MDWR 01

Chapter 1

Eun-jo’s fingertips trembled finely as she pressed the six-digit passcode.

‘321705’

With a cheerful electronic chime, the safe unlocked.

“I was hoping it wasn’t true.”

Eun-jo bit her lip.

The six-digit passcode she had just entered was a combination of the birthday of Na-in—her husband’s mistress—and the date her husband and Na-in first slept together.

“Is that really the passcode? Are you sure?” “Yes, as far as I have confirmed.”

Now that she had personally confirmed what she had asked Secretary Jo several times, she felt the blood drain from her head.

How deeply attached must he be to remember the date of their first night together and even set it as his safe’s passcode?

She bit down hard on her molars to swallow the scream trying to burst out, filling her mouth with the metallic taste of blood. But soon, she shook her head.

“This is no time to be falling apart over something like this.”

Scoling herself, Eun-jo turned the handle of the safe with a trembling hand.

Now was not the time to be enraged by her husband’s affair or Na-in’s betrayal. It was time to find the evidence.

Her husband was currently having an affair with Na-in in her bedroom—now was her chance.

She had to finish this while they had no idea that she, who should have been fast asleep after taking a sleeping pill, was searching the study safe.

Doing this was far more valuable than killing her husband and his mistress as they tumbled in bed.

As Eun-jo rummaged through the inside of the safe, her hand stopped.

“Is it this?”

It was this.

The documents in the gold cover that Secretary Jo had mentioned.

And the leather case containing the SD card.

“Inside Kang Jin-woo’s secret safe, there should be the Chairman’s real will. As well as the car dashcam and CCTV footage that recorded the scene of the accident.” “Hasn’t it been destroyed already?” “No. Knowing Kang Jin-woo’s personality, he would have been anxious to let those items out of his hands. You know how he is—he is paranoid in strange ways. He definitely has them.”

Secretary Jo was right.

“Ha… Kang Jin-woo.”

Eun-jo let out a sigh that sounded like a lament, her lips trembling.

In the end, the person who made her father turn out like that was Kang Jin-woo.

“With just this, I can reveal the truth behind my father’s unfair death.”

And a divorce would be possible too.

To get her hands on this, she had spent the last few months keeping her head low.

Faking that she had forgotten her father, pretending to have no interest in the company’s affairs. But those pretenses were over now.

“You’re finished too, Kang Jin-woo.”

And you too, Kim Na-in.

Suppressing the sense of betrayal rising inside her once more, Eun-jo reached out her hand.

The moment she grabbed the leather case, a click sounded, and the lights in the pitch-black study turned on.

Startled by the sudden presence, Eun-jo turned around.

“My, we have a petty thief in here?”

It was Na-in.

Exposing her naked body plainly under the light, Na-in smiled softly, slanting her cat-like eyes.

“Tiptoeing around… I was wondering what you were doing.”

Na-in’s characteristic nasal, sweet voice scraped against her ears.

“What are you doing here like this, Ma’am?”

Na-in’s eyes settled on the case in Eun-jo’s hand as she approached.

Eun-jo instinctively hid her hand behind her back.

Just then, beyond the open door, Eun-jo’s husband, Kang Jin-woo, appeared.

Sweat-soaked hair, a greasy face, and a crumpled brow.

At least he had a conscience, wearing a nightgown over his naked body.

Discovering her, Jin-woo let out a shallow sigh.

“Eun-jo.”

Glaring heavily with his large eyes, Jin-woo slowly approached.

“You should have just slept quietly. What on earth are you doing after eating such expensive food?”

Looking at Jin-woo approaching, Eun-jo tasted despair along with a sense of defeat.

Secretary Jo was waiting outside.

If only she could hand these documents over to Secretary Jo, she could punish these shameless and brazen people.

To be caught so helplessly like this.

“Don’t come any closer.”

Shaking her head, Eun-jo took a step backward.

However, she knew it was useless.

Jin-woo, approaching with a cruel smile, looked like a demon crawling out from a pitch-black abyss.

Na-in, standing behind him, was the same.

A pair of vulgar, cruel, and cunning vipers.

Eun-jo’s lips trembled violently as she felt the balcony glass door behind her back, sinking into despair.

It was miserable that there was nowhere left to run.

No, tears burst forth at her own helplessness in doing nothing but running away like this.

“The two of you will receive divine punishment.”

The only thing she could manage to say was this.

“How much my father trusted you, Kang Jin-woo. How much he loved you.”

Eun-jo’s father, Lee Won-gyu.

Korea’s first white-hat hacker and a pioneer in the IT industry who developed a perfect defense system.

And the founder of CX Soft.

The whole nation knew how much he cherished and loved his only daughter’s husband.

He was a truly devoted father-in-law to his son-in-law, as if no amount of giving was too much.

“To a father like that…”

“I did more than enough for that father of yours.”

As Eun-jo’s tears welled up so much that she couldn’t continue her words, Jin-woo poured out dagger-like words.

“When your father got cancer, how good was I to him? I catered to that picky old man’s temper and traveled all over the country.”

It was not wrong.

“If he wanted fresh air, I ran to take him; if he wanted to eat something, I bought it for him. There was no son-in-law like me in the world.”

On the surface, it looked like that. But the inner side was what mattered.

“You were good? Good at what?”

Back then, she too was moved by Jin-woo’s affectionate behavior and felt like trying to love him a little.

But it was all a lie.

“Back then, behind our backs, you were stealing my father’s registered seal and committing crimes.”

Taking advantage of her father’s absence, he had snuck into her maiden home to steal the seal and was caught by the butler. If it had been anyone else, they would have called the police.

Simply because he was his son-in-law, Eun-jo’s father turned a blind eye, and it was let go.

However, Jin-woo did not stop his evil deeds after that.

What was more, now he was trying to erase all of those deeds.

“Committing crimes?”

At Eun-jo’s words, Jin-woo snickered.

His cruel eyes shone with a cold, sinister smile.

Though she had seen all kinds of sides to him so far, this was the first time she was seeing Kang Jin-woo like this.

“Do you have evidence?”

Asking if she had evidence.

When she was standing right in front of his eyes like this.

Looking at Jin-woo approaching with a crooked smile, Eun-jo bit down hard on her lower lip.

“Yes, I have evidence.”

Instinctively, she sensed that this was the end.

Jin-woo, asking if she had evidence, had no intention of leaving any evidence behind anymore.

The most decisive evidence of Kang Jin-woo’s evil deeds—that was her. It meant there was nowhere left to step back.

Eun-jo straightened her back.

“Do you know why I held my breath for the past few months, even while clearly knowing that you and Kim Na-in were kissing, sucking, and doing all kinds of filthy things in my house?”

So she launched the counterattack she could make.

“It was to gather the evidence that you caused my father’s death, falsified his will, and even created a slush fund with company money.”

Jin-woo had forced Eun-jo—who was suffering from depression, panic disorder, and traumatic stress disorder from witnessing her father’s accident—to take mountains of psychiatric medication.

He had wanted her to live dazed and drugged.

But she didn’t live like that. She had only pretended to be.

“Even if I can’t leave here alive, Secretary Jo will go to the Prosecutor’s Office.”

Secretary Jo Hyun-soo, who was her father’s loyal secretary, had been helping her all this time. Right now, he was waiting for her after finishing all preparations.

They had already agreed that if she couldn’t make it out within the time, he would leave for the prosecution first.

Even without this decisive evidence in her hand, there was already enough circumstantial evidence to report him.

Furthermore, if something happened to her here?

Kang Jin-woo would be adding murder to his list of crimes.

The smartwatch on her wrist right now was recording this entire situation. With just one push of a button, the audio would be sent to Secretary Jo’s cloud drive.

So keep talking, Kang Jin-woo.

“It means you’re finished now, you bastard murderer.”

At Eun-jo’s words, Jin-woo burst out laughing.

“Eun-jo. Eun-jo.”

Chills ran down her spine as laughter seeped into his cruel voice.

“Poor Lee Eun-jo.”

Then Na-in giggled and approached Jin-woo’s side.

Wrapping his arm around Na-in and pulling her close, Jin-woo spoke in an extremely gentle voice.

“Listen carefully. I’ll tell you just three things.”

Jin-woo received something from Na-in and stepped closer.

“First, you won’t leave here alive.”

Jin-woo, who had come right in front of her face, spoke while exuding an offensive body odor.

“Second, Secretary Jo won’t be going to the Prosecutor’s Office. Those pieces of evidence you gathered will be scattered and disappear from the world.”

At Jin-woo’s words, Eun-jo’s eyes widened.

“What did you do to… Secretary Jo?”

Giggling, Jin-woo tightly grabbed her arm instead of answering.

“Let go of this!”

Eun-jo struggled to shake him off, but it was useless.

Jin-woo’s cruel voice continued.

“And third, we’ll put your inheritance to good use.”

Immediately, a syringe needle was plunged into her neck.

“No!”

Her desperate scream could not turn into a voice.

The injected drug spreading through her veins was paralyzing her body.

The case in her hand was snatched away, and soon after, the balcony door opened behind her back.

Along with the September dawn air, the noise of passing cars scraped against her ears.

“Goodbye, Lee Eun-jo. In a moment, you will become the tragic heiress who couldn’t bear her depression and jumped from the 46th-floor apartment balcony to commit suicide.”

Jin-woo lifted her body and threw her over the railing.

It was something that happened in a flash.