"Hmm..."
Sarah leaned back against the chaise lounge near the window, allowing herself a short rest after an annoyingly delicious dinner. Hajin ca with another annoyingly tasty dessert and a concerned inquiry.
"Is sothing the matter, Master?"
"No," Sarah shrugged. "I just think it’s a sha we can’t watch the clash between those two."
While the first and third wives’ factions should be in a bad relationship, Sarah only saw them clashing during the monthly dinner. It was fun to so extent, but the confrontation had been nothing more than flaunting feathers and snide remarks. It was very cliquey and high school.
This ti, however, Sarah knew it would be dynamic shifting. The sarcastic cold war might heat up. Who knows? Perhaps there would be a physical altercation?
Mina would not tolerate her children getting punished, especially not by the first wife’s kid. Since Jasper was still a minor, she would make excuses like he didn’t know anything about it and whatnot. Sarah bet she would love to confront the first wife, with whom she always had beef.
But, doing so would require her to go to the first wife’s penthouse, which was the last thing she’d ever do. Thus, she would wait for Mason until he returned to the mansion, thinking the house was her playground.
Hajin tilted his head while pouring salty caral sauce over Sarah’s pudding. "Hmm...maybe we could?"
Sarah paused her spoon. "Huh? What do you an?"
"If it happens where the CCTV can catch it, I can access it from the laptop here," Hajin turned his head toward the device on the table.
Like any big mansion, the main house was equipped with a security system--including CCTV. Of course, there wouldn’t be any inside the bedroom, but...it wasn’t like any of them would confront each other in soone’s bedroom.
"...how?"
"When I passed on the grocery list to the house manager last ti, I waited until he was in the security room," Hajin replied nonchalantly.
"Huh..."
"I caught the access passkey at that ti," the man added with a little grin.
"...why?"
"It’s just basic," Hajin shrugged. "We don’t have any spies inside the house, so I thought we’d need so eyes soday."
Sarah straightened her back and frowned. "Why didn’t you tell this before?"
"Because you took shopping and stuff happened?" Hajin walked to the table and sat in front of the laptop that he had been using to peruse the gangster’s hard drive.
Sarah pressed her lips, realizing it was only...uhh, yesterday. So many things happened in the span of forty-eight hours that she felt like it had been a week or so.
"The passkey is getting reset every month, but we don’t know the reset date, so it might have changed," Hajin explained while clicking away. Sarah didn’t even know about this since she had never dealt with the security of the house in her previous tiline. "Also, we can see the real-ti view, just the recording--please don’t get your hopes up."
Sarah didn’t even know Hajin could do any of that, so she never hoped for it in the first place. But she approached the busy bodyguard curiously while snacking on her stead caral pudding, peeking at the screen through the broad shoulder.
"Ah..."
"How is it?" Sarah put her half-eaten pudding on the table and leaned down, hovering above Hajin’s shoulder.
"We’re in."
"Damn..."
Sarah bit her spoon in amazent, and Hajin smiled smugly in response--just for a second, before he returned to the screen and quickly examined the day’s recording.
After all, he needed to prove himself more if he wanted to gain his master’s favor back.
As the grey eyes kept on moving across the many files, Sarah tapped her lips with her spoon in contemplation. "Won’t they find out if another device accesses it?"
Hajin paused and glanced at Sarah. "Master, I can bypass such a thing with no problem."
"Fine, ugh--" Sarah rolled her eyes and grabbed her pudding back, continuing her feast in silence.
Hajin tried to control his lips, although he wanted to grin and laugh joyfully. He was happy that Sarah had finally shed her acting face gradually in front of him.
"Ah, it’ll leave traces if we do it too often," he inford his master after controlling his expression.
"Make sense," Sarah nodded. "Well, CCTV can only cover so much--perhaps we do need a spy inside the house."
"That’s well and all, but..." Hajin squinted his eyes in doubt. "Do you think they’d fight where the CCTV can see them?"
"They won’t care about that, since the workers are all under an NDA contract," Sarah scoffed. "It’s just a matter of whether or not the third wife wants to enter another’s territory."
Hajin humd in acknowledgnt, still looking through the evening files. "Or it might not happen yet," he muttered.
"True--although I doubt that woman has that much patie--"
"Oh," Hajin stopped his finger as they finally saw familiar figures around the stairs leading to the first son’s bedroom gallery.
Sarah gasped and leaned forward, grabbing Hajin’s shoulder for balance. "Is that...can it catch sounds?"
Hajin took a deep breath, inhaling that cloudy, powdery scent. "I can amplify the sounds, although it will make stuff other than conversation sounds grating."
"Doesn’t matter."
"Your wish is my command," he smiled widely. "Should I connect the screen to the TV?"
Sarah gasped harder and nodded. The almost empty pudding glass clattered on the table as the girl ran to the window and closed the curtain. Truly adorable.
"We have microwavable popcorn, Master."
Another gasp, and she almost flew to the pantry. By the ti Hajin was done manipulating the recording, Sarah was already on the couch with a bowl of popcorn and a can of soda by her side, as if she were about to watch a movie.
With a chuckle, Hajin clicked the play button, and their movie--with very rough audio--finally started.
* * *
Returning ho to find out that Sarah hadn’t co back yet, Mason was in an extrely bad mood when he was stopped by the third wife and her children in the middle of climbing the stairs.
"What do you think you’re doing?!"
The angry shout grazed his ears first before their irritating appearance; the glaring mother, the scowling daughter, and a sulky boy hiding behind them with his big physique but nothing more. Mason clicked his tongue at how the boy was frowning and pursing his lips like a toddler who was told he couldn’t play because he had to take a nap.
"Who do you think you are?" the third wife pointed her finger at him like an uncouth countryside aunties. "You have no right to treat my son like that!"
Mason flashed a smile that never reached his cold eyes, stepping down the stairs while staring at the three. "What about you?" he tilted his head and asked dryly. "Who do you think I am?"
"What?"
"I’m going to be the head of this family," he stopped at the last step of the stairs, looking down at the woman in front of him. "Right? That’s exactly what: I’m exercising my right as the next head."
"But you’re not the head yet!" Ruby argued; a product copy of her mother’s personality.
The third wife nodded, before raising her face defiantly. "And even if you are, you have no right! Jasper is my son!"
"And you should be thankful for that," Mason remarked coldly. "If he’s not your son, I’d already send him away with those lowlife friends of his."
As if sharing one brain cell, the three of them respond the sa way. "W-what did you say?!"
Mason sighed exasperatedly. "Haa...if you have just a semblance of a brain, you would know that you should have thanked instead."
"What?!"
"You think this is punishnt? Grounding him and taking away his privilege?" Mason crossed his arms, snickering. "Let tell you this, you foolish woman: I am protecting him."
Mina scowled and swatted her hand in the air. "What nonsense!"
Mason tilted his head. "Then, do you want Kang Daniel to co for his ass instead? Or worse--co to this family?"
Ruby flinched at the ntion of Daniel, but Mina frowned in confusion. "What are you even talking about?"
The involved party, however, blinked in realization. "O-oh..."
As Mason thought, the boy didn’t even realize his own situation. He doubted Jasper told the whole story to his mother and sister, probably just told them it was because he ca to the Circle or sothing.
"Your son seems to know what’s up, so ask him," Mason scoffed. "I’m being generous and didn’t even beat him, so be thankful."
Jasper flinched and gripped his mother’s hand, shrinking behind the won as Mina and Ruby scowled at Mason. "You--that’s going too far!"
"Haa...listen here," Mason massaged his throbbing temples. He was already irritated enough, and unlike his mother, he had no energy to exercise patience with these people. "I know you’re a bunch of lowlife, but since you’re already a part of this family, you should at least stop acting like a lowlife."
"You dare--"
"Then stop! Living! Like a lowlife!" Mason slamd his hand on the stair’s guardrail. "Hanging around with thugs and gangsters! I don’t care if you bully students until they kill themselves, but can’t you stop tarnishing this family by befriending a bunch of filths? Huh?!"
Jasper pursed his lips. "They’re not--"
"Filth! People who should be crawling like dogs to serve us!" Mason glared at the boy, making him shrink even more behind his mother. "If you insist on associating yourself with them, then just get out of this family."
"Y-you!" Mina held her son’s hand in encouragent. "Talking so insolently--"
"Do you know what our family is known for?" Mason cut her off sharply. "Luxury jewelry, high-fashion, everything that is beautiful and sparkling and yet--and yet you people tarnish it with your...low birth."
Ruby snapped at his disgusted tone. "Hey!"
"What? You can’t take the truth?" Mason snickered with mocking eyes. "My maternal grandfather was a congressman; even Seul-ah’s grandparents were successful realtors--but what are you?" he arched his brow. "Just a poor girl who clawed out of the mud by stepping on her best friend."
Mina bit her lips and clenched her fists, unable to say anything because everything Mason said was true. She befriended Raisa because she was kind and easy to manipulate. Knowing her husband’s past reputation, she pretended to need help so she could et Lee Hyuk and seduce the man so she could take him for herself, even after all that Raisa had done to help her in the past.
She might be shaless, but she knew what she was.
"You’re lucky that you were at least pretty enough to be displayed like a useless trophy, but even then...when was the last ti Father took you around, mm?" Mason leaned forward, dropping his voice. "How long do you think you can hold on to this asly position?"
Mina clenched her jaw, cheeks pale and eyes shaking. While Mason bore no resemblance to Lee Hyuk, he was still an apparent heir who had been watching the chairman and trying to emulate his grandfather’s mannerisms. His gaze still contained the rciless glint that people with diamond spoons had: a gaze that looked at everything in this world as beneath them.
"That’s right," the smile on Mason’s lips was as sharp as a guillotine. "Know your place if you still want to live in this house--that’s privilege enough for you."
After delivering his warning, Mason turned around and walked away, climbing the stairs to his bedroom gallery; leaving Mina trembling in fury and wary.
* * *
"Huh..." swallowing the popcorn in her mouth, Sarah tilted her head amusedly. "He actually said so good stuff."
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