CHAPTER 123: CHAPTER 122. CONVERGENCE

"Well, I told her that, and I’ll keep checking on her until she really does it," Honey continued with a smile after knowing Sarah didn’t mind the ’pregnancy’ shtick. "But, there’s something you need to know, Lady Boss."

"Hmm?"

"Your father had quite several affairs before, right?" Honey leaned forward, as if talking about a scandal. Well, it was a scandal alright, although it had been normalized so much. People didn’t really care if it wasn’t a celebrity. "Isn’t it weird that no one was pushing into the house like his current wife?"

Sol leaned forward too, so now it looked like they were in a conspirational circle. "Maybe they’re not as daring or shameless?"

"All people who are involved in an affair are daring and shameless, manager-nim," Sunny scoffed.

"That so?"

Sarah glanced at Hajin, but the bodyguard had already nodded. "I agree."

He thought so too. Even if his mother decided to leave once she knew she was pregnant, she still agreed to start an affair with a married man. She left not because she was ashamed, but because she didn’t want to destroy her lover’s career.

Hajin loved his mother, but that didn’t stop him from criticizing her actions.

"So, what’s the reason?" Sarah asked.

"Because someone worked hard to make sure none of them are daring enough, of course," Honey shrugged.

Well...that was obvious enough. Someone who schemed their way into something would know firsthand that someone else could do the same. Honestly--and sadly--it wasn’t even something rare to happen. It was just disgusting that the third wife was doing it to her own best friend.

Sarah tapped the table softly in contemplation. "So, she’s been blackmailing them?"

"Why go there?" Sol asked curiously. In such cases, the madam usually used money to get rid of the mistress.

"Because there’s no way she could do it with money," Sarah scoffed.

Most of those legal wives had their own source of income or their family’s backing. Jeong Mina had nothing. She had no family and her money came from an allowance since both the chairman and the executives had no confidence in her working in the company. In other words, she was just a trophy wife who fell out of the chairman’s favor.

Honestly, Sarah had no idea why she was still around--or rather, why the chairman hadn’t discarded her. Perhaps she had an ability to cling to something like a leech, or perhaps the chairman just felt that having another marriage would be a bother. Sarah had a feeling he only cared to marry the leech because she got pregnant, and he didn’t want to be bothered with the hassle of illegitimate offspring causing trouble later.

If that was the case, telling the current mistress to get pregnant--or pretending to--was a good idea.

Sarah looked at Honey curiously. "But how do you know that she did all that?"

"I was curious," Honey just shrugged, lips stretched into a little, mischievous grin. "So I did a bit of a deep dive to find the other mistress and cozy up to them to pry."

That didn’t sound like a bit of deep dive. That was like submerging into s trench, more like. Sarah was particularly amazed that she could just go and position herself as someone those women could speak to. Perhaps slipping in as their stylist or something? It made her rather curious.

"No wonder you thought hospital work was boring," Sarah said.

Honey chuckled a little bit before unveiling the result of her curious investigation. "Anyway, it seemed like she was using the help of some gangsters to do that."

"What?" Sarah and Sol widened their eyes. For the manager too, it was the first time he heard about it. Sarah asked eagerly. "Which one?"

"I don’t know yet," Honey shook her head. "I mean, the ex-mistresses I talked to had no way to know, so..."

"Can you try?" Sarah pressed on, looking the most eager since the start of this meeting.

Honey was rather taken aback, since this wasn’t even on the agenda. She wasn’t even supposed to investigate this, just to nudge the current mistress.

"Let’s gather all of their stories and some descriptions--maybe someone had a photo or something," Sol said to Honey, before shifting his gaze to Sarah. "You’re thinking about Daesung, aren’t you?"

"Well..." Sarah leaned back and took a deep breath to calm herself. She bit her lower lip before continuing. "If the one introducing my uncle to them was her, it all added up..."

"Alright," Sol nodded, turning toward his agent. "You know what to do next, Honey."

"Hmm...if she does want to barge in, tell her to come in on a specific date I’ll tell you later," Sarah said as Honey stood up. "Won’t it be more fun if it happens while there is a lot of audience?"

"I like the way your brain works, Lady Boss," Honey laughed.

"Good job."

"My pleasure," the healer/spy curtsied before turning away while chuckling.

Watching her disappear down the stairs, Sarah tilted her head in contemplation. "...it’s her real name, isn’t it?"

Sol laughed without answering it. "I haven’t figured out the other stuff, except that Seo Joseph has never gone to that club."

"Huh..." Sarah arched her brow. This made it seem more likely that the Uncles were actually not cooperating. Hmm...interesting. If that was the case, Sarah wondered if she could actually take advantage of it. "Alright; good job, anyway. For now, I’d like to borrow some people to make sure that the mistress is safe--at least until she successfully causes chaos."

"She became your agent without even knowing," Sol chuckled. "Are you going now?"

Sarah stretched her arms after standing up. "I’m going to see Little Bird," she turned and patted the bodyguard’s chin. "Be a good boy and wait patiently, puppy."

Hajin pursed his lips, narrowing his eyes at the bag of dessert in his hand with a grumble. "You’re spoiling the kid."

* * *

Hajin did grumble, waiting for hours outside since no one was allowed to come inside the Little Bird’s nest. Sol patted his back in sympathy--he was essentially Little Bird’s sitter, and yet he also wasn’t allowed inside.

But Hajin felt a little better after recalling Sarah’s reaction when he returned Honey’s greeting earlier. His princess probably didn’t realize it herself, but her gaze was quite...hostile, like she was annoyed at Honey’s presence.

And it shouldn’t be because she felt threatened as a woman. If that was the case, Sarah would have looked annoyed the moment Honey arrived. Besides, that annoyed gaze lessened after he said he rarely got treated by her.

That only meant one thing, didn’t it?

"Princess," Hajin asked her on the way back to the mansion. "Were you jealous?"

He threw the question as a tease, and fully expecting Sarah to deny him with a scoff and a little smack. But she was silent, for quite a while too. Her gaze was on the night view outside the window, and it was rather hard to see it through the reflection.

"Master?" Hajin called out cautiously. "Princess?"

"It wasn’t..." Sarah bit her lips. "It wasn’t exactly... jealousy."

"...okay?"

Hajin was too surprised by this reaction to produce a decent response. Sarah took a deep breath and added with pursed lips.

"It was just...annoying," Sarah muttered. "I guess I was used to you being nonchalant about anyone."

Hajin raised his brow higher. "I thought I was?" he tilted his head to recall. "Well...she just left a better impression than others since she stitched quickly with minimal pain...I guess? Oh--just so you know, I’ve never slept with her!"

Sarah blinked when Hajin added the last part loudly, looking almost panicked. She couldn’t help but chuckle at that. "I could see that much."

"Could you?" Hajin arched his brow.

"Hey!" Sarah smacked the bodyguard’s arm. She wasn’t that dense.

Hajin laughed and glanced at her with curled eyes. "So, you were jealous, right?"

"I said I--" Sarah paused, biting her lips as she recalled the unexplainable annoyance she felt earlier. "Well...maybe just a little bit."

Hajin grinned, humming cheerfully as the car entered the mansion’s driveway. Sarah shot him an annoyed look and smacked his arm again, but Hajin didn’t care. He had never felt this happy about unintentionally making someone jealous before. How curious.

How wonderful!

"Talking about jealousy, Master..." Hajin glanced out the car window, pointing at one of the balconies with his chin.

Sarah followed Hajin’s direction, and sure enough, Mason was looking at their car from the balcony. If it were her, she wouldn’t be able to spot the man, since the mansion and the annex’s parking lot were rather far. Without someone pointing it out, she wouldn’t be aware of it.

The distance and the car prevented her from knowing what kind of expression Mason was making, but she could easily guess based on how the man behaved during the last monthly dinner.

"Hmm...should we pour even more gasoline?"

Hajin arched his brow. His master still didn’t think what she had done was enough? If it were Hajin, he would have gotten rid of himself a long time ago and locked Sarah somewhere--which was why he had been getting increasingly worried about leaving her somewhere Mason also present.

But his mischievous thought won him over. "Do you want us to do it in the car or som--"

"Of course, not!" Sarah smacked the bodyguard again, cheeks flaming. She wouldn’t have made that reaction before, when everything was purely an ’act’, but that wasn’t the case anymore.

She wasn’t confident they could keep it as an act inside the car. But doing it in the car for real was also not something she’d like to entertain.

...well, not at that moment anyway.

"It doesn’t make sense when the bed is right there," Sarah argued while pointing at the annex. She bit her lips as her cheeks reddened at the increasing thought of outdoor sex. "Just...what I mean is--"

Sarah couldn’t finish her words because Hajin had already sealed her lips in a kiss. She could feel his chuckle between the kisses, and Sarah had no idea why, but Hajin managed to pull her out of the car while holding her. Sarah gasped into the kiss as the bodyguard carried her into the annex without breaking their kiss, and she laughed at how clever her puppy was for realizing what she meant.

That laughter was carried by the last of summer’s night wind to a man who was gritting his teeth and watching the giggling lovers with bloodshot eyes. If he were strong enough, the balustrade under his hand would have been broken by how hard he gripped it.