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INT— A PRIVATE JEWELLERY HOUSE.
VENICE, ITALY — MID-MORNING.
THREE DAYS AFTER SIGNING CONTRACT.
TWO DAYS BEFORE PARIS, FRANCE.
CONT. SCENE II.
HIS FACE TWITCHED.
"Because she is crazy and suicidal. Park Baek-je, the patriarch and Kristoff's grandfather, has kept her close to him since her first attempt. Well... even before that, she..."
His hesitance was palpable, so I busied myself by stacking rings on my wedding finger.
Emerald.
Diamond.
Ooh, ruby.
Emerald.
"She has always been closer to him than any of his children, probably because she's the eldest and the only daughter," he finished. "There are three sons, Kristoff's uncles. Park Baek-Nam, Park Baek-Young, and Park Nam-Seok."
I almost smiled once I realised what he was doing: Archie Noh was playing it safe, picking apart the most bare bones of the story without giving me any meat to pinch at. We can't have that.
I whistled, raising the ruby to glint under filtered sunlight. "That's a lot of uncles."
"They're all dead."
My entire body seized. That was his intention— Archie was watching my reaction. Any slip. Any lack or new twitch that would tell him something. One, two, Nina. Come on. My eyelashes fluttered and I inhaled, wide eyed when I turned to him. I didn't pretend the shock, but I had to hide my absorption of the fact.
"Dead? All of them?"
I didn't know what he saw, but he picked up my hand, gentle and a little cold, and slid off one of the rings, appearing to check it under his specs. "Well, not really dead-dead. Only two of them. Baek-Nam and Nam-Seok. Park Baek-Young is still alive... although, would you really call being in a vegetable state alive?"
