CHAPTER 175: CHAPTER 174. POISONOUS FLOWERS CAN’T GET ALONG

"How did you do it?" Amber asked with a frown the moment she saw Sarah approaching from the hallway.

Greetings truly didn’t exist between them.

Sarah stopped in front of her half-sister and tilted her head. "Do what?"

"Convinced Father to let Mason out."

Sarah arched her brow. So...the chairman truly changed his mind about keeping Mason inside the mansion? Sarah glanced at Hajin, thinking back to how the chairman said he was worried Mason would come to disturb Sarah.

Little did the old man know, the one in danger was actually Mason.

Look at that smirk--Sarah chuckled inside. And it wasn’t only Hajin; the twins also seemed eager to do something to Mason. With the loss of his social status and the threat to his physical safety, the outside world would be a scary place for Mason.

Oh, thinking about it actually made Sarah feel so much better about stuff.

"I told him to kick that guy out of the house," Sarah shrugged.

"Huh..."

Amber raised her brows, before frowning slightly. It felt unbelievable at first that their father would fold just from that, but...the way he had been catering to Satah these days, it wasn’t so weird anymore. An uncomfortable feeling crept through Amber; irritation, envy. Mostly envy.

"Anyway, that means you can take him somewhere, right?" Sarah took out an envelope and handed it to Amber.

Taking the envelope, Amber’s brows shoot high when she read the card inside. "This is..." Amber paused, looking slightly dazed as her mind was turning. When she asked herself why Sarah wanted her to bring Mason to an art exhibition, the answer came quickly. "You...don’t tell me..."

Sarah smiled, waiting as Amber’s eyes shook at the extent of the scheme Sarah was pulling. How far?

How far did she plan this? Did she hear about the participants and see it as a chance? It wasn’t weird for her to get insider information since she was somewhat close to Chairman Kang’s nephew.

She couldn’t possibly plan the whole exhibition, right? No matter how close she was to Daniel, there was no way she could move Chairman Kang when not even Daniel or his parents could.

Amber bit her lips as all kinds of possibilities went through her mind. In the end, she couldn’t--or probably refused--to believe anything but a coincidence playing its part in this.

"I guess...you’re serious about getting rid of him," Amber exhaled heavily.

"Naturally," Sarah replied coldly. "You think I can let someone who assaulted me just like that?"

Yeah--for Sarah, it was getting rid of her abuser. For Amber, it was merely getting rid of a rival that shared half the gene pool with her. She was new on this journey to the top of the food chain--or surviving for that matter--so her resolve was rather wobbly sometimes.

Sarah crossed her arms. "Why? You don’t want to do it anymore?"

Amber massaged her temple, sighing quietly. If it were Mason, and he saw Amber as a competitor...

"No," Amber narrowed her eyes. "This is what he had been doing to people he thought got in his way."

Sarah scoffed. "We’re not even beating him close to death or faking his suicide."

"You..." Amber stepped back slightly, eyes widened in surprise.

Mason’s cruelty was not something new for his siblings and attendants, including the security personnel. To some extent, perhaps the chief secretary who had to clean up his mess. But it had been mostly hidden from anyone else. Naturally, Mason would especially hide it from Sarah, whom he had twisted feelings for.

"How did you know? Since when?"

Sarah shrugged. "Hmm...I guess five years ago? More or less..."

It wasn’t a lie--not truly. Sarah was exposed to Mason’s ongoing cruelty once she was under his spell, but she only knew what he had been doing since his childhood when she started getting suspicious about everything--probably a few months before her death, after finding out someone was tampering with her car.

So, technically, it was only five--almost six--years ago.

Amber blinked, feeling a never-ending surprise wash over her. "Was that why you changed?"

"Hmm...maybe?" Sarah smiled bitterly. At least it was indeed one of the reasons: finding out that she had been serving a devil. "I guess I just didn’t want to involve myself in the family or company anymore after knowing how rotten everyone was," she shrugged. Her eyes clouded slightly as she looked outside the wide window lining one side of the hallway. "Besides...my mother was no longer here."

Amber turned her gaze too--it was uncomfortable looking at that kind of expression. She hated to admit it, but she felt guilty sometimes, since she was the one who bullied Sarah the most in the past. That being said, she couldn’t forget her envy; for a loving mother, for an effortless beauty, even now...for their father’s attention.

And she couldn’t deny the relief she felt when she knew Sarah had no intention of being in the company. "So...you’re going to take Uncle’s path?"

"Well, Father is trying to wed me away anyway," Sarah laughed, erasing the forlorn gaze and bitter smile she wore a minute ago. "Just having fun and wasting money is addictively good, you know."

Amber glanced at the bodyguard who was frowning slightly when Sarah talked about being wed. "I guess you do have a lot of suitors."

"Don’t make my puppy jealous, Eonni," Sarah said while stroking below Hajin’s jaw, smiling sweetly. "He’s very petty, you know."

"I can behave," Hajin pursed his lips in protest.

"If you want."

"If I want."

Amber rolled her eyes and turned around with a sigh, beckoning them to move. "Come on--he needs to move to another schedule soon."

Sarah chuckled and followed Amber through the hallway of the luxury department store where HS Fashion just held an event to promote the newest luxury line. Naturally, the event used celebrities and idols who worked as their model, including the one Amber was sponsoring behind the scenes.

Rather than meeting the druggie boytoy in a cafe or club somewhere and getting seen by someone, Sarah thought it was more natural to meet during this event, which was spearheaded by Amber.

Certainly, there was nothing wrong with Sarah coming to the group’s event either.

Amber led them to a VIP backroom guarded by her bodyguards. Inside, there was a young man lounging on the couch while watching his phone screen with earphones on. From how he nodded his head while moving his arms seriously, it seemed like he was in the middle of reviewing his group’s song.

When they walked closer, he turned his head and perked up. Wide, deer-like eyes and a face that seemed to still maintain some baby fat. The makeup he wore for the event accentuated his youth instead of aging him, which made Sarah narrow her eyes skeptically.

"Oh, Noona!" the man--or was he a boy?--jumped to his feet and almost ran to Amber like a real puppy. He stopped in his tracks and went rigid, however, when he saw Sarah and Hajin walking behind the older woman.

Sarah tilted her head. "He’s legal, right?"

"Uhh?" the young man, an idol, shrank back as if he was experiencing stage fright.

"He is," Amber clicked her tongue, glaring at Sarah while seemingly hiding the boy behind her. "You can just check his public profile."

"Celebrities hide their real birthday all the time," Sarah scoffed. The boy should he famous, but between this life and the previous one, Sarah had no time to care about celebrities. "So young and using drugs already? Do you think having a sponsor will save you from the authorities?"

The idol replied with a hiccup as Sarah sat down on the couch. His eyes darted to the handsome but scary bodyguard standing behind her seat, before shifting toward his sponsor looking for protection.

Amber sighed exasperatedly. "Sarah."

"What? I’m trying to give him perfectly sound advice here," Sarah clicked her tongue. She wanted to pity someone who had to sell himself to seek sponsorship from a wealthy individual, but she had none for someone who, despite having a sponsor to guarantee a smooth career, was still thinking of destroying it. "Don’t you know drugs are bad for your face and body?"

The idol swallowed hard at Sarah’s cold tone, and Amber clapped her hands loudly. "That’s enough. He’ll stop, so let’s just get on with your plan."

Sarah shrugged and just hoped it was true. There were a lot of cases where celebrities got dragged to parties they didn’t want to attend because they had no power to go against the people on top. Amber’s boy, however, had no excuses because he could ask Amber for help to get away from such a party.

Meaning, he went there on his own volition--like Jasper.

But...oh, well.

"Tell me about this party," Sarah crossed her arms and legs, staring the idol down.

Looking all nervous, he looked even younger than his actual age. Where did this boy get his courage to dip into drugs and the like with this kind of personality? Sarah wanted to shake her head.

"It’s, uhh...something attended by celebrities and, uhh...rich people, I guess? Influencers and businessmen--I think I had seen lawyers and prosecutors too..."

"What--a discount Circle?" Sarah arched her brow.

"Well, people always want to imitate what the top 1% do," Amber said. "These kinds of participants made it harder for anyone to bust out the operation."

"Even prosecutors, huh..." Sarah chuckled. "I bet they bribed the police too. How often is this party held?"

Amber looked at the idol, who flinched before answering. "Umm...once a month, usually--b-but, I didn’t always attend, I swear! I was just...trying out a little bit because the others are also--"

"Whatever," Sarah cut him off. "Place?"

The idol let out a hiccup before answering. "The place changed a lot, and uhh...we’re only told a day before."

"But they can’t change it every time, right? There must be a repetition," Sarah said, and the idol nodded. "Alright; for now, tell me the places you know."

Hajin slid a pen and a small notebook in front of the idol, who obediently wrote while glancing at Sarah and Hajin. Sarah also told him to jot down the names of the people he recognized at those parties, and the list ended up being pretty long.

After finishing his intel, the idol looked up nervously and asked carefully. "Uhh...Noona said I still have to go to that place again?"

Sarah smiled and leaned forward, staring straight at the idol’s eyes. "Have you ever worn a bodycam?"