Chapter 3.2

Chapter 3.2

It had not even been three years since the last woman had ended up dead. There was no reason for him to be in any hurry to remarry. Why would a young police lieutenant from such a powerful family willingly become entangled with the daughter of a criminal defendant?

Jang Myeong-hwan looked Si-eun up and down.

“This may actually be for the best. Assemblyman Jo has agreed to make the introduction, so the meeting will happen. What comes after that is up to you, but if he’s any kind of man, there’s no way he’ll turn you down.”

Even though the gaze appraising her body as though putting a price on it belonged to her own flesh and blood, it was unbearably revolting.

“But Eun-seong turned me down.”

And now he had made the absurd admission that a meeting with Gye Mu-gyeol was already being arranged.

Unable to hold back, Si-eun lowered her gaze and deliberately needled him. Jang Myeong-hwan’s breathing immediately grew harsh again.

“That bastard… That damned upstart had the nerve…!”

Her father had wanted the engagement broken so badly that he had already asked Assemblyman Jo to arrange another match, yet now that Eun-seong had actually called it off, he was practically foaming at the mouth with rage. Si-eun could not understand him.

No. If he had not known that she was about to be rejected so suddenly, then who had he intended the meeting for?

“Eun-seong has known you since you were a child, so he never realised how valuable you were. Men always think something new is better. I knew we should have married you off as soon as you graduated…”

Min Se-hwa muttered regretfully, biting at her fingernail.

“Why keep talking about something that’s already over? We need to secure this match. If we get hold of this family, we’ll have connections strong enough to carry me through a third term, a fourth, a cabinet post, and even all the way to the presidency. Jang Si-eun, do you understand?”

“I do. But I learned from Eun-seong that people’s feelings don’t always move in the direction we want. Even if I bend over backward to please him, it will mean nothing if he doesn’t like me.”

His scheme was painfully obvious. There was no way Gye Mu-gyeol would fail to learn that his brother was investigating Jang Myeong-hwan. A man who had risen to the rank of police lieutenant was unlikely to be foolish enough to let himself be manipulated so easily.

When Si-eun continued speaking pessimistically, Jang Myeong-hwan stared at her before twisting his lips into a crooked grin.

“True. Perhaps his tastes run to someone a little younger and fresher than you.”

At Jang Myeong-hwan’s words, the colour instantly drained from both Si-eun’s and Min Se-hwa’s faces.

Si-eun had not known in advance that her engagement would suddenly be broken. Only then did she understand how, and why, her father had already arranged the meeting.

The person he had originally planned to offer to the young police lieutenant was Jang Ju-eun.

Ju-eun, Si-eun’s even younger sister, who would graduate from high school in only a few months, had been the card Jang Myeong-hwan originally intended to play.

Min Se-hwa, her face now flushed with alarm, turned to look at Si-eun. Si-eun felt her fingernails digging into her palms as she clenched her fists, but she spoke lightly after letting out a quiet breath.

“All right. I’ll meet him. You’ve already arranged it, after all.”

“Whoa, wait. Just wait a second.”

Jang Ju-eun, the only one who had failed to grasp Jang Myeong-hwan’s true intentions and who had never imagined what had almost happened to her, hurried over and seized Si-eun by the arm.

“Unnie, are you insane? Seo Eun-seong breaks off your engagement, and now you’re just going to throw your whole life away? You’re actually agreeing to meet that lunatic?”

Si-eun looked down at her younger sister, whose cheeks were still round with baby fat.

Jang Ju-eun was neither obedient nor inclined to endure things in silence as Si-eun was. Whether that was because Min Se-hwa and Si-eun had protected her or simply because of her natural temperament, she was stubborn and possessed a rebellious streak.

Had Si-eun’s engagement remained intact, what would their father have said to persuade Ju-eun to attend that meeting?

He probably would have used Si-eun or their mother, Min Se-hwa, against her.

To Jang Myeong-hwan, the mother and her two daughters were hostages tangled around one another.

“I’m only meeting him once. It’s not as though I’ve agreed to marry him immediately. He might not even like me.”

“What about what you want? If he does like you, are you really going to marry him? A man like that? Have all of you lost your minds? Unnie, what is wrong with you? Don’t you realise these people are ruining your life?”

These people?

Si-eun burst out laughing before she could stop herself.

“Ju-eun.”

Si-eun gently pinched her sister’s cheek.

“I’ve considered everything before making this decision. I can’t continue enjoying everything Father provides us through my own abilities, so I have to find a man who can provide it instead.”

A faint trace of contempt appeared in Ju-eun’s rabbit-like eyes.

“Stop pretending you’re being clever. It’s pathetic.”

Her lips moved as she spat out the words.

Si-eun knew that too.

Having to sell herself merely to survive was a wretched and humiliating thing.