CHAPTER 225: CHAPTER 224. LET IT BURN

The chairman’s jaw clenched at Sarah’s statement. A slowly burning rage and sorrow, that anyone should be able to notice had they looked closely. Just from that alone, everything suddenly fell into place.

Why she change, why she separate herself in the annex, why she stop calling him ’father’...

Her request for compensation, her adamant about leaving the mansion, perhaps also taking her lover as a bodyguard--everything was for this moment.

Silently, the chairman watched that girl walk toward the bedside table, smirking at the arrangement of flowers and aromatherapy candles that Vivian had made for him. The girl’s expression was not something someone would give to their family member. There was no warmth and affection, or even a slight sense of bond; by blood, if not something else.

Ironically, it reminded the chairman of himself.

If it were before, the chairman would have slapped Sarah’s mouth for spewing so much bullshit and kicked her out of the room. But then again, he wouldn’t have allowed her to meet him privately like this in the first place, much less talk this much.

How should he feel about this? The chairman, who had grown fond of his daughter too late, was dumbfounded.

"Is this...your revenge?" the chairman asked dazedly. "You have been trying to take over the Group because you’re angry at me?"

Somehow, the thought that his children had buried a deep resentment to the point of revenge did not cross him even after knowing his brother had poisoned him. Perhaps he just thought none of them had the ability--or the courage. But then again, he didn’t even know his children that well.

He certainly knew nothing about Sarah.

"Angry..." Sarah chuckled, looking up at the ceiling while exhaling slowly. "Ah...if only my emotions could be summed up with something that simple."

The chairman’s lips hardened into a thin line as Sarah turned her face. Like the winter outside, she looked utterly cold and bleak, as if light had long been robbed from her eyes. Like a husk made of resentment, she spoke with a smile that never reached the deep, bottomless abyss in her eyes.

"I loathe you, Chairman, the way I loathe Grandfather, who set her up to be wedded to you," she said. "I loathe you to the point that I’d rather not be born than let her taste the misery of becoming your wife."

The words were sent in a chilling calmness, as if her resentment had consumed everything that she could no longer provide explosive emotion. There was so much bitter hatred in her eyes that only Seo Joseph had faced before.

This time, it was the chairman’s turn.

"Mr. Park," Sarah shifted her gaze toward the chief secretary, who couldn’t help but flinch in response.

"Yes...Miss?"

He already knew Sarah was planning something; he already knew Sarah had no affection for the chairman and was ready to ’betray’ her father anytime. Still...he did not realize how deep that resentment was.

"Who are the current major shareholders of HS Stone?

The chief secretary glanced at the chairman, who still looked stunned that someone was willing to cease their existence out of contempt. "The chairman, naturally. You used to be number two, but last month, an investment company took that place."

"And I’m the third?"

"Yes, Miss."

The chairman finally snapped at this information. He looked at Sarah with widened eyes as realization struck him. "Don’t tell me--"

"I’ll tell you," Sarah smiled, running her fingers along the pastel-colored candles. "That investment company works for me."

The chief secretary widened his eyes. Even he didn’t think that Sarah would have prepared that much.

"How..."

"That doesn’t matter, does it?" Sarah scoffed. "You should already know where I’m going with this."

The chairman narrowed his eyes. "You’re going to push a management change."

Sarah smiled. "It’ll happen anyway, so why not make it peaceful?"

"Hah--you think that will work?" The chairman pushed the table over his lap away. "Just because you joined hands with an investment company, doesn’t mean you have the directors on your side."

Sarah chuckled. "Do you think I can’t count?" she glanced at the chairman and smirked. "Surely, you don’t think that’s all I have after coming all the way here?"

The chairman furrowed his brows deeply. Even if the executive directors were on his side, if the major shareholders sided with Sarah and had a higher percentage than his, his words could be challenged.

But...did Sarah truly manage to get the other shareholders to side with her?

"You never even check with the other shareholders, do you?" Sarah chuckled. "Truly makes my work easier."

The chairman gritted his teeth and turned toward the chief secretary. "Chief Park, do you know this?"

"N-no, Chairman!" The chief secretary shook his head quickly. This was true. "This is the first time I heard this. Miss Sarah must have been using several companies to collect shares below the three percent threshold," he added. "Only those below three percent ownership are allowed to maintain anonymity."

Sarah clapped slowly, curling her eyes at her hidden ally. "As expected of Chief Secretary Park."

"Sarah, you--"

"I’ve been ready to wage war against you from the start, but..." Sarah looked at the chairman and sighed. "I guess I’m softening up."

"Softening up?"

"To think I would feel a bit of pity," Sarah shook her head as if disappointed with herself, adding quickly right after. "Not for you, though--but your future child."

The chairman frowned.

"I don’t want you to collapse or have a heart attack in the middle of the board meeting," Sarah said nonchalantly. "Or worse...the emergency shareholder meeting."

The chairman slammed his hand against the table again. "You’re giving me a heart attack now!"

"Just slightly," Sarah shrugged. "You still think you’ll win, so you’re not that agitated yet. But once the boards agreed to my motion?"

Certainly, if this old man who would cough and turn pale every time he was agitated were to hear what Sarah was actually going to do in that board meeting, he would probably have a seizure right there and then.

"Let’s not worsen your health, shall we?" Sarah sighed, turning her head toward the door. It was a good thing to let Vivian go first. "I’d feel guilty for that unborn child, after all."

"You..." the chairman shoved the light blanket covering his thigh and shifted to the side of the bed. "Do you think I’ll just agree to this?"

Sarah shrugged. The healthy chairman did not scare her once she no longer considered him as her father, much less the sickly chairman. If anything, Sarah was worried he might kill the old man from stress.

"I can drag you to the court!" the chairman hissed while sitting at the edge of the bed, holding onto the table while the chief secretary helped balance him. "Whatever means you’re using to get those shares, how you got your money--there’s bound to be dirt."

"Sure, but...can you find them before the next board meeting?" Sarah tilted her head.

"I can postpone it."

"I can call for an emergency one," Sarah smirked. There was no way the board of directors could ignore the second and third major shareholders. "It’s not like the family’s reputation had been good these past few months."

The chairman gritted his teeth because yes, Sarah was right. The shareholder representatives wouldn’t be keen on his words. Getting duped by his ex-wife and son, and another one got entwined in a drug scandal...

People had been questioning how he would be able to manage a Group if he couldn’t even manage his family--

"Did you..." the chairman gasped. "Did you cause all of that?!"

Sarah curled her eyes. "Which one?"

"Lee Seul-ah!"

"It’s not important, anyway, but alright--let’s just say you managed to do that," Sarah clapped once, loudly, as if to rival the chairman’s shout. "Even if you have the prosecutor chasing my ass, do you know what I’ll say to them?"

The chairman frowned as Sarah leaned against the decorated table and put on an innocent face; the face she had been wearing in front of others.

"I’ll tell them I was only doing it because someone told me to," Sarah said in a cheerful tone.

"What bullshit--"

"It’s true! I really didn’t know anything! I was only lending my name to my uncle!" Sarah clasped her hands together, eyes shaking and lips trembling into a stutter. "I--I’m not even that smart, you know? I’ve never even worked at a real company!"

A naive, pitiful princess who knew nothing and was easily manipulated. The reddened cheeks and brimming tears would have fooled the whole court. The chairman clenched his jaw. "Stop this--"

"How could I say no? He was threatening me!" Sarah clutched her chest and grabbed the edge of the table with one hand as she wobbled in fear. "If...if I don’t...he said he’d kill me the same way he killed my mother!"

"...what?"

As the chairman’s eyes widened, Sarah’s face went slack as if all of her emotions were getting sucked into the abyss. She tilted her head, waiting for the truth within her lies to seep into their mind.

"...Director Seo," Chief Secretary Park confirmed what he had assumed when he talked to Sarah the other day.

The chairman, who had been thinking Sarah was talking about his brother stiffened, once again left speechless and dumbfounded. Joseph? The missing Seo Joseph?

Or was he?

Was he truly missing?

"If the prosecutor makes an investigation, they’ll find out that Director Seo had been trying to gather shares and take over the company," Sarah added, in a dry tone that was terrifyingly different from the soft, innocent voice she had while acting out her defense. "I mean, I even have his shares, you know?"

"Sarah?"

The chairman looked at his daughter in a different light right now. She knew Sarah’s resentment ran deep, but did he truly know how far Sarah was willing to go for his hatred? For seeking retribution?

"Sarah, where’s Joseph now?"

"I have no idea," Sarah said cheerfully with a soft laugh, her fingers fiddling with the beautiful box of matches beside the candles. "Maybe he was running away while waiting for the takeover, so he wouldn’t get suspected?" she shrugged. "That’s what I’m going to say if the court is after me, anyway."

The chairman pressed his trembling lips. How far...how far had this girl prepared? Was Mason also...

"But then again, I can’t be the only one who got burned, right?" Sarah took a box of matches and casually flicked one, staring at the chairman through the swaying flame.

Hajin, who had been standing still near the door, handed a pile of documents to the chief secretary with gloved hands. Chief Secretary Park opened the folder and read the documents quickly before handing them over to the chairman with a slightly shaking hand.

Inside were pages upon pages proving the Group’s mismanagement, scandals, tax evasion, bribery, and more of that dirt the chairman talked about. The dirt that every company had, and that the public loved to know.

Of course, what Hajin gave them was nothing more than the summary. What Sarah had, with even more detailed proof, would be enough to put the group--and the chairman--under investigation.

Change of management? It would be lucky if the chairman didn’t have to spend what was left of his life in house arrest.

"If you burn me," the scent of soothing lavender spread in the room as Sarah lit all the candles. "I’m going to drag you to the fire with me."

She turned her head and looked at the stunned old man, the shadow from the flame dancing around her cold face.

"Shall we burn together," Sarah curled her lips, calling the old man affectionately for the first and last time. "Father?"