Chapter 3.1

Chapter 3.1

Yes. That was how Gye Mu-gyeol was generally known.

The senior police officer who had beaten his wife to death.

Strictly speaking, since they had not yet registered their marriage, she had been his girlfriend rather than his wife, but still.

Not long after their wedding ceremony, the woman died suddenly in their newlywed home.

At first, the case was known only among a small circle of people. But rumours began spreading after a petition written by one of the woman’s friends drew attention online, and an investigative television programme eventually examined the case.

The two had married after dating for only about three months.

Unlike the woman, who was remembered simply as a good person, the man was someone people found it remarkable had managed to function in society at all. His family had covered up more than one assault case for him since childhood, and his reputation was appalling. It was enough to make people wonder how he had ever graduated from the Korean National Police University. Even in front of the camera, he hurled so much abuse that most of his interview had to be censored.

There were no signs that anyone had forcibly entered the newlywed home. The interior was in complete disarray, as though someone had deliberately ransacked it, yet nothing was missing.

The new bride was found hanging inside the house.

Her body was covered in dozens of bruises.

But the cause of death was not the white towel around her neck. It was the blood pouring from the back of her head.

She had died from excessive blood loss.

A single note believed to be a suicide letter had reportedly been found at the scene, but its contents were never made public.

There was no shortage of evidence suggesting that it had been a murder disguised as suicide.

Strangely, however, the woman’s family wanted the case quietly buried. They even had her body cremated almost immediately, destroying crucial evidence. The newlywed home was renovated until no trace of the incident remained, and the case was closed by the police before it ever reached the prosecution.

Had it not been for the handwritten petition posted by the bride’s friend, the matter would have ended without either a victim or a perpetrator.

No—it had, in fact, ended exactly that way.

Only those who had watched the investigative programme before a court injunction forced it off the air were left to draw their own conclusions.

*A young police lieutenant named Gye Mu-gyeol, born into a powerful family, beat his wife to death. And because his family was so influential, he escaped punishment and continued living a comfortable life.*

His surname and given name were so unusual that, even though the programme had referred to him only as “Lieutenant Gye,” his full name gradually became known.

Had he truly continued living under the same name without even changing it?

Si-eun gave a hollow laugh.

“You’re saying… you want me to marry him?”

Gye Mu-gyeol?

After Seo Eun-seong broke off their engagement, Si-eun had already assumed that she would never marry a man with better prospects than his.

It was not merely that she carried the stigma of being unilaterally rejected after an engagement arranged in childhood. Given Jang Myeong-hwan’s current circumstances, there was no family in the world with better prospects that would want her.

Besides, despite raging about humiliation only moments ago, her father had secretly hoped for the engagement to end so that he could make more profitable use of Si-eun. He would never let such an opportunity slip away.

She had expected that he might marry her off to some wealthy old pervert looking for a young second wife.

But this was beyond anything she had imagined.

She had never expected him to tie her to a psychopath condemned by the entire country.

“It’s not a bad marriage for you. He may have held a wedding before, but his family register is clean. And he’s still a very young police lieutenant. His relatives are positioned throughout the upper ranks. He’s a man destined for a smooth rise to the top. Like I said, his is a truly prestigious family, nothing like Jingwang. Naturally, the marriage would also benefit our family.”

*It would benefit you.*

Enduring the burning pain in her struck cheek, Si-eun smiled. She could not tell whether the heat spreading to her forehead came from embarrassment or from her swelling face.

“I understand.”

There was no need to hear any more. No matter how prettily he dressed it up, he was telling her to take the place of a newlywed bride who could not even report being beaten, whose suspicious death had never been investigated, and whose body had simply been cremated.

“But… do you think that man would even like me?”

Surely even he would want some say in choosing the kind of woman he wanted to beat to death. He was hardly going to marry just anyone they pushed in front of him.