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“Something terrible has happened!”
Woo-shik yelled at the top of his lungs as he ran towards the security office.
The security guard, who had been blankly watching the CCTV with sleepy eyes in the middle of the night, looked at Woo-shik in surprise.
“What’s the matter?”
“Ch, Chairman fell into the water! Hurry, go see!”
“Chairman? Where?”
“Quickly! There’s no time! I tried to save him but failed. It’s the pond in the back garden that’s under construction!”
Two startled security guards jumped up from their seats and quickly ran out of the security office.
As soon as the guards left, Woo-shik, who had been pretending to panic as if he would follow, calmly approached the CCTV monitor. He looked around and began to manipulate the CCTV controls.
The area where the pond under construction was located was still without CCTV.
Still, just in case, he checked the CCTVs that showed the inside of the house one by one. He could vaguely see Woo-shik leaving the room and Chairman Park running in the garden.
When he had pushed the old man with the wooden pole, the old man had sunk powerlessly into the water. It didn’t take long for the bubbling foam to subside and for the hand that had been flailing out of the water to limply fold back into the water.
After recording the parts of the footage where he appeared onto his phone, Woo-shik smiled contentedly when he confirmed that there were no decisive scenes.
All that was left was to check if the method Chairman Park had told him was correct and to take out the items from the safe.
He wanted to go into Chairman Park’s office right away, but he decided to wait.
If he acted immediately after the incident, it would surely raise suspicion.
Woo-shik took a deep breath and then ran towards the pond where the guards would be.
________________________________________
[Taesung Group Honorary Chairman Park Yoon-hwa in Critical Condition.]
As the sudden news that had broken last night decorated the TV in the hospital lobby, the youngest daughter, Jung Jae-eun, crossed the center of the lobby with hurried steps.
“Mother!”
As soon as the hospital room door opened, Jung Jae-eun burst inside, wailing.
Inside the room, her brothers were already gathered around Park Yoon-hwa, who was in critical condition.
“Mother! Please open your eyes! Mother!”
Jae-eun rushed to the bedside, swallowing her sorrowful sobs, but Jae-hoon blocked her with a mocking look.
“Jae-eun, let’s cut the act, we all know each other, right? It’s cumbersome.”
“Oppa, what are you saying? How can you talk about acting when Mom is like this?”
“Mother is in a coma. She can’t hear you no matter how much you cry.”
“Is that so?”
At her brother’s few words, Jae-eun immediately wiped away her tears and crossed her arms.
“Oppa, you guys are fast? I thought I came pretty early too.”
“You sly fox.”
Jae-hoon clicked his tongue, as if tired of her quick change of attitude.
“As Oppa says, why pretend we don’t know each other? What’s Mother’s condition?”
Jae-eun’s gaze turned to Park Yoon-hwa lying down. Now, there was no trace of sadness on her face. The way she looked at her mother, who was lying sick, was utterly dry.
“They say she drank too much water before being rescued. It seems she almost drowned.”
Taehoon, who had been silently looking at Park Yoon-hwa, opened his mouth.
“Is that so?”
Jae-eun’s eyes sharpened at Taehoon’s words.
Her mind became cluttered.
She had thought her mother would eventually fall ill, but she hadn’t expected the situation to become so urgent. It was something she had predicted, but the ending came before she could complete her plan.
The sudden change in circumstances had ruined many things that Jung Jae-eun had been plotting with Im Woo-shik for years.
Most importantly, she hadn’t yet obtained the will.
“Then what happens now?”
Jae-eun, her eyes darting around incessantly, looked at her eldest brother, Taehoon, and asked.
Taehoon, who usually seemed frail and would only cry, was looking at her with unusually clear eyes. Jae-eun sensed that something was going seriously wrong.
“The attending medical staff have unanimously concluded that Mother has lost her judgment.”
Park Yoon-hwa had been overusing antidepressants on a regular basis. Adding the fact that she had inexplicably thrown herself into the pond in the middle of the night, the medical staff concluded that Park Yoon-hwa’s mental state had gone beyond the normal range.
The decision-making power of the giant conglomerate Taesung was like the lifeline of hundreds of thousands of people employed by the company. There was an immediate need for someone to act as her proxy.
“An emergency board meeting will be convened. Since Mother has held the final voting rights until now, there will be a meeting regarding that...”
“Oh my! Oppa, what’s wrong with you? Are you saying you’re going to take it all for yourself?”
Jae-eun interrupted Taehoon before he could finish speaking. In the current situation, Taehoon, as the eldest brother and the highest-ranking figure within the group, had the highest chance of being appointed as the legal guardian.
“Jae-eun. And Jae-hoon. I want you two to step down from management now.”
At Taehoon’s sudden words, his two younger siblings wore bewildered expressions before bursting into laughter.
“Oh my, Oppa. What kind of joke is that? Who do you think you’re kicking out right now?”
It was the arrogant attitude of a younger sibling who had never considered her sickly older brother as her equal. Jae-hoon, like Jae-eun, looked at Taehoon with an incredulous face.
“Hyung, it seems you think you’ll become the legal guardian because of Mom’s condition, but don’t get the wrong idea that you can take over Taesung. What kind of greed does a weakling like you have?”
“It’s not greed, Jae-hoon.”
Taehoon, however, didn’t back down as usual and continued speaking firmly, looking at his two younger siblings.
“I want to break the curse of this family that has been passed down from Mother’s generation. I want to eliminate the things that have caused siblings to be at odds and prevented the family from living like a family.”
“And you’re saying the way to eliminate that is to monopolize everything yourself? That’s absurd.”
Before his scoffing siblings, Taehoon stepped forward, putting strength in his voice.
“Let’s discuss the details at a meeting tomorrow, with everyone present. Make sure you all come prepared.”
Having finished speaking, Taehoon glanced at his siblings and left the room first.
“What? This is ridiculous. Really.”
Jae-eun, clicking her tongue as if she was dumbfounded, immediately wore a stern expression when she met Jae-hoon’s eyes beside her.
“It might not be bad to settle things amongst ourselves now. See you tomorrow, Oppa.”
“Jae-eun, don’t plot anything unnecessary and just come.”
“You too, Oppa.”
The two of them quickly left the hospital room, vying with each other.
Thump.
As the door closed, only Chairman Park remained alone in the room. Although a caregiver was on standby 24 hours for her, none of her blood relatives came to see Park Yoon-hwa anymore.
________________________________________
The next day, the entire family of Taesung gathered in Chairman Park’s office.
As the matter was significant, the entire family gathered in one place before the appointed time.
The first to speak was Jung Jae-eun.
“Let’s proceed according to the will. Then.”
“What makes you so confident about what’s written there? Did you sneak the will away?”
Jae-eun and Jae-hoon had no interest in Park Yoon-hwa’s well-being. They were busy arguing about whether to reveal the will or not, with the person in question still very much alive.
The existence of their mother might have already died a long time ago in their hearts.
Just like the existence of his grandmother in Soohyun’s heart.
Soohyun silently watched the two of them raising their voices, oblivious to the gazes of their children watching them.
“Doesn’t everyone remember what Mother said in the office? The story about how she would hand over the inheritance to the person with the most shares.”
“Jae-eun, have you forgotten that Mother drew a line under you from the start, saying you were married out of the family? Do you remember that Daeho was never allowed into Mother’s office?”
“What does Daeho have to do with this situation? I went in and out of the office all the time!”
No sooner had Jae-eun finished speaking than Jae-hoon pounced. The two of them raised their voices competitively, arguing fiercely. At the end of a relentless verbal battle with no concessions, all that remained was old resentment.
Who would call these people family?
In Soohyun’s eyes, Jae-eun and Jae-hoon looked like hyenas that had come out to devour the corpse after the lion had died.
‘You still have what’s most important to you left, Sunbae. Revenge.’
Just like Haerin had said, he had tormented Haerin like that to achieve this moment and to avoid being caught off guard by Chairman Park. He had despised her, pushed her away, and caused her pain.
Just like Chairman Park had done to his own mother.
He had pushed her away, telling her to get lost because she was exhausted. And he had even called it love.
He had spouted such ridiculous words as, ‘I love you, so I’m wielding the whip at you now to save you from this hell.’
He had hurt her to get rid of these trash. What were these things anyway?
Watching Jae-hoon and Jae-eun raising their voices, Soohyun couldn’t bear it any longer and abruptly stood up from his seat. Watching their squabble made him feel nauseous.
“It’s hard to watch anymore. Aunt, and Uncle.”
“What?”
To Jae-eun, who was frowning at him, Soohyun spat out the rest of his words without restraint.
“It’s disgusting.”
And he spilled the documents he was holding with a clatter.
Before the eyes of Jae-hoon, Jae-eun, and the rest of the family watching, a large pile of papers lay scattered, which were copies of the detailed investigation and 정리 of the Taesung family’s past wrongdoings.
“Wh, what is this?”
Jae-eun, picking up one of the papers scattered on the floor, cried out in a voice close to a scream. The cousins who had been watching murmured and picked up the papers that had fallen to the floor.
There were photos of someone’s affair, and there were also reports on the illegal misappropriation of company funds.
“Drug addiction, affairs, sexual assault and harassment, unfair dismissals... Embezzlement and breach of trust are just the basics. It’s no different from a gangster organization. This is Taesung, a major conglomerate.”
Soohyun looked sharply at his aunt, uncle, and cousins, sweeping his gaze over them. As the ugly truth of their ruthless tyranny under the guise of wealth was revealed, not one of them could meet Soohyun’s eyes.
“Soohyun-ah. What is all this? Your aunt is a bit taken aback, you see.”
Among the papers scattered on the floor, Jae-eun picked up Chairman Park’s antidepressant prescription.
Jae-eun, who had conspired with the attending physician to write the prescription twice, encouraging drug abuse, crumpled the paper in her hand, her lips trembling.
“Aunt, you manipulated the prescription knowing full well Chairman Park’s health condition. It’s as if you wanted her to die quickly.”
“Wh, what are you talking about!”
Jae-eun, accused of patricide in front of her children, trembled violently and looked back at her son and daughter who were watching from behind.
“It looked no different from assisted suicide. If you’re thinking of bribing the attending physician, I suggest you stop. The fact that I know about this means that person is no longer on your side.”
“Soohyun-ah. We’re... family, aren’t we? Family should cover up each other’s faults...”
“Family?”
The moment Jae-eun began to speak, sizing up Soohyun, Soohyun cut her off with a hollow laugh.
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