CHAPTER 188: CHAPTER 187. SNAKE HUNTING

Fuck!

Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!

Joseph couldn’t help but curse inwardly. It couldn’t be, right? That bastard wouldn’t dare to sell the shares he was holding, right? Wait...wasn’t the house he used as collateral originally given by Joseph?

The more Joseph thought about it, the more everything seemed to slip away from his grasp. His money...the money he had painstakingly amassing for decades, was being robbed left and right at the same time.

But how could it be? How could everything have happened at the same time? Had he become too complacent with control because everything had worked well for the last ten years?

Yeah--it was his fault that he didn’t even realize how much of a liability Jacob was. Perhaps his money guy found out about Jacob’s gambling, and instead of telling him, the man decided to pocket the money in his hand for himself. He must have left the others here so Joseph wouldn’t get suspicious, and only after successfully taking the money somehow, told the others to follow him.

Making his own conclusion, Joseph’s mask was cracking once again. This time, Sarah did not say anything; she simply observed the old man, who failed to realize that his eyes were shaking and his jaw was tensing greatly he almost looked like a snarling beast.

For a few seconds, Joseph seemed to be fighting to keep his expression. Maybe due to experience, he calmly retorted to his usual calm and harmless countenance.

Indeed, very different from Mason. Sarah hid her sneer and asked in a worried tone. "Uncle? Are you alright?"

"Yes, thank you," Joseph smiled, looking every bit like a kind uncle he always pretended to be. "Then, what do you want to tell me about the company?"

"Oh, that!" Sarah clasped her hands. "I’m lacking cash at the moment, so I’m going to sell off my shares."

Joseph perked up slightly. "Which one?"

Did he think Sarah wanted to sell her key shares? She wanted to snicker openly. Did he still have enough money, even?

"The useless one, of course?" Sarah replied casually, as if she were just talking about shopping in a mall. "I was going to sell it to Uncle Oh, but he was broke, so I talked to an investment company."

Joseph blinked. "Huh?"

Sarah shrugged. "They also do M&A, so..."

"You’re selling half the affiliate company to outsiders?" Joseph looked at Sarah, dumbfoundedly.

"Come on, Director Seo! It’s hardly an affiliate," Sarah laughed. "Besides, selling this company to outsiders is what you always do, right?"

"...what?"

Sarah leaned back and tilted her head. "Oh, maybe you didn’t consider it ’outsider’ since in the end, you’re going to own it?"

Joseph narrowed his eyes, staring at Sarah keenly. Watching the bright, naive smile turned treacherous. The sparks in her eyes seemed to be sinking into a pair of deep abyss pools. Those eyes were looking back at him like they wanted to lynch him.

Just like how her grandfather used to look.

"You..."

Sarah patiently waited as Joseph’s gears turned in his head, sensing what was amiss, pondering what made Sarah show another side of herself like this.

"Have you been pretending all this time?"

Ah...as expected, he was different. There was no boring, back and forth, ’no way’, or ’what do you mean’ throwing every three sentences.

"Pretending..." Sarah rubbed her curling lips. "Aren’t you talking about yourself?"

Joseph leaned back and crossed his arms, no longer facing Sarah as if she were an innocent niece who knew nothing about the world. But she also didn’t look like the sincere, diligent girl he knew before she went abroad, so Joseph had no idea what to make of it.

For now, he just exhaled softly. Too many bad things had happened to him lately, so he couldn’t afford to lose his composure at that moment.

"What do you know?"

"A lot," Sarah shrugged, raising the pinky finger of the hand she laid against the armrest. "I know enough that you use the company to embezzle money using Daesung’s help."

Joseph narrowed his eyes, but otherwise, his facial expression remained impassive. It was something that could be found out if Sarah studied all of the consulting company’s financial reports anyway.

He just didn’t think Sarah would do that, tricked by her performance and his preconception of her old trust in him.

"Oh, I also know you have another group to collect dirty money and launder it," Sarah continued, raising her ring finger. "Probably to buy the Group’s shares."

This time, Joseph’s jaw tensed.

"Ah, or should I say...you had?" Sarah arched her brow.

How did she know that? Joseph suddenly had this bad feeling nagging in the back of his mind. Was Sarah somehow involved in their disappearance, or was she only made a guess through cold reading?

"Do you still have them, I wonder?" Sarah rubbed her smiling--or rather, sneering--lips. "The one you safekept in Jacob Oh also seems to be...evaporated?"

That was when the mask started to crack. "You..." he gripped the armrests tightly while staring at Sarah with hardened eyes. "It can’t be..."

"Don’t be boring, Director Seo," Sarah replied dryly, rolling her eyes in a show of disappointment. "Do tell me, though..." she leaned forward slightly, propping her hands over her crossed knees. "Why did you do all of that? Is it to take over the Group? Taking the management from the family?"

Joseph couldn’t quite explain what he was feeling at that moment. He was shocked, he was angry, he was devastated by the concurrent loss of what he had been building for decades. But above all that, he was full of questions.

What is this? Who is that in front of him?

"Oh, don’t worry; I’m not going to tell the chairman, if that’s what you’re worried about," Sarah leaned back again, swatting her hand in the air dismissively. "In fact, I don’t plan to tell anyone."

Naturally, Joseph narrowed his eyes skeptically. If she could say that much, she must have the proof of his embezzlement already. She could kick him out of the company if she wanted, but she said she wouldn’t?

Why?

"Promise," Sarah smiled sweetly, reminding Joseph of the adorable girl who existed a long time ago.

Joseph clenched his jaw as his mind turned quickly. While Sarah was indeed pretending to be ignorant all this time, her dislike toward her family actually felt genuine. Knowing how they had been treating her when she was still meek, it was understandable.

Maybe...

Just maybe...she wasn’t here as an enemy?

"Haa..." Joseph exhaled slowly. Well, what was the use of denying it if she knew this much? Might as well see if he could salvage his situation somehow. "Yes, I’m going to take over this Group."

"Why?" there was no particular change in Sarah’s expression, almost as if they were doing an interview. "For money? For power?"

"No," Joseph shook his head lightly.

"Hmm..." Sarah tilted her head slightly. "For revenge?"

Joseph could no longer hide his shock; his eyes widened, and his hands gripped the armrests tightly. "How--"

"Were you upset because Grandpa couldn’t help you take out your illegitimate son from jail after his drug party?" Sarah said dryly, tone dropped as if she was only reading an insignificant report. "That too, after he was caught in this country?"

"He was still young!" Joseph screamed, leaning forward as if he was going to lunge across the table. His glaring eyes persisted for a few seconds before he calmed down again and relaxed his body. Still, while his face looked calm, he was still gripping the armrest hard. "People can make mistakes."

Sarah scoffed. "A mistake is when it happens the first time, don’t you think?"

"Your father and uncle’s lives are full of countless mistakes, and your grandpa kept protecting them--not only from authorities but also from the media. All I asked--" he raised his voice agitatedly as the anger carved deep inside his heart resurfaced. "All I asked was for him to try helping me!"

He knew...he knew it was almost impossible. He knew it wouldn’t be easy. He knew they would need a miracle to take that child out quickly. But...

"If only he tried..." Joseph gritted his teeth. "If only he tried, I wouldn’t be this angry!"

The burst of emotion that he had been hiding for decades came forth through the shout, leaving him breathless. But even as he was panting on his seat, Sarah only looked at him coldly.

"And this is your revenge? By taking over the company after he was gone?"

"Yeah, so what?" Joseph took a deep breath and returned to his smile. "Unlike your father, your grandfather loved this company with all his heart. The company and his family," he shrugged. "He took my precious son, so isn’t it only fair that I take what’s precious for him?"

"Your son took his own life," Sarah corrected him.

"Only because he thought it was hopeless!" Joseph slammed the table between them. "Because your grandfather didn’t want to help!"

"So you take revenge on him! I don’t care about your petty revenge! Just why--"

Sarah looked at Joseph viciously. Her back was straight and tense, hands gripping the edge of the armrest as if she wanted to hold herself back from plunging a knife into the old man’s heart. Her voice, dripping with poison, was uttered with a hatred only someone who wished death upon another would have.

"Why did you have to kill my mother?"

Joseph widened his eyes more, lips parted without managing to make any sound. His mind went blank for a few seconds, as it was something even surprising than Sarah knowing about his attempt to take over the company.

"You...knew?"

"Why?" Sarah asked through her gritted teeth. "She wasn’t even part of the family. She didn’t even have this accursed family’s blood!"

Joseph blinked slowly. Finally, he understood that Sarah wasn’t really there to find out what he wanted to do with HS. She wasn’t there to give him a way out.

She was there as an enemy.

And Joseph laughed.