After all the senior officials had departed, only the people of the Ilhyeon family remained seated in the conference room at Seongjungwon.

Wearing grave expressions, each of them stared off in a different direction, and no one was willing to be the first to speak.

As the silence dragged on in the conference room, it was Jeong-eun Lee who broke it first.

"Dad... it really can't be. Please?"

Jeong-eun Lee, the one in the most urgent position, could not bear the silence and spoke first.

The gazes of the Ilhyeon family members, which had been drifting in separate directions, naturally converged on Jeong-eun Lee.

Among the eyes now fixed on her, Jeong-eun Lee caught hold of Tak-hyeon Lee's gaze and pleaded.

"Don't throw me away."

Jeong-eun Lee dropped to her knees before Tak-hyeon Lee.

"Even the fourth one, who caused such a massive disaster, you didn't send him to prison. Please let me get off with just a suspended sentence, too."

"I'm not a judge, so why are you asking me for a verdict?"

Tak-hyeon Lee looked at Jeong-eun Lee in a cold voice.

Jeong-eun Lee crawled across the floor toward Tak-hyeon Lee and spoke in a voice mixed with sobs.

"Dad, you're greater than any judge. There's no one in the Republic of Korea who wouldn't do as you say. So please? I can't go to prison. Chang-jong did worse than me and he didn't go to jail, so why should I? Please? I can't go."

"You did worse than Chang-jong."

To Jeong-eun Lee, who had claimed she was no more at fault than Chang-jong Lee, Tak-hyeon Lee said in a cold voice that she had done worse.

And to keep the crawling Jeong-eun Lee from coming any closer, he gestured toward Do-beom Hwang.

Do-beom Hwang understood Tak-hyeon Lee's intent and once again blocked Jeong-eun Lee.

Whether the grief had welled up inside her at Tak-hyeon Lee's words and actions, Jeong-eun Lee burst into tears.

The sight of Jeong-eun Lee, tears and snot streaming down her face, would have wrenched the heart of anyone watching.

But Seong-ho Kim was…