Money Loving CEO's Detective Lover

Chapter 274: A Line

After a while, the ghosts took Shinho out for the night to show him the city. Since Jina had fallen asleep, he agreed to accompany them, excited to see the whole town since he never had the chance to travel when he was alive. He bid good night to Minho and Gayoon and disappeared with Yumi and Casper.

"They're gone," Gayoon said. Jina had fallen asleep on the floor, curled up. She looked tired and worn out by the day's events. Minho gently picked her up and lay her on the bed while Gayoon pulled a blanket over her. 

"You know," Minho began as they watched over their daughter. "I never thought that it was possible to love someone this much."

Jina stirred in her slumber, rolling over on her back to sleep comfortably. 

"She looks so innocent," Gayoon sighed. Stroking her daughter's head, she kissed her good night before following Minho out of the room. 

"Did you get any intel from the wife?" Minho asked.

"It seems that our suspicions were correct," Gayoon said as they entered their room. "Shinho is not her son but Danny's illegitimate child. Doyoung stays abroad a lot due to her work so her son and husband are left here. So the husband takes advantage of her absence to carry out affairs. Shinho might be the son of one of his mistresses."

Minho thought about that. Every affair always left a sign. In this case, it was Shinho. 

"You know…" he began. "I think I can ask Kanji to put surveillance on Kang Danny's office. See how many women he had slept with in there. Maybe we'll find something."

His fists tightened as he recalled his conversation with that man. Even if Kang Danny was not a murderer, he would have disliked the man for his clearly immoral acts. His thought process had sickened Minho and it was ironic that an innocent boy like Shinho was born to a vile man like him. Human beings were clearly born with a twisted fate and the children ended up being the sufferers.

Gayoon hugged his arm and lightly kissed it. "Are you alright?" she asked.

"No," he admitted. "I'll be alright. It's just that Shinho reminds me of me. Abandoned by his father to a cruel fate. At least my one ran away and I was able to pick myself up. But Kang Danny just killed him! This boy could have grown up to become so many things. He could have achieved his dreams and maybe have a life of his own. If his father didn't want him, then why take him in?"

"Being abandoned is not a good feeling," Gayoon said softly. "When my dad left, I always felt empty and helpless. I had no proper family and it was a lonely existence. Maybe Shinho's mother didn't want her son to face a fate like that. If she was the one who forced Danny to accept his son, then she might have thought that it was better for Shinho rather than being called an illegitimate son. She was looking out for his best interest."

"She was wrong then," Minho stated. There was a long silence between them.

"You did great, by the way," Minho suddenly said. Gayoon blinked at him, confused by what he meant.

"Tonight's dinner," he pointed out. "You were a really good hostess."

"Oh that? I used to help out in my grandma's cafe so I learnt a few things," she admitted in a sheepish tone. "I was more impressed by how you were interrogating them. If you weren't a CEO, I'd have recruited you for our precinct!"josei

"Nah!" Minho said out loud. "Detectives get shit pay. I'm fine with my billions of dollars, thank you very much!"

Gayoon pouted. "I do not get shit pay!" she protested.

"Oh please! You barely earn 0.1 percent of my earnings!" Minho scoffed. 

"And yet, you're dating me?"

"That's coz the other women in my society earn zero percent of their own money," he shrugged. "They use their inheritance to set up their businesses and claim to be self-made. Compared to that, 0.1 percent seemed better."

He flashed a sweet smile which only irritated Gayoon. Seeing her all worked up over this was amusing him. "So you're saying if someone earns more than me, then you'll go for her?" She demanded.

"Well…" Minho pretended to think but Gayoon was already very angry. Her face had turned green with jealousy which made Minho stifle a laughter. She looked like an angry kitten whose favorite toy was stolen from her.

"I'm going to take a shower!" she snapped. 

"Who knows, I might find someone who earns 02.percent more than you while you're in there!" Minho joked. Gayoon made a face at him before slamming the bathroom door. He chuckled and changed into his night robes.

Sitting on the couch, he took out a box from his drawer. It contained an old file and a diary. He took out the file which had the clips of his mother's murder and pictures of his father. His eyes hardened as he saw the man who had killed his mother. 

The picture was of Hwang Junho running away from the mansion after killing his mother. It was captured by one of their backyard cameras. No matter how many times he saw the picture, he could not help but feel his blood boil.

Snapping the file shut, he took out the diary. It was his mother's diary which she used to write until the end of her life. There were different memories she had captured from her life and even though Minho had gone through it many times, he could not make any heads nor tails out of it. It had been years since he had opened this diary because it only reminded him of how she died.

He sighed and opened the diary, flipping through the pages. There were pictures of her marriage to Junho, images of him with his parents, Mina's birth and countless other moments. Nothing in it indicated a strain in his parents' marriage.

Turning more pages, he was about to close it when something caught his eye. It was a drawing. He frowned at it.

The drawing was of a mansion which looked like their old house. But it was divided into a perfect symmetrical order by a line. Minho had seen the drawing before but did not think much of it, assuming that it was one of his mother's unfinished projects to renovate the house. Beneath it was a phrase.

"The gates are opening," he read. Gates? He wondered. 

The gates of hell are opening…

The phrase he had heard many years ago was echoing his mind again. The gates of hell. What did it mean? He dimly recalled The Girl from the World of the Dead. She had mentioned that there was a disturbance in her world caused by a mysterious Mr. A. But how were the two incidents related?

He studied the drawing carefully. If he was not wrong, the line drawn was not separating the mansion but rather the world of the living from the dead. The Girl had told him that the two worlds were essentially the same except for the fact that the world of the dead was a loop which acted as a purgatory. 

Did it mean his mother knew something about the two worlds?

He took out his phone and clicked the images of his mother's diary before sending them to the shaman Shinjin. The latter did not respond right away but Minho left him a message to call him. Putting the phone away, he was deep in thought. It was best not to tell Gayoon anything until Shinjin examined the drawing. What if his suspicions were wrong? It would only make her more tense.

The clicking of the bathroom door startled him and he quickly put the file and the diary into the box before shoving it into the drawer. Gayoon stepped out of the shower, wearing a silk nightgown while rubbing her hair with a towel. The whiff of rose scent emitting from her momentarily distracted Minho. 

She glanced at him and her nostrils flared in annoyance as she recalled what he had said earlier. 

"Hmph!" she scoffed and looked away. 

"Are you still mad about what I said?" he laughed. "I was joking! I wouldn't go for a woman who would earn 0.2 percent more than you!"

Gayoon's face lit up and she beamed. "Really?" she asked.

"I'd go for someone who will earn 90 percent more than you."

Gayoon gritted her teeth and stormed towards the bed. She picked up a pillow and a comforter.

"Is the angry detective going to sleep on the couch?" Minho asked, suppressing a snicker.

"What?" Gayoon frowned. "Not me. You."

Minho's smile was wiped from his face. "You wouldn't dare," he said, feeling affronted.

Instead of replying, Gayoon handed him the pillow and blanket before storming off. Minho gaped at her as she dominated the bed, refusing to let him anywhere near her.

"If you dare to come anywhere near the bed tonight, I'll not let you into the bedroom for a month!" she threatened. 

"Tonight?" Minho asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes!" 

With that, she pulled the blanket over herself and went to sleep. But instead of being disappointed, an evil grin spread on Minho's face. 

His angry pet was a terrible negotiator and he knew very well how to exploit the loopholes. This will be fun, he thought. For me.