Chapter 58
Chapter 58
“Did you really think I’d let you go?”
That’s why I wanted to believe in Shin Chi-woo till the very end, the way he’d fiddled with that ring. I was sure that not everything between us had been fake.
But seeing how far things had gone now, I was snapped back to reality. That certainty didn’t come from Shin Chi-woo. I just wanted to believe it. The moment I admitted I was the only one who had feelings, I’d be hurt.
Then I started to wonder—had I been waiting all day for a message from him? Was that hope a lie too? If the moment my heart fluttered for someone turned out to be a mirage, how cruel would that be?
“The one I pity most is your daughter—stuck with a traitor for a father.”
“Chairman…”
“You want me to spare Wan-yi? Isn’t she going through this hell because she’s Seo Kyoyong’s daughter?”
“……”
“If you truly cared about your daughter, you shouldn’t have done any of this in the first place!”
My father had nothing to say in the face of Chairman Pyeon’s rebuke. He knew, as I did, that I was enduring all this because I was his daughter. That guilt was likely the reason for his tears now.
“Like Wan-yi said, didn’t you realize your daughter would be used by cowards like us?”
“…No, I didn’t.”
“Well, just like you said, I’ll spare Wan-yi. I know she’s innocent.”
“Thank you. Thank you, Chairman…”
“If she were on your side, I wouldn’t have let her go. I’d have turned that pretty face into something just like that bitch’s…”
Where did it start? When did this whole thing become such an elaborate deception? The thought that everything had been a calculated lie made my body tremble with betrayal.
What if all the kindness Shin Chi-woo showed me day after day was just to set up today? Building trust like an alibi so I’d believe him at the most critical moment?
The sex too—maybe it was part of it. The most dramatic act to create a moment I’d never forget. And I—without even knowing—was swept up in lust.
“It’s a burner phone, so it can’t be tracked. Keep it well hidden.”
Even him looking after me on the island, even the helicopter rescue—was it all part of the plan? Just hours ago, the man who begged me not to leave… this couldn’t be happening.
Tears kept falling, but I didn’t even think to wipe them. I looked at Chairman Pyeon, then at Shin Chi-woo, then met eyes with my dad—and finally dropped my gaze to the floor.
Who was it that said that on the island? Was it Glasses or the ballerina? Ah—Glasses.
“If you get caught by someone worse than a viper, even if you live, it won’t be living—like Gombo.”
Yeah, I felt like I’d been caught by someone worse than a viper. The feelings I hadn’t even begun had already been shredded to pieces, leaving nothing but pain.
Chairman Pyeon was a bastard, but to me, Shin Chi-woo was worse. The man I liked was about to kill my father. What had I done to deserve this level of torment?
“Lie and say you’re pregnant. The faster the rumor spreads, the better. The timing is perfect too.”
If I’d been truly stupid—just naively played by that cunning man—maybe it wouldn’t hurt this much. I hadn’t always made the smartest choices, but I’d tried to think things through. Still, maybe it had all been in the palm of his hand.
“You claim to care about your daughter and yet you pull this? You made me a devil and your daughter a liar and threw her into hell. You did that! This is all your fault!”
“Chairman, please… Your breathing—”
“Let go, Chi-woo. Seo Kyoyong… If you really cared about Wan-yi, you would’ve knelt before me the moment you realized I’d caught her!”
“……”
“Wan-yi, Seo Wan-yi! This is your father. The man who offered you up as a sacrifice just to save himself!”
Dad was no different. Chairman Pyeon, Dad, Shin Chi-woo—every one of them. In the end, they all lied, divided, and used each other for their own gain. I realized there was no point obsessing over when or why Shin Chi-woo had betrayed me.
Or whether his feelings for me had ever been real.
“I’ll spare Wan-yi. I swear it in front of everyone here, on the soul of my dead son. Your daughter, Seo Wan-yi, will return home safely today.”
“Thank you, sir. No—thank you, Chairman.”
“Wan-yi, don’t ever tell such a lie again. How dare you try to barter your life with a child that doesn’t exist in your belly? So arrogant!”
It looked like my life had been guaranteed through Shin Chi-woo’s deal with Chairman Pyeon. But there was no joy in it. Even if he was still on my side and tried to save me, he had silently agreed to let my father die.
If betrayal comes at the end, does that make it bittersweet? If he’d betrayed me from the beginning, would I hate him instead? Just because I lived thanks to a last-minute betrayal, am I supposed to forgive everything he’s done?
No. I can’t do that.
Whether I get hurt or not, the truth is the same: he’s a bad man. It took all these tears to finally accept something so simple.
“So tell me now—why did you betray me? It wasn’t just for money, was it?”
“Chairman… no, Brother. Did you think I wouldn’t know?”
“Speak clearly.”
“My wife—why did she die?”
Dad… what are you talking about now? I turned my head, still crying. I never imagined that Mom—my mother, who’s been gone nearly ten years—would be brought up here.
“I knew all about what was going on between you and my wife, Brother. But I pretended not to because I wanted to protect my family.”
“That was just an unfortunate accident, like a natural disaster. I didn’t kill your wife.”
“Really…? Died of a heart attack in a sauna while out golfing with friends… Was that really just a tragic accident?”
“Don’t tell me… Are you saying you misunderstood everything all this time and that’s why you did all this?”
“Why? Am I not allowed to take revenge? My wife died unjustly, and Wan-yi lost her mother. Wouldn’t it be stranger if I had done nothing, Chairman?”
It was shocking enough to think Mom’s death might have been murder, but even more so was Dad’s implication that she’d had an affair with Chairman Pyeon. Even more jarring—Chairman Pyeon denied the murder, but said nothing to refute the affair.
Come to think of it, there was the ballerina on the island too. His womanizing seemed extensive… but still, my mom? Why did she have to be dragged into this? In the face of Dad’s sudden confession, Chairman Pyeon looked visibly shaken.
“I tried to hide it until the end so Wan-yi would never find out! That was the only way to protect my wife’s honor…”
“Director Seo, I looked into it too! Do you think I was at peace when she died so suddenly like that?”
“Then you shouldn’t have done it to begin with! Of all the women in the world, why did it have to be my wife?”
“It was a mistake.”
“A mistake? If it were truly a mistake, it should’ve happened only once! But for years you kept doing it… Even in my own bed! And you call that a mistake?”
“Damn it, I told you—I didn’t kill her. I looked into it too because I had doubts… Her heart gave out suddenly, and of all places, the sauna was covered in marble, so when she collapsed, her head struck a sharp corner… It was an accident.”
The past, which I never expected to be dragged up, hit me like a storm. But after hearing what Dad said, I remembered something odd. I started mentally rewinding, going back to the time when Mom died, when I was repeating my college entrance exams, and began retracing everything.
“To determine the exact cause, we may need an autopsy…”
Even back then, Dad had suspected Mom’s death might not have been a simple case of sudden illness. If her death had been a cover-up for an affair with Chairman Pyeon, then his reckless betrayal starts to make sense.
It couldn’t have been just about money—we were financially stable, and Dad wasn’t the type to act rashly for profit. But if this was about a love affair and revenge, then everything suddenly clicked into place.
“Like you said, the days of playing with dolls are over.”
Yeah, that teddy bear… It all started when I was a three-time test taker. After Mom died, Dad had been methodically planning his revenge. That must be why Chairman Pyeon was so furious—because he saw it as a long-held grudge.
“No… My wife was killed by you, Brother. A woman who was that health-conscious suddenly dies of a heart attack?”
“It’s always the ones chasing immortality who die first.”
“So, are you satisfied now? Now that you know why I betrayed you, do you feel better?”
“Yes, I feel better. Now I can die in peace.”
“Then keep your promise. You said you’d spare Wan-yi… Every executive in this room heard it. I heard it, and so did Wan-yi.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll keep my promise.”
Chairman Pyeon nodded and tapped his finger against the armrest of his wheelchair as he looked at me. He seemed to be deep in thought for a moment, and then, with a resolute expression, he finally spoke.
