CHAPTER 160: CHAPTER 159. HEADBUTTING FISH

"It’s not her," the chairman said after Sarah hung up.

He might not know his children much, but he knew Sarah’s tone earlier was sarcasm—not to mention her laugh, which sounded like she was laughing at him for how ridiculous that question was.

"Indeed, it’s not possible for her to do it," the family lawyer said. In the first place, they only asked her because she was the one with the most resentment toward Mason.

Logically speaking, however, it would be dumb for her to do that. She had the most shares among the children, so if the stock price went down, she would be the one with the biggest loss.

"In the first place, it’s Young Master’s fiancée who told everyone about the breakup," the lawyer continued. "And Miss Sarah wasn’t even in the house, so she couldn’t take any recording."

"Which begs the question..."

Chairman Lee turned toward the man whose head was bowed so low that the others could only see his hair. Despite having a tall and burly stature, the man looked like a shriveling old thing who would fall with just a single light touch.

"How the fuck could that recording leak?!"

The chairman threw the phone he had just used to call her daughter at the head of his house’s security. It struck the man’s head before clattering to the floor loudly, but the man did not move or even wince. He did not dare to.

Lee Hyuk cursed under his breath while taking a seat on the armchair. Did he really age that much? Just throwing a phone felt too much like an exertion. He turned his gaze toward the lawyer. "Have you talked to the side that uploaded it first?"

"Yes, Sir. But they said it came through a package without any label," the lawyer said, conveying what his assistant reported. "We had checked their CCVT, but we only saw a person wearing a black hat--we couldn’t identify the face, age, or any special features."

"Tsk."

"Also, the detective who worked with us said the person might be paid to send the package only. It’s not uncommon, and the person might not necessarily know their client."

The chairman sighed; he didn’t have the energy to be angry anymore. There were already enough problems at hand--must he really be struggling with a mole inside his house?

"Whoever gets the recording, it must be someone from the house--or at least has a connection," Seo Joseph said. He was half an employee and half a family member, so he was there to do some troubleshooting.

Or at least discussed the problem at hand before the executive meeting.

"So it’s impossible to be the Second Miss. She doesn’t have anyone inside the house," the chief secretary commented.

The chairman thought about the junior staff member who was currently serving his lover--the only one he thought was probably had a good relationship with Sarah. But thinking about that meek-looking creature who had only worked for two or three months stealing something from the security personnel was rather ridiculous.

"Yeah, it wasn’t her," the chairman crossed his arms. "If we’re talking about resentment, Mason has a lot of people who hate him."

"I had thought it might be a staff member, but seeing that the person didn’t even sell it to the press, it means they didn’t do it for money," the chief secretary stroked his chin.

"I don’t think anyone from your ex-wife’s side would do it too," Director Seo said. "I mean, Mason is still their family."

"Even Amber?" the chairman tilted his head. "She wanted to be the heiress."

Director Seo shrugged. "But Mason is no longer the heir anyway, and she still needs her mother’s shares to support her."

"Hmm..."

"In that case, what about the Madam? I mean, the current one," the lawyer offered a candidate.

The chairman arched his brow. "Why do you think so?"

"Because if you divorce her to take in Miss Vivian, she won’t have anything," the lawyer replied.

It was something that was stated in the prenup, that upon divorce, Jeong Mina wouldn’t get anything but a consolation money with a fixed amount. It was especially made because usually, if the divorce happened because the husband committed adultery, the wife could get fifty percent of the husband’s wealth.

Certainly, the chairman didn’t want any of that.

If it came down to it, Mina had a worse prenup than Sarah’s mother. At least, Raisa owned some shares, and upon divorce, she would still receive an allowance as long as she lived. Mina didn’t even have family-controlled shares, and there wouldn’t be any allowance.

Her children would still be a part of the household, however, so she could receive some money through them. Still, everyone knew that Ruby and Jasper didn’t look like much, and neither Lee Hyuk nor the executives cared about them.

"Are you saying she’s trying to bring me down before I discard her?" the chairman narrowed his eyes.

Not because he felt offended by the thought, but because he thought it rather made sense.

"It’s a possibility," the lawyer nodded.

"Haa..."

The chairman held back a groan. Did he push this woman too much? He thought Mina would just go away by herself like her second wife did, but...

He forgot that Raisa was a gentle woman who didn’t like confrontation--certainly not at all like Mina.

How did they even become friends to begin with?

"Well, there’s that. We can keep on investigating it, but there’s something more pressing, isn’t it?" Director Seo clapped his hand once and stood up, reminding the chairman that his long day was not yet end.

In fact, it was only the start.

"Right," the chairman gripped his armrest and pushed himself up. He felt tired and heavy, but he couldn’t rest until this scandal was over.

With the chief secretary and Seo Joseph, he went to the conference room where the executives had been waiting with complicated expressions. They were anxious, yes, but also annoyed.

After all, it all happened because of the chairman’s son, wasn’t it? Why did they have to battle the headache for something that wasn’t their fault?

Still, they couldn’t say anything in front of the chairman. Those who used to support Mason were also in confusion about which rope they should shift to.

At any rate, they focused on how to bring back the company’s value because they couldn’t openly blame the royal family.

"We are currently investigating the possibility of a data breach, but for now, we need to find a solution for the stock price," someone reported. "This is the biggest fall in five years--even bigger than during the second young master’s DUI case."

"What are our options?" the chairman asked.

"For emergency measures, we have been trying to buy back the shares that are being sold, but..."

"Why? Do we not have enough funds?"

The director of the strategic department shook his head. "That’s not even the problem, Sir. Someone else had been buying the shares."

"What?" the other executives looked around in confusion, including the chairman.

"We’re looking into it, and it seems like they are brokers working for an investment company."

The chairman tilted his head. "Isn’t that good? We don’t have to use our own money, and the stock price will be stabilized soon if they keep buying it."

"Yes, but...there’s something I think you need to know, Sir..."

The chairman clicked his tongue at the hesitant tone. "Don’t waste time and be quick with it."

"Y-yes; so...I tried to find out where their money is going, and...their last big investment is toward Daesung’s new project."

As the name ’Daesung’ was mentioned, the conference room turned colder all of a sudden. The executives looked at the chairman cautiously, quietly waiting for his response.

"Daesung?" the chairman furrowed his brows, tone dropping low. "The one from five years ago?"

"Yes, Sir."

Lee Hyuk was quite nonchalant about other companies, but Daesung was different. The media city project five years ago was his idea; an attempt to diversify the group’s scope. Naturally, he despised the one who ended up taking it.

"Daesung...Daesung, huh...?" the chairman tapped his armrest slowly, an almost forgotten anger bubbling up in his chest.

Director Seo looked at his cousin and narrowed his eyes ever so slightly, before his face returned to its usual serene state. "Do you still loathe them, Lee Hyuk--I mean Chairman-nim?"

The chairman shifted his gaze sharply, almost glaring at Joseph, who responded with a wry smile.

"I don’t mean anything by it. It’s just...hmm, this feels weird..."

The chairman clicked his tongue impatiently. "What is?"

"Because recently, I heard that your brother had been hanging out with people from Daesung," Joseph said with a worried tone, suppressing a smile from forming as the chairman widened his eyes.

"...what?!"

* * *

[Do you have anything to do with this?] another call came from Amber, asking the exact same thing.

She had more basis for getting suspicious, however.

But Sarah merely laughed, just like when her father asked before. "You asked the same thing as the chairman."

[Ugh...]

Amber clicked her tongue on the other side. Knowing that the chairman already called and nothing changed meant the chairman had already determined that Sarah wasn’t the one behind the current circulating rumor.

Well...it wasn’t just a rumor at this point.

"Forget about it; the stock price is going up again anyway," Sarah scoffed. "What are you going to do with the third wife? I’m still waiting, you know?"

[Tsk--you think it’s easy? That woman is too cautious

I’m looking for something against her children]

"Is that so? Then I suppose you should look into the youngest," Sarah gave her a little hint.

[Jasper, huh? Is it true he’s involved with gangsters?]

"Who knows? Maybe even more," Sarah said with a chuckle.

For a while, there was no response from Amber. When she did, however, she couldn’t hide the suspicion in her tone.

[Hey...how do you even know about this--]

"Oh, I get another call--bye."

[Wai--]

Sarah closed the call and threw the phone aside. She wasn’t doing it to run away, however--she really had another call coming.

From her other phone, that was.

And it was far more important than dealing with Amber.

"Birdie?"

An excited chirping immediately came from the other side. [M-Miss Diamond! I found it! I found it!]

Sarah straightened her back immediately. "Seo Joseph?"

[Y-yes! Yes!]

Sarah stood up, prompting Hajin to look up from his laptop. "Alright, I’m coming right now."

[O-oh, but...you’ll have t-to talk w-with someone el-else f-first]

"Oh?" Sarah paused, tilting her head in ponder. "Ah...the Big Boss is home now?"

It was time to see her investor again after a long while.