novelraw Chapter 56
Chapter 56
I, Lim Hyunjun, watched silently from the periphery as the internal strife of the Taeseong family began to crack the facade of our household.
“I want to take charge of forming the audit team.”
The air in the living room froze in an instant thanks to the words Lim Do-hyun spat out.
His attitude was filled with confidence.
His voice also contained a strong will to seize the initiative.
However, Chairman Lim Man-seok’s gaze turned sharp.
“…You?”
“Yes, Father. I will uncover the truth more clearly than anyone else.”
Lim Man-seok cut him off firmly.
His eyes were full of suspicion.Complex emotions, a mixture of disappointment and wariness toward his son, crossed his face.
“Have you forgotten that you are among the individuals mentioned by Vice President Nam Yoon-kyung? Stay quiet until it is clear that you have nothing to do with this matter.”
At Lim Man-seok’s firm words, Lim Do-hyun’s expression hardened.
A shock, as if he had been slapped on the cheek, passed over his face.
“Father! I have nothing to do with this matter. Don't you think they mentioned me on purpose?”
His voice was mixed with a sense of injustice and anger.
But what followed was Chairman Lim Man-seok’s thunderous roar.
“That is all the more reason why you should not do it! You insolent fellow. Do not say another word. If you keep insisting on doing it, I will think you participated in it, not just suspect it.”
Lim Do-hyun’s face turned pale.
In front of his father’s cold gaze, he looked like a child who had become small.
Chairman Lim Man-seok’s gaze turned toward Lim Do-kyung this time.
“Do-kyung, you take charge of this matter. You can proceed with the personnel decisions after discussing them with Cheol-woo. Inform me immediately if there is even one suspicious thing.”
Lim Do-kyung bowed his head deeply at his father’s words and replied.
“I understand, Father. I will proceed by including external legal counsel and accounting experts as well.”
On the other hand, Lim Do-hyun replied reluctantly with a look of injustice on his face.
“Yes, I will do that.”
Watching that scene quietly from the side, Mrs. Yoon Myeong-sook swallowed a sigh.
Her heart felt heavy.
Because even to an outsider, the internal cracks among the family were clearly visible.
***
Public opinion regarding Jeong Tae-jun had already turned as much as it could.
When rumors of a divorce from Lim Hye-seon eventually surfaced, people’s gossip became even more intense.
In the midst of that, the body of Ma Sang-woo, the former representative of Universe Games who had disappeared a few months ago, was discovered.
The cause of death was acute traumatic shock.
However, traces that raised suspicion of murder remained at the scene, and Jeong Tae-jun was pointed out as a prime suspect.
Following the suspicion of involvement in internal corruption, he even gained the title of murder suspect.
Now there was no place left to retreat.
He was like a beast driven to a cliff.
Every article poured out by the media was plastered with provocative phrases calling it the fall of a chaebol family’s son-in-law.
The prosecution banned him from leaving the country and launched a full-scale investigation.
Jeong Tae-jun moved with his edges sharpened like a cornered beast.
No one anywhere accepted him.
The people who once looked up to him, and the people who used to follow him while wagging their tails, all disappeared like smoke.
In the end, he visited his wife, Lim Hye-seon, pinning his last hopes on her.
But she did not meet him either.
She already knew the fact that Jeong Tae-jun had a mistress and even a son between them.
Nevertheless, she had endured in silence, thinking of the pain her daughter Jeong Seo-yeon would receive.
While suppressing the resentment built up in her heart.
As Lim Hye-seon continued to refuse to meet him, Jeong Tae-jun came to Chairman Lim Man-seok’s house.
When he could not enter through the main gate, loud voices were exchanged.
Even though the security guards stopped him, he did not back down.
“Father-in-law, please listen to my side of the story as well. Tell Hye-seon that I’m being framed… Just one word! Seo-yeon, Daddy is here. Seo-yeon!”
As he caused a disturbance by shouting like a madman, Chairman Lim Man-seok let him inside with a hardened face.
He could not let him cause a commotion any longer.
Eventually, having entered the house, Jeong Tae-jun roughly wiped the sweat flowing down his forehead and ran his hand through his disheveled hair.
Passing the entrance and following the hallway led to a wide reception room.
The place he used to frequent familiarly not long ago suddenly felt unfamiliar now.
It felt like the day he first came here.
Upon entering the reception room, three people were already sitting inside.
Chairman Lim Man-seok maintained his characteristic expression full of charisma, and beside him, Lim Hye-seon and his mother-in-law, Mrs. Yoon Myeong-sook, sat side by side.
Every time Jeong Tae-jun walked forward, he felt poignantly that there was no longer a place for him there.
He forced the corners of his mouth up.
However, that smile was nothing but miserable.
“It has been a while, Father-in-law, Mother-in-law. Hye-seon, let’s talk. I have something to say.”
Lim Hye-seon did not lift her head.
The chilly atmosphere radiating from her face.
She did not say a single word.
It was as if she was denying his very existence.
Mrs. Yoon Myeong-sook, sitting beside Lim Hye-seon, opened her mouth first.
Her voice was permeated with anger that had built up for a long time.
“You are truly shameless. How can you knock on the door of this house again after causing such a disaster? Did you really come to see Seo-yeon’s face? No, there’s no way a fellow like you would….”
The anger she had held back until now poured out all at once like a burst dam.
Jeong Tae-jun bit his lip as if swallowing his rage and looked at Lim Hye-seon.
His voice was trembling.
It was a voice mixed with despair and entreaty.
“No, Mother-in-law. It’s really not me. Please believe me. Hye-seon, I’m really being framed. That’s really not true. How could I kill a person.”
It was to the point where an outsider listening would be fooled into thinking it was the truth.
He had already told too many lies.
Lim Hye-seon still did not lift her head.
She treated him like a transparent person.
Mrs. Yoon Myeong-sook glared at Jeong Tae-jun and burst into a cold sneer.
“Whether you killed a person or not is something the prosecution will uncover. But before that, the whole world already knows how a fellow like you ruined a family. A mistress with a child, no less.”
Jeong Tae-jun’s eyes are distorted.
He took a few steps toward Hye-seon again.
“Hye-seon, I was wrong. I admit it. That woman approached me first. It was just a mistake. And the child…. It was truly something not in the plans. You know too. Did I ever say anything to you because you couldn't have a child?”
“Shut that mouth!”
It was at that moment.
A sharp, thunderous shout rang out, cutting through the reception room.
Lim Man-seok glared at Jeong Tae-jun as if he would kill him while gasping for breath.
His two eyes were filled with a murderous intent that went beyond anger.
Lim Hye-seon and Yoon Myeong-sook were surprised, but not as much as Jeong Tae-jun.
He almost pissed his pants right there if he had made the slightest mistake.
It was because a fear, as if a wild beast were pouncing toward him, rushed in an instant.
Jeong Tae-jun felt the cold sweat running down his spine and took a step back.
His lips trembled.
“How dare you wag your tongue! You dare insult my daughter. You!”
Murderous intent dwelled in Chairman Lim Man-seok’s two eyes.
As his gaze pierced through Jeong Tae-jun, he could not lift his head.
It was as if he were pressed down by a giant rock.
Mrs. Yoon Myeong-sook bit her lips tightly.
Lim Hye-seon stood up from her seat.
Her face was colder and more clinical than before, like ice.
“I was foolish. I should have known from the beginning that it was a wrong connection. By the time I already found out, it was too late. But do you know why I couldn't set it right? Because I was afraid of the label of divorce being attached in a chaebol family? What does something like that matter…. Do you not think of Seo-yeon?”
Lim Hye-seon’s voice was surprisingly calm, but it was permeated with a determination as hard as ice.
“I have never once thought of Seo-yeon as not being my child. The wounds that child received while growing up, I thought I had to bear them all. That’s why I endured and endured again. But looking at it now… I endured for nothing.”
Her voice contained the resentment and resolution built up over long years.
Jeong Tae-jun tried to cut her off in a hurry.
“Hye-seon, Seo-yeon is really….”
“Stop it!”
Lim Hye-seon raised her voice for the first time.
She made her voice echo through the living room.
“Don't even call that child’s name. You don't have the right to do that.”
In an instant, Jeong Tae-jun’s eyes were dyed with madness.
“Why can't I call my daughter’s name! She’s my daughter. Seo-yeon is my daughter! You, who can't even have a child….”
At that moment, everything seemed to stop.
“Stop it!”
A voice that sounded like a wail tore through the living room.
In the direction where everyone’s gaze turned all at once, Jeong Seo-yeon was standing.
With a face stained with tears, tightly closed lips, and standing while barely holding onto her broken heart.
“Se, Seo-yeon….”
“I told you to shut that mouth.”
As Jeong Tae-jun hesitated and tried to call his daughter’s name, Jeong Seo-yeon shook her head firmly.
She walked into the living room with trembling steps.
Suppressed emotions were piled up in layers on her small shoulders, and her two eyes were full of anger toward Jeong Tae-jun.
But what was even greater than that was disappointment.
“I knew everything too. That Mom didn't give birth to me…. To you, I might be a daughter just because blood is mixed. But the person who raised me… the person who cried for me… is only my Mom.”
The deep wound contained in that young voice gouged out everyone’s heart.
Jeong Tae-jun reached out his hand with a flustered face.
“Seo-yeon, that’s all a misunderstanding. Daddy, to you….”
Jeong Seo-yeon cut off Jeong Tae-jun’s words by shouting.
“Stop it, please. That Mom can't have a child! Did you always talk to Mom that way? Is that a mistake to you, Dad? Because of the child born from that mistake, you abandoned your family. Mom and me… and all of our family!”
That voice, close to a scream, tore apart the hearts of the adults.
Jeong Tae-jun’s hand stopped in midair.
He tried to grab onto something with his trembling hand, but there was nowhere to reach out to.
Jeong Seo-yeon lowered her head and shed tears as she spoke in a low voice, but that voice was firm to the point of being mature.
“Now I don't want to call a person like you 'Dad' anymore.”
The daughter’s single sentence shattered even Jeong Tae-jun’s last hope into pieces.
Lim Hye-seon barely moved her steps while trying to hide her trembling body and approached her daughter’s side.
She quietly placed her hand on Jeong Seo-yeon’s shoulder and hugged the crying child while comforting her.
In that moment, they hugged each other tightly as if they were everything to one another.
After that, she looked at Jeong Tae-jun with firm eyes and said,
“Now, please disappear from our side. The one we really had to protect was this child. You don't have the right to be a father.”
Jeong Seo-yeon dug deeper into her mother’s embrace.
As if she would never let go, she wanted to protect her mother now.
Chairman Lim Man-seok stood up and said to Jeong Tae-jun in a cold voice.
“Now you are not my son-in-law. Get out of this house! And don't ever appear in my sight again!”
Jeong Tae-jun stood in that spot and moved his lips, but he could not spit out any words.
His biological daughter had already turned her back.
Hye-seon’s heart had also ended long ago.
He turned around with his head bowed like a soldier standing in front of a collapsed castle wall.
His body shook precariously with every step he took.
Before disappearing out the door, Jeong Seo-yeon threw her final words.
“You have been erased from our lives.”
Those words became a dagger and pierced straight into Jeong Tae-jun’s heart.