Chapter 5.1
December 24, 7 pm
Taehan Hotel Charity Event Hall
Once again, Goyo found herself spending Christmas Eve at the charity event hall.
When Goyo came of age, Lee Yi-taek took her to various events as his partner. Although she felt uncomfortable with the sidelong glances directed at her, Goyo never told Lee Yi-taek she didn’t want to go.
Disobedience comes with punishment.
“Your expression has hardened. People are watching you.”
“I’m sorry, Congressman.”
Goyo quickly put on a smile, raising the corners of her mouth just enough, neither too much nor too little.
Having gained fame at a young age, Goyo was a well-known figure in this circle.
A child abandoned by her parents and almost a victim of human trafficking. But by a stroke of luck, her life turned around, and she became a child with nothing more to wish for. That was Lee Goyo.
Lee Yi-taek had once led the investigation into a case involving the kidnapping of his own son during his time as a prosecutor. Goyo was the girl who had been at the scene with Lee Yoon-gun. At the time of her rescue, she was an unregistered child, a ghost child.
Prosecutor Lee Yi-taek had held the young girl in his arms in front of the broadcast station cameras that had come to cover the incident, shedding tears of lamentation. As a father of a child around her age, he promised to take responsibility for the child he had saved.
He added, clenching his fist, that he would work for the children suffering in the blind spots of the law.
People don’t know the truth. They don’t know that his claim to be Goyo’s guardian was not due to some great sense of justice or humanitarian love.
“You haven’t forgotten what I told you, right?”
Today, Lee Yi-taek’s voice was colder than usual.
He had never been kind to her. He was ruthless, and when necessary, he didn’t hesitate to use abusive language or even hit her. She had lost consciousness more than once from the merciless beatings carried out under the guise of discipline.
Due to the fear of the violence etched into her body, her flesh trembled, and she got goosebumps whenever Lee Yi-taek whispered to her in that cold voice. Like now.
“You need to prove your worth.”
There was never such a thing as a lucky child.
Goyo was always afraid of being abandoned. So, for a very long time, she contemplated ways to survive and adapted her body and mind accordingly.
The golden rule deeply etched into her being:
Be useful. And continually prove that usefulness to Lee Yi-taek.
“Child, do you want to get out of here?”
She shouldn’t have taken Lee Yi-taek’s hand back then. But a six-year-old couldn’t have known that the candy he gave her would be poison.
“There are many people here today that you should get close to.”
Goyo slowly looked around at the people attending the charity event. Influential politicians, heirs of conglomerates, and even screen stars, a dazzling array of individuals.
Everyone seemed impressive to Goyo, but in Lee Yi-taek’s eyes, they each had different levels, and there were those who matched his rank.
“It would be beneficial to get close to Vice President Park of Seongjo Daily.”
“Councilor, I’m sorry to interrupt, but he is already married…”
Vice President Park Jung-hoon of Seongjo Daily, the eldest son of the owner, had married the eldest daughter of the owner of JH Law Firm four years ago. Being told to get close to a married man felt like being asked to engage in an affair, and Goyo was flustered.
When her unsettled mind caused her to hesitate, Lee Yi-taek cut her off, seemingly exasperated.
“Vice President Park recently became single. In this day and age, divorce is not a stigma, so think about it carefully.”
“Yes…”
“Chairman Han Sung-jin’s son is also here. Han is a promising young man who entered the National Assembly in his 30s.”
Lee Yi-taek began pointing out the individuals Goyo needed to build relationships with as he scanned the event hall.
“They’re all good, but I’m most interested in KJ Financial’s CEO, President Kwon Jae-heon.”
Tonight, she had to find a way to win Kwon Jae-heon’s favor.
“One disappointing child is enough, and that’s Yoon-gun.”
The priority was Kwon Jae-heon, but it was acceptable to consider the next-in-line media company president or the chairman of the National Assembly’s son. The underlying message was to attract influential men while avoiding worthless ones.
The advice, thinly veiled as commands, felt like an undeniable pressure.
Goyo was different from Lee Yoon-gun. As his biological son, Yoon-gun would never be abandoned by Lee Yi-taek, no matter how much trouble he caused. It had been that way in the past and would continue to be so in the future.
But Goyo, an orphan with nowhere to go, was nothing more than a disposable item that could be discarded at any time if she became useless, as Lee Yi-taek had always told her.
“You’re already acquainted with Director Kwon, right?”
It would have been better if it were someone she had never met.
It was only after she brought the injured Lee Yoon-gun from Cheondo to Seoul that Goyo realized who that man was.
Kwon Jae-heon, CEO of KJ Finance.