Faced with a problem that offered no way out, Yeon-ha had no choice but to get into the car.

“Where are we going?”

Ignoring her question, the car drove aimlessly before finally coming to a stop in an empty lot.

Rolling down the window, Heo Il-woo let out a rough chuckle.

“What? Are you scared? Now, of all times?”

“What do you want?”

If his intention had been to overpower her by force, he would have done it long ago.

“You know what I want from you.”

The hand, broad enough to easily wrap around her throat, opened a cigarette case.

A cigarette soon hung from his lips as he spoke lazily.

“Minister Ji Kang-do has a hideout.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“You’re more impatient than you look. Don’t interrupt me. Listen until I’m finished.”

He lit the cigarette and took a drag.

“There’s a safe in that hideout. You can probably imagine what’s inside.”

“Something illegal, I assume. I swear, this is the first time I’ve ever heard such a place exists.”

She was beginning to understand what he intended to negotiate with.

“That’s why I’m telling you to find out. Bring me the front-door security code and the key to that safe.”

A thick cloud of cigarette smoke was blown directly into her face.

The smoke stung her eyes.

Lowering her head, Yeon-ha covered her face with both hands and pressed her burning eyes shut.

“Use that expensive body of yours if you have to. Make a deal with Ji Kang-do and get what I want. Sounds easy enough, doesn’t it?”

Behind her hands, Yeon-ha’s eyes flew open.

She understood exactly what he meant.

He was telling her to use her body to manipulate her biological father.

“That bastard would never tell me, no matter what.”

“Is money… your goal?”

Yeon-ha slowly lifted her head.

“Is there anyone who doesn’t like money?”

Forming a coin shape with his fingers, Heo Il-woo tapped the scar curling beside his grin.

“And there’s something I need to collect from your father too.”

The scar had been left by her biological father.

Even so, Yeon-ha felt no sympathy for him.

He was trash, no different from the man he hated.

“Let’s keep today’s conversation between the two of us. If you think about who has more to lose, the answer shouldn’t be difficult.”

It was a threat.

If she sought Tae-moo’s help, he could no longer guarantee the safety of her mother—the person she treasured most.

When she was still in high school, she had once seen Heo Il-woo return with another person’s blood covering him, acting under her biological father’s orders.

“I’ll give you two months. Find a lead and hand it over to me before then.”

The foul smell of cigarette smoke lingered on his breath.

“If you make things entertaining for me, I might even extend the deadline.”

The stench coming from him was something entirely different from her husband.

Dirty.

Rotten.

Filthy.

“What do you think you’re doing?!”

She slapped away the hand that had begun rubbing her arm.

Because he had never touched her inappropriately before, she had let her guard down.

“You’ve slept with your husband, so you know exactly what I’m talking about. You’re not a v*rgin. What’s so difficult about giving your body to someone?”

“I’d rather die. That will never happen.”

“Playing hard to get, huh?”

She wasn’t foolish enough to react to every disgusting word that came out of his mouth.

Grabbing the door handle, she shoved it open.

Fortunately, it wasn’t locked.

“Don’t contact me until I call you first. Two months from now. That’s my condition.”

Heo Il-woo needed her for his plan.

And if he refused her condition, he would be in just as much trouble as she would.

“Very well, Miss.”

That was her limit.

Yeon-ha threw open the car door, climbed out, and ran.

***

“Aunt…”

She desperately needed a gentle touch.

Her stomach churned, and her head spun so badly that she could barely keep it upright.

“Welcome home.”

Unable to make it past the inner gate, she stopped.

When she forced herself to lift her head, Ryu Jin-hee was standing there in her pajamas.

“When did you arrive?”

“Yesterday. I saw my brother at dawn, but I guess he didn’t tell you.”

The memory of that night flashed through her mind.

The night when both her body and heart had been trampled.

He had left her alone as she shivered with grief and chills, then headed straight to work as soon as morning came.

“I’m staying over tonight too.”

“All right.”

She didn’t have the energy to argue.

She only wanted to rest.

To hide herself in the bedroom she shared with him—a place that woman could never enter.

Passing Jin-hee without another word, Yeon-ha headed up to the third floor.

Even after lying down on the bed, the familiar scent that belonged to him failed to calm her.

Her heart continued to race restlessly.

Whether he was kind or cruel, Seong Tae-moo always left her anxious and desperate.

Knock. Knock.

“Come in.”

Forcing her body upright despite its exhaustion, she answered the door.

Her aunt stepped inside and approached, taking her hand.

‘Why are your hands so cold?’

Suppressing the turmoil inside her, Yeon-ha offered a faint smile.

“I think it’s because I walked for a while.”

As though she sensed there were things Yeon-ha couldn’t talk about, her aunt asked no further questions.

After releasing her hand, she gestured gently in the air.

‘I’ll bring you something to eat.’

“Just for today, please.”

She didn’t feel like eating at all.

However, she knew she had to eat something for her aunt’s sake.

Soon afterwards, a meal was brought to her room.

However, the sight of the food did nothing to awaken her appetite.

However, knowing that everyone would worry if she refused, Yeon-ha mixed some rice into the soup and forced herself to eat a few mouthfuls.

Once she had eaten enough to ease her hunger, the exhaustion weighing on her body seemed to intensify.

At some point, an irritating itch spread across her face.

A shadow drifted into her blurred vision.

Her eyes slowly fluttered open.

The moment she did so, she saw a strikingly handsome face gazing down at her.

“…”

Even after seeing that she was awake, he remained silent.

The indifference in his dry expression pierced Yeon-ha’s heart as easily as ever.

“Did you see her?”

One of his neatly shaped brows rose.

“See who?”

“Your friend’s friend.”

She didn’t even want to say that woman’s name aloud.

“She came to spend the night.”

He sat on the edge of the bed for a moment, then stood up and unfastened the buttons on his cuffs.

Yeon-ha watched his expressionless face quietly.

After loosening his tie, which was already partially undone, he tilted his neck slightly.

“You look like you have something to say. So say it.”

As if willing to give her his full attention, he stopped undressing.

“Doesn’t it bother you? That your friend’s friend came here?”

‘What did you talk about with Ryu Jin-hee after leaving me like that?’

Testing the waters, she asked the question indirectly.

“Whether she comes or not, is there any reason I should care?”

His answer came without the slightest hesitation.

“Maybe on her side.”

He knew how Ryu Jin-hee felt.

“Have you always been like this?”

To him, other people’s feelings seemed meaningless.

Perhaps his own feelings were no different.

They were useful enough to have around because they were easy to handle, but ultimately, they were no more valuable than a scrap of paper that could be thrown away at any time.

“Stop being so sensitive.”

The irritation he made no effort to hide told her everything.

She realized that he was merely forcing down the same emotions he had shown yesterday.

Nothing had changed.

“Did you have someone follow me?”

At that question, he smiled coldly, as though he had been waiting for it.

“What? Did you meet someone again?”

His gaze made it seem as though he already knew everything.

Yeon-ha felt her chest tighten.

“Who was it?”

His voice grew colder.

“The man you met today.”

His eyes pressed down on her, warning her not to even think about denying it.

“Don’t bother trying to be clever.”

Stretching out an arm, he caught a handful of her hair and tugged lightly.

Then he leaned closer until his face filled her trembling vision.

“My biological father’s chief of security.”

He introduced himself as a security officer.

In reality, Heo Il-woo was the man who handled her biological father’s dirty work.

“And why would a security chief approach you?”

“…I think he was following me…”

“And?”

“…”

“That wasn’t all, was it?”

What he truly wanted to know was what had happened between her and her biological father’s right-hand man.

“He offered me a deal.”

Her voice grew quieter.

“In exchange for keeping my mother’s location at Seoul Hospital a secret.”

His gaze deepened as he studied her, weighing whether her words were true.

“We’ll need to strengthen security.”

Apparently deciding that she wasn’t lying, he released his grip on her hair and straightened up.

“There were people guarding her?”

Caught completely off guard, Yeon-ha’s eyes widened.

Watching her reaction, he idly played with a strand of her hair and replied in a low voice.

“I stationed my people there in case something happened.”

So they had been watching her from somewhere and reporting back to him.

“That’s why you got into the chief of security’s car.”

He didn’t seem interested in hearing her answer.

The strand of hair he had been toying with was wrapped lazily around his finger.

“It sounds like he’s planning to stab Ji Kang-do in the back. What exactly does he want from you?”

The way he casually played with her hair was so calm that it made her chest ache.

“Apparently, there’s a separate estate where he keeps his illegal funds.”

“He’s a greedy old tiger. I always assumed he had a hidden den somewhere. The bribes he’s accumulated through accounts under borrowed names are probably stored there too.”

Unlike her, he didn’t seem particularly alarmed by the situation.

If anything, he looked as though he were watching a fire burn on the other side of a river.

“So he approached you to obtain a way into that secret estate—or something that would help him get inside. He can’t risk Ji Gang-do discovering his betrayal, so he’s using you instead.”

With cold logic, he pieced together the situation and arrived at its core.

“The real issue is the method. What did the chief of security tell you to do?”

“…He told me to sell my body.”

“What was that bastard’s name?”

His voice dropped.

Dark.

Dangerously dark.

“So I can kill him.”

The sudden shift left her momentarily stunned.

Just moments ago, he had looked almost amused.

Now he seemed like a completely different person.

“You didn’t actually consider it, did you?”

His eyes locked onto hers.

“Not with a body that has already accepted me.”