You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 340

Kim Hwa-young left Jo Yeon-dong’s hideout at 8 PM and then returned.

There’s a record of them being alone together from 5 PM to 8 PM, but considering the police didn’t mention that part, it seems they recognized the time she re-entered Jo Yeon-dong’s hideout as the time the incident occurred.

Judging by Kim Chan-young’s reaction, it seems even Kim Chan-young didn’t know she had returned to that house after 8 PM.

That’s probably why she told me that the time from 5 PM to 6 PM was when she was mistaken for causing the incident.

Certainly, there seems to be a limit to what Kim Chan-young, a formally third party, knows.

“Mom, calm down and tell me. What are you talking about? The housekeeper coveted the diamond necklace? What,”

“…That diamond necklace that man gave me, that bitch kept coveting it. Every time I wasn’t there, she always… she kept touching my diamond necklace! When that man wasn’t around, she didn’t even treat me like a dog she raised, but only when he was around, she would act all sweet… trying to seduce him all the time… That bitch… Where did that fox learn to wag her tail… !”

Kim Hwa-young trembled, tears streaming down her face.

Her eyes were unfocused, and she didn’t know what to do with her hands, digging her nails in as she trembled.

Kim Chan-young held Kim Hwa-young’s head to her chest, stroking her back.

“Mom, it’s okay, it’s okay. No one’s here. That person is gone now.”

“That bitch, that bitch, wearing the dress that man bought me, wearing that diamond necklace, in my room, sob, in my room… And, and, trying to take my place…”

Because her voice was mixed with sobs, I couldn’t understand everything she said, but I could roughly understand.

The fact that the housekeeper had been touching Kim Hwa-young’s things was not strange, considering the anecdotes I had heard so far.

Disregarding her, getting rid of her cosmetics, or spilling something on her clothes—perhaps from Kim Hwa-young’s point of view, it seemed like she was hindering her from being loved by Go Sang-jun.

Even without a mental illness, a sensitive person could easily misunderstand that.

The reason she hated the housekeeper was not simply because she was harassing her, but because she recognized her as a kind of rival.

“So, what did you do?”

“Lawyer, right now…”

Kim Chan-young shook her head, but I was sure I wouldn’t get an answer unless it was now.

She didn’t remember until just now, and now she was talking.

She might not have told Kim Chan-young on purpose, but she might not have said it because she didn’t remember.

“I don’t remember well…”

She shrank back again.

“You remember now. What did you do? Seeing the housekeeper wearing your necklace, wearing your dress, what did you do?”

But that was only for a moment.

As soon as my question ended, she looked up and screamed.

“That bitch… I ran at that bitch. Slapped her… strangled her! I really wanted to kill her, to stop her from touching my things again, to stop her from wagging her tail at that man!”

Kim Hwa-young screamed as if she was shrieking.

Kim Chan-young stared blankly at her, seemingly surprised by Kim Hwa-young’s reaction.

“That bitch keeps… keeps… trying to take my place… trying to take everything from me!”

“After you did that, how did the housekeeper react?”

“…She just kept getting hit. She knew she was wrong. I tore off the dress and tried to take off the necklace… but it was a gift from that man, how could she do that… How could she do that…”

“So, what did you do?”

“Damn it, stop it, lawyer! Stop it!”

Kim Chan-young shouted, her face pale, but once Kim Hwa-young’s mouth started to open, she continued to spill out words unstably.

“The housekeeper took off the necklace and ran away. So, I followed that bitch, wandering around the house, trying to fix her manners so she wouldn’t do that again… I didn’t mean to hurt her, I just… I was just going to stop her from doing that again… But I didn’t kill her, I didn’t kill that bitch! I didn’t!”

Kim Hwa-young rolled her eyes around and tore at her hair.

When Kim Chan-young grabbed her hands to stop her, Kim Hwa-young screamed.

“Aaaaaaah!”

“Mom, Mom, calm down. Mom, it’s me, Chan-young.”

“Chan-young, here, I brought, water, here.”

While Kim Chan-young was holding her mother, Kang Min-jae hurriedly brought water from the kitchen.

“There’s a medicine packet in the basket on the table. Please bring me one of the medicines labeled ‘as needed’.”

“Okay.”

Kang Min-jae moved urgently again, and Kim Chan-young was busy comforting Kim Hwa-young, who was crying sadly.

“Is the diamond necklace precious to your mother?”

At my question, Kim Chan-young sighed and said.

“Go Sang-jun gave it to her instead of a wedding gift. It seems to be worth billions.”

Instead of a wedding gift.

For Kim Hwa-young, who couldn’t marry Go Sang-jun, the words ‘instead of a wedding gift’ must have been deeply ingrained in her mind.

Even if it wasn’t worth billions, it would have been a precious item to her.

She would have carefully handled it, projecting her relationship with Go Sang-jun onto the necklace.

Especially for her, who was so obsessed with Go Sang-jun, wouldn’t that diamond necklace be an object of obsession, considering it as a substitute for Go Sang-jun?

“Mother, here’s your medicine. Medicine.”

When Kang Min-jae brought the medicine, Kim Chan-young fed the medicine to Kim Hwa-young, who was crying loudly.

Fortunately, her crying was gradually subsiding.

“I think Mom needs to sleep a little.”

“Okay. Ah, if it’s okay with your mother and you, I’ll take her to the bedroom. I think you and the lawyer have a lot to talk about.”

“Mom, are you okay?”

“Yes…”

“Oh, no. Mother, I’ll take you there, haha.”

Kim Hwa-young’s condition wasn’t good enough to leave her alone, so it’s better to send Kang Min-jae along.

After Kang Min-jae headed to the bedroom with Kim Hwa-young, Kim Chan-young wiped her face and sighed.

“I’m sorry, lawyer. I was so surprised, even to you… Ha…”

“It’s okay.”

“I’ll just smoke a cigarette.”

Kim Chan-young shook the ashes into the paper cup that Kang Min-jae had brought water in, calming her heated breath for a while.

The reason I pushed Kim Hwa-young, who was emotionally unstable, was because I felt like she was pouring out everything for the first time, as if she was hiding something.

When she talked about her actions towards the housekeeper, all of them came back as truth.

Of course, when I first learned that her memory was deteriorating, I knew that I shouldn’t completely trust that judgment, but wasn’t she the one who said that her thoughts weren’t connecting well until just now?

But what she poured out earlier was a statement that included numerous actions and causal relationships.

I don’t think she could have made up all of that temporarily.

However, the last words are a bit concerning.

“Now that I think about it… maybe that photo that the informant took. I think that photo might be from that time Mom just mentioned.”

Kim Chan-young took a long drag of her cigarette and rubbed her forehead.

“After seeing that informant’s photo, Mom reacted similarly. She talked about the housekeeper like this back then. Almost similarly, she came out like this in a fit…”

Kim Chan-young pressed her temples as if trying to organize her confused mind.

“Think about it slowly.”

“She reacted like this back then too… I couldn’t ask because I was comforting Mom back then, and after a few days, when Mom seemed to be feeling better, I asked her. When do you think it was taken? But Mom said she didn’t know well, and roughly said when it seemed to be. She said she didn’t remember well, but she really didn’t care back then.”

“And?”

“But when I first saw that photo, you said Mom came out in a fit like now. But seeing that she strangled and slapped her similarly when the photo was taken, it means she was angry at the housekeeper to a similar degree, but when I asked her later, Mom’s reaction was as I said before, she didn’t care at all. I think that’s because Mom distorted her memory, thinking it was just one of the many days she fought with the housekeeper. But I felt it after seeing her come out in a fit again today. Maybe it’s the same day.”

“If that happens, it means someone was in that house that day. The person who took the photo.”

“Yes. So, I think that might be the employee Go Sang-jun mentioned who lost contact.”

Kim Chan-young was thinking similarly to me.

If you think about it a little, you can see that the relationship between the informant and the employee who lost contact is close, so there’s no way Kim Chan-young wouldn’t have thought of it.

“Does your mother usually react like that to the housekeeper?”

“…Sometimes.”

“Have you ever seen the housekeeper?”

“No, I haven’t.”

“Then, has your mother ever told you about the housekeeper’s appearance?”

“Ha… She once said she looked like a sly fox.”

“Have you ever heard your mother worry that the housekeeper would seduce Go Sang-jun?”

“I have… Lawyer, are you suspecting my mom?”

Kim Chan-young changed her expression and looked back at me.

Suspecting her?

I suspect everything.

She poured out all the actions she had done and then added that she didn’t kill her.

It felt like she was saying things she knew without realizing it, and then she was afraid that she would be labeled as a murderer, so she hurriedly made excuses.

This attitude appears in people who tell the truth, but it also appears in people who lie.

Of course, the word [Truth] was floating above Kim Hwa-young’s head, but as I thought before, I can’t completely trust that judgment.

What is certain is that Kim Hwa-young had a considerable motive for murder.

“No. But I’m trying to think about the things I can think about.”

I lied to Kim Chan-young.

It would be a lie to say that I don’t suspect Kim Hwa-young, but if you ask me if I think Kim Hwa-young is a murderer, that’s not it either.

I’m just thinking about various possibilities.

I couldn’t miss any possibilities.

“…Lawyer.”

Has it been about 30 minutes?

It’s usually the time when the medicine would have taken effect.

Kang Min-jae opened the bedroom door, and Kim Hwa-young came out with his support.

“My mother says she has something to say.”

Kang Min-jae sat Kim Hwa-young on a one-person sofa and then carefully sat next to me.

“Mom, are you okay? You can speak slowly if it’s hard.”

“…No.”

Kim Hwa-young shook her head.

And she looked straight at me and said.

“That day, I think someone saw it in that house. I just remembered…”

“Saw it, who are you talking about?”

“…The housekeeper’s boyfriend.”