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Chapter 33
“W-what is… this…?”
Go Hye-na, still unable to comprehend what had happened to her, trembled as she touched her cheek. She processed the situation a split second too late.
“Hey! Are you crazy?!”
Hye-na’s eyes narrowed sharply. Behind them blazed a fierce fire.
“You’re the crazy one! How dare you rummage through my room?”
“…!!”
Hye-na’s eyes widened as if confessing to a crime. For a brief moment, countless thoughts flashed through her mind. Go Hye-na was flustered. But it was only a moment; she quickly regained her composure and brazenly shouted:
“Do you have proof? Do you have any evidence that I did it?!”
Right. Only by acting shamelessly like this can you be yourself, Hye-na.
“Even the day you asked the kitchen auntie to make the fruit punch, she saw you go up to the second floor. Isn’t that enough proof?”
“How am I supposed to know if that woman is lying just to pin the fact that she stole the ring on me?!”
“S-s-stole a ring? I didn’t steal anything!”
The kitchen staff member who had testified to seeing Hye-na go upstairs shook her hand nervously. Her face was pale, afraid of being accused. But Joo-young didn’t suspect her. On the contrary, Hye-na’s own words had given her 100% certainty.
“I only asked if you went through my room; I never asked if you stole the ring.”
“…!!”
“How did you know the ring disappeared from my room?”
“Th-that’s…”
Only then did Hye-na realize her slip of the tongue—but the words had already been said. There were too many witnesses who had heard her statement. Proof of this spread quickly as whispers circulated among the staff gathered in the second kitchen.
“Now that I hear it, the lady is right.”
“Then did she really steal the lady’s ring?”
“How bold… but why? Doesn’t she get more than enough money from the chairman?”
“Yeah… it’s strange. Why steal a ring?”
One by one, the staff’s expectant eyes turned to Hye-na. She hesitated and stepped back, her mind completely blank, knowing she needed to explain or excuse herself quickly. Joo-young didn’t miss the chance and stepped forward, using the crowd’s attention to press Hye-na even further.
“Do you know what ring you stole? It belonged to my mother.”
As soon as the identity of the ring was revealed, the staff gasped and covered their mouths. Among them were several who, like Butler Jo, had worked at the Hannam-dong mansion for a long time. They understood the significance of Yu Si-hyun’s heirlooms to Joo-young and were shocked.
“Give it back.”
Joo-young extended her hand toward Hye-na. She wanted to slap Hye-na’s shameless face again, but she restrained herself, setting her jaw and speaking firmly.
“If it’s money, I’ll give you as much as you need.”
Her words seemed to hang in the air, almost ignored.
“Return it quickly. My ring.”
“W-well, that is…”
Clatter—
Just as Joo-young cornered Hye-na completely, Choi Kwon-yong, who had come running after hearing the commotion from the study, opened the door—a savior had arrived.
“What’s going on?”
“Chairman!”
Hye-na immediately threw herself into Kwon-yong’s arms. She knew very well that not only the mansion staff but even Choi Joo-young couldn’t oppose Kwon-yong’s will. So she forced herself to shed fake tears, acting pure, fragile, and completely innocent.
“Sniff… Chairman…”
“What’s wrong? Why are you crying?”
“Joo-young… she… sob… I’m so unfairly treated, I can’t take it anymore, Chairman!”
“Choi Joo-young!”
Kwon-yong whirled his gaze and raised his voice.
“Explain! What’s happening here? Why are all the staff gathered? What have you been doing behind my back in my house?!”
Joo-young then explained: The Red Diamond ring, an heirloom of Yu Si-hyun, had gone missing from the safe. A witness had seen Hye-na go upstairs a few days ago. Most importantly, Hye-na mentioned the ring before even being asked. Based on this, Joo-young told Kwon-yong that Hye-na had stolen the ring.
But there was one thing Joo-young had overlooked:
“Tsk! All this fuss over just one ring?”
To Kwon-yong, Yu Si-hyun’s heirloom was just a “single ring.” Joo-young was left speechless.
“J-just one ring? It’s my mother’s ring! Don’t you know how precious it is to me?”
“If it was so precious, you should have taken care of it! Why let it lie around and risk losing it?”
“I didn’t let it lie around! I kept it safely in my drawer, in my room.”
Unlike before, her voice now carried mounting emotion.
“What else was I supposed to do? Should I have installed a safe? Are you saying it’s my fault for not locking it up in case some thief sneaked into the house?”
By the end, she was almost shouting, veins bulging in her neck, tears in her eyes.
“There’s no thief among the people in this house! If the ring went missing, it’s your fault for not keeping it!”
“Father!!”
Finally, Joo-young shouted in anger:
“You mean all this over just one ring? It’s my mother’s heirloom! One of the few traces of her left to me!”
“So what do you expect me to do?”
“…Hah. You’re not even human.”
After moving past denial and rage to acceptance, Joo-young let out a bitter laugh. This was a person with whom words could not reach—one from whom no understanding or sympathy could be expected.
“I resent that you’re my father. It’s disgusting and horrifying to share blood with someone like you.”
“How dare you—!”
Smack—!
A hand struck Joo-young’s cheek through the air. Her jaw tingled, her mind went black like a shut-down computer. Ringing filled her ears—BZZZZ. Her memory cut off there.
After finishing an external meeting, they were on the way back to the hotel.
Seong-hoon took his phone from his jacket pocket to check the messages he had sent to Choi Joo-young. The most recent message had been sent yesterday at 8:30 p.m. Yet Joo-young hadn’t checked it even by 3 p.m. the next day. The problem was that she hadn’t read messages sent six days ago either.
Tap, tap, tap.
Seong-hoon tapped the phone screen.
“This is strange…”
“What’s strange?”
At Seong-hoon’s muttering, Secretary Yoon in the passenger seat turned around.
“Try contacting Choi Joo-young’s secretary.”
“What should I say?”
“Ask about today’s schedule. And if she has free time, ask if she can meet.”
“Understood.”
Secretary Yoon immediately sent a message to Secretary Shin. The reply came quickly:
“She says it’s impossible to meet today.”
“Why not?”
“No detailed explanation was given.”
“Let me see the phone.”
“Here it is.”
Seong-hoon read Secretary Shin’s message from the phone: It wasn’t a schedule list, nor any explanation—just a single line:
[It’s not possible today. Please apologize to Representative Bae.]
It was strange. And suspicious. Previously, there was always a concise explanation of why she couldn’t make it. But today, it was just “not possible”?
“Driver, before going to the hotel, I need to stop somewhere. Can we turn left here?”
“Yes, sir. Where to?”
“Take me to CS Department Store.”
He needed to see Choi Joo-young with his own eyes. Right now.
