Taehyung soon returned with a bitter face, and even while eating he was absent-minded. Lisa put away her phone after seeing his expression and said, “Alright, Naeun has also eaten, I’ll bring her to the hospital. If you’re busy, you can leave first.”
“I’ll take you both to the hospital first.” Even if he was beaten to death, he wouldn’t dare to leave Lisa alone. If anything happened to her on his watch, Jungkook would be forced to kill him.
He opened the door while he talked, intending to let the both of them leave first. However, when he glanced around outside and his gaze fell on a figure that was hidden near the doorway, the corner of his mouth quirked up. “Wait a while, I’ll be right there. Make sure you don’t leave!”
Having said that, Taehyung didn’t give Lisa a chance to respond as he closed the door, walking out to the figure who was hiding in the corner, pulling the person out. “Mom, what are you doing?”
Mrs. Yin looked embarrassed to be caught for a while, before straightening up, “I heard that you’ve found me a daughter-in-law and a cute granddaughter, so I came to see for myself.”
“F*ck, this… no, who’s been spilling these things to your ears?” Taehyung’s face was flushed, with a helpless and stunned look. “What do you mean daughter-in-law and granddaughter! That’s my sister! She just graduated from school, what joke is this?!”
“What the f*ck…is that true?” Mrs. Yin’s eyes were wide with surprise. She knew that her son had always been fickle in regards to relationships, but when she heard the gossip she had been over the moon, rushing over. Who knew that the reality was such, that it felt like Taehyung had poured a bucket of cold water over her. However, she continued to speak, “The last time you mentioned you’ve met a sister, this was talking about her?”
“That’s right.”
“When are you bringing her home?”
“Soon. Don’t look at me that way, nothing will happen between us. She belongs to Master Jeon, I wouldn’t dare to defile her with my hands.” Taehyung hurried to add on as a reminder, seeing the calculative looks in his mother’s eyes as soon as he had said the previous words.
Hearing those words, Mrs. Yin slumped in defeat. She knew when to give up, especially when the difference was obvious. Even if you offered the entire Yin family up, no one would dare to touch anyone that belonged to Jeon Jungkook.
“Then I’ll go and meet my daughter,” Mrs. Yin said with a slight furrow of brows, she had been wanting a daughter for a very long time.
“No, now’s not the right time.” Taehyung said as he pulled out his phone. “I’ll call Dad if you still won’t leave, and tell him that you’ve been playing online games in my room the entire night.”
“…Unfilial son!” Mrs. Yin huffed, as she turned to reluctantly leave. “Remember to make time to bring her home!”
Taehyung breathed a sigh of relief after she had gone out of sight, and returned to the private room that he had left the others in.
After sending Naeun back to the hospital, Lisa requested that Taehyung return first, as she would remain and accompany Naeun in the hospital. Taehyung was hesitant, not feeling at ease to leave her alone, but he couldn’t manage to convince her, and could only nag at her for a while before getting into the car and leaving.
By the time Lisa left the hospital, it was already evening. As she walked along the road, a notification came from the System suddenly.
[Beauty Lisa, there is a car following you from behind.]
“I know.” Lisa’s five senses had been honed to be more sensitive, and she had felt herself being followed before the System had notified her.
[There isn’t any malicious intent coming from the owner of the car. Would you like me to run interference on your position, Beauty Lisa?]
“There’s no need.” Lisa said, stopping. She turned her body slowly as she waited for the car to catch up to her, a blank look on her face as she watched the black car approach. Her eyes were half closed, and her eyes were empty.
She knew who it was inside the car.
The car slowed to a stop beside her, and the window rolled down, revealing a slightly middle-aged man’s face. It was Byunghun, the head of the Manoban family!
Lisa stared at him quietly, with no surprise on her face at the sight of him. After a short while, she got into the car.
The reason the Manoban family had taken her in, was completely under the instructions of the old man. They weren’t sure what was going on with the Yin family, suddenly deciding to suppress the Manoban family in everything. Not only that, even the other two who were neutral had started to get in the way of them, driving them into a corner with no way out.
At this time, the old man suddenly remembered Lisa. He knew that Lisa was someone who held familial relationships close to her heart, and she would always return. He knew that she had a good relationship with the Yin family, but without her position as the second daughter, what else did she have?
Byunghun thought that he had all these seen through and calculated.
Lisa sat in the car, still having an indifferent expression on her face as she focused on nothing in particular. After thinking a while about it, she sent a text message to Jungkook letting him know that she would be back late.
The car came to a stop outside the gates of the Byunghun’s house, and as the lights outside the window passed in a blur, she recalled the feelings she had when she first stepped foot into this place. Anxious, uneasy, anticipation, and now—her heart just felt dead.
The farce should be over now.
Byunghun greeted Lisa with a smile and was courteous, remembering Master Manoban’s words. He wore a kind expression, a smile on his face as words of concern poured out of his mouth like it didn’t cost any money to buy the words.
However, the girl beside him suddenly looked straight into his eyes, and it made him uncomfortable to meet her gaze, and he didn’t. It felt like she could see inside him, and everything inside his heart was bare for her to see. He felt that there was something different about his daughter, but he couldn’t put a finger on it, and chose to swallow his words and stay silent.
When they returned to Manoban Manor, they greeted Lisa with the same cheerfulness. Even Yejin was all smiles, no matter how much resentment was in her heart towards Lisa, she wouldn’t dare to show it on her face. The head of the Manoban family was treating Lisa like a treasure right now, and she didn’t dare to say anything about it. Her heart was bitter, but she swore silently that once Lisa had outlived her usefulness, she would definitely take everything back, including interest!
“Since you’re home, you should stay in the future. It’s nothing great about staying outside, and there’s care for you at home too.” Master Manoban said, implying that they would no longer pursue past affairs. She was still a lady of the Manoban family, and still held her inheritance rights.
With familial love and her inheritance, Master Manoban believed that Lisa would be obedient and listen to his words.
Lisa listened to the words spoken, and only raised her head when they were done speaking, her eyes still devoid of any emotions. In just a short month, she had been exercising a lot, and filled up quite a bit. She was slightly taller than before, a gorgeous body with beautiful curves. Her complexion was also better, her cheeks having a natural rosy hue which indicated she was healthy. Her skin was pale but not unnaturally so, and her beauty was really shining through and it was hard to not notice it.
“Do you recall how I came back with you?” Lisa said as she looked into Master Manoban’s eyes, with him recalling the memories back then. “You searched for me far and wide, and when you found me, you told me that I wasn’t an orphan, that I had family, and they were in N City.”
She paused, smiling without humor. “You said you wanted to bring me home to see my family, I used to place so much trust in you. For someone who knew from a young age that I was picked up from god knows where, and never knowing who my birth parents were, do you understand how much I yearned for the word ‘family’? I saw you all as my savior from that torture, and that was also the reason why I tried so hard to integrate myself into the family.”
“However, my biological father treats me like I am the biggest stain in his entire life! From the day I came into the Manoban family, you have all sat on your high chair, telling me with words and actions that I’m not fit to even take on the family name and will never be part of this family in anything but name. That I am just an illegitimate daughter that should never have seen the light of day, the shame of the prestigious Manoban family!”
Lisa stood in the middle of the living room, she stood with her back rammed straight, and her eyes were cold with barely a hint of any emotion in them.
She was just standing there, but everyone else in the room felt the heavy atmosphere pressing on them like a mountain, rendering it hard to take their next breath each passing second.
Master Manoban was staring at Lisa, and had many times looked like he wanted to interrupt her spiel. However, even if he had opened his mouth, the words wouldn’t come out. It was as though his entire being was out of his control, and as he watched the girl who stood aloofly in front of him, his eyes narrowed slightly.
The words on Master Manoban’s tongue was a question, a question on whether everything happening was planned by her hands. But the words refused to come out.
Her words dripped with acid as she spoke, each of it piercing his heart and rendered him unable to move with the sheer coldness and resentment in it.
“As soon as I was taken in, you began to guard yourselves against me, and even started enabling Eunha! How is this my fault? I was an orphan with no parents, a poor worm that nobody wanted… but once I had parents, I am the illegitimate daughter who is ungrateful and has ill-intentions!”
Her voice had gotten slightly hoarse. “Grandfather, I really do appreciate what you have done, taking me out from there. I’ve always thought that you were the only one who treated me with a semblance of fairness, until you came back this time, I realized I was wrong. You just latched onto my desire for family and brought me back, waiting for the right time to sell me off to the highest bidder. You’d even throw me back out without mercy if the need ever arises.”
“I was so stupid, thinking that I could ever gain any of your approval, but… an illegitimate daughter who had been abandoned from the beginning, whatever she does would forever be in vain, wouldn’t it?”
Lisa’s vision was getting blurry as she thought of her previous life, she had always been regarded as expendable by the Manoban family. With no proper help nor care given to her, she was still an abandoned child in the end. It was such a simple reality, and yet it had taken her life to truly understand what it had been.
“Have a good look at this document, and consider this the last thing I will ever do for the Manoban family. From today onwards, I’m severing all ties with this family!”
She released a deep breath, placing the stack of papers in her hand on the table. She smiled lightly at Master Manoban, her eyes once again devoid of any emotions. “You will come to need these things in the future, but remember, my debt to the Manoban family has been paid off! From now on, whatever that happens has nothing to do with me! Therefore, it’ll be best not to provoke me either. Put a leash on Eunha, you hear me?”
Reigning in her emotions and expressions, she once more bore an indifferent expression that she had come in with, her back straight and her head lifted in pride. The same instance she opened the door and walked out, a bolt of lightning struck through the sky. The light from it made her eyes flash eerily, the coldness in it more vibrant. The rain started off softly, gathering momentum before falling heavily from the sky, joining the tears on her face that were falling from her eyes.
The dull roar from the thunder sounded, exploding in her ears and covering the sky and earth with its majestic sight and momentum. The dark night sky seemed to be covered entirely in its light.
The petite figure walked into the night slowly, and the servant that had been standing by the door was petrified, an umbrella held tightly in his hand as they didn’t dare to offer it to the person who had walked out. Not everyone was heartless after all, but all they could do was feel regret as they watched the scene play out.
Master Manoban, who had been sitting on the sofa in shock, finally blinked back to reality. He reached out to the papers that Lisa had left behind. After reading the first piece, his withered hand started trembling, his heart thumping violently in his chest as a wave of pain and regret swept through his body.
Byunghun and Yejin saw him with one hand clenching his heart, and hurried over to help him.
Master Manoban waved them off coldly however, and with one hand clutching his chest, his other hand continued to flip through the stack of documents. The more he read, the more upset he became. When he was finally done reading through the documents, he couldn’t help the tears that trailed down his eyes. “I have always prided myself in being wise all my life, but I have watched with my own eyes what would have been the best successor of the Manoban family leave just like that! It’s retribution, it’s all retribution! Cough cough!”
He found it hard to breathe, coughing as he tried to pull in the oxygen he needed, and he finally fainted backward onto the sofa.
“Father!”
“Father!”
Byunghun and Yejin rushed forward again, panicking at the unresponsive old man. The servants rushed in, and one of them called for an ambulance. Byunghun pulled the papers that Master Manoban was holding tightly in his hands despite being unconscious and flipped through it, and found himself dumbfounded after reaching the last page.
Since it was something that Lisa had used as a piece to cut ties with the Manoban family, it definitely wouldn’t be something so simple. It turned out to be the thing the Manoban family needed the most—the rights of cooperation for the base!
This contract in his hands would allow the Manoban family to escape the entire situation of embarrassment and hopelessness that they found themselves in right now. Not only that, the document contained a set of plans, and with it, it wasn’t an impossible feat for the Manoban family to be able to return to its former glory!
This had definitely not been written by the Yin family. With the far more aggressive state they were in, Byunghun wasn’t in any disillusion to think that they would be willing to set out a plan like this for them. Moreover, if the Yin family had the kind of talent to draw up this plan, they would have already been the chaebol* of N City.
And with that logic, these things were definitely drawn up by Lisa.
With that thought in his mind, Byunghun’s hand also began to tremble. What kind of daughter had he forced out of the family?
But it was too late to regret it now, along with the contract, there was also evidence of the Manoban family’s bribery activities. The most damning was also evidence of how Eunha had hired an assassin and kidnapped Lisa. If all of these came into light, they wouldn’t be able to do anything, and all they could do now was let Lisa leave in peace.
“There isn’t any good news whenever that trainwreck comes back to Manoban Manor. Tomorrow Eunha will be leaving overseas, didn’t she just come back to cause trouble?!”
Slap!
Byunghun had not been able to contain himself as his hand lashed out to slap Yejin. It was this woman in front of him. This woman had cost them a life of regret and lost opportunities!
“Byunghun, you… how dare you…” Yejin’s eyes were wide with shock and surprise. She couldn’t believe her husband, a man who had always obediently listened to her every word, had dared to raise a hand to her!
“Get out of my sight!” Byunghun spat, giving her a look full of contempt as he dismissed her, turning to follow the doctor up the stairs.
Once Yejin had snapped out of her daze, she screamed and started smashing everything in her reach in a violent tantrum.
The Manoban household found no sleep that night.
Lisa stepped out of Manoban Manor, the rain falling harder than ever. It was impossible to tell whether it was rainwater or tears on her face at this point, and yet she continued to walk in a daze. Her focus was on placing one foot in front of another as she walked, just like the first night she had been reborn. The only difference this time was, she was walking out of this place for real.
The rain falling on her vanished suddenly, and Lisa lifted her hand to wipe at her face. Raising her head, she looked at a familiar face.
Lightning flashed through the sky, and thunder roared loudly. Although it was raining cats and dogs, the man’s white shirt was still as clean and pristine as ever, not a single drop of rain had touched it. Although the expression on his face was indifferent and seemed to be aloof, his sea-blue eyes held a hint of warmth and gentleness underneath his cold exterior. Standing there beside her with the umbrella in his hands, it seemed like he was the only person left on earth in the world.
At the sight of a familiar face, knowing that it was someone who cared for her, Lisa’s tears gushed anew. Like a dam breaking, the tears flowed uncontrollably from her eyes.
She was not a person who liked to cry, and the number of times that she had cried in her life could be counted with one hand. But she was not able to suppress the urge to cry tonight, she wasn’t even sure whether she was crying because of her desire and yearning for the familial affection that she never had, or for the unbelievable past life that she had once lived.
Jungkook had started his journey over here the moment he had received her text message. He always had good instincts, knowing how to read between the lines that were left unsaid by her.
Tightening the grip on the umbrella in his hand, he listened to her every sentence and word spilling from her lips. With his position, he naturally would never have imagined that there would be someone like Lisa existing in this world. The things that were in reach of his fingertips were things that she would never be able to even touch.
When others only saw her prideful exterior, he saw the broken pieces of her shattered heart.
He lowered his head to be at the same height as her face, seeing the tears that didn’t slide down her face on her eyelashes. The once clear and vibrant eyes were now filled with tears, obscuring the life in them. Her eyes were red and swollen from crying, and rainwater was still dripping from her hair. Her small petite frame was also trembling.
He suddenly recalled the time when he had first met her. When he had first laid eyes on her, he knew how her ending would be—tragic.
[*]family run business-conglomerate