CHAPTER 149: CHAPTER 148. A FORGOTTEN ENEMY

As expected, her phone filled with dozens of unanswered calls and messages—so many that it immediately became hot again the moment Sarah turned it on.

There were the chief secretary and the chairman as expected, along with a message asking if she knew anything regarding the circulating rumors about Mason’s dethronement. Sarah merely replied to the chairman that she had no idea--which was true enough. She had no idea what kind of rumors the twins were circulating from the depths of the Circle, nor how far those rumors had been twisted after going through the nth person.

She didn’t deliberate further, but since the chairman didn’t say anything more, he probably knew that Sarah hadn’t been anywhere at all. If they were looking for the source, they would easily find out that Sarah had never interacted with those people.

Well...she never interacted with anyone but Daniel anyway.

Aside from the chairman and the chief secretary, Sarah received a lot of calls from the first wife, which she totally ignored. The CEO also messaged her once, asking why she hadn’t been coming to the company.

What made Sarah wince in disgust was that even more than those people combined, Mason had been calling her at least a dozen times every day, as well as spamming messages. She screenshot those and sent them to the chairman, saying she would get the police involved for a restraining order if the chairman didn’t do anything about it.

After sorting out that stuff, Sarah finally graced the company with her presence. This time, rather than bringing something, Sarah gave the employees her card--the one connected to the family account--and told them to have lunch wherever they wanted.

They left happily, leaving Sarah and Hajin alone in the office. Apparently, the CEO had a meeting with a client, bringing along Sunny with him. A bit of disappointment, since Sarah had wanted to hear her report after a long time.

Sarah leaned back on her chair, swiveling around in boredom while staring at the yellowing leaves outside the window while Hajin made a haphazard business proposal that was due two weeks ago. "Perhaps I should try to meet Uncle Hyun too..." she muttered.

"Making sure Director Seo and the chairman’s brother truly aren’t cooperating?" Hajin asked without looking up from the laptop.

Intentionally making a sloppy proposal without looking like half-assed work was harder than making a good one, evidently.

"Yeah..."

"But how would you do that, Princess?" Hajin glanced at the desk. "It’ll be too suspicious if you contact him first."

"Yeah, especially since the third wife is raging," Sarah laughed. "The easiest way is to stage another accidental meeting."

"Looking for his schedule won’t be hard, but our paths don’t seem to be crossing much."

"If not at all," Sarah agreed. "And we can’t use the same trick as last time. The easiest way is to wait for the next family dinner, but I’m not sure we’ll get the chance since it’ll be even more chaotic."

Sarah wasn’t even sure there would be one. According to Mari, the mistress had already moved to the annex, and Honey was there as her personal assistant. Her job was to help Vivian, but her real job was to provoke the mistress and make sure she fought hard against the third wife. Thanks to that, the main house felt like a battlefield--or so Mari said. Even the staff members started to seriously discuss whose side they should take going forward. Obviously, this made the third wife act even more like a tyrant--albeit a desperate one.

Meanwhile, the chairman was also busy trying to stabilize the situation while rumors about Mason were circulating around. He had no choice but to truly consider Amber as the heiress, even if it was only to make it seem like they had no internal problem. Convincing the executives and the Board of Directors wouldn’t be easy, however.

If they still held the family dinner in this climate, Sarah would be very amazed. The mistress would have to be there, and what about Mason? Would the first wife still have the guts to show her face?

...honestly, it sounded like an interesting show to watch. Sarah started to think it wouldn’t be bad to have that accursed family dinner in this situation. Maybe while bringing a bowl of popcorn.

"Well...let’s just look at his schedule first," Sarah stretched out her arms and stood up, pointing at the vibrating stuff on the couch. "But your phone had been active lately, Puppy."

"Hmm?" Hajin glanced at his phone. He looked hesitant at first, but eventually checked his phone briefly. "Oh, it’s just...Chairman Yoo."

"Oh?" Sarah arched her brow.

Hajin put his phone down--almost throwing it even--and returned his gaze to the laptop on the table. "He kept asking to meet."

"Hmm..." Sarah smiled inwardly as she walked toward the couch. She could see how Hajin tried to appear like he didn’t care--of course, because he was worried about Sarah’s feelings. Pretty endearing, really. "Well, it had been quite a while since that event. Do you want to see him?"

Hajin replied with an awkward grumble. "It’s not that I want to, just..."

"I know, Puppy; you just want to tell him about your mother," Sarah patted the conflicted bodyguard, stroking his neatly combed hair. "And I said you can do it if you want, didn’t I?"

"Yes, but...that would mean I have to leave you for a while," Hajin looked up, holding the patting hand of his goddess. "You said you don’t want to witness it, didn’t you?"

"Well..."

Sarah couldn’t lie--be it hers or Hajin’s father, she hated cheaters, and didn’t want to face them if she could help it. Besides, it was a conversation that should be had between Hajin and his father privately. Sarah wasn’t sure how she would react to a love story between adulterers, and if she accidentally made a disdainful face...

She didn’t want to hurt Hajin’s feelings either.

So yeah...she couldn’t accompany Hajin. "It’s fine, isn’t it? It’ll only be a few hours at most."

Hajin brought her hand to his face, pressing his lips on her wrist to feel her steady pulse. "There’s no way I can do that, Princess. Owning a lot of shares might keep you safe from getting kicked out of the family, but it also invites greedy people."

Who knew if some executives wanted to take away the shares from her by kidnapping her or something? Or, who knows? Maybe someone who supported certain people wanted to get rid of her for being a nuisance in the group’s succession process. Her ruse of becoming the family’s black sheep to avoid suspicion was no longer effective when she was sitting on a pile of assets.

Above all else...

"And that bastard is the type who can resort to anything," Hajin scowled, holding Sarah’s hand tighter as if Mason would suddenly swoop in out of nowhere to whisk his princess away like a demon king.

But, well...he was actually right about Mason being rather unhinged. Seeing how the man was still trying to call her, he was either angry or obsessed--or both.

"But...don’t you think he should be rather preoccupied now?" Sarah stroked Hajin’s twisted lips with the back of her finger. "Taking back the shares from me won’t mean much if he can’t regain his position in the company or the family, so he must be preoccupied with thinking about his survival first--not to mention a whole engagement to be conserved..."

Hajin clicked his tongue in disagreement. "You never know what a desperate person might--" he paused when he realized Sarah was staring at the empty space with dazed eyes, blinking slowly. "What’s wrong, Princess?"

"I suddenly remembered he had a whole ass fiancée..." Sarah muttered.

Hajin stiffened, frowning again at the mention of the person responsible for her death. He didn’t know the circumstances behind that, since Sarah herself had no idea, but he knew enough that someone who could move a group of people carrying firearms in this country was a dangerous one.

Mason was desperate and unhinged, but this fiancée seemed like she was full of malice.

"It’s weird that she hadn’t broken it off, considering the circulating rumors," Sarah murmured curiously. "Perhaps she doesn’t want to come off as cold and opportunistic? Or is it because she doesn’t want to prematurely cut things off before she has any buffer?"

"Princess, you shouldn’t involve yourself with this--"

"Puppy!" Sarah grasped the bodyguard’s face, eyes sparkling with mischief. Dangerous mischief. "I have an idea!"

Usually, Hajin would be elated seeing Sarah this excited about doing something. Remembering her last ’idea’ however--the one she didn’t share with Hajin--the bodyguard couldn’t help but narrow his eyes skeptically.

"...I don’t feel good about this."

"No--listen, listen..."

Sarah plopped down on Hajin’s lap and told the bodyguard what she planned. Instead of being convinced, his expression turned more and more sour.

"Yeah..." he sighed, knowing that Sarah wouldn’t budge on this scheme she was cooking. "I don’t feel good about this."

At least it wasn’t a dangerous one.