CHAPTER 131: CHAPTER 130. A DAUGHTER’S PAIN

With a broom and a mop in either hand, Mari entered the annex and ran to the kitchen, where Sarah was enjoying a full afternoon tea dessert spread.

"Miss! Miss!" Mari abandoned the broom and the mop in the hallway and held the edge of the dining table. "There’s a rumor about Sir Hajin, Miss!"

"We know," the ’Sir Hajin’ in question rolled his eyes, prompting the little lamb to pause and blink in surprise.

"Huh?"

Sarah chuckled over Hajin’s homemade madeline and explained. "We heard it from the bug you planted, silly."

"Oh, right!" Mari snapped her fingers and nodded innocently, before turning toward Hajin who was kind enough to provide a glass of iced tea for her. "But is that true, Sir? You’re a young master?"

"I’m not," Hajin replied dryly. "I was indeed made of his seed, but I’m not a young master or whatever."

"Huh? Oh..." Mari blinked slowly again, digesting the contradictory statement until her brain clicked on the drama-like substance. "Oh!"

"Aren’t you a delight?" Sarah patted the younger’s hair. "So, who did this rumor come from?"

Mari giggled from the pats, but immediately lowered her head and cleared her throat when she felt the big puppy’s glare across the table. "Ahem--I heard it came from the girls who are tasked with the eldest young miss’s area, Miss."

"Amber, huh?" Sarah leaned back on her chair, fiddling with a mini-macaron in her hand. "Then it must be deliberate."

"She deliberately spread my lineage?" Hajin tilted his head. "Why?"

"Hmm...to contain Mason, probably," Sarah said before popping the macaron into her mouth. When Hajin still looked at her in confusion, she chuckled and explained further after her mouth was empty. "With his temper, do you think he wouldn’t try to get rid of you way before? It was easy for him to forge a reason to fire you--he had been doing stuff like that since he was a child."

"Well, why didn’t he?"

"Because there would be two probable results from that," Sarah raised her index and middle fingers. "Either I threw a massive tantrum or followed you out--you know, since I was supposed to be infatuated with you."

Hajin leaned closer, narrowed grey eyes gleaming under afternoon sunlight. "What do you mean supposed to, Master?"

"I’m not that infatuated with you, Puppy. Wake up," Sarah pushed the approaching face away.

"So cruel~" Hajin dodged her finger and landed a light kiss on his princess’s cheek. "Was that why he tried to make you fire me instead?"

"To make sure you were gone without me following you," Sarah nodded. "But it failed, and we kept provoking him, so he must have been pissed," she said, rubbing her kissed cheek lightly while glancing out the window where she could see the main house. "So pissed he wouldn’t care about consequences anymore."

Hajin’s voice dropped low. "You mean trying to fire me directly?"

"Yeah, and the security department wouldn’t care much since they don’t like you," Sarah shifted her gaze back to Hajin, who was smirking haughtily. She flicked the proud puppy’s forehead and continued. "But if the people in charge heard about your background, they wouldn’t get rid of you without the chairman’s approval. And if the chairman knew too, he would never get rid of you without asking me first."

"So, it’s a deterrent," Hajin rubbed his forehead, even though Sarah knew there was no way the man would get hurt from her weak flick.

"Maybe that’s why the staff had been talking about Mason getting more unstable," Sarah glanced at the locked kitchen drawer, where their listening device was stationed. She caught sight of Mari then, and asked in confusion. "Why are you covering your ears?"

The little lamb had been closing her eyes and covering her ears since who knows when. Sarah had to pull her hands away and repeated the question. "I don’t like hearing dangerous things, Miss."

Sarah let out a crisp laugh, amused by the little lamb’s survival instinct. Hajin, on the other hand, wasn’t very amused.

"How could you be a spy if you couldn’t hear dangerous things?"

Mari clasped her cheeks with a gasp. "Oh! That’s right!"

Sarah laughed even louder, only stopping when her phone vibrated on the table. "Hmm?" she glanced at the screen and arched her brow, the corner of her lips hiked up slightly. "Is it my turn, now?"

She told the other two to be silent before taking the call. "Yes, Chairman?"

Mari clasped her mouth and Hajin arched his brow. The chairman had been summoning Sarah several times before, but it had always been through the house manager or the chief secretary. This was the first time the man called Sarah directly, weirdly enough for a parent.

[Come to my study now]

"Hmm..." Sarah stared at the screen; the call ended with just that one sentence, how typical of their dry relationship. Sarah shrugged and got off her chair. "Go back, Mari. Puppy, contact that...Honey person."

Hajin curled his eyes and held Sarah’s waist, whispering closely. "Don’t worry, Princess. I won’t cheat."

Sarah looked at the man expressionlessly and pulled his choker band before letting it go to slap the bodyguard’s neck, leaving a slight trail of red. Hajin laughed softly as he let his princess go while huffing in annoyance.

But, well...it unraveled the tension she couldn’t have but developed every time she had to go and see her father.

The house was busy as always, with the preparation for the family dinner. The house staff were cleaning the house like there would be important people coming, even though it was only the members of the family. Sarah always thought it was weird, so unlike the normal family she saw in dramas and movies.

Even weirder though, was the fact that her father was at home in the afternoon during family dinner night.

"What is it?" Sarah asked right away from the door, no longer bothered with greeting. She saw someone else was there, standing to the side. "Oh, you’re here too, Eonni?"

Amber just shrugged lightly and Sarah continued to walk toward the desk. She could see some documents in front of the chairman, and curled her lips slightly.

The chairman observed her face for a while before opening his mouth. His voice sounded heavier than usual, as if he infused a bit of unfamiliar emotion. "Sarah..."

"Hmm?"

"Did Mason make advances on you?"

Right away, huh? Sarah glanced at Amber, before replying in a dry tone. "Advances? You mean like trying to kiss me or touching me inappropriately?" she tilted her head. "Yeah, pretty much."

The chairman frowned, both at the confirmation and the nonchalant way Sarah spelled it. "Why didn’t you tell me?"

"Would you believe me?" Sarah sneered. "None of you believed me when I said I was getting hit and pinched painfully in the past."

Amber choked on her saliva and coughed, turning her face away as she was caught in a guilty conscience.

The chairman sighed and asked again. "Since when?"

"Since when did he desire me, or since when did he make blatant advances?"

"Both."

"I wouldn’t know, would I? I was just a child," Sarah replied with a hollow chuckle. "I only realized it once I studied abroad."

Of course, that was a lie. She only realized it after seeing that secret recording before she died. A girl who barely interacted with a man had no idea what appropriate or not. She thought the hugs, caresses, and forehead kisses were just the way Mason showed his brotherly love.

Hell, Sarah didn’t even know what brotherly love was supposed to be.

"Are you sure it’s...sexual?" the chairman furrowed his brows. It was a serious accusation, and it was hard to accept it just from the alleged victim’s account. "Perhaps he was just trying to be affectionate as a brother?"

Sarah scoffed before bursting out a laughter. It would sound so hollow if it weren’t for the anger flashing from her black eyes. When she spoke at the end of that eerie laughter, her voice was dripping in disdain.

"Of all people, I feel like you’d be the one who knows the difference between siblings’ affection and a man’s lust, Chairman."

The corner of the wrinkled eyes twitched. "Is this why...you’ve been adamant about staying at the annex?"

"What do you think?"

The chairman closed his eyes, massaging his throbbing temple. A long, heavy sigh left his dry lips.

"Why? Is it really surprising?" Sarah crossed her arms and tilted her head. "More surprising than him being someone else’s child?"

Another heavy sigh. "So you know too."

"Should I think this family fosters an incestuous relationship instead?" Sarah sneered. "Wait--since I had been his sister since birth, it should still be considered one, right?"

"Obviously," Amber chimed in.

"The Board of Directors would be soo~ interested in this, wouldn’t they?"

"Probably."

The chairman raised his head, looking at his two daughters. "You’re both in on this."

"You don’t even care about your lineage, so why do you even care about genders, Chairman?" Sarah rolled her eyes exasperatedly. "Even my notoriety is still better than whatever scandal Mason would bring."

"Are you threatening me now?" the old man’s voice dipped low, erasing the trace of compassion he had before--if there was even any in the first place. "You don’t even have any proof--"

"Threat?" Sarah uncrossed her arms, staring back at the chairman with pain pain-filled abyss in her eyes. "I am your daughter who wants a safe space!" she slammed her hands on the desk, gritting her teeth as she tried to hold back her anger.

She already knew her father was scum. She already anticipated this kind of reaction, the dismissal that rejected any validation of her feelings and experience. Just how it always had been since as long as she remembered.

But the pain was still there. She thought she had grown numb to it, but she was hurting just the same. Both the little girl who gave up telling people she was being bullied and the adults who had given up on her entire family.

Sarah straightened her back; she had no tears to shed in front of people who didn’t deserve her heart.

"But I guess you’re so far away from the word ’father’ that you can’t even find it in yourself to grant me that simple thing," Sarah said with a mocking laugh, turning away with spite in her eyes.

"Sarah--"

"I’m leaving," Sarah said dryly.

Amber flinched; there was something in Sarah’s voice that seemed to imply she wasn’t only leaving the office. And it seemed like the chairman realized it too as he stood up and called out his daughter agitatedly.

"Sarah!"

Before Sarah could either stop or continue, however, the door opened suddenly, forcing everyone to halt. The house manager came inside with a slightly pale face and panicked eyes, startling Amber--but not so much for Sarah.

"Mr. Chairman, there’s a problem," the house manager barely held himself back from shouting. "Your miss--I mean...Miss Vivian is at the door."

"What?!"

Sarah curled her eyes, the only one who wasn’t surprised.

After all, she was the one who invited the mistress inside.