Chapter 63: The Bracelet Trap

“Don’t you have anything to say, Father? And you too, Jae-yi?”

One side of Go Ha-jin’s face was still red from the slap. Judging by the force behind it, a dark bruise would probably bloom there by tomorrow.

Meeting his gaze, Lee Ah-seong thought the same thing he had been thinking ever since this began, that Ha-jin had orchestrated all of this from the start.

It wasn’t true, but that was how it looked now.

Hadn’t Ha-jin been unnervingly composed from the beginning? As though he had something to rely on. Instead of simply feeling irritated, Ah-seong now regretted not figuring out where that confidence had come from.

“Something to say? What kind of question is that? How dare you glare at me like that?”

“That’s enough.”

Ah-seong stopped Chae Jae-yi before he could continue.

“…I’m sorry for raising my hand earlier. Even if you were the culprit, I shouldn’t have done that. I let my temper get the better of me.”

It was humiliating.

Other than Chae Il-joo, there was no one who could make Lee Ah-seong feel this small. Lowering his head and apologizing, even when the words contained not a shred of sincerity, was something he hated.

“…Fine. Let’s watch it then, Woo-seok.”

Jae-yi slapped away the hand Ah-seong had offered, but Ah-seong caught it anyway.

“This is making me nervous. What if the video suddenly shows Hyung running around holding the bracelet and laughing?”

“Could you… be quiet?”

“So if that happens, is he getting kicked out? That won’t do. Maybe we shouldn’t play it after all?”

There wasn’t a trace of tension in Chae Woo-seok despite the nonsense coming out of his mouth. If anything, he seemed to be enjoying himself.

His fingers moved confidently across the tablet, and twelve small windows filled the screen.

He hadn’t been bluffing.

CCTV cameras really had been installed throughout the house, both inside and out.

When he adjusted the timeline to the afternoon, a suspicious figure appeared in one of the exterior camera feeds.

“Huh…?”

Just as Woo-seok was about to tap that screen, Ha-jin quickly selected one of the interior cameras instead.

“…I think this one will do, Woo-seok.”

“Yeah.”

The enlarged footage showed the area in front of their dressing room.

For a moment the screen remained still.

Then someone appeared.

The person looked around cautiously before stopping in front of the dressing room door. A hand emerged from a pocket, revealing something glittering.

“Wow, the resolution’s amazing. Right, Hyung? You can practically count the gemstones in that bracelet.”

Even Woo-seok’s sarcasm was swallowed by the heavy silence.

Some of them had still been hoping.

Surely even someone as strange as Chae Woo-seok wouldn’t really install cameras all over his own house.

Maybe it had all been a bluff.

They had been wrong.

The footage was crystal clear.

The person’s face was so visible that denying their identity was impossible.

“Ha. Team Leader Yang.”

“Chairman! Th-that’s not-!”

The person in the footage was Team Leader Yang.

Surprising, yet not surprising.

Everyone had expected Yang to be involved somehow.

What was shocking was that he had personally carried out something so foolish.

“Take him away.”

The butler and one of Chae Il-joo’s secretaries immediately seized Yang and dragged him out. He looked desperate to explain himself, but there was no way he could resist two grown men.

“Well, this is interesting. Somehow I doubt that’s the end of it.”

At Chae Il-joo’s remark, the hearts of everyone involved nearly stopped.

Tae Seol finally burst into tears.

“What do you think should be done, son-in-law?”

The question was asked gently.

But his eyes were sharp.

Those unfathomable eyes demanded an answer.

“Why are you asking him, Father? Obviously we expose everything and throw them out. Theft, lies, and framing someone else? That’s way over the line.”

“Not you, you idiot. I asked my son-in-law.”

Just moments ago, Woo-seok had been carrying himself with an intimidating gravity.

Now he looked completely different.

The weight vanished as he slouched deep into the sofa, legs spread comfortably. Reaching out, he wrapped an arm around Ha-jin’s waist and pulled him close.

Without caring who saw, he casually poked at Ha-jin’s side.

“Explain yourself properly, Woo-seok.”

The corner of Il-joo’s mouth finally lifted.

What had been intriguing was now entertaining.

At this point, he almost wanted someone to bring him drinks and snacks so he could enjoy the show properly.

He had known his son was a troublemaker.

Apparently, he had underestimated him.

“The truth is, our house has CCTV cameras.”

“…What?”

“A lot of them.”

The four people Woo-seok looked at in turn, Ah-seong, Jae-yi, Tae Seol, and Team Leader Yang, felt a chill crawl down their spines.

His gaze seemed to say,

Did you really think I wouldn’t know what you were doing?

“Then why didn’t you say so earlier?!”

“What difference would that have made, Noona? If I’d said it earlier, would Hyung suddenly stop being the suspect? If I say it now, does that make him one? It’s the same thing.”

Shock spread across the faces of everyone involved.

There was no way to quietly sweep this under the rug anymore.

Anyone who suggested that now would only make themselves look guilty.

Everyone was desperately calculating how to save themselves.

“Right. We should find the culprit.”

Lee Ah-seong was the first to retreat.

There was no evidence linking him directly to anything.

“Y-yeah. That’s… probably best.”

Jae-yi followed immediately.

His sharp gaze stabbed toward Tae Seol, a clear warning not to say anything unnecessary.

‘A perfect sacrifice.’

Now only the lying servant, Tae Seol, and Team Leader Yang remained exposed.

Losing Yang would hurt Ah-seong, but survival came first.

“Well then, shall we see who stole Father’s bracelet? And who dared to lie?”

Woo-seok picked up the tablet.

No one could remain calm.

No one knew exactly what those recordings contained.

Depending on what appeared, even Jae-yi and Ah-seong might not escape unscathed.

With Chae Il-joo involved, there was no avoiding it.

“Wait.”

At that moment, Go Ha-jin stepped forward and stopped Woo-seok.

📚 Also on NHV Novels

Scream for Me

BLLove–Hate RelationshipModern

Read Now →
Not interested