Chapter 09
Beep! Beep!
The irretrievable sound of the ringing echoed, and her heart pounded violently as if trying to tear through a drum.
It was 10 p.m. and her husband still hadn’t returned home.
A tense expression marred Heeju’s face as she absently toyed with her necklace.
‘Am I doing the right thing? N- No… I can do this, right?’
What had begun with sheer willpower and stubbornness was now about to take shape. Yet, as her carefully laid plans materialized, her thoughts began to falter.
Her teeth chattered from tension.
‘Maybe I should’ve taken something for this beforehand?’
Beep! Beep!
The seemingly endless ringing sounded like a precarious countdown.
Every passing second was a torturous reminder of her former helplessness.
Finally, as her breath grew short and dizziness set in, the ringing stopped abruptly.
“…!”
Her tightly shut eyes twitched at the sudden silence.
‘It worked. He answered…!’
‘Cam down! I have to stay calm…’
As she inhaled to speak her first word—
― “Is my wife dying at your hands again today?”
“Cough.. Cough!”
Heeju was startled and her face twisted in dismay.
His mocking tone had already shifted the balance of power. D*mn it. This wasn’t the start she wanted.
―“You sound quite shocked.”
“N-no, n-not at all. I’m…”
She attempted to mimic the flustered hostage-taker from before, but her words tangled effortlessly on their own.
Thankfully, the voice modulation seemed to be working well enough, as Baek Sa-eon remained calm.
―“Then let’s hear your plan to harm me, shall we?”
“…!”
How did he recognize her? Did he memorize every number that was received and eliminate possibilities?
―“You’re keeping my wife safe, aren’t you?”
She was the one supposed to be issuing threats, yet he was laughing at her instead.
‘Don’t get swept up. Stay in control.’
Biting her stiff tongue, Heeju took a deep breath.
“…Who said she’s your wife?”
She felt a pang in her heart but decided to ignore it. Taking back control of the conversation was all that mattered now.
“You abandoned your longtime fiancée and married your soon-to-be sister-in-law.”
―“…!”
The air slowly turned tense.
“That’s what I’m planning to expose.”
Finally, Heeju brought out the weapon to attack her husband— a crack in Baek Sa-eon’s supposedly flawless moral image.
This was the first scenario she had prepared.
“You don’t even know where your original fiancée is now, do you?”
Her sister, who had vanished without a trace before her wedding day, hadn’t been heard from in three years. The chairman, driven by desperation, had dispatched a search team, his frustration growing with each passing day.
Her sister’s absence loomed over everyone equally. That gave Heeju plenty of room to fabricate.
“I wonder what happened to her? Did you have a hand in it?”
Of course, there was some exaggeration. But the truth didn’t matter. What mattered was sticking the labels on him.
Innocence, once lost, is irretrievable. A single rumor would suffice to tarnish his reputation.
Baek Sa-eon wouldn’t tolerate a stain on his pristine image.
“You used one sister one after another. Conveniently.”
―“…”
“And now, suddenly one of them is missing? People will love this story. Their darling Baek Sa-eon, the articulate spokesperson, turns out to be so filthy, perverted, and trashy. I’m sure the public will enjoy this with relish.”
Such a scandal, entangled with family, wasn’t just weird— it was downright taboo.
In a society where ability and morality were hard to separate, the fervent trust in him would return as scathing condemnation.
Baek Sa-eon wasn’t naive enough to ignore the gravity.
“―What do you want?”
‘Good. That’s more like it.’
Heeju was finally satisfied with his tone. Without missing a beat, she replied, “Before I expose everything, you’ll fix this yourself.”
―“Be specific.”
“Ditch Hong Heeju and bring back your original fiancée.”
―“…”
“Restore everything to how it should’ve been.”
―“…”
“Besides, you don’t need Hong Heeju anyway.”
Heeju’s expression was twisted already. But the unbearable satisfaction distorted her face further.
“She wasn’t even the one meant as your partner.”
Heeju never expected her long-standing inferiority complex to become a bargaining chip for her escape. The exhilarating defiance was new.
“Do you understand? If you don’t want your father’s campaign drowned in filth, put things back in order. You can do that much easily, can’t you?”
The man stayed silent.
Baek Sa-eon wasn’t the type to throw away his political career at its infancy and this was Heeju’s chance to seize the upper hand.
“A man headed for parliament, crumbling right here? Over one dirty scandal? Could you even forgive yourself? Get real, bro. Do the math yourself.”
Maybe this was why people wore masks in kidnapping scenes. The shrill, sly voice she had projected was scary even to herself.
“Imagine your father, the next president, being humiliated by your antics. Who would want a man with no loyalty, no conscience, and no decency as the government’s representative? It won’t be a small blotch.. But something that would end your career.”
The words burst out like fireworks.
Heeju spun around in place, savoring the unprecedented sense of liberation.
“You have until tomorrow to decide.”
To top it off, she let out a nasty laugh, echoing back into her ear.
The timid second daughter of Sankyung Daily was gone. Now, she was a nameless, ageless, jobless blackmailer.
“Or, you can settle for 2 billion won.”
―“…”
“It’s cheaper than having your personal life exposed.”
For Heeju, whether it was divorce or 2 billion won, neither choice would be a loss.
“I’ll call again tomorrow.”
She glanced at the timer.
For a first call, this wasn’t bad at all. Her demands were clear, and her threats struck directly at his perfectionism.
Now was the time to hang up. Ending the call decisively would assert who held control of the conversation. She moved to press the disconnect button without hesitation—
―“Are you done?”
A screeching sound of a chair being pushed back suddenly interrupted her.
―“All that buildup and this is the grand threat you came up with?”
The man let out what sounded like a mix of a sigh and a sneer. His drawn-out voice carried a hint of boredom.
―“It amazes me how people like you never change your repertoire.”
His muttered words of disdain made her freeze..
―“If I claim that a lunatic is targeting me, that’s the end of it. I’ll discredit you as a deranged societal menace, and your argument would be invalid..”
“……”
―“Do you want this to remain as a phishing scam or stretch it out to be something more?”
In just a few words, he had turned the tables, while exposing a vulnerability she hadn’t even considered.
Heeju’s lips trembled faintly.
―“If you want to attempt blackmail, start by studying me first.”
“……!”
A surge of humiliation welled up, and she bit her lower lip in silence.
―“Hundreds of journalists have tried to make me talk. What makes you think you’ll succeed?”
She had never expected to defeat him easily.
Was it her overconfidence in the years she had spent observing him? She thought she had known him well enough.
Her moment of triumph was cruelly cut short by the exposure of her hidden arrogance.
―“It’s a simple matter to downplay this as an unlucky misunderstanding instead of a scandal. Taking down an amateur blackmailer like you? That’s child’s play.”
It felt as though an invisible finger was jabbing her forehead repeatedly.
―“But why would I…”
His voice, previously exuding ennui, suddenly turned cold and sharp.
―“Why would I entertain the audacity of your demands to abandon my wife?”
“……!”
―“Why would I push the person in the dirt I’ve tried to protect?”
‘My wife?’
The words were infuriating, even enraging.
Heeju let out an incredulous huff.
‘In the previous call, he was waiting for a corpse. And now he’s suddenly playing the devoted husband?*
Whether he had realized she was recording him or had some other hidden agenda, she couldn’t tell.
His sudden shift to a protective role clearly undermined her progress.
“Y- You…! Did you check Hong Heeju’s car?”
―“What nonsense are you about to spew now?”
“She had it scrapped!”
Baek Sa-eon stayed silent as if trying to parse her words for meaning.
“Did you even know? And you call her ‘my wife’?”
The satisfaction of hurling those words at him made her feel vindicated.
“Do you still think this is a game? T- That I’m some loser stuck in my room? That night, I had your wife’s hair, her neck, even her lips in my grasp.”
―“……”
“I could have kept her trapped.”
―“……”
“She was scared. No, she was terrified.”
The thrill of using his painful memories against him was intoxicating. It was a twisted satisfaction, but it felt like a weight had been lifted from her chest.
―“I think I got scared.”
His calm, measured voice broke through the tension like a low rumble.
