Chapter 154.1

Chapter 154.1

From that day on, her indigestion worsened, and she lived off antacids. She desperately wanted to ask Damon, What’s the name of the child I gave birth to? Is that child also being dragged into those horrific performances? But the hypocrisy of that thought made her laugh sharply at herself.

It wasn’t her child. Just another part of the mission. No different from assembling a wiretap and planting it in enemy territory… She repeated it to herself every night, eyes shut tight.

Her husband worried about her constant indigestion, but Joo Seol-heon couldn’t bring herself to complain. Whenever she remembered the bear-like soles of those children’s feet, no words of weakness escaped her lips.

Clutching her stomach, she forced herself to focus only on the glorious position she would soon claim.

I’ve secured every promise from the CIA…

‘That’s something only a ruthless agent. No, only I can do.’

Her temples throbbed as cold sweat dripped down her forehead.

Ugh!

Still for the first time, she wanted to call out to God.
If I follow Your traces, will I really find the right answer?

Entering her husband’s room, she flipped open Rigay’s worn Bible. The echoes of jeers and applause seemed to rise from its pages.

Gritting her teeth, she tore out the pages one by one before suddenly hurling the book onto the desk.
CRASH!
The sound of shattering objects split the dawn.

‘What kind of God is He to allow someone like me to still breathe.

You’re a fake.
Your very existence is an illusion.’

She glared at her own reflection in the cross.

“Rigay Victor has finally succeeded, it seems.”

Over the years, she had grown drastically thinner. Even Agent Damon frowned every time he saw the sharp angles of her cheeks.

And that absurd thesis, did he actually complete it?
The fact that he had developed injections to stimulate the amygdala was shocking enough, but he had gone even further. It was unbelievable.

If true, the world would change entirely. People would soon divide into those with brain chips and those without. The day humanity could be fully controlled wasn’t far off.

And with that, the Russian military would hold the lives of third-generation Koreans scattered across Asia at the flick of a switch. He was the one accelerating this terrifying future.

“Rigay’s research will flow straight to Russia. No matter how much he loves his wife, it seems even he couldn’t defeat God. Cults are truly frightening, aren’t they, Zoya?”

Damon held out an envelope containing something hard. The moment her fingertips touched it, she knew a Glock 17 pistol.

Only one thought crossed her mind: It’s here.
‘I want to leave Russia.
I want to end everything.’
Joo Seolheon nodded expressionlessly.

The house was now densely packed with the small, delicate plants she had begun collecting, filling the balcony and living room.

Seolheon stared blankly at them before yanking them out by the roots and stuffing them into a trash bag.

She cleaned the house as usual, then cooked her husband’s favorite meal.

When Rigay returned, they sat across from each other at the table, exchanging mundane small talk. As he set down his chopsticks, having complimented the food and even taken a second helping, she reached for the gun taped beneath the table and loaded it.

Click!
A single, ordinary evening.

“Zoya?”

One shot. Just one is enough.
Her grip tightened. Rigay’s pupils trembled, lost, staring down the barrel.

A man who had taken her entire youth yet remained pitifully naive. No farewell was necessary. Her throat constricted, but an old, buried euphoria surged, she could finally return to Korea.

‘So one shot is enough.’

“I gave birth. Ten years ago.”

Seolheon’s eyes burned red as she adjusted her grip.

“Not a dead child. In truth, it cried loudly.”

“…!”

“I don’t know the name. I don’t even know the face.”

“……”

“All I know is that it was a girl.”

She hated how her lips trembled pathetically, so she forced them still. All she had to do was put a clean bullet right between her husband’s brows, but her mouth moved on its own.

Like a broken machine, she spilled her shame.

“Tell me. How… how do I find that child in Sakhalin?”

Clang!

Rigay, frozen in shock, dropped his glass. He staggered back, his trembling hand slipping on the table, sending a bowl crashing to the floor.

“I thought she’d grow up smart, just like you…”

“Zoya. What the hell is this?”

“I… I must have misjudged things.”

“…”

“The child I gave birth to back then is in Sakhalin.”

Joo Seolheon squeezed her eyes shut and vomited out the rotten secret. Rigay turned deathly pale, as if he had just eaten human flesh.

“I don’t understand… You told me our child died, Zoya. So how, how can you say that child is in Sakhalin?”

When she didn’t answer, Rigay’s face hardened into something cold, something she had never seen before, and he shouted.

“Zoya, answer me properly!”