After confronting the first son, the three moved to Mina’s quarters and Ruby demanded Jasper to tell them everything--all because she heard Daniel’s na co out in this situation.
Cautiously, while trying his hardest to make his participation in the plan as minimal as possible, Jasper told his scary sister everything: how they planned to humiliate her but it didn’t work because she knew Kang Daniel, and how they talked to the three n about drugging Sarah and ’humiliate’ her in another way.
Imdiately, Ruby dove into the Circle’s community to check for the circulating rumors. Knowing that people had started to talk about Sarah and Daniel’s relationship made her beyond livid--after all, she had been having a massive crush on Daniel since her childhood. She was so angry that she threw her phone at her brother.
"Are you stupid? Are you an idiot?!" her scream filled the room that all the workers and attendants dared not to co close.
"But, noona--"
"You fucker!"
Unsatisfied, Ruby smacked her brother viciously on the back, berating him with unshed, frustrated tears. Jasper tried to run away by clinging to their mother, and that was when they realized she had been very quiet.
The children paused and looked at each other with furrowed brows. Ruby shook her mother’s arm and whined in protest. "Mother!"
"...yes?"
Mina blinked and slowly returned her mind to her protesting children. It was clear that she hadn’t been listening to them, even though they made such a ss around the couch and made the house staff run away in fright.
"Ugh--what are you thinking about in this situation? Please focus!" Ruby sat back down while crossing her arms, still fuming about the result of her brother’s stupidity.
Mina looked at her annoyed daughter and ssy son, letting out a frustrated sigh of her own. They didn’t seem to realize how fragile their position was, even after hearing what Mason said. That cruel man...Mina had no doubt that he could just throw all of them out of the house the mont he could do so. Thankfully, she had been making plans about this, but...
Looking at her children, who were born with gold spoons unlike her, she wasn’t sure they could survive living a life below this standard.
And yet--and yet, they didn’t try to gain a strong foothold in this family. Ruby had diocre results and Jasper was just...hopeless. Mina had been telling herself that they weren’t real adults yet, that they hadn’t been a mber of society yet, so hiccups along the way were normal.
But...was she being too complacent? Perhaps she had been too focused on getting rid of Sarah that she forgot their imdiate enemy was Mason all along.
"Alright, I’m sorry," Mina sighed again before looking at her daughter. "So, what were you saying?"
"Uuugh--it’s about that bitch Seul-ah!" Ruby replied while squeezing a cushion on her lap.
Mina narrowed her eyes. "What about her?"
"Mom! Didn’t you hear? She knows Kang Daniel!" Ruby shouted in frustration and threw the cushion to her brother, who knew better than to duck and let the cushion hit his face. "And because of this stupid boy, she even spent the night with him!"
Jasper grabbed the cushion away from his face and protested. "Oh, co on, noona! How am I supposed to know?!"
"Mom!"
Mina, anwhile, tried hard to rember who that na belonged to. "Is that...the heir of Mirae?"
"Yes!" Ruby stomped the carpeted floor and squeezed another cushion. "I haven’t even managed to talk to him! How could she--aaargh!"
The cushion, much to Jasper’s relief, beca Ruby’s next target, receiving her painful punches instead of him. He scooted over to their mother so Ruby wouldn’t be able to reach him without getting over Mina.
Biting her lips, Mina fell into deep thoughts. More than Mason, who was vicious in nature, Mina was more worried about Seul-ah--or Sarah, as the girl called herself these days. Mason just wanted to put everyone beneath his shoes, but Sarah...Sarah hated her, she knew that much. Even when she was still ek and subservient, her hatred still seeped out sotis.
That was why she tried hard to put her down, making sure the chairman had no ti to care about Raisa even when the woman was lying dead in a hospital bed, pushing for the girl’s assets to be frozen, and incited Lee Hyuk’s brother to send the girl abroad.
Because she knew, the mont Sarah achieved power, that girl would try to make her life miserable.
"This is not right," Mina gritted her teeth.
"Of course it’s not! You know I have my eyes on him!"
"We can’t let that girl beco more powerful than us," Mina frowned. "If the executives know..."
"That’s not the problem--"
"Be quiet for a bit!"
Mina snapped, and her children hiccuped in response, shrinking back. It wasn’t their first ti to see Mina scowling and scolding soone, but it had never been at them before--usually at the house staff. She bit her nail anxiously, eyes darted around in panic.
"M-mom..." Ruby tugged on her mother’s sleeve carefully, cautiously. "What should we do?"
Mina bit her nail hard, chipping the artificial gems embedded there. "We have to set her up with soone else."
Ruby imdiately perked up, looking at her mother with sparkling eyes.
"It doesn’t matter if it’s not working," Mina muttered while chewing the inside of her cheek. "We just need to have them et and photograph them--there’s no way soone like Kang Daniel will want to be with soone who’s seeing soone else."
Ruby gasped and grasped her mother’s arm. "Mom, you’re so smart!"
Jasper pursed his lips, making his last defense. "T-that’s what we were trying to do, you know..."
"Shut up!"
"Ugh--"
Ruby scooted closer to her mother, swaying Mina’s arm and whispered in a hopeful tone. "Then, can I see Kang Daniel? Can you arrange it for , Mom?"
She used to think of it as nothing more than a foolish crush, but this ti, Mina actually contemplated it. "I’ll see if I can take you to Mirae’s Founding Party."
Ruby was practically jumping on her seat. "Yes, yes, please! Surely you won’t take that bitch with you, right?"
"Of course, not!" Mina scoffed.
"As expected of Mom!" Ruby giggled and hugged her mother, before recalling sothing and straightened her back again. "But don’t give her soone too good, Mom--you know, in case it works."
"Don’t worry," Mina finally cracked a smile while patting her children’s heads. She took a deep breath and stood up with a determined gaze. "I need to talk to your father."
* * *
It was hard acting cold and building a wall against soone so good at their job, especially those who always went the extra mile. Just by eating those delicious foods, it was hard for Sarah to keep her lips from rising. It was even harder to hold back from sighing in satisfaction, forgetting all about calories and whatnot.
Was that why it felt so easy lowering her wall in the first place?
Sarah narrowed her eyes in disagreent. No--thinking that her wall could be breached by re food felt quite sad, no matter how delicious the taste was.
Was it because of how skillful Hajin was in everything? Because he ca to save her at the right ti? And like a damsel in distress, she got enchanted by the knight in shining armor easily?
Again, the thought was quite sad.
Even if that was the case, and she ca to trust Haiin because of that, Sarah didn’t think it was enough to sway her heart. Or...well, her carnal desire.
Thinking back, it was quite odd that she felt it was alright to kiss the man in that park. Or later, when she was out of her mind; she recalled the instinct to pull Haiin for a kiss, and even sothing more--instinct that did not trigger in front of Daniel.
But at that ti, it felt...right. It felt almost natural, like sothing she had done before.
Sarah blinked.
Yes. Like the kiss on the motorcycle.
Sarah widened her eyes slightly as she recalled her state of mind before it happened; the phantom voice she heard. It almost felt like a hallucination, but Sarah started to recall sothing from the past. That voice was of Hajin, and those words were sothing he had really uttered in her previous tiline--at least, so of those were.
But...how weird. Sarah tilted her head as she tried to recall her interaction with Hajin in her previous tiline. Were they conversing much? She rembered they were in the sa car, since she was treated more like a team mber than their ’boss’.
But thinking back to the phantom voice made Sarah question her mory. Was there...sothing she missed?
Could it be that it wasn’t only that one journey night? Or...was sothing more happened that night? Now that she thought about it, her mory did seem to be rather fuzzy about that event, and Hajin felt too familiar for soone who only exchanged a few greetings.
If--if the phantom voice was to be believed, wouldn’t that an they had done it before? Kissing, at the very least, and perhaps...
Sarah swallowed. Oh, God...
Did they truly...? But why couldn’t she rember? A defense chanism so Mason wouldn’t find out?
Ugh--Sarah closed her eyes as she groaned inwardly. If seed unbelievable and felt weird, but...that would explain why it was easy for her to make physical contact--acting or not. She had convinced herself that it was easy because it was fake, but honestly...
Sarah wasn’t the type to comfortably make contact with the opposite sex without feeling repulsed about it--thanks to Mason and the people who shot her dead. It was sothing she conveniently pushed aside out of necessity.
With Hajin, though--
"...that’s it for my weekly report, although it doesn’t seem like you’re listening," Austin took off his glasses, making his eye-rolling look even clearer.
Sarah twitched slightly and cleared her throat, feeling guilty about letting her mind wander in the middle of an important eting. She smiled wryly and hid behind her coffee cup, sipping on its lukewarm content.
"You’re already with him all the ti, so is there any need to keep staring at him even while you’re talking to ?" Austin scoffed.
"What nonsense!" Sarah hissed, taking a cookie and pushing it inside Austin’s mouth before his voice beca louder and Hajin could hear it from across the room.
The bodyguard looked up to check the commotion, but Sarah snapped her fingers and told him to focus on his search inside the hard drive. It was also fortunate that he was wearing headphones--since he would be busy keeping track of their conversation instead of working otherwise--while Austin ran his mouth.
"Hmm..." the eyes behind the glasses curled teasingly. "I feel a shift in the force."
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m
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