CHAPTER 135: CHAPTER 134. PROOF

Mason’s face darkened as Sarah denied him fully. Those black eyes, which used to look at him softly, were now filled with disdain. The sweet smile had been replaced by a snarl, and the burst of red on her cheeks was no longer from fluster, but anger.

The sweet Seul-ah in his dream was no more.

Or was it never there in the first place?

"Shut up!" he denied the rejection, grabbing the backrest and leaning down to cage his prized jewel. "Loving someone is to own them!"

Otherwise, it was all stupid and didn’t make any sense. Stupid like her mother, who couldn’t control that man abroad. She couldn’t leave the man and let him rot in another land because she had no control over that man. She had to keep feeding that man money to keep his mouth shut, and Mason had to chip in on it too--fucking stupid!

Look at that chairman--the man he called ’father’. He owned all of those women, mistress and wife alike. They could fight and whatnot, but they couldn’t say anything in front of him. Even if he was all wrinkled and weak, they came crawling to him because he owned them.

He desired them, so he owned them.

Wasn’t that how a treasure was supposed to be treated?

Sarah could see the swirl of madness within Mason’s gaze. This twisted perception to justify his greed and desire...the obsession festered deep within his blackened soul...

Somehow, Sarah saw another face on the other side of the coin. Another face with a bizarre obsession toward her. So familiar, and yet...so different.

"Do you love this house, then? This company?" Sarah asked. "Because clearly, you want to own them."

Mason furrowed his brow at the question, and while Sarah already knew what the answer might be, she still asked.

"If I told you to break your engagement and leave both the house and the company behind in exchange for me, would you do that?"

"Why...should I do that?" as expected, Mason was genuinely confused. He couldn’t comprehend why he should choose when everything Sarah mentioned was rightfully his. "You are mine, Seul-ah. You’re supposed to be mine--"

Sarah hissed sharply. "Don’t use that name!"

"Why can’t I?!" Mason grabbed the hands that were trying to push him away again, pinned the girl back to the armchair. "Who can use that name, huh? That fucking dog you bring everywhere?!"

He could see it: even while he was in front of her, Sarah was thinking about someone else.

But Sarah just barked at him. "Let go of me!"

"Answer me!"

"Let...go!" Sarah twisted her arms outward and kicked Mason’s shin, pushing the man back and freeing herself when his hold weakened from the pain shooting up his leg.

"Fuck!" Mason wobbled back as his leg throbbed in pain. Sarah pushed the armchair back to widen the gap between them, and Mason cursed further. He was done being courteous. "If I knew it’d be like this, I’d have taken you a long time ago!"

"Crazy bastard!"

Sarah gritted her teeth and clenched her fist, swinging a hook to punch Mason on the cheek. He wobbled back even more, holding onto another chair to balance himself before shooting a glare toward Sarah.

"You dare!"

Before Sarah could step back again to maintain some distance, Mason had already lunged toward her. Fueled by anger, he stretched out his hand, seemingly trying to snatch Sarah’s neck. She twisted her upper body to dodge, causing Mason to miss. But his hand landed on her collar instead, and he swung his arm hard, hurtling Sarah to the side.

"Ugh--"

Sarah gasped and groaned as she crashed against the table. Thankfully, she managed to grab the side of the table to prevent injury. Unfortunately, her blouse wasn’t that lucky; her blazer almost yanked off her shoulder, and her blouse ripped, aside from losing a few top buttons.

Sarah cursed. What was the use of being so expensive if it tore that easily?

"Can’t believe I punished Axton and Jasper for it," Mason clicked his tongue while pacing back and forth, rubbing the bruised cheek that Sarah punched earlier. She spat viciously with a gaze that spelled anything but love. "I should have used the drug myself."

Sarah clenched her jaw and pushed herself up in anger. She ran toward Mason and kicked the man as hard as she could in his crotch with her good leg. "You sick fuck!"

"Argh!"

Mason screamed in pain and bent over, clutching his lower part. He gasped as his stomach coiled tightly, unimaginable pain paralyzing his legs completely. He could only peer through blurry eyes and dizziness at the girl who stopped in front of him, staring at him in revulsion.

"You’re showing your true face now, huh?" Sarah said sharply. "Bastard--if you truly loved me, you shouldn’t lose to temptation even if I’m drunk and drugged in front of you."

Sarah clenched her fist as the loud sound of crashing and thudding came from the locked door. The harsh rattling of the lock and the hinges was a testament to the strength put behind the assault. The same strength that was present in the person’s mental resilience and self-restraint.

Only within that kind of strength could Sarah have faith in the concept of love.

"You are not even worth a toe of my bodyguard," staring at the man pathetically bent over on the floor, Sarah spat the words amidst crashing door and splintering wood.

"Who--" Mason groaned and winced as he tried to stand in vain. All he managed to do was glare at the broken door. "Who the fuck!"

"Not who," Amber looked at her brother in disgust from the gaping door frame. "It’s what the fuck are you doing, Mason?"

At that point, she couldn’t even bear to call that man her brother, though they still shared the same blood--half of it, at least. She wouldn’t say she was a good person, but she wouldn’t do anything as disgusting as wanting to drug someone to take their body.

And how could she know all of that?

As Mason returned her gaze in confusion, Amber glanced at her back--to be exact, at the phone held by her father.

The phone with an ongoing call to Sarah’s number.

"You..." the chairman furrowed his brows deeply. He never gave warmth to his children, but at that moment, his gaze was nothing more than what he would spare a lowly, useless employee he meant to fire in the next second.

Mason raised his head, eyes widened and shaking. "Fa...fathe--"

"Silence."

The chairman said coldly, harshly. His gaze shifted toward her daughter, whom he couldn’t see behind the big frame of the bodyguard. The bodyguard who broke a thick, locked door by himself and immediately rushed toward Sarah in silence while removing his suit.

The chairman could only see Sarah a few seconds later, as she walked past the groaning Mason to leave the room. A man’s suit was draped over her torn blouse, and while her face looked nonchalant, Sarah was panting in exhaustion.

Whatever her condition was, however, Sarah stood on business. Walking to the door, she pressed a button on her phone, finally severing the call she had made to the chairman. Her voice was clear despite the strain, passing by the old man.

"Is this...enough proof for you, Father?"

* * *

With half the security personnel guarding the mistress and another half securing the third wife, Sarah barely saw any around Mason’s quarters. It didn’t mean the corridor was deserted, however. The chief guard followed the chairman, and several house staff members gathered in the hallways as well as on the stairs curiously.

Naturally, as the person who came out first, their eyes followed Sarah. Her slightly messy appearance sparked curiosity, and she didn’t miss capitalizing on it. Sarah chose someone she recalled to be the biggest mouth there and stumbled slightly as she passed that person. The double blazer and suit covering her top slid off and showed her torn blouse, as well as the slight bruise around her jaw and neck. The small gasps from the staff members who saw it told her it was a mission accomplished.

She had no leeway to feel satisfied for it, however, because the suit was quickly rewrapped around her torso, all buttoned up to make sure it would slip again. Sarah blinked and looked down, because her arms were also trapped inside the suit blanket and it was hard balancing herself with a throbbing side and a bad leg.

"Umm...hey, this is a bit--ah!" Sarah gasped when Hajin wordlessly swept her off her feet and carried her briskly through the onlookers.

In her new position, Sarah could clearly see the bodyguard’s face clearly and she knew that Hajin was angry.

That, and the fact that he uttered not a single word since he broke the door earlier.

Sarah bit her lips as she stared at the man’s hardened jaw. The protruding vein on his neck was enough sign that he was holding back a lot of anger. Wrath. Most of it was probably toward Mason.

The rest? The rest was for Sarah.

"I’m fine," Sarah muttered quietly as Hajin trudged down the stairs. "He couldn’t touch me--well, just managed to grab my arms in surprise and yanked my blouse--but he couldn’t touch me further."

There was no remark from Hajin; the grey eyes were akin to a blizzard, cold and stormy and dark.

"I properly punched and kicked him--you should see it," Sarah continued in her effort to defend her decision. "Well, you did see he was on the floor, right?"

Still, there was only silence from the other person. Sarah found herself getting more and more defensive, fishing out justification after justification like a trainwreck, even while she was gripped with a guilty conscience.

"I had to do it," Sarah insisted. "I need to provide proof and baiting Mason into exposing himself was the best way. I can’t exactly do it while you’re around, so a proper opportunity that didn’t look forced needed to be made."

Sarah knew Hajin wouldn’t agree to this plan though, so she couldn’t tell the man about it. Admittedly, it was nothing more than a gamble. A lot of things could go wrong with this plan: the chairman might ignore her call, Mason might try to use drugs or his people, and even if any other things worked as intended, Hajin might be too late breaking into the room.

Perhaps because of that, she found herself lowering her head. From the silence; from the guilt.

"I...I know it’s a bit reckless, but it worked in the end, right?" Sarah laughed nervously. "I already called the chairman from the start, so I knew you would also come and--"

"Please shut up."

After so long, Hajin finally opened his mouth, and Sarah realized she was truly, truly screwed.