Until I Destroyed My Husband's Other Family
夫の家庭を壊すまで
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A wife learns her husband has kept a second family for fifteen years, and sets out to destroy it from the inside.
Minori Kisaragi married Yudai, the boy she fell for in high school, and keeps house for him and their little son, Tsubasa, helped by a kind mother-in-law, Hiromi. Then a notification on Yudai's phone opens a secret: for fifteen years he has been seeing Riko Miyake, a hairdresser and single mother from his school days, and his photographs show him playing father to her son, Wataru. Minori, who grew up never knowing her own father, sets out to destroy the family her husband keeps on the side. She takes a job as a tutor at Wataru's cram school, draws the teenager's family secrets out of him, and he falls for her.
The deeper she digs, the worse it gets. Riko is pregnant by Yudai, who meant to leave Minori for her. Minori's dying grandfather tells her that her father is Susumu Tsukishiro, head of a jewellery empire, whose money has been kept for her; and she learns that Hiromi, once a housekeeper in the Tsukishiro mansion, pushed her schoolboy son to court Minori for that money. With her father's help, and Wataru's, Minori takes all three lives apart. Yudai loses his lover and his standing, begs her forgiveness and does not get it. She divorces him, keeps Tsubasa, tells Wataru she is sorry for using him and that he must live his own life, and leaves.
Seven years later she runs a children's café in a small country town, where a single father, Kotaro, asks to court her. Then Wataru arrives as Tsubasa's teacher, still in love with her, Riko follows in fury, and in the rain Minori and Wataru kiss. Anonymous letters threaten both women and false reviews batter the café and Riko's salon. Minori traces them to Hiromi, who attacks her. Wataru shields her, Yudai holds his mother back and talks her down, and Tsukishiro takes Hiromi to the police, Yudai going with her.
Riko calls Wataru to say she is going to die. Wataru's father, she says, abandoned her when she was pregnant, and Yudai's kindness was a refuge. Minori, who has dreamed of killing Yudai too, embraces her and admits that her revenge hurt children who had done nothing. Wataru holds his mother and asks to walk his own way. Minori and Wataru tell each other they love each other, and he asks for time to become someone who can protect her. A year on, she has not pressed charges against Hiromi, who now cleans at Tsukishiro's company. At the café, Wataru is waiting. Welcome home, she says.
Starring
Marika Matsumotoas Minori Kisaragi
A housewife who discovers her husband's fifteen-year second family and sets out to destroy it, at a cost to others and herself.
Minori Kisaragi’s story
Minori, raised by her grandfather, married her first love, Yudai, and believes in her family until a notification on his phone gives him away. Taking a job at Wataru's cram school, she draws the boy's family secrets out of him. She learns that Riko is pregnant by Yudai, that her own father is the magnate Tsukishiro, and that Yudai and his mother courted her for that money. With her father's power and Wataru's help she takes their lives apart, divorces Yudai without forgiving him, and apologises to Wataru for using him. Seven years on come Wataru, a kiss in the rain and anonymous threats. She traces them to Hiromi, who attacks her. She embraces Riko, whom she hated, and tells Wataru she loves him and will wait. A year later, having pressed no charges, she welcomes him home.
Terunosuke Takezaias Yudai Kisaragi
Minori's husband, a star salesman under his mother's thumb, who married Minori for money and meant to leave her for Riko.
Maho Nonamias Riko Miyake
A hairdresser and single mother, Yudai's lover since his schooldays, who once was abandoned while pregnant herself.
Riko Miyake’s story
Riko is carrying Yudai's child and expects him to leave Minori at last. Minori's revenge exposes the affair, and Riko has the baby, a daughter. Seven years later, finding Minori and Wataru together again, she swears she will never forgive her, then sees her own salon battered by anonymous reviews. Rejected by Wataru, she phones him to say she is going to die. When he comes, with Minori, she pours out her past: the father of her son left her when she was pregnant, and she has lost Yudai, her work and her daughter's trust. She begs Wataru to stay. Minori embraces her; Wataru holds her and asks to walk his own way. A year later a message from her daughter makes her smile.
Kouta Nomuraas Wataru Miyake
Riko's son, a high-school student when Minori befriends him to use him, who grows up and returns still in love with her.
Wataru Miyake’s story
Wataru is a high-school senior who half suspects that the kind man in his life is his mother's lover. Minori, his new cram-school tutor, draws his family's secrets out of him, and he falls for her; told the truth, he helps her bring Yudai down. She apologises for using him and leaves. Seven years later, a primary-school teacher, he is posted to her son's school, and in the rain they kiss. When Yudai's mother attacks Minori, he shields her. When his own mother phones to say she is going to die, he goes to her, holds her and asks to walk his own way. He tells Minori he loves her however dark she thinks she is, and asks her to wait while he grows strong enough to protect her. A year later he is waiting outside her café.
Yumi Asoas Hiromi Kisaragi
Yudai's mother, outwardly Minori's kindest ally, who engineered her son's marriage for the money behind it.
Rina Ohtaas Sara Hori
Minori's friend from high school, now a lawyer, who helps her build the case for her divorce.
Why it matters
This late-night drama takes the revenge melodrama and turns it back on the one taking revenge. Minori's rage is earned: her husband kept a second family for fifteen years and married her, with his mother's help, for her father's money. But the series follows what her revenge does to people who chose none of it, above all a teenage boy she befriends in order to use. It is interested in how betrayal is inherited: Minori is herself the child of an affair, and Wataru the son of a man who walked away from his pregnant mother. The finale refuses to crown a winner. Minori embraces the lover she hated and says neither of them has earned the right to be saved, and she declines to press charges against the woman who attacked her. Whether the love that grows between her and the boy she once used is repair or repetition, the series leaves open.