Chapter 65.1

Chapter 65.1

[Babe, that snake just keeps opening its mouth. Ugh, it’s disgusting.]

[Wow, and it’s got quite the appetite. Looks like it wants to swallow everything whole.]

Looking at Lee Yi-taek now, Goyo couldn’t help but think how perfect Jae-heon’s metaphor had been.

A gluttonous snake, always hungry, eating and eating until its belly split, and then still wanting more.

Even someone as slick and seasoned as Kwon Moo-young had warned her: Lee Yi-taek wasn’t someone you could trust.

“For now, he’s fine with the food you feed him. But eventually, that won’t be enough. Just like a snake that gulps down elephants. He’ll need to devour everything in sight before he’s satisfied.”

“So how do you plan to fill that belly?”

Somehow, Goyo couldn’t shake the feeling that she had helped put wind in Yi-taek’s sails, propping him up for Jae-heon’s sake, despite her instincts.

“What is it, really, that you’re chasing so desperately?”

For the first time, she could see Lee Yi-taek clearly without fear clouding her vision.

He had been preparing for this climb to power for a very long time, carefully crafting his image step by step.

Back when the kidnapping happened, Goyo had become a national headline. After that, it was strange how often the media linked her to Yi-taek, always painting him in a favorable light.

A lucky orphan.

To the public, Goyo lacked for nothing. She lived in a luxurious home. Yi-taek seemed gentle and fatherly. She wore nice clothes, ate well, and studied whatever she wanted.

“Ugh, she acts like she’s really his daughter just because the Congressman took her in. She’s still just an orphan. Doesn’t even know who her real parents are…”

There were plenty of people who resented her for having what they didn’t.

They waited for her to slip up. And when she did, even slightly, the backlash was instant. Each time the public turned on her, Yi-taek gained more praise and sympathy as the benevolent man who took in a troubled girl.

“If our Congressman becomes president, life will be so much easier. He’s got the education, the class… he’s perfect.”

A top-tier academic background. Former prosecutor. A man of the establishment, yet seemingly devoted to the marginalized.

Appearances weren’t everything—but in politics, image was survival. And his credentials, his curated persona, were nearly flawless.

No wonder his followers multiplied. Some of them would probably believe it if he said the sky was green and the sea was made of red beans.

If the momentum kept up, his win in the next election wouldn’t be some pipe dream—it’d be very real.

If Kwon Jae-heon really backs him… Lee Yi-taek might actually become president.

Goyo met Yi-taek’s greedy eyes head-on. The ambition gleaming on his face, slick and oily like a thick coat of fat, betrayed everything he wanted. He was ready to use her as a sacrifice, a launchpad for his rise.

And if Lee Yi-taek became the head of state, just how much more uncontrollable would Lee Yoon-gun become? The thought alone made her chest tighten.

“Ha… haha… hah.”

Goyo suddenly burst out laughing, wild and bitter.

I was a fool to think he’d ever tell me the truth.

The more pathetic she felt, the harder she laughed.

Her laughter stretched on, and Yi-taek’s jaw visibly twitched in frustration.

“I was trying to show you mercy, but clearly that’s a waste.”

The moment Goyo realized she’d never get the truth from him, something in her snapped, cleanly, like a string pulled too tight.

If he was going to lose control, why should she stay composed?

“Oh, so if you don’t show me mercy, what—are you going to hit me? What are you going to do if you do? Can you handle the fallout? Or do you really not understand what happened to Lee Yoon-gun?”

Once she let go of rationality, the dam inside her broke. All the emotions she’d kept buried came rushing out, squeezing past her throat like a flood.

“You did this to me! You made me like this!”

“Goyo!”

Yi-taek’s face flushed a violent red, caught off guard by her sudden, explosive defiance.

“You clearly need to be taught a lesson.”

Yi-taek abruptly raised his arm into the air.

This was how he had always been, even back when he was a prosecutor—brutal, dominating anything that didn’t go his way with sheer force. Behind his polished mask was a violent streak so well known that even colleagues and suspects alike were sickened by it.

His hand hovered for a moment, then sliced through the air.

Goyo squeezed her eyes shut, jaw clenched, too stunned to move. Her body tensed, bracing for the pain she knew was coming.

Thwack—

A dull sound cracked through the room, skin on skin.

Thud. Crash.

A dull, meaty thud echoed through the room.

A crashing sound followed—one body slamming to the floor.

It was loud enough to feel like her skin had split open. But strangely, she didn’t feel pain. Not even the impact. Had her senses gone dull? Was she too numb now to feel anything?

A low groan escaped from somewhere, filled with pain.

But it wasn’t coming from her.