Chapter 01

Eunjo’s fingertips trembled as she entered the six-digit password.

‘321705’

A moment later, a cheerful electronic beep sounded, and the safe’s lock disengaged.

“I had my suspicions, but…”

Eunjo bit her lip.

The six-digit password she had just entered was a combination of her husband’s mistress Nain’s birthday and the date her husband and Nain had first slept together.

“Are you saying the password really is that? Are you sure?”

“Yes. That’s what I confirmed.”

Having personally verified what she had asked Secretary Jo about time and again, Eunjo felt as though all the blood had drained from her head.

How deeply in love did they have to be for him to remember the date of their first sexual encounter and even use it as the password to his safe?

She swallowed the scream threatening to burst from her throat and clenched her teeth. The metallic taste of blood filled her mouth. But soon, she shook her head.

“Now isn’t the time to fall apart over something like that.”

Scolding herself, Eunjo turned the safe’s handle with trembling hands.

This wasn’t the time to rage over her husband’s affair or Nain’s betrayal. She needed to find the evidence.

With her husband currently engaging in an illicit affair with Nain in her own bedroom, this was her opportunity.

She had taken sleeping pills and should have fallen into a deep sleep. While they remained blissfully unaware that she was rummaging through the safe in the study, she had to get it done.

That was far more valuable than killing her husband and his mistress while they rolled around together in bed.

As Eunjo searched through the safe, she suddenly stopped.

“Is this it?”

It was.

The document with the gold-colored cover Secretary Jo had mentioned.

And the leather case containing an SD card.

“Chairman’s genuine will should be inside Kang Jinwoo’s secret safe. And so should the vehicle’s black box footage and CCTV recordings of the accident scene.”

“Couldn’t he have destroyed them already?”

“No. Given Kang Jinwoo’s personality, he would have been anxious about letting those items out of his possession. You know how he is. He’s paranoid in the strangest ways. He must still have them.”

Secretary Jo had been right.

“Ha… Kang Jinwoo.”

Eunjo let out a sigh that sounded almost like a groan, her lips trembling.

In the end, Kang Jinwoo was the one who had brought about her father’s fate.

“With these, I can clear my father’s name and expose the truth behind his unjust death.”

And she could get a divorce, too.

She had spent the past several months keeping her head down to get her hands on this evidence.

Pretending she had forgotten her father. Pretending she had no interest in the company. But now, she was done pretending.

“You’re finished, too, Kang Jinwoo.”

And you, Kim Nain.

Struggling to suppress the betrayal that threatened to overwhelm her once more, Eunjo reached out.

The moment she picked up the leather case, a click sounded, and the lights came on in the dark study.

Startled by the sudden presence, Eunjo spun around.

“Oh my. Looks like we have a little thief.”

It was Nain.

Standing naked beneath the lights, Nain smiled, her sharply slanted eyes curving elegantly like a cat’s.

“So this is what you’ve been sneaking around doing.”

Nain’s distinctive, honeyed nasal voice grated against Eunjo’s ears.

“What are you doing in here, dear w-i-f-e?”

Nain’s gaze settled on the case in Eunjo’s hand as she approached.

Eunjo instinctively hid it behind her back.

Just then, Kang Jinwoo, her husband, appeared beyond the open doorway.

His hair was damp with sweat, his face glistening, and his brow furrowed.

At least he had enough of a conscience to throw a nightgown over his naked body.

Upon seeing her, Jinwoo let out a shallow sigh.

“Eunjo.”

His large eyes widened as he glared at her, and he slowly approached.

“You should’ve just behaved yourself and gone to sleep. What the hell are you doing after eating all that expensive food?”

Watching Jinwoo approach, Eunjo was overcome by a sense of helplessness and despair.

Secretary Jo was waiting outside.

If only she could hand these documents over to him, she could bring these shameless, brazen people to justice.

And yet she had been caught so pointlessly.

“Don’t come any closer.”

Eunjo shook her head and stepped backward.

But she knew it was useless.

Jinwoo approached with a sinister smile, his face looking like a demon crawling up from the depths of a bottomless abyss.

Nain, standing behind him, was no different.

A pair of cunning vipers—vile and cruel.

Eunjo’s lips trembled as she felt the glass balcony door against her back. Despair washed over her.

It was miserable to realize there was nowhere left to run.

No. What brought tears bursting to her eyes was her own helplessness, the fact that all she could do was keep running away.

“You two will pay for this. Heaven itself will punish you.”

That was all she could manage to say.

“My father trusted you so much, Kang Jinwoo. He loved you so much.”

Eunjo’s father, Lee Won-gyu.

South Korea’s first white-hat hacker, a pioneer in the IT industry who had developed a flawless security system.

And the founder of CX Soft.

Everyone in South Korea knew how dearly he cherished his only daughter’s husband.

He had been a devoted father-in-law, the kind of man who gave his son-in-law everything without ever thinking twice about it.

“And you did this to him…”

“I did everything I could for your father, too.”

As Eunjo choked on her tears, unable to finish her sentence, Jinwoo hurled words at her like daggers.

“When your father had cancer, didn’t I treat him well? I went all over the country with that difficult old geezer, doing everything I could to keep him happy.”

It wasn’t a lie.

“If he wanted some fresh air, I rushed him out. If he wanted something to eat, I went and got it for him. There couldn’t have been a better son-in-law in the world.”

On the surface, that was how it had looked. What mattered was what lay beneath.

“You treated him well? What exactly did you do well?”

Back then, Eunjo had been so touched by Jinwoo’s affectionate behavior that she had even considered trying to love him a little.

But it had all been a lie.

“While you were doing all that, you were stealing my father’s seal and scheming behind his back.”

Once, while her father was out, Jinwoo had secretly entered her childhood home to steal her father’s personal seal, only to be caught by the butler. Anyone else would have called the police.

But because he was her father’s son-in-law, her father had turned a blind eye, letting the matter disappear as though it had never happened.

Even then, Jinwoo hadn’t stopped his wrongdoing.

And now, he was trying to erase all traces of everything he had done.

“Scheming, you say?”

Jinwoo scoffed at Eunjo’s accusation.

His cold, sinister eyes gleamed with amusement.

She had seen him in all sorts of situations, but she had never seen Kang Jinwoo like this before.

“Do you have proof?”

Proof?

When she was standing right here in front of him?

Watching Jinwoo approach with the corners of his mouth twisted into a crooked smile, Eunjo bit down hard on her lower lip.

“Yes, I do.”

Instinctively, she sensed that this was her final moment.

Jinwoo was asking whether she had proof because he no longer intended to leave any evidence behind.

The most damning evidence of Kang Jinwoo’s crimes was standing right in front of him.

Her.

There was nowhere left to retreat.

Eunjo straightened her back.

“Do you know why I’ve spent the past several months keeping my mouth shut, even though I knew perfectly well that you were making out with Kim Nain in my own home and doing all kinds of filthy things together?”

So she launched the only counterattack she could.

“I was gathering evidence that you caused my father’s death, forged his will, and even created a slush fund using company money.”

Jinwoo had forced Eunjo, who was already suffering from depression, panic disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder from witnessing her father’s accident, to take mountains of psychiatric medication.

He had wanted her to spend her days drugged out of her mind, barely able to function.

But she hadn’t lived that way. She had only pretended to.

“Even if I can’t make it out of here alive, Secretary Jo will go straight to the prosecutor’s office.”

Secretary Jo Hyun-soo, her father’s loyal secretary, had been helping her all this time. He had finished making all the necessary preparations and was waiting for her now.

They had already agreed that if she failed to come out within the allotted time, he would leave for the prosecutor’s office without her.

Even without the decisive evidence in her hands, the circumstantial evidence they had gathered was already sufficient to file a report.

And if something happened to her here?

Jinwoo would be adding murder to his list of crimes.

The smartwatch on her wrist was recording everything happening right now. With a single press of a button, the audio would be sent to Secretary Jo’s web drive.

So go ahead. Keep talking, Kang Jinwoo.

“This means you’re finished. You murderous bastard.”

At Eunjo’s words, Jinwoo burst into hearty laughter.

“Eunjo. Eunjo.”

The sinister amusement in his voice sent a chill down her spine.

“Poor Lee Eunjo.”

Nain giggled and moved closer to Jinwoo.

Jinwoo wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close, then spoke to Eunjo in an exceedingly kind voice.

“Listen carefully. I’m going to tell you exactly three things.”

He took something from Nain and approached Eunjo.

“First, you’re not leaving here alive.”

Standing right in front of her, Jinwoo spoke, his repulsive scent filling her nostrils.

“Second, Secretary Jo isn’t going to the prosecutor’s office. The evidence you supposedly collected will be scattered and disappear from the face of the earth.”

Eunjo’s eyes widened at his words.

“What have you done to Secretary Jo…?”

Instead of answering, Jinwoo chuckled and seized her arm in a powerful grip.

“Let go!”

Eunjo struggled to wrench herself free, but it was useless.

Jinwoo’s sinister voice continued.

“And third, we’ll put your inheritance to good use.”

Then a needle pierced the back of her neck.

“No!”

Her desperate scream never made it out.

The drug injected into her bloodstream was paralyzing her body.

The case was snatched from her hand, and moments later, the balcony door behind her was opened.

The chilly predawn air of September swept in, accompanied by the noise of passing cars that grated against her ears.

“Goodbye, Lee Eunjo. In just a little while, you’ll become the unfortunate heiress who, unable to bear her depression any longer, jumped to her death from the balcony of a forty-sixth-floor apartment.”

Jinwoo lifted her body and hurled her over the railing.

It all happened in an instant.