CHAPTER 133: CHAPTER 132. IN THE MIDST OF CHAOS

Vivian clutched the chairman’s clothes, taking advantage of the situation to look even more pitiful inside the old man’s embrace. That being said, her shock was not a farce; she was truly frightened at that moment.

She recognized the daughter as the one who came with a very handsome plus one—who she found out later was a bodyguard. This particular daughter was very memorable, not because of her striking appearance but because, unlike the other children, she talked fearlessly to the chairman. She struck Vivian as the kind of child who didn’t mind being disowned, not just rebellious. Her words dripped with poison that got Vivian rather scared, even though she was older than the daughter.

And now she witnessed that same daughter slap the third wife until the madam wobbled and fell to the side. The silence that followed made the words uttered right after ring loudly around the spacious grand hall.

"Who are you to call me with the name my mother gave me, you traitorous bitch?"

"Sarah!"

The chairman was the first to react, shouting in surprise rather than in reprimand. He probably didn’t think Sarah would resort to violence, and neither did Mina. She looked at Sarah with stunned, widened eyes. The memories of thrown wine and dropped glass flashed within the minds of people who witnessed it, along with the manic laughter following it.

"Mama!" Ruby was the second to react, running toward her mother to help.

Ignoring the warning shout and the flustered shrieks, Sarah looked at her hand with disgust; the hand she just used to slap the third wife. "Eww, I touched her."

That simple remark, devoid of remorse and filled with mockery, silenced the room once more. They seemed to be freshly reminded that Sarah was the person who once broke a handful of stuff around the mansion because she was pissed about being sent to a blind date against her will.

The only person who wasn’t stunned was her bodyguard, who came out of nowhere with a handkerchief in hand, swiftly rubbing the slapping hand as if it was slathered in mud. Sarah shifted her cold eyes from the third wife to the frowning chairman.

"You’d better take care of her, Chairman. Looks like an early pregnancy, so she must be in a delicate state. Surely you won’t be so cruel as to send away a pregnant woman by herself?"

Her voice was gentle, and her lips curled softly. But her eyes were cold and her tone dripped with sarcasm. After all, the words coming out of her mouth were what the chairman told her mother when Mina first stepped foot in the mansion with a pregnant body.

As awful as he was, it seemed like the chairman still remembered that fact. Suddenly, he looked even more tired than he was five minutes ago--almost as tired and as sickly as he was after the Mirae party.

"Haa...she’s right," he sighed heavily, patting Vivian to let go of him so they could move away from the chaotic hall. "Let’s talk about this later."

"Hyuk-ssi..."

The chaos, however, was far from over.

"Stop right there!" Mina snapped out of her shock and turned her gaze toward her husband and his mistress. She pushed herself up with the help of her daughter and shifted her fury toward the adulterous couple. "Who said you could stay?!"

Ruby, who seemed to have more situational awareness than her frantic mother, held Mina’s arm. "Mama...I don’t think this is the right--"

"Shut up!"

Sarah stepped back from the third wife, who looked like she was just inches away from going crazy. She shoved the handkerchief back inside Hajin’s hand and whispered closely. "J, go and protect that woman."

"Master--"

She held the frowning bodyguard’s hand tightly and spoke firmly. "I’ll be fine, go."

It’d be whatever if she knew the pregnancy was a fake one, but Vivian seemed to take Honey’s advice to heart and went through the whole thing. By the time Honey spoke to Sarah the first time, Vivian was already poking holes in the condoms.

Sarah hated adultery, but the children were sinless until they developed brains and personality.

And Mina looked like she had no qualms about hurting Vivian.

"Who cares if she’s pregnant?! She won’t die just from a bit of an altercation!" as if proving Sarah’s conjecture, the third wife stomped her way toward the chairman and his mistress. Luckily, the housekeeper and some staff members were holding her back from getting close. "No--isn’t it better if she just miscarries?!"

Vivian gasped and instinctively clutched her stomach. "How could you say that?!"

"Are you even pregnant in the first place?" the third wife screamed viciously. "What if it’s a lie?!"

"L-lie?!"

"Even if it’s real, who said you can just come here? There’s plenty of illegitimate children out there!"

"You can’t say that to me!" Vivian turned around and quipped back. Perhaps having the chairman by her side gave her more courage. She wasn’t the one getting a humiliating slap a few minutes ago after all. "You push into this family by getting pregnant too!"

"Oh, to be blind and shameless is the madam’s specialty," Sarah chimed in from the side while pushing Hajin to move toward the back. Unless being told to, the security guards usually stayed outside the house, so he was currently the only bodyguard around. Crossing her arms and moving between the confused house staff members, Sarah curled her lips provocatively. "Don’t mind her too much, Vivian."

"You--" the vicious glare found its way to Sarah again, but a voice came from another side.

"It’s true, isn’t it?" surprisingly, Amber joined in the fray. If it came down to it, the third wife was also an annoyance for her. If there should be a madam, better a fresh face she could control than this foxy mink that had lost her grace--if she ever had one in the first place. "You can’t act like you’re offended by this when you were doing just the same, Jeong Mina. It’s way too shameless."

"You..." the third wife opened her trembling mouth, looking back and forth between Sarah and Amber. She lifted a shaking finger and pointed around while shaking off the people who were holding her back from advancing. "All of you are against me!"

"Took you long enough to realize that," Amber snickered.

Seeing the situation keep getting escalated, the chairman shook his head and pulled Vivian back to turn around and continued toward the stairs. "Let’s just go to my study first."

"No! You can’t!" the third wife screamed and snatched a metal tray from one of the house staff, before hurling it toward Vivian; she didn’t seem to care if it struck the chairman instead.

Vivian shrieked in reflex as the metal tray flew toward her, before a strong hand intercepted it in the middle. Hajin caught the metal tray just in time, putting everyone at ease that no accident would happen that evening.

"Mina!" the chairman glared at the third wife while hugging his mistress, shielding Vivian from further attempts. "Call the guards here!"

The house manager and housekeeper exchange glances. "S-Sir, I don’t think that would be necessary--"

"Guards. Now."

The staff members flinched as the chairman’s expression darkened, and Amber told her attendants to call the security personnel instead. They should have already seen what happened through the CCTV anyway, and would have already been on the move regardless of what the house manager wanted.

"I...I..." the third wife, meanwhile, kept looking at the mistress with unblinking wide eyes, trembling and stuttering. "You can’t..."

For those who didn’t know, what Mina did might be surprising. She always tries to show herself as an elegant madam, after all. But those who were tasked to serve her knew her violent tendencies when she lost her temper. A tendency that seemed to be shared by everyone in the house, born out of superiority toward those deemed to be beneath them. She just used to hide it well like Mason, but Sarah knew from her mother that Mina had already been like that since their school days. Still, she was sweet most of the time, so Raise kept being friends with her.

It wasn’t strange at all for Sarah and most of the people in the hall, but it was still surprising that she had the guts to do that in front of the chairman.

Sarah kind of understood though, since it was a situation she created. Mina must be shocked and frustrated that her effort to avoid this event--someone copying her method--ended in vain. Mason had reminded her of how rocky her position was, and before she could do anything about it, someone who might push her out of the house came.

Someone the chairman adored more, someone younger and prettier.

All before her children had enough power to support her life, and none of them had any chance to take over the company.

Whatever she planned to secure her position behind the chairman’s back, it wouldn’t mean anything if the chairman divorced her tomorrow.

And by the look in the chairman’s eyes, one devoid of love or affection, didn’t seem like she had a lot of time.

"Please control yourself," the chairman told Mina off coldly, a very different tone from what he used for his young mistress. "Come, Vivian."

Just as they turned toward the stairs, a huge vase located beside the bottom staircase wobbled and crashed.

"Kyaah!"

Again, Vivian shrieked in horror as the broken pieces almost got to her. Everyone shifted their gaze to the stairs, where a teenage boy was standing awkwardly with outstretched hand.

Ruby gasped. "Jasper?"

"N-no...that wasn’t me..." Jasper shook his head, looking behind his shoulder as if someone was pushing her there or something. He looked at his furious father with a pale face and kept shaking his head. "I...I swear, that wasn’t..."

"Enough!" the chairman roared angrily. "You’re just the same as your mother. Troubles, all of you! Clean this up right now!"

"Y-yes, Chairman."

"N-no! I said you can’t go--"

Ruby grabbed her mother desperately. "M-mama, please stop now, okay?!"

"S-shut up! You--do you even know what would happen if that skank--"

"Mama!"

"Why are you against me?!" the third wife turned and grabbed her daughter angrily. "Why are you against me like them?!"

"What are you--"

Mina turned toward the mistress again, who was still waiting for the broken pieces to be cleared. "It’s because of you! It’s because of you!"

"Madam!"

"No! Hyuk-ssi!"

"Back off, Mina!"

This time, the staff members were not enough to hold her off. Hajin had to physically hold the third wife from tackling Vivian to the ground. She was vicious and strong in her desperation, and Hajin started to understand why Sarah told him to be on standby.

"She’s not pregnant!" Mina kept screaming while stretching her arms out as if trying to scratch the mistress. "You’re not pregnant!"

At that point, the commotion had invited the other house staff--including Mari--to the hall to see what happened, and the security guards finally arrived. Sarah stepped back, away from the commotion while shaking her head. "What a mess..."

"Yeah," a voice grated in Sarah’s ears as her back touched someone’s chest. "It’ll be even messier if I tell Chairman Yoo’s family about your little bodyguard, don’t you think? There’ll probably be a lot of screaming like this too."

Sarah took a deep breath and asked coldly. "What do you want, Mason?"

"Come with me quietly if you don’t want that."