Chapter 64.2

Chapter 64.2

“What nonsense are you spouting?”

“I went there on my own. So how could it be kidnapping? Ha… I thought it was strange. There was no reason for my dad to suddenly kidnap Lee Yoon-gun.”

“Goyo! Stop talking nonsense!”

Yi-taek shot to his feet, voice raised, glaring at her with fury.

But to his surprise, Goyo didn’t back down. She didn’t avert her gaze. Her head stayed level, her eyes unwavering.

She wasn’t six years old anymore.

Back then, Yi-taek had been the only adult left to protect her. Her guardian. But he had also been the monster who left scars on her body and deeper ones in her mind.

Now, standing on her own, he no longer seemed like a monster. Just an aging man with more power than most.

“Why did you make me lie?”

‘Your father was a bad man. And if people find out you’re his daughter, they’ll think you’re bad too. But if you do what I say, you can stay a good girl. Wouldn’t you like that?’

‘…How?’

‘Remember this well. You were kidnapped. And you were rescued alongside Lee Yoon-gun.’

She’d been too young to handle it all. The monster who had killed her father seemed like he might kill her, too. Back then, obedience was the only thing that kept her alive.

She’d been terrified. Foolish. Just a child trying to survive alone.

“You knew, didn’t you? That my father wasn’t a bad person.”

‘Goyo, you’re a liar who tricked the entire nation. If they find out you weren’t a kidnapping victim but the daughter of a criminal, you won’t be able to live here anymore.’

‘I just… did what you told me to do…’

‘Now think: will the public believe you, or me? No one believes a liar.’

He had locked her in a dark room for days, pressured her, sweet-talked her, threatened her, until she finally told the lie.

And it was Lee Yi-taek who made her do it.

He had built an entire false narrative—then fastened it around Goyo’s neck like a leash made of guilt. Methodically. Relentlessly. For years.

“Why?” Her voice cracked with fury. “Why did you pin it all on my dad?”

“Where are you getting this nonsense from? You’ve lost your mind.”

“Nonsense?” Goyo laughed, hollow and sharp. “You’re calling that nonsense?”

“Yoon-gun was kidnapped by Lee Chul-woo. He hurt his leg during the ordeal. If he went there of his own will, then where did that injury come from? Before you throw accusations, you’d better explain why my son was even at your house in the first place.”

“Exactly. There’s no reason Lee Yoon-gun would’ve come to our home. Just like there was no reason for you to show up. So why were you there, Congressman?”

“I wasn’t.”

“Liar.”

It was too vivid to be a dream. Yi-taek had come to their home. She remembered it clearly. He had said he would help find her mother. And the way the prosecution announced the case? It was a lie. The suspect hadn’t died en route to the hospital. She remembered her father’s body, limp and lifeless, and Yi-taek nudging it with the tip of his shoe like it was trash.

“My father… was already d-dead…”

“Goyo! Shut that mouth of yours. You’ve really lost it, hanging around Director Kwon like that!”

Bang. Bang. Yi-taek pounded the desk repeatedly, fury overtaking him.

He probably wanted to hit her with that fist. But he didn’t.

Because he couldn’t.

Because now… she belonged to Kwon Jae-heon?

“You’re pathetic.”

All those years, over fourteen, raising her like his own daughter, only to serve her up as a bribe when he needed it most. Then again, she probably wasn’t the first gift he’d offered in his quest for power.

“Do you want to be president that badly?”

They say once you taste power, it’s more addictive than any drug. Whatever crimes he had buried to get this far, this wasn’t the only one. And it wouldn’t be the last.

He didn’t look the least bit guilty. That’s what made it worse. He could still act like the victim.

“So, Director Kwon’s had a change of heart? Tch. This is why you can’t trust the young.”

“You met with Jae-heon, didn’t you?”

‘It was you.’

‘You were the client he met yesterday.’

‘The greedy snake… was you.’ Goyo realized.