PART 4 — The Apology That Came Too Late
For two weeks, Naomi Brooks became the woman everyone in Los Angeles thought they understood.
To some, she was a victim.
To others, she was an opportunist.
To Vivian Park’s friends, she was “the chef who ruined a family over a kitchen accident.”
The internet did what it always did with a woman in pain. It chose sides before it knew the truth.
One gossip site posted a photograph of Naomi leaving the hospital with a scarf wrapped around the healing burns on her cheek.
Another wrote that Jae-min Kang had “ended a nine-figure business deal over personal attachment.”
By noon the next day, Vivian’s publicist had released a statement.
Mrs. Vivian Park deeply regrets the misunderstanding that occurred during a private cultural dinner. She is cooperating fully and hopes Ms. Brooks finds healing.
Naomi read it in the back seat of Jae-min’s car and almost laughed.
Misunderstanding.
That was what rich people called cruelty after someone finally recorded it.
Jae-min sat beside her, watching her face carefully.
“Don’t read it,” he said.
Naomi turned the phone toward him. “She threw boiling stew at me and called it tradition. Now she’s calling it a misunderstanding.”
“She is trying to survive.”
“No.” Naomi locked the screen. “She’s trying to stay invited.”
Jae-min looked out the window.
Outside, cameras waited behind the gates of Kang Global’s private dining entrance. Reporters had been circling for days. Some wanted justice. Some wanted scandal. Most wanted a photograph of Naomi looking broken.
She refused to give them one.
The car stopped.
Jae-min’s security opened the door.
Naomi stepped out in a tailored black coat, her hair pulled back, the faint marks on her cheek visible beneath the morning light. Cameras flashed instantly.
“Naomi! Did you forge the purchase orders?”
“Are you and Mr. Kang romantically involved?”
“Did you pressure him to cancel the Park deal?”
“Are you suing Vivian Park?”
Naomi kept walking.
Then one reporter shouted, “Did you fake cultural knowledge to get close to Korean billionaires?”
She stopped.
Jae-min stopped too.
The crowd fell into a hungry silence.
Naomi turned slowly.
“I learned because food deserves respect,” she said. “People do too.”
Then she walked inside.
That single sentence went viral by dinner.
Vivian saw it from her bedroom at the Park estate.
The mansion was no longer filled with music and guests. It was quiet now, watched by police, lawyers, and creditors. Raymond had moved into a separate wing. Their staff had stopped meeting her eyes.
Vivian threw her tablet onto the bed.
“She’s enjoying this,” she snapped.
Across the room, Raymond stood near the window, a drink untouched in his hand.
“You assaulted her in front of twenty-six witnesses.”
“She corrected me in my own house.”
“She corrected a dish.”
Vivian turned on him. “Do not pretend you care about the dish. You are angry because Kang pulled the money.”
Raymond said nothing.
Vivian smiled bitterly. “That’s what this is. Not shame. Not guilt. Money.”
Raymond looked at her then, and for the first time in years, there was no affection in his eyes.
“You humiliated a woman we needed to frame quietly.”
Vivian’s smile faded.
The room changed.
“You knew,” she whispered.
Raymond lowered his voice. “Of course I knew.”
Vivian stared at him.
“You told me Daniel was handling the supply issue. You told me Naomi’s name was only on backup documents.”
“And you made sure everyone saw you attack her.”
“She embarrassed me.”
“No,” Raymond said coldly. “You lost control.”
Vivian’s breathing quickened.
For the first time, she understood that Raymond was not afraid for her.
He was afraid of what she might say.
Before she could answer, a knock came at the door.
A maid entered with a silver tray. On it sat a cream envelope.
“It was left at the back gate, ma’am.”
Vivian snatched it up, expecting another legal notice.
Instead, she found one photograph.
Her hand began to tremble.
The picture showed a much younger Raymond standing beside Daniel Cho in a warehouse. Between them was a shipment crate marked with the name of an old import company.
Pacific Meridian Foods.
Behind the crate stood a man Vivian did not recognize.
But Naomi would have.
Samuel Brooks.
Her father.
At Kang Global, Naomi was reviewing menus for a private board dinner when Jae-min’s assistant entered quietly.
“Ms. Brooks,” she said. “This was delivered for you.”
Naomi looked up.
Another cream envelope.
No return address.
Her fingers tightened before she opened it.
Inside was a photocopy of an old shipping document dated nine years earlier.
The client name made Jae-min go completely still.
Mina Kang.
His mother.
Naomi looked from the document to him.
“You never told me your mother was connected to food imports.”
“She wasn’t,” he said.
But his voice had changed.
Naomi read the next line.
Emergency dietary order. Safe ingredients only. No preservatives. No substitutions.
At the bottom, there were two signatures.
One belonged to Daniel Cho.
The other belonged to Samuel Brooks.
Naomi could not breathe.
“My father died nine years ago,” she said.
Jae-min’s eyes lifted to hers.
“My mother died nine years ago too.”
The room went silent around them.
Naomi looked back at the paper.
Someone had circled one sentence in red ink.
Shipment rejected by Samuel Brooks due to contamination risk.
Below it, written by hand, were six words:
He died three days later.
Naomi’s hand shook so hard the paper bent.
Jae-min took it gently from her.
For the first time since she had known him, she saw something close to fear in his face.
Then his phone buzzed.
A blocked number.
He answered without speaking.
For several seconds, there was only static.
Then a woman’s voice whispered:
“Stop digging, Mr. Kang. Your mother was not the first.”
The call ended.
Naomi stared at him.
“What does that mean?”
Jae-min looked at the old document again.
Then he saw the final note on the back.
One more name.
Naomi Brooks.
Age nineteen.
Emergency contact: Samuel Brooks.
And beside her name, a stamp in faded red ink:
SUBJECT RETAINED FOR OBSERVATION.
Naomi stepped backward.
“What observation?”
May you like
Jae-min did not answer.Because neither of them knew.
And that was what terrified them most.
