Chapter 223 - Soo Bin's Story (5):Remnants of that Woman

"Where is she?" KJ demanded. "Where is my sister?"  "She went missing," Soo Bin said, feeling perplexed. "You didn't know about her? I assumed the memory may have been painful so you rarely talked about your family on TV. But not being aware of your own sister…"  "But why would my grandfather hide such a big fact from me?"  He had a sister! Where was she? Did she survive? Did she remember him at all?  "What was her name?" KJ asked.  "I…I can't recall," Soo Bin admitted. "But Sia nicknamed her Sisi. All of us knew her as Sisi. She was barely five years old when Sia and Sungmin were killed."  "But there must have been something!" KJ exclaimed. "Adoption papers or family registry? Anything with her name on it!"  "Sungmin and Sia didn't keep any of it," Soo Bin explained. "To avoid the Cartel, they didn't keep any official records. Without the help of Kwon Jinhyung, they were extremely vulnerable. Yet, they somehow managed to avoid detection thanks to Jung Taewon. He arranged for fake doc.u.ments whenever required."  KJ ran a hand through his hair. His sister was probably alive. But where was she?  "How were they killed?" he finally asked. "My parents."  "One day, your sister became gravely ill. You were a toddler then. Her health deteriorated and Sungmin was away for some work. Sia had to take her to the hospital herself. There, one of the Cartel members spotted her. He immediately notified the others." "That night, Sungmin returned home. Sia had just put you and Sisi to sleep. There was a knock on the door. They became suddenly alert. They never had any visitors that late at night. After years of hiding, they picked up a strong sense of mistrust. Sia quickly woke up Sisi and instructed her to hide in a secret bunker with you. She told the little child, no matter what happens, not to come out." "Sungmin picked up a gun and carefully opened the door. But…"  Soo Bin scrunched his eyebrows. "Here is where the details became very murky," he said. "Sungmin and Sia were summoned out of the house by someone. They went out willingly because there were no signs of forced entry. Whoever made them leave the house was a friend to them. Their bodies were found on the highway and their car was dumped into a ditch. Officially, it was an accident but there were bruises and signs of torture on their bodies. They died before the car crash." "Where was my sister?" KJ asked.  "I suspect that she may have snuck out of the bunker and hid in the car to follow her parents," Soo Bin theorized. "We found you in it the next day inside the bunker but she wasn't around. The little girl may have died or ran away because we found a stuffed toy in the backside of the car. She must have witnessed the scene and became traumatized. Or…"  He did not want to think of the possibility. If the Cartel members found her, they may have done something inhuman to her. He shuddered to think what the little girl may have gone through.  But KJ was sure that his sister was alive. She was the only family he had left.  "I was looking after the case," Soo Bin continued. "Sia was very close to me, almost like a little sister. I even named my own daughter after her. The case was personal to me."  "The police wanted to close it off but I continued to work with your grandfather secretly over the years. The police superintendents transferred me back to Busan to prevent me from investigating but I kept on aiding your grandfather. He was devastated about the deaths of your parents. The guilt ate him up from the inside and spent a fortune looking for Sisi but he never found her. He may have hidden the truth from you in order to protect you from further heartbreak." The old man gazed at KJ with a deep sadness. The regret he felt at failing to protect Sia tortured him more than anything he had suffered over the years.  "After investigating for so many years, I finally came across a picture of your mother with the President," he said. "I acquired a box from a friend who worked for Song Tamlin and put it in there. I knew I had little time because Ziko was on to me. I set the code to your audition date. I wanted to hand it over to you through Butler Shin but before I could, the Cartel members began to chase me. I handed it to a neighbor in Busan before escaping their clutches. I arrived in Seoul to meet Butler Shin but instead, Ziko's men kidnapped me. For years, they tried to coax the identity of the President out of me but how can you describe a person who has no name nor proof of existence?" "But why didn't Butler Shin turn up?" KJ frowned.  "I don't know," Soo Bin replied. "He told me over the phone that he has to check something at Hann Constructions. It was on your grandfather's computer. But I don't know what happened to him since I was captured shortly after our phone call." "So if this President has no identity, then how do we find him?" KJ asked in frustration. "Plus, his face was burned so he won't come out in public either! Where is this mansion of his? How do we get there?"  "You won't be able to enter his mansion," Soo Bin said. "And searching for him will not work. You will have to lure him out. The succession war which he started is simply a ploy to take you out. He has no intention of giving up his spot."  "He's fixated on you Kwon Jiwon. You remind him of the woman who destroyed him. The only person who managed to outsmart him. He wants to destroy the remnants of that woman and her legacy. You remind him of his failure."  There was a long stretch of silence as his words sank into KJ's mind. The senseless deaths of his teacher and her husband, Mirae's descent into a path of revenge, the circ.u.mstances leading to him messing with the timelines. Everything led to that nameless man.  "If you really want to beat him," Soo Bin continued. "You'll have to destroy the people around him first. Once he's out in the open, he'll become vulnerable."  So in the end, he would have to take down the final player before the President. It was like a game where he must cross several hurdles. Most were already down. But the last one will test him the most because this time, he was not up against an enemy.  He was up against a friend.