Cinderella's Fate | 🤍 seongjoong 🤍

Chapter 56

Narrator's POV

Jongho sat alone in his office, hands pressed against his temples. 

    The quiet had grown heavier since his brothers were sent home. Learning about the constant harassment the brothers were receiving made it feel more urgent, as there wasn't just one life at stake, but three. Even though Wooyoung was irritating, he didn't want to wish anything bad upon him and his brother. A flash of Yeosang, sat on his lap, face tight with determination, crossed his mind.

No time to dwell on stirred-up feelings or the reaction to the situation he'd given.

    He had stayed behind to compile the latest reports. Everything they'd discovered, from the market woman and the fabricated orphanage records, to the sealed archives and evidence of erased identities. Then Jongho requested an audience, going directly to the parents to try to coax them to let him in, but they only agreed on the promise of being involved in everything. So after a good hour of explaining, now he stood before the prince.

    Hongjoong was still at the window since the afternoon when the guard visited him, attention distracted, and looking at Jongho. Now he was ushering Jongho to sit down on a chair by his desk while he sat on the bed.

"Your Highness," he started, "we believe that the news will be quite shocking this time. Please read the documents."

The prince took the papers but told him to say the main points.

"The mother of the two brothers, and stepmother of our victim, is marked as the owner of an orphanage. However, it had been opened more than a hundred years ago, and based on some images,"

He pointed to the image and Hongjoong noticed the same face, eyes blowing wide.

"She seems to not have aged. Also, the orphanage was used as a front to gather children of unknown origin. The woman who ran it is still alive and might be an acquaintance of the stepmother, who is said to have been running the place for more than forty years, which does not match her age," Jongho finished.

The prince was shocked, to say the least. His knuckles clenched the papers.

"Why would anyone go to such lengths to fake that history?" he murmured. "To erase children's identities? For power? Influence?"

Jongho hesitated. 

"We suspect she may have been connected to Seonghwa's kidnapping. But we have no clear evidence yet... although there is a consistent narrative of abuse that the brothers have mentioned."

The prince sat silently and thought back to the stories Seonghwa had told him before, recalling that he had indeed admitted to living a hard life, but he hadn't imagined that. Well, it was time to end his suffering, and end the whole chaos.

Hongjoong needed to meet his parents.

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    He found his parents in the old administrative office. They were still working, juggling the city's unrest, the search for Seonghwa, and attempts to calm the noble houses who were demanding answers.

His father looked up first, surprised.

"You're still awake," his mother said softly, without looking up. "You should rest."