Cinderella's Fate | 🤍 seongjoong 🤍

Chapter 38

Hongjoong's POV

"What are your reports?"

     Jongho and San looked at each other. Yunho had left right after they showed up, since he had more business to attend to. Jongho handed me the papers, but I didn't open them. I knew that the report will not be straightforward as it had to keep the standard of report to maintain a consistent and understandable writing style across all departments.

But I wanted the truth, a straight forward answer.

No answer came from my two friends.

"How did it go?", I repeated myself.

San had a murderous look over his face , which brought chills down my spine.

"Sir, we had some very disturbing news", Jongho started, "And I think it would be better , if you started reading the reports. They are not compiled to be sent to the archive however, they do summarise the brothers' interview. "

San stepped forwards and handed over a USB.

"We were able to get a voice recoding on my phone, I promptly sent it to the computer and download it on the USB drive" San added.

    I look at it confused and worried , as it might have meant that the investigation might be even more complicated than ever imagined.

    Opening the brown folder, I skimmed read through it, catching the words like "Basement" , "Starvation", "Rats" as I went down the document.

"Is that what I think it is?"

San nodded and Jongho took the cue to begin the explanation.

    It seemed that the madame was their biological mother however they had a brother , older than them that belong to their father so she was stepmother to him . He then went on to describe the horrors of abuse that the older brother had gone through : nothing physical but constant punishment , useless tasks and taking away basic needs. There were times the brother will go without food as a way to teach him to cook faster and abundantly for the guests in the home. They were also victims of her ire, as she had also forced to harm their brother for her pleasure.

    I lean back into my chair, inching further into it. My hands went to cover my face and I sighed deeply.

"And the basic information we gathered are that there are 3 sons , a wife, and husband. The father biological son is the oldest and the two brothers belong to the wife. They have been together for more than a decade,and the father isn't aware of the abuse we assume, due to the long history of travels. The older son had a notebook with all the letters his father set him that the two brothers had shown me. It contains all the travels of the father by date. He works as a personal assistant for a big shot CEO, and the wife is a housewife. ", San declared.

"So the father is in contact with the son , we presume", Jongho added. "However, we are not sure, and the brothers are also clueless to the lack of awareness for the abuse that the father has. The older brother must have not mentioned it to him. "

"We also have the reason for the abrupt search at the ball. The stepmother is after the property of the son: a debit card, one gifted from his father on his 18th birthday. The brothers notated that their mother was\furious to find out that their brother had taken it. Thus leading to her revenge "

I looked back at them and nodded.

    A knock on the door halted the vibe in the room. I said a quick 'Enter', in which a young man, in uniform from the guards department, made his way to Jongho with a salute and handed over some more documents. The young man then greeted us before making his way out, the door closing behind him.