My hand was shaking as I held out the phone with the photo open.

This had all started because of me.

To be honest, I was scared. I had no idea how he would react – that uncertainty made it worse.

He took the phone from me.

Even in that brief moment, I hesitated.

What if I just told him everything – laid it all out honestly?

That I believed he had committed a s*xual crime against Eun-sae.

That I thought he used her when it suited him, only to throw her away as if she meant nothing when it came time to marry her – to get engaged to Heo Yeonseo.

That I wanted revenge in her name, for someone who no longer existed.

That the truth is… I’m not Eun-sae.

But a secret, once it leaves your lips, is no longer a secret.

Especially when the person you’re talking to – Lee Seol-won – is someone closely connected to Lee Jae-kwang, the man I suspected to be him.

Until I accomplish what I set out to do, it would be safer to keep the truth that I’m not really Hyun Eun-sae from Seol-won.

Later, when everything is over, I will tell him.

I’ll tell him that Hyun Seo-hae, not Eun-sae, is responsible for this twisted mess.

That Eun-sae is already gone and cannot hurt him anymore.

That if he needs someone to hate, he should blame me – but please don’t remember Eun-sae as someone terrible.

Trying to calm my anxious thoughts, I looked at him from the side and read his expression.

Lee Seol-won, without the slightest change in his face, kept his eyes on the photo I’d shown him.

Then, without asking me a word, he started scrolling through the message history, going through every message she had received so far.

“Wait! What are you looking at?”

I quickly reached out to take the phone back, but he was faster – his eyes scanned the messages at a speed I couldn’t keep up with. Of course. There was no way my hands could match the reading speed of someone trained by years of reviewing countless documents.

“Give it back! I said give it to me!”

What I wanted to discuss with him was how to deal with the leaked photo, not how to reveal the messages of verbal abuse and s*xual violence he had inflicted on Eun-sae.

Even in the end, Eun-sae chose death over exposing the quagmire she’d been dragged into.

She never told a soul, not even her own family.

I remembered again how I’d sobbed while preparing her funeral, only to learn her terrible secrets too late.

She was never someone who deserved to be treated that way. No one had the right to call Eun-sae degrading names like b*tch, wh*re, or sl*t.

If I’d been the real recipient of those messages, maybe it would have been a little easier to take.

If I’d been the one being humiliated, the one in pain, that would have been enough.

But this… this was the shame of someone I loved like family.

And now that I’m beginning to suspect that Eun-sae still has deep feelings for Lee Seol-won, I didn’t want him to see those messages.

Eun-sae wouldn’t have wanted him to know either.

Her life was already filled with regret and remorse – this would just be another stain on it.

Despite my protests, Lee Seol-won read through every single message – each one filled with filthy, degrading language.

“Why the hell did you just sit there and take this bullshit?”

Human emotion is such a strange thing.

For a moment, his sharp rebuke made my chest ache with shame – but at the same time, it stirred a feeling of something else.

A feeling of recognition.

Because, really… this was exactly what I had wanted to ask Eun-sae myself.

Why was yes the only answer you ever gave to that kind of garbage?

Were you being blackmailed? Is that why you didn’t just obey, but completely surrendered?

The more I thought about it, the more my heart sank.

And yet, there was one small thing that gave me some comfort.

Ah… at least this man never treated Eun-sae like that.

At least he didn’t call her names – didn’t end every sentence with a degrading insult like that b*tch, that sl*t, that wh*re.

Even to my own eyes, Lee Seol-won might not have been the warmest or most affectionate person, but he didn’t seem like the type to lack even the most basic human decency.

I was relieved.

A great relief.

“I had no choice but to sit and listen. He’s not someone you can have a conversation with.”

While struggling for an answer, I subtly tried to bring him up, wondering if Lee Seol-won knew about him.

“That’s why I told you to go back to the U.S. a long time ago.”

He agreed with my answer so naturally, as if it was the most obvious thing.

He knows.

I felt it.

You know him too.

So is the person I’m thinking of the right one?

“If I just go back to my family’s house… what about the photo?”

“This isn’t really the time to discuss such situations, is it?”

He really knows everything.

This man had found out how difficult Eun-sae’s situation was.

“Are you telling me that if I just go back to the U.S. without doing anything, you’ll be fine? What if this photo is released to the press?”

“They can’t just release it.”

Lee Seol-won replied casually.

“If a photo like that, which would jeopardize the stock price, were to be released on a whim, it would turn the family upside down.”

‘The family?’

The image of Lee Jae-kwang’s polished, well-fed face flashed before my eyes again.

At that moment, my suspicions about him were finally confirmed.

Was that why that man took me to Lee Jae-kwang’s mansion?

To show me what kind of person Lee Jae-kwang really was out of loyalty to Eun-sae, who had made a mistake in a moment of anger?

The s*xual assault he committed against Eun-sae was violent enough, but what lay behind it was something only a relative like Lee Seol-won would know – the various kinds of drugs that were rampant among the invited guests of the mansion, and the fact that the women who were brought in for s*xual favors were the ones who were so excluded from society’s safety nets that their deaths could be quietly covered up.

At least Eun-sae wasn’t someone who could disappear without anyone caring. She was a legitimate member of society, someone who lived her life properly and took her share of responsibility.

This also explains Lee Seol-won’s behavior – wandering around alone, even though he seemed to know the mansion all too well.

The filthy place I had forced him to visit must have made him feel uncomfortable and repulsive.

And even though I didn’t want to, I ended up acting a lot like Eun-sae inside the mansion. I was disturbed by the whole atmosphere and jumped when I recognized Lee Jae-kwang’s voice. When I froze, unable to move, Lee Seol-won didn’t hesitate to pull me into his arms, shielding my face so that Lee Jae-kwang wouldn’t recognize me.

Maybe the reason he could touch me like that was… a sense of responsibility.

He had shown me enough – now he had to get me out of the mansion safely.

“Seol-won.”

For the first time, I said his name without any trace of hostility.

“I’m sorry.”

Not knowing what else to say first, I apologized.

I still don’t know how good a partner he was for Eun-sae. But considering that she couldn’t let go even after being dumped, he must have been someone she really loved.

And even though he may have made a selfish decision in favor of the benefits of marrying Heo Yeonseo, at least he wasn’t someone who committed an unimaginable crime.

As long as Lee Seol-won wasn’t the one who sexually assaulted Eun-sae, my thirst for revenge had gone too far.

Falling in love… even if it hurts, it’s not a crime.

Love is shared between two people, but breaking up is done alone.

I’ve seen many of my friends go through breakups, and I’ve been through a few myself, so I know this well.

You may feel betrayed by someone who no longer loves you, but you can’t call it a crime. After all, it’s rare for lovers to love with the same intensity, at the same pace, and for the same length of time. In most cases, one person’s feelings fade faster than the other’s.

And even after their separation, Lee Seol-won still tried to save Eun-sae in his own way from the dangerous man she had chosen. As someone who was once close to her, he never completely gave up his sense of duty.

Yes, he did what he could.

I can admit that now.

I shouldn’t cause Lee Seol-won any more trouble. He has a company to run, an engagement to Heo Yeonseo, the only daughter of a powerful family, and no time to get involved in my revenge.

I looked at his face for a long time. Even the slight furrow in his forehead seemed graceful. Standing in front of the photo I had confronted him with, he showed no visible reaction.

He’s probably the kind of man who never loses his cool, no matter what the situation. Just as he confidently claimed, he’ll find a way to smooth over something like a photo.

Although I hadn’t known him long or deeply, he was someone whose thoughts were hard to read – someone who never let his emotions show on the surface.

I stared at him for a moment, then slowly opened my mouth to speak.