CHAPTER 148: CHAPTER 147. LOVE NEST

On a nice, sunny afternoon in early autumn, after Sarah had turned off her phone for a while, someone got impatient and knocked on her door. Hajin, in his workout outfit, opened the door to a grumpy Amber and her attendants.

She wasn’t very grumpy anymore when someone who looked like he was jumping out of a sports drink advertisement answered the door, however. Hajin might not be everyone’s type, but people still couldn’t help but appreciate his features.

Amber cleared her throat; the scowl had gone from her face. "Where’s Sarah?"

"Huh? Eonni?" the owner of the place peeked into the foyer. From the way she had her hair tied in a ponytail, it seemed like they were working out together when Amber came. "What brings you here?"

Amber crossed her arms and clicked her tongue in response. "You not answering my call?"

"What--you called me?" Sarah raised his brows before laughing as she stepped into the foyer. "I turned my phone off because it got hot from all the calls I received."

"Isn’t that the more reason you should check?" Amber frowned. "It could be important."

"Like what?" Sarah leaned against the wall and snickered. "Nothing is more important than resting for me at this point. You know I wouldn’t care even if the chairman collapsed."

The two attendants who accompanied Amber gasped like a pair of devotees hearing blasphemous words against their high priest. Their boss merely sighed, however. "Hmm...I got it, but you shouldn’t say things like that so openly."

"I’m in my own house, ain’t I?" Sarah laughed, turning around and gesturing for the guests to come inside. "What could happen anyway? You’re telling on me and I get grounded? The worst thing that could happen is he crosses my name from the family registry--but you know that, don’t you?"

Amber followed her sister inside, scrunching her nose a little bit. While the house smelled just as nice as the mansion, she felt icky that Sarah didn’t even bother to clean up and change her sweat-filled clothes.

"Is that why you act so brazen?" Amber asked, narrowing her eyes at the couch in the living room instead of sitting on it.

Sarah chuckled. "No, that’s just me being spiteful."

"With how you behaved, people would think you really are getting kicked out of the house," Amber scoffed while looking around skeptically. The place wasn’t necessarily small--especially not for a normal household--but it was still smaller than the annex, not to mention the main house. Didn’t even have a second floor or anything. "Are you seriously going to live here?"

"Why not? This is my mother’s place," Sarah replied in a low, dry voice while turning around; cold eyes bore into Amber sharply.

"O-oh..." Amber swallowed hard unconsciously. Even the attendants--who also functioned as bodyguards--felt their backs turn cold in a second of fright. "Ah, right."

When the younger sister’s black eyes shifted to the couch, Amber sat down in reflex. As if satisfied, the cold expression melted like a lie as Sarah smiled sweetly.

"Besides," she wrapped her arm around her personal adonis of a bodyguard and kissed the man softly, giggling. "It’s enough for a love nest."

Amber pressed her lips to hold back from scoffing as Hajin chuckled and kissed his master’s hand before retreating to the kitchen. If Sarah could wreak havoc in the mansion, who knows what she could do in her own place?

"So, what brings you here?" Sarah finally took a seat on the couch across from Amber and crossed her toned legs. "It can’t be because you’re worried about me."

Amber narrowed her eyes, recalling the way Mason keeled over from those legs’ kick. Yeah--there was no need to worry about this girl. Moreover...

"Why would I? You reaped a lot from this," Amber scoffed and crossed her arms.

Sarah curled her eyes like a nine-tailed fox spirit. "So you want to take a bite too?"

Ugh--Amber groaned inwardly. Perhaps this girl was really had a nine-tailed fox’s spirit. "Well..."

There was a reason why Sarah could say whatever she wanted without fearing getting kicked out of the family, and naturally, Amber came to her with the same reason.

"We might not know much about each other, but we know enough not to beat around the bush, don’t we?" Sarah tilted her head.

"Haa...fine," Amber sighed, biting the inside of her cheek before spelling her objective. "I need a part of Mason’s share."

Arg--Amber hated that she had to spell it, since it felt like she was begging for it, like asking for a charity. The best scenario would be to have Sarah offer it to her--which was why she had been calling her sister the past few days. Facing Sarah in the flesh, however, told her that such things would never happen.

But she needed those shares as someone who aimed to be the heiress. In a company, shares meant power; it wouldn’t make sense for the heiress to have less power than someone else.

Sarah, in her usual infuriating way, stroked her lips in contemplation. "Need? Or want?"

Amber rolled her eyes. "What’s the difference?"

"If you need his shares, I could just support you," Sarah shrugged. Like a sword, she could lend her strength instead of handing over the blade. "On the other hand, ’want’ means possession, so you need to buy it from me."

Amber bit her lips--she knew Sarah wouldn’t just give it away, but she also had no idea how much capital she could move to buy those shares. She pondered while the bodyguard returned with nice-smelling tea and even nicer-smelling pastries, but her pondering was useless in the end.

"Although I’m not going to sell them now," Sarah smirked.

"What?!"

"They are my security, Eonni," Sarah tutted while taking the sports drink that the bodyguard brought her instead of tea. "I don’t really need the money, but I need something to make sure people don’t trample me the way they trample over my mother."

Once again, that cheery voice turned low and cold, like an automatic shift every time she mentioned her mother. And again, it was enough to make Amber feel like her tongue had lost some power.

"I said it from the start; my objective is survival," Sarah continued after drinking her electrolytes. "That’s why if you want the shares, I’m not going to give them to you."

Amber gritted her teeth. She knew sisterhood was too late for them, but she had thought they were at least allies, somewhat--seemed like they were more like business partners, in the end.

"Besides...won’t it pose a problem for you? I mean, won’t your mother and siblings resent you if they know? Or worse--" Sarah leaned forward and smirked. "Tell you to give it back to Mason."

"Ugh..."

Amber clicked her tongue; it was hateful, but Sarah wasn’t wrong. She had been hounded by her screaming mother, who also had been begging the chairman not to kick Mason out of the house. She knew how shameless, heartless, and tactless her own mother could be, so she couldn’t even refute Sarah’s conjecture.

Amber took a deep breath and calmed herself with the soothing, nice-smelling tea. Perhaps thanks to that, she was able to think back about what Sarah said earlier.

Placing the teacup back on the coffee table, Amber looked at Sarah with narrowed eyes. "You said ’now’ didn’t you?"

"Uh-huh."

"So you’ll be willing to sell them in the future?"

Sarah smiled. "Perhaps, if I feel safe enough."

Amber exhaled and spoke confidently. "You’ll be safe if you’re on my side."

"Only if you truly become the heiress," Sarah shrugged.

"What the hell?" Amber scowled, clutching the leather fabric of the couch in anger. "You think I won’t be?"

"I’m not one to count the chickens before they hatch," Sarah replied calmly.

Amber slammed the coffee table, filling the living room with clanking sounds of the cups and plates. "Fuck, Sarah--you were the one who told me I should become the heiress!"

"Yes, and I’m not saying I won’t support you," Sarah tilted her head, round eyes looking all innocent as if she had no idea why her older sister was mad. "But if you’re thinking I’m just going to support you blindly, then you’re wrong."

"What?"

Sarah chuckled, leaning forward and staring straight into Amber’s eyes. "Eonni, I won’t prevent you from becoming the heiress and taking it all. But objectively, you still have some stones in your path you need to get rid of, don’t you think?"

Amber pressed her lips, her brows knitted deeper as she leaned back to ponder. Indeed, nothing had been set in stone, and the family was much in chaos these days. The biggest obstacle in her path was the big percentage of shares in Sarah’s name, but if the girl promised to support her in the end, then...

Amber raised her gaze. "You want me to get rid of the third wife?"

Sarah smiled deeply in response, and Amber scoffed. It wasn’t very scary if that sinister light inside Sarah’s eyes was pointed toward someone else.

"Do that, and I might even consider selling them to you," Sarah curled her eyes. "If not, I can always lend my votes in the board’s meeting--that’s what you’re after anyway, right?"

"What about the new woman?"

Sarah shrugged. "Surely you’re more than capable of controlling that kind of woman? Unlike in the past, we’re no longer children who could only watch things unfold."

Children who could only accept their father remarrying and bringing new children.

Children who could watch the new woman prancing around the house shamelessly like a new queen.

This time, the new woman was only several years older than Amber. No matter how hard-headed the person was or how shameless, it wasn’t so hard to break an outsider to her own taste. Surely.

Amber sighed after contemplating her options for a while. "Fine," she said before standing up.

Sarah arched her brow. "You’re leaving already?"

"Since my business is done," Amber said dryly. There was nothing more to talk about, since she knew Sarah wouldn’t budge until the third wife was thrown to the street.

At the very least, the possibility of Sarah supporting any other candidate was low.

"Well, please tell the others that my place is not open for visitation," Sarah said to the retreating Amber, who just waved her hand in dismissal without looking back.

Sarah laughed, wondering if Amber just didn’t want to stay longer in this ’commoner’ room, or didn’t want to talk to someone fresh out of the gym any longer. She didn’t bother to see Amber out--she had her attendants anyway--and just leaned back with a smile dancing on her lips.

"Well, well..."

"Well, well indeed," Hajin muttered behind Sarah, hands stroking her cheeks and tilted face up as he leaned down to whisper alluringly. "Love nest, huh?"

"Ugh--" Sarah flinched as the grey eyes gleamed in unmasked desire, the settling heat from the workout returned to her cheek. "Wait--wait, I’m still sweaty--mpph!"

And just like that, Sarah had to go through another kind of workout, even inside the shower. Well...she was the one who called it a love nest anyway.