Sarah swallowed nervously at the man’s sharp observation. Still, she tried to deflect. "What shift?"
"Well...sothing," Austin shrugged while munching on the cookies that Sarah forced-feed him. "You behave differently from the last ti I see you."
Ugh--so he wasn’t just soone who cared about numbers.
Sarah pursed her lips slightly. "Different how?"
"Hmm...how should I say this?" Austin stroked his chin as if he were appraising a stock market graph instead of soone else’s situationship. "He acts cautiously around you--haven’t even flirted at all since I ca here, only staring dagger at occasionally."
"R-really?"
Was it because she was used to it? Even when Hajin was being flirty, it just felt like a normal conversation. When he stopped, it also just a normal conversation.
Or perhaps because she wasn’t a very observant person in the first place...
"And you--" Austin shifted his sharp gaze to the flustered girl.
"? What about ? I’m acting like usual," Sarah said quickly, shalessly.
Austin smirked at the reflexive deflect. "The fact that you feel the need to say that ans you realize that you’re not acting like usual."
"What kind of logic is that?" Sarah responded incredulously.
"You ’pretend’ to act as usual, but you haven’t been looking at his face or eyes at all," Austin propped his head against the table, smirking at the girl whose eyes suddenly darted around everywhere but her bodyguard’s direction. "And yet, when you’re not in his proximity or interacting, you’re staring at him."
"I didn’t?!"
"You did," Austin shrugged, enjoying the girl’s flustered expression. It was sothing he never imagined the student council president Lee Seul-ah would ever make, so it was beyond entertaining. "I’m the one who watched while your mind was on the cloud."
Ugh--being reminded of her own blunder and guilt of not listening to Austin’s report made her tongue lose the energy to respond. Besides...how could she deny it when she was indeed had been thinking about Hajin while Austin was talking earlier?
Seeing her resigned face, Austin curled his eyes and lips even more, leaning forward to whisper scandalously. "Sothing happened? Sothing happened, right?"
"Don’t be nosy," Sarah pushed his face away while narrowing her eyes; did this man get infected by Sua, or was Sua influenced by him during their childhood?
Austin laughed and leaned back readily. Well, he didn’t really an to pry, but he couldn’t pass the chance to tease her. "Anyway, nothing much happened other than establishing the investnt company," he said in resignation, ending the intrusive topic altogether. "I’ll start the short sale based on your...prophecy."
Sarah smiled wryly. "It’s a guide, but do check the condition closely."
She tried hard to rember what happened in the financial world from her previous tiline, but while she was quite confident with her mory, she still had so doubts. Moreover, she had no idea whether what she did in the past five years while collecting money would have a butterfly effect, however, small it was. That was why she needed a financial manager who could still analyze the situation thoroughly.
Thankfully, Austin was nurtured for that kind of thing. He leaned back confidently and scoffed. "Naturally?" he said. "And the rest...I just need to hold on to them for now, right?"
"Yes, since I haven’t got the shareholder list yet," Sarah nodded. "My assets have just been released today."
Among them, the most important one was the shares her grandfather gave her, and the ones he gave her mother as a dowry. Without those shares, she didn’t have the right to ask for the major shareholder list, but using the shares her mother hid would expose the existence of those shares.
"I can’t just ask for a list too, however..." Sarah muttered. "They might get suspicious if I show interest."
Austin tilted his head. "Huh? Then how will you get it?"
"Giving my asset back only ans one thing," Sarah raised her finger. "They want to start working at the company."
"Aah..." Austin clasped his hands. "You’re going to ask for the list at that ti."
"There’s nothing wrong about asking for so connections since I’m so ’incompetent’," Sarah shrugged.
Once she got the list, she would be able to determine who among them she could entice to trade their shares with the ones she had in other companies.
"’Aight," Austin nodded. "Anything else I should do?"
Sarah looked up to muse over her assets, before recalling sothing that had been lying uselessly in Helios’s underground vault. "I have lands I don’t know what to make of," she said. "I need to see what I can do about it."
"I’ll see to it. Then--"
"Ah..."
Austin stopped when they heard the silent bodyguard’s soft exclaim. Sarah stood up imdiately after seeing the man’s expression and widened her eyes. "Did you find it?!"
After looking at the ledger extensively, Sarah realized it was a futile attempt. The ledger only put down transactions, but she had no way of knowing who made the transaction from the perpetrator’s side. For all she knew, they could use a third party or false na. There was also no guarantee that it would be paid through cash. Instead, they might use antiques or paintings--hell, even buildings like that mountain villa.
But looking at it through the hard drive was even more complicated.
It had been so hard because the files were not in chronological order, and the group only used digital files three years ago, so anything older was only made three years ago. To find the file from five years ago, there was no choice but to check all the files made three years ago--which Hajin had been doing for days now.
Hajin took off his headphones and nodded with a stern gaze. "I think I found the file, Master."
Thankfully, after days of searching, they finally found sothing.
Sarah almost scrambled to the desk, and Austin followed in sheer curiosity, peeking behind the two. Hajin had decoded the encrypted file and restored its real na. When they saw the file’s na, however, a frown appeared between their foreheads. "That’s..."
"A license plate number?" Austin tilted his head.
"Yeah," Sarah took a deep, strained breath. "The one I rode and crashed in."
"Oh..."
Austin swallowed and took a half-step back, feeling sowhat guilty for not knowing. Fortunately, Sarah and Hajin were too busy looking at the content of the file to notice him.
There, they found everything the gangsters would need to make Sarah crash her car and, as expected, a locker number where they would receive their three-step paynt. There was a file about the details of Sarah’s car, analysis and instruction about the route she would take, and her schedule for a whole month. They even had information on her mother’s activity and routes, including when she would get in the car and when she would get out.
"That’s..."
"Very thorough," Sarah narrowed her eyes, staring at so sections with bold or red fonts.
"Yes."
The most thorough about it was the timing. Whoever was behind it was sending the gangsters three detailed plans they could enact in case one of them failed. Down to the very minute of Sarah’s movent.
"Schedule..." Sarah gritted her teeth. "They needed to know my schedule to pull this off."
"Right," Austin nodded in agreent. "How many people would know your activity back in the day?"
Sarah let out a long, heavy sigh as she took a seat that Hajin gave her. "A lot of people."
"Huh..."
"I’m under a lot of people’s watchful eyes, including the executives," Sarah massaged her throbbing eyes; even when Hajin massaged her shoulder in response, she did not reject it.
"Hmm...what about the wives?" Austin asked.
"They’d know from the executives who sided with their children," Sarah sighed again.
Austin arched his brow, sneering. "There were people sides with the third wife’s children?"
"With my uncle," Sarah clicked her tongue, recalling how eager that man was to defend the younger children during the monthly dinner. Austin arched his brow higher, this ti in question, and Sarah just shrugged. "He’s close with them."
"Because he’s the younger one too?" Hajin asked.
"Yeah," Sarah smirked. "And he never liked ."
"I see..." Austin shook his head, walking away from the desk to gather his docunt on the couch. "You have a lot of enemies, boss."
Austin chuckled lightheartedly, but he belatedly realized that the other two weren’t smiling. Their eyes were pointed hard at the screen, full of tension.
The financier pushed his glasses and smiled awkwardly. "Sorry..."
"Well, you’re right about that," Hajin narrowed his eyes nacingly, but Sarah just shrugged in response--after all, it was true.
Even without doing anything, just living like what people told her to do, people still found a reason to hate her, be it in this tiline or the previous one. So people disliked her for following what her grandfather and executives wanted, and so people disliked her still when she no longer did that. It was damned if she did and damned if she didn’t.
Just existing itself seed like a sin to her, which was absurd since she was born legally within the only marriage approved by the previous chairman.
But, well...that was just how the treacherous world operated.
Hajin sighed inwardly and took over the mouse, hovering the pointer around several screenshot images. "There’s an email sending them your route and schedule, Master," he returned the focus on what was in front of them. "It’s one that is no longer active, however, so we’ll need Little Bird for this."
"Well, what a good timing," Sarah stood up and stretched her back. There was no better distraction than moving their body. "I haven’t visited her since you beca my bodyguard." fгeewebnovёl
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