Chapter 33
On the way to a business trip to the countryside with Young-chul.
“I heard they cut down the hours the housekeeper comes in. I doubt the family would’ve allowed that easily. Manager Park, do you know anything about it?”
Do-hoon, who had been bothered about the housekeeper issue for a while, asked Young-chul if he knew anything.
“I heard Madam goes to the main house every morning after you leave for work.”
Young-chul, who had been waiting for the right moment to say it, shared what he had heard about Eun-ha.
“Really?”
“It seems she’s being made to do house chores. Do you want to wait and see?”
Do-hoon’s face twisted.
Of course. There was no way they’d just allow it.
He’d told her not to overdo things, yet she’d ended up being dragged around by Seon-ju without even telling him.
But right now, he had no grounds to step in. The fact that she hadn’t told him meant Eun-ha wanted to handle it herself.
“For now, let’s watch. She doesn’t seem to want to tell me, so I don’t want to pretend I know and upset her.”
Even as he said that, Do-hoon was already thinking of ways to warn his family without raising suspicion.
Young-chul watched him curiously.
A contract, he said… but is he actually serious?
Do-hoon had explained his relationship with Eun-ha as a mutually necessary contract. At first, it had shocked Young-chul and made him worry about the family finding out, but he accepted it.
But looking at Do-hoon today, it seemed he had feelings for Eun-ha beyond a contract.
It was something only Young-chul—who had watched Do-hoon for years—could sense.
“Anyway, how are things on Jang Chan-woo’s side?”
“He seems to be drifting between gambling dens as usual.”
“Keep monitoring him. Just in case. And there’s something I want you to handle while I’m in the U.S.”
Do-hoon said meaningfully.
Eun-ha was at the main house again today.
The first time she did housework there, her muscles had been so shocked she could barely move for days.
She couldn’t tell Do-hoon she was in pain—he’d surely worry.
But after a few days, she seemed to have built up some calluses; now she could manage.
She couldn’t live like this forever, of course, but she could endure a few more days.
But Seon-ju was no pushover. Seeing Eun-ha complete tasks without complaint only fueled her spite, and she gradually increased the workload.
Yesterday, she made her wash every dish in the house, dragging out even the ones in storage.
Today, it seemed she wanted the guesthouse cleaned.
Eun-ha let out a half-sigh, half-disbelieving laugh as she looked at the cleaning supplies in front of her.
“Sorry, young madam…”
Housekeeper Ham Yang-daek squirmed with guilt every time she assigned Eun-ha work.
“It’s fine. Better than washing dishes. At least I get to move around.”
Resigned, Eun-ha picked up the supplies.
“I didn’t know this house even had rooms like this.”
From the front gate, the main building was directly ahead, and a good distance to the side stood another building—the guesthouse.
Eun-ha had been told to clean the guesthouse and had spent the whole afternoon doing so.
Then, when she entered the last room in the row…
It was like a storage room—piles of miscellaneous junk everywhere.
“How am I supposed to clean this?”
There were so many things on the floor she couldn’t organize anything carelessly.
Afraid she might cause trouble, she decided to clean only the desk.
As she cleared the desk, a white sheet of paper with a name and phone number slipped out from between messy documents.
Eun-ha picked it up absent-mindedly, intending to put it back—but then she saw the name.
She froze.
It was a name she knew.
<Jang Chan-woo 010-XXXX-XXXX>
Chan-woo…?
Since childhood, he had looked at her with lecherous eyes, and when she later met him again in Las Vegas, he had tried to sell her off to pay his gambling debt. He was the younger brother of Chan-sook—her aunt. In other words, her uncle Chan-woo.
There were many people with the same name in the world, but she never expected to see this name here.
Eun-pyo, after learning what she had gone through, had cut ties with Chan-woo, so she didn’t know his recent number. Still, just seeing the name gave her chills.
It’s probably just someone with the same name…
But no matter how she thought about it, it was strange that Chan-woo’s name appeared in this house’s documents.
Heart pounding, she slipped the paper back into the file.
As she slowly lifted it onto the desk—she heard a cold, icy voice behind her.
“What are you doing here, sister-in-law?”
Startled, she turned around. Se-hoon was staring at her like a wild animal whose territory had been invaded.
He strode over and snatched the documents from her hands.
“Don’t tell me my brother married a rat instead of a wife.”
A rat? Was that supposed to be a joke?
Stunned, Eun-ha stared at him.
He smirked, demanding an answer—but his eyes were cold, hostile.
It was the gaze of someone questioning why she was here without permission.
“I’m just here to clean.”
Even if it was his room, she couldn’t understand why she deserved this hostility—but it was better to resolve the misunderstanding.
“Clean?”
“Yes. Mother-in-law told me to clean the guesthouse.”
Only then did Se-hoon notice the cleaning tools around her. He smirked again.
Eun-ha frowned slightly. She couldn’t read him at all.
“If you’re going to clean, do it properly. This isn’t a room the cleaners should enter.”
A strange irritation ran through her.
Even if she was cleaning on Seon-ju’s orders, she was still his elder by family relation. Yet he was treating her like a maid.
When she bit her lip and stayed silent, he spoke again.
“I think Mother made a mistake this time. I don’t know what kind of person you are, and she lets you wander around the main house.”
“What?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll tell her so something like this won’t happen again.”
“I’m fine.”
“I’m not. Who knows where you’ll sneak into next, or what you’ll be peeking at?”
“…What?”
Eun-ha stared, speechless. He saw her as someone snooping around for secrets.
What was there to spy on in this house?
She looked at him, offended, but Se-hoon added:
“So let’s stop before things get uncomfortable for both of us.”
His smile vanished suddenly—revealing a cruel, frightening expression.
The sudden shift made Eun-ha stop breathing.
But it lasted only a moment. He was soon smiling casually again.
As if telling her to get out.
With no reason to stay, Eun-ha gathered the tools and headed out.
“Oh, by the way—how is your father-in-law? Still unconscious, right? You must be worried sick.”
Out of nowhere, Se-hoon brought up Eun-pyo.
Eun-ha didn’t want to talk about it, but she would be his sister-in-law for at least three more years. She couldn’t ignore the question.
“He’s improving a lot.”
“Really?”
His eyebrows lifted—but Eun-ha didn’t notice.
Though Eun-pyo was still unconscious, his surgical inflammation and brain waves were stabilizing quickly.
That alone made her hopeful. When his body healed, she believed his consciousness would return.
“Yes. Thank you for your concern.”
Polite to the end, she left the room.
But the more she thought about it, the more uneasy she felt.
What kind of confidential documents would make him call her a rat?
Still, she decided not to dwell on it.
Chan-woo’s name… she tried to dismiss it as coincidence.
But after the exhausting day, the moment she returned from cleaning the guesthouse, Seon-ju summoned her and interrogated her again.
“You. Did you go wandering around the guesthouse?”
“Yes. I thought I was supposed to clean.”
Seon-ju pressed her forehead. She had indeed ordered her to clean it, but she hadn’t expected her to wander into every room so cluelessly.
Especially that room. She had assumed Eun-ha would skip it because it was obviously full of junk.
She thought Eun-ha would just fake a cleaning and leave.
But what was done was done. Seon-ju asked the question she cared about most.
“So, what did you see in that room?”
