On the way back to Seoul, Serin called Jihan several times, but he didn’t answer. There had never been a time when Jihan didn’t answer her calls. Moreover, Director Kim also remained silent to Serin’s calls.

Anxiety slowly rose with each step on the way back home.

‘Something’s strange. This is weird!’

With trembling hands, she pressed the door code. Her hands were shaking so much that she slipped several times while entering the password.

When she finally entered the house, she saw the chaotic state of the interior.
Serin’s heart sank.

“W-What is this…! Oppa!”

A chilling shiver ran through Serin’s entire body.

As she searched for Jihan, half-heartedly wandering around the house, she entered the partially open study.

“Oh, oppa. What on earth happened…?”

Serin’s eyes met with Jihan, who was sitting in the study.

In front of Jihan, empty liquor bottles were scattered.

The study, more seriously damaged than the chaotic living room, came into view.

Shelves that had fallen over covered the wall, and books were scattered on the floor without order.

Jihan looked at Serin entering the study and stood up from the chair.

When their eyes met, gleaming with hostility, Serin trembled involuntarily.

He seemed different from his usual self.

Even when he caught wind of the solicitation murder, he wasn’t this hostile.

‘Surely not.’

From the changed look in Jihan’s eyes, Serin sensed everything.

He had discovered the pregnancy lie that she had been hiding.

“Oh, oppa. That…”

Jihan threw an empty glass in his hand towards the empty wall.

With the sound of the glass shattering, sharp shards cut Serin’s cheek.

Although she felt a sharp pain in her cheek, she had no time to pay attention to it.

Serin followed Jihan, who was leaving the study.

“Oppa! I’m sorry. Wait, let’s talk!”

Serin had somehow come out into the living room, blocking Jihan’s way.

“I’m sorry. I never intended to deceive you from the beginning, hehe.”

Serin cried out, collapsing to her knees.

Without any way to escape, she felt like she would end up in prison without any resistance.

‘What should I do? Mom… What should I do?’

“Is saying sorry the end?”

With a twisted smile, Jihan threw an envelope towards Serin.

Inside spilled out a prenatal picture and the mother’s notebook.

“Disgusting. Creating a non-existent child to deceive me.”

“I’ll explain everything… Please, give me one more chance!”

“A chance? I’ve already given you a chance to be honest.”

Serin felt her heart thumping on the floor under Jihan’s fierce gaze.

The words he said to me in the parking lot were still vivid in my mind.

But feeling like she had nowhere to retreat, Serin knelt on the spot.

In no time, tears poured down on the carpet.

“I couldn’t speak up. I was too scared of oppa, thinking that oppa was an untouchable person.”

“…”

“I was terrified by my sister’s words that even if I divorced Yeojin unnie, I would soon meet another woman similar to Yeojin unnie. Hehe. Oppa, please forgive me just once.”

“…”

“I’ll live repaying it for the rest of my life. I’m so scared, oppa.”

Even with Serin’s pouring explanations, Jihan didn’t bat an eye.

Serin felt bleak. And she was afraid of being abandoned by Jihan like this.

Reaching out to him with a desperate face, Jihan even pushed away her hand.

“Why should I help you?”

“…”

“You must be delusional. I wasn’t trying to rescue you because I loved you.”
Jihan bent his knees, aligning his eyes with Serin’s height.

In the first encounter with his ruthless gaze, her heart tightened endlessly.

“I did it because you’re the mother of my unborn child.”

After saying that, he ruthlessly tore apart the densely written marriage certificate in front of her.

“No! Oppa!”

Serin screamed, clutching the shredded marriage certificate.

It seemed to display the relationship between them that had reached a crisis.

“Hehe. Was it necessary to go this far just because everyone loves oppa?”

“Love? Speak straight.”

Jihan cast a cold sneer towards the sobbing Serin.

[Dash] Thud.

He gripped her chin, which was deeply lowered.

Guided by his hand, Serin’s face, now pale as a sheet, rose.

“Y-You did it to fulfill your fantasy.”

Staring with eyes colder than ice, he continued speaking.

“Did you think I wouldn’t know that you installed a listening device in the study?”

“Ugh!”

Serin was shocked and swallowed her breath.

Jihan knew about the wiretapping! Since when…?

Terrified by his penetrating gaze, Serin trembled from head to toe.

The man in front of her seemed to have learned about Jihan she knew until now.

It was confusing whether the Jihan I had seen so far was the real Jihan.

The man who laughed so maliciously was the man I had longed for so much.

A deep sense of loss spread on Serin’s face.

And at the moment when the emptiness of everything rushed in, Jihan handed her a tablet.

“Check it.”

Serin lowered her gaze towards the tablet.

The video playing on the screen was this morning’s news broadcast.

[Next news. The car accident involving Seo Jaeha, the son of the CEO of Hojin Group, reported a few days ago, has been revealed as a contract murder by someone……]

A contract murder?

Serin’s hands shook as she listened to the anchor’s voice flowing through the tablet.

[The person who solicited the murder has shockingly been revealed to be a famous caster with the initials ‘C’……]

Jihan pointed to the video with the tip of his chin, sneering.

“Look at the result you created. It’s not just ruining your own life.”

“Oppa.”

“Our family has become a laughingstock because of you alone!”

At Jihan’s loud voice, Serin’s vision turned white.

She sensed that everything was over.

Grabbing the arm of Jihan, who was trying to stand up, Serin held him back.

“I was wrong. Please…! Just once, please!”

Jihan ruthlessly brushed off Serin’s touch.

Abruptly, as if shaking off something dirty, he straightened the pants that Serin had grabbed.

At that moment, the residence’s doorbell began to ring.

There’s no way someone would visit their house where only the two of them lived. Anxiously trembling, Serin’s eyes met Jihan’s gaze.

“Go out.”

“…What?”

‘Go out? Why…?’

Could it be… No?

In the face of the approaching anxiety, Serin’s heart pounded as if it would burst.

The short time waiting for Jihan’s answer felt unbearably long.

He directed a cruel smile at the anxious Serin.
“They must be detectives who came to pick you up.”

At the mention of detectives, Serin felt her ears clog up.

Only now did she understand the meaning behind Jaiha’s words at Cheongpyeong Villa.

“The only lifeline left for you is Seo Ji-han. Beg him for mercy.”

“…….”

“Well, even that seems like it’ll be over by today.”

Jaiha knew.

That the moment he returned home, he would be arrested by the police, and that Ji-han would abandon him.

Facing Ji-han, he looked down at Serin with an extremely cold gaze.

And as if urging her, the doorbell rang again.