Pay With Your Heart

Chapter 451: Need To Be Meticulous

Mr.Kim had his hand quavering with violence as he looked at the pictures submitted to him. At one glance, he remembered her well enough and realized that he might have made the biggest mistake of his life twenty-five years ago. A mistake that now had the power to turn his plans awry.

After so many years, she hadn’t changed much. This was the woman he had met at one of the delivery rooms crying over the loss of her child, and he had given Sena’s child to her out of his foolish mercy.

There wasn’t any mistake about this. It was her.

“This is her mother?” He grimly asked again, and Stephen nodded.

“Yes. That is her mother,” He firmly replied. “The father has been separated from them for some years after the sudden collapse of his business, but there’s nothing about him now. Aside from old photos they could retrieve, there’s nothing else. He seems to have disappeared into thin air.” Stephen reported, but Yong-Gun wasn’t interested in who the man was and wherever the hell he had disappeared to. He was more interested in the regrettable mistake he had committed.

His eyes flashed with horror and anger as he squeezed the picture into a ball. “Damn me!” He roared. His jaws clenched so tightly that a slight tremble could be seen on them.

How could he have been so foolish?! He asked himself. How could he have foolishly kept her alive? What sort of madness overtook him to have made such a mistake?

.....

He should have finished her off when he had the chance. When she defenselessly cried in his arms, he should have finished her off and saved himself this mess. That had been the plan, so what had gotten into him at the time? He couldn’t remember.

This was all his fault! It was all his! He caused this mistake.

“I was a fool!” He roared so heavily. Self-hatred and regret were so visible in his eyes. When he had stealthily asked for her name yesterday and had sent it to Stephen, this wasn’t what he had expected. A part of him held a tendril of suspicion, but he wasn’t hoping for something as large as this to sprout up at a time like this.

He was foolish to have thought she would never be found- that she would have an ordinary life and never show up in his path at all. That was why he had decided to show her some mercy; after all, what could a small baby do? He had thought at the time. Some spell must have been cast on him.

He shouldn’t have taken that woman’s word to keep the child’s birth a secret. He should have even looked for her; maybe if he had, he would have known about her accursed resemblance to Sena in this uncanny fashion.

What in the devil’s name had made him forget about her existence like this? Now see how his foolishness had come to slap him in the face!

His blazing eyes turned to Stephen. “I want that girl gone.” He murderously ordered. He wanted her gone right this very minute.

“Sir?” Stephen muttered.

“Are you stupid?! I said I want her taken care of this instant!” He howled, burying his fist on the armrest of the chair he was seated.

The man standing beside Stephen looked at him, and Stephen spoke up. “Sir, I’d advise you to carefully think about things,” Stephen said, which only made Yong-Gun turn even more murderous.

“Sir, I’m trying to say that Lee Dan-Han has somehow involved himself in all this, so we have to be more careful. If there’s something the man is known for, it is playing mind games. He knows how to lure and plot against people. So I’d advise we shouldn’t assume he only knows what he’s claiming to know.”

“For all we know, every step we’ve taken so far could have been premeditated by him. He might already know who the girl is and how she had come to be where she is now. That would only mean he’s unto you, but we don’t know it. Lee Dan-Han might just be playing us.” Stephen said thoughtfully.

He hadn’t been opportune to work with Dan-Han or see him personally, but he could tell the man was shrewd. It had taken him five years and a half to take his company to the heights it had achieved under his leadership. There had been an aggressive takeover of companies the moment he came into power, almost as if he had already laid out plans even before he became the president of PK. He wasn’t directly involved in the underworld, but he had instilled his dread in people’s hearts.

No one had been able to rival against him, and he was certain it was all because the man was incredibly shrewd.

Yong-Gun fell silent as he pondered on his words. He hated to admit the man was right, but he indeed was.

This wasn’t a time to act carelessly. He had to be meticulous in his plans and whatever he did henceforth.

A silly oversight threatened to cause him so much trouble, so he had to be more than careful.

He stared out the window and as he pondered in his mind. He had observed Ki-Jun last night at his place, and though he sometimes seemed a little distracted, nothing seemed to be out of place.

Knowing Ki-Jun as he did, he would have told him if Dan-Han had mentioned or as little as stirred up suspicion about something in that regard. Ki-Jun was trusting of him, which was why he was currently running the Kim family empire, despite their late father’s desire for him not to do so.

He believed that Ki-Jun didn’t know, so he could easily handle the girl if he didn’t. But if there were a minute possibility that Ki-Jun had successfully tried to fool him, then handling the girl wouldn’t be enough. He’d have to see to Ki-Jun too.

“We have to confirm if, indeed, Ki-Jun knows about this.” He reasoned out.

“But how?” Stephen asked, not seeing how they could do so, and it seemed even his boss didn’t know.

Yong-Gun silently pondered on it for a while. His face hardened with a thoughtful frown. “If that Lee brat has informed him about it, then there’s only one way to find out. Find his doctor. Ki-Jun trusts him enough to keep a secret.”

“Yes, sir,” Stephen replied.

Yong-Gun was yet to give out more orders when his phone rang. His face hardened at the sound of it ringing, but his brows pulled together when he picked up the phone and saw the caller’s detail on display.

“Mi-Cha?” He called in mild surprise.

Away from there, at the Su family mansion, A-Yeong knelt before her grandfather and the entire Su family, her hands pressed together in a plea as she once begged for forgiveness.

“Grandfather, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to cause you any trouble or involve anyone in my mess that’s why I didn’t tell anybody. I didn’t mean to-”

“Su A-Yeong,” he cut her short. “Family isn’t addressed as anybody. It is the basis of every existence in life because it is the first thing you have when you’re born and the only thing you’re certain of when you die. And for that, it can never be seen as a burden. If you saw us as your family, you wouldn’t have kept such a secret from us.

“The years this child had to suffer outside this family are because you didn’t know the true worth of family. Many members of this household will put their head on the line for the other, and they would have done the same not just for you but for the great-grandchild of this family.” He told her, his voice calm and unhurried.

A-Yeong lowered her head in shame. “I’m sorry, grandfather.” She pleaded as tears began to roll down her cheeks. She looked at her father and then her mother, who hadn’t stopped crying since Hee-Young was returned by one of Dan-Han’s men.

“Mom, dad, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.” She pleaded between sobs.

Her mother nodded as she held Hee-Young in her arms, who was silently watching the scene and wondering why her mother was kneeling and crying.

Hei-Ran, who had been quietly sitting for a while, finally spoke up. She knew no one would say anything to A-Yeong until her grandfather forgave her. It wasn’t that he hated her or was angry with her, but she believed he was angry with himself for not knowing enough about what had happened in his household and was slightly disappointed in A-Yeong for her handling of things.

“Grandfather, at some point, you’d have to forgive her. It’s been three days since she has been begging, and we all know A-Yeong wasn’t entirely at fault. I would have done the same if I were in her shoes. So please do not be too harsh with her. If not for her sake, then for the sake of Hee-Young, who has now joined the family.” She told the stubborn old man.

She gulped when her grandfather met her eyes. “You’ve suddenly become a spokesman since you became president, haven’t you?” He stink-eyed her, but Hei-Ran shrugged and managed a smile.

“You put me there, grandfather, and I’m sure you wouldn’t have if I were scared of you. Just forgive the girl already so we can all go about our lives. And if you don’t, I’ll be taking her and Hee-Young with me.”

The old man glared at her when he heard her, and Hei-Ran tried not to chuckle. Like all aged people, he had a spot for children, and with Hee-Young being his first great-grandchild, she knew he wouldn’t appreciate the threat of her being taken from the ancestral home.

He looked at Hee-Young and beckoned her to come over, and the girl quietly walked over. His wrinkled face lit up when he carried her and placed her on his thighs.

“Hee-Young, should great grandfather forgive your mummy?” He asked, and the girl readily nodded.

“Yes, grandfather.” She said, and the old man nodded.

He patted her hair and kissed her fluffy cheeks. His heart bled for the little girl for the cruelty she had to endure because of everyone’s foolishness. Because in everything, she was the biggest victim.

His face slightly hardened as he glanced back at A-Yeong. “You’re forgiven, Su A-Yeong.” He said, making sighs of relief echo around the living room.

“But on one condition, the child will bear the Su name but never the Lee’s.”