TCBW C99

Chapter 99

“……”

“H–Hey! It’s me, Chairman Han!”

His face had gone deathly pale, his movements stiff and clumsy. To Dowoon’s eyes, however, he looked nothing more than a cowardly old man. An elder who could not even rein in his own temper, posturing and growling—it was hardly frightening. If anything, it seemed almost comical.

Dowoon glanced over Chairman Han once more, then lowered his gaze to check his wristwatch. The time he had planned to leave and go to Suhoe was drawing closer.

Chairman Han, meanwhile, continued his pitiful act, convinced that his secretary would answer at any moment. The shrill beeping rang incessantly in his ear, yet he stubbornly kept the phone pressed there, as though unwilling to abandon the performance.

Watching the sorry spectacle, Dowoon decided he no longer wished to waste another second of his time on Chairman Han.

“Han Sara—”

The moment Dowoon spoke, the hunched old body whipped around toward him. It seemed Chairman Han thought his threats had finally worked.

“What is it? You’ve decided to apologize now?”

“Inside that envelope are records of roughly twenty illegal routes through which rut accelerants were imported, along with the evidence. There is also proof that there were victims besides myself and my wife.”

“What?”

Words he had never even imagined hearing spilled from Dowoon’s mouth, leaving Chairman Han staring in a daze. At last, he seemed to abandon the useless phone call and lowered his hand.

“In addition, there is information confirmed with the judicial authorities of every country where Han Sara conducted her dealings—details of the sentences she would face.”

Chairman Han could not close his mouth.

For nearly a month, Dowoon had not merely delayed this meeting to torment him. He had been meticulously investigating everything about Han Sara.

Lee Dowoon was not after Yongseong Electronics’ shares alone.

“What will you do?” Dowoon asked calmly. “If you dismiss me here, then I will release all of this to the world.”

With a shriek of frustration, Chairman Han flung his phone aside and seized the envelope, dumping its contents onto the table.

Contracts for illegal drug transactions carried out under Sara’s name. Documents proving that Saeman’s distribution system had been used. USB drives containing consultation recordings with foreign judicial bodies and hotel CCTV footage.

Even this…

How had he obtained hotel CCTV that had supposedly been destroyed the very same day? Realizing that he had been completely played in Dowoon’s grasp, Chairman Han roared in fury.

“Damn it!”

He tore at the documents and photographs on the table, crushed the USB drives beneath his shoe. Dowoon and Haeeon merely watched the mad display in silence.

“H–Ha….”

Breathing harshly, Chairman Han glared at Dowoon with bloodshot eyes and shouted,

“What do you want? What do you want so badly that you’d go this far?”

“What I have received compensation for so far is only the drug I was forced to ingest. Now, I am seeking compensation for the harm done to my wife. Since you refuse to provide it, I am simply showing you that I have other means.”

“You’re threatening to turn my daughter into a criminal if I don’t pay! You’re demanding a price so absurd it wouldn’t be enough even if I sold the company! This was never about money, was it? Then say something that’s actually possible!”

At last, as though he had been waiting for this, Dowoon spoke.

“If we cannot reach an agreement, then those who committed crimes should serve their sentences.”

“I told you to say what you want—already!”

“That is what I want.”

Chairman Han’s voice trembled in desperation, but Dowoon’s words rang hollowly in his ears.

“For the crimes of trafficking illegal drugs and assaulting my wife, I am telling you to let her serve the sentence she deserves.”

Chairman Han had thought the matter settled through shares. Now everything was collapsing—not merely back to the beginning, but to something far worse. Despair swallowed him.

Dowoon did not stop there.

“Among the countries where Han Sara conducted her drug trade, there are places that impose the death penalty on foreigners. You may also wish to consider that other members of your family were involved in those illegal routes.”

Trait-related drugs were overseen by an international organization established for trait research and the protection of trait-bearers’ rights. Member countries all adhered to its laws when judging such crimes—a fact well known to the public.

There was no way Chairman Han, a man in distribution, did not know this.

His face drained completely of color as he lowered his head. He already understood what Dowoon was saying.

“…Just who are you, President Lee…?”

“What will you do?”

Pressed relentlessly, Chairman Han clamped his lips shut, his face ashen. He felt as though he had been driven to the edge of a cliff. Every rope he reached for was rotten through.

If he paid, he would have to give up everything he owned. If he did not, he might lose his child. And the man before him was not someone who would look away out of pity. Chairman Han had no choice but to force a decision.

“Of course, if you dislike that as well, there is another option.”

Dowoon offered the alternative as though bestowing mercy.

“If she is sentenced domestically first and imprisoned until the statute of limitations set by the international organization expires, she may avoid execution. There’s a lawyer right there—confirm it with him.”

“You expect me to lock my child in prison? Do you not know the statute of limitations for illegal drug trafficking under international law is twenty-five years? How can you be so cruel?”

Incensed by Dowoon’s tone, Chairman Han raged, eyes blazing. Dowoon, however, remained unmoved, pressing his plan with calm insistence.

“I have not said anything unreasonable. I am already showing mercy by withholding my evidence. If you confess only to routes in countries without capital punishment, she will still receive at least twenty-five years in Korea. Given that she is already under investigation for illegal hallucinogen use, the trial will proceed quickly.”

“Must my daughter truly pay such a price? Can’t you just step back a little?”

Appealing to emotion was useless. Dowoon’s resolve was absolute.

“When my wife said she was suffering, did Han Sara step back? Twenty-five years is the minimum. Even if the sentence is reduced, I will release every illegal route she was involved in. Only then will I be satisfied.”

“You’re a man without blood or tears!”

To force proud Sara to endure the lowest depths of life in prison—this was a hell more vivid than death.

At last, Chairman Han understood that nothing he said would move Dowoon. Even if he hired the best lawyers to reduce her sentence, Dowoon would simply ensure it increased again.

Despair without a bottom engulfed him. There was no acceptable choice left.

“Make your decision. If you stall here, I will release everything tomorrow morning.”

“Damn it…”

He was being forced to send his own daughter to prison. The alternative—bearing an astronomical cost—was equally impossible. He could not dismantle the company he had built over a lifetime, nor sacrifice all his children.

After agonizing until his head burned, only one path remained. A hoarse voice finally escaped him.

“…I will have her confess.”

It was an unavoidable choice. Trembling with rage at Dowoon’s mercilessness, he nonetheless accepted the terms. He could not abandon both his life’s work and his child’s life.

At that abject declaration of surrender, Dowoon’s expression turned openly satisfied.

Once, he had even considered marrying Sara. Now there was not the slightest trace of compassion left. He had merely taken his time, weaving schemes, to ensure she paid fully for her crimes.

“Get up, you worthless fools.”

Chairman Han struck the heads of his secretary and lawyer, still oppressed by pheromones. Jolted back to awareness, they rose shakily.

Leading them out, Chairman Han passed Dowoon and Haeeon, then suddenly stopped at the doorway.

“…So that’s why you added that clause earlier.”

He spoke while looking at Dowoon’s cold, pitiless profile. He was referring to the sentence Dowoon had written in neat script at the bottom of the contract, before sending it to the brokerage.