby voice, so Sean would understand what he is trying to say even more.

"Oh! Poor-poor, eomma," Sean patted Nic's head and carefully pulled her up; she had no choice but to follow.

Before she could even step outside, she turned to look at Seo-Joon and a grain of tear fell down her eyes, and rolled down her cheek.

The pieces that she has been gathering all together for almost four years has finally been solved, but she no longer knew if she could look at it in a full picture or smash it down into smaller pieces in order to save the family she built with a ruthless murderer.

Eui Jung, a forty-three-year-old woman who lives in a province far away from Seoul, was diagnosed of two rare genetic conditions known as Albinism and Sectoral Heterochromia. Albinism made her skin and hair extremely white, and Sectoral Heterochromia left her eyes with two different iris colors. One is fully blue and the other one's partly brown and blue.

Undeniably, she got pregnant at the age of sixteen in a one-nightstand and abandoned her son to its father. The child inherited her genetic conditions. Indeed, he is an albino, but had full Heterocromia iridum at least that's what Eui said.

After a very long run, Quinn has finally reached the finish line and that's to catch the person she has been running side by side with... all along.

Quinn immediately called her friend, Haidee, and sneaked Sean with her before Seo-Joon could finish cleaning. He's a clean freak, so it would really take him a while to finish what he was doing even if he said he'd be over it instantly.

"Where's Sean?" Seo-Joon asked as he placed the vacuum on its rightful place after cleaning everything.

He looked from side to side before he sat on the couch in front to where Quinn is. She was only holding a white folder, eyes meandering down the cold floor.

"Honey? Is there anything wrong?"

Seo-Joon's soft and innocent voice made Quinn's heart sank. Never in her entire life she'd think that something like this would ever come into their lives—between her and her husband.

Now that she thinks of it, everything about them is a lie after all—from the very beginning, every single time, right up to the very moment where they sat.

"Hey, honey? Why aren't you talking?" Seo-Joon's voice sounded worried.

Her teeth gritted; she couldn't look at him. Her tears might not be able to hold on if she does. She knows those worries aren't real. None of those are; the care, the love, the affection—everything's only for a show.

Quinn heaved a deep sigh and tossed the white folder on the table. Seo-Joon was quick to react and took it; the moment he flipped it open, his eyes slowly grew into circles.

He felt as though something's pounding against his chest. His lips went pale and his tongue seems to be stuck at the back of his throat—he couldn't speak.

He was only left staring at the photo of the mother he never had.

"I assume you knew Mrs. Eui Jung," Quinn asked, eyes still pinned on the floor. Seo-Joon can't look at her either.

Everything's not adding up for him. How did his wife got this crucial information? Why did she dug into his past? And judging by how the way she talks, it is evident that she knows something more and up to something he couldn't figure out just yet.

"Y-Yes, why'd you ask, hon?" Seo-Joon tried to keep his tone as normal as possible and looked at Quinn.

Her eyes finally shifted to him. "How are you related to her?"

"A relative of mine," Seo-Joon smiled. "That'll explain the white hair and the e-eyes."

It took Quinn seconds to react; she nodded. "Even though you told me you never have any relatives with the same condition."

Seo-Joon felt like a bucket of freezing water has poured on him and that very moment, he knew he fucked up. He closed his eyes and sighed in defeat. No one knows Quinn more than him, and by that, he knew he don't have any second chances to fool her.

Quinn stood up and turned her back against Seo-Joon to muster all the volition she had; within a split second, she took the gun from the holster hidden on her back underneath her baggy shirt and aimed it towards Seo-Joon, who had his gun aimed to her as well.

Their eyes met, but this time, it's no longer a look of love, but rather a look of abhorrent.

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