CHAPTER 130: CHAPTER 129. SAD LITTLE GIRLS

Amber never thought sealing a brand deal would take so long. Maybe it was because it was a foreign brand, but they could still find some problems within the contract. Because of that, she only arrived home the day of the family dinner.

At least she still had time to stretch her legs and get ready, aside from hearing her attendants’ report.

"How’s Mason?" she asked from her spacious changing room.

"More or less the same, Miss. The staff had been whispering a lot about him being overly sensitive," one of the attendants who stayed back home while she was abroad reported from the door. "He looked especially angry if anyone mentioned the second young miss’s name."

Amber rolled her eyes. "For fuck’s sake--it’s been a month."

She knew Sarah had become bolder in tickling Mason’s nerves, but was losing control over Sarah truly enough to spiral him down? Amber had always seen Mason as a tyrant--cruel, but also steadfast. Looking at him like this, though...losing himself just because the subject of his obsession was taken away...

Maybe he had never been a tyrant; just someone pretending to be.

"He had been calmer for the last three days, however."

"Oh?" Amber narrowed her eyes. "Either he’s coming to his senses or plotting something even worse. What else?"

"As you ordered, we’ve been trying our best to block any attempt at separating the second young miss from her bodyguard," the attendant continued. "We also let the chairman side to know the truth about the bodyguard’s identity."

Ah...perhaps that was why Mason kept spiraling down. Amber sighed and shook her head in exasperation. "Did Father call her?"

"Not yet, Miss."

"Hmm..." putting on a bathrobe, Amber settled on the couch while the junior attendant prepared her bath. "What about my mother? What had she been up to?"

"As you know, she had been asking to see the first young master a lot. But she changed tactics and had been asking the chairman to call the second young master back."

"She met Father?" Amber arched her brow. "Is she desperate or fearless?"

Or perhaps just shameless--Amber scoffed. She couldn’t believe the day would come when she thought having Sarah’s mother around was much better than having her own mother. At least Raisa was quiet and full of smiles instead of being bossy.

Amber hated her because she was the woman who replaced Amber’s mother in the house. As a child, Amber did not understand that her mother left on her own, or that Raisa wasn’t the evil stepmother in stories. She hated the fact that the madam in the house wasn’t her mother, and the jealous staff whispered foul things about Raisa to scare her. The hatred only grew when her grandfather showed clear preferential treatment to Raisa and Sarah, marring her heart more with envy that never ceased the more Sarah got her spotlight.

"Haa..." Amber exhaled slowly.

Sometimes, she wondered what had jolted her awake suddenly. Was it because Sarah stopped stealing the spotlight? She still hated Sarah a few months ago--hell, she still hated her at this moment. It was something that festered for more than two decades, and no matter how cordial they became, it would never go away. For her to be able to truly be friends with Sarah, she had to first admit her wrongdoing in the past; all the bullying she had done.

But her pride didn’t let her. For Amber, her hatred and irritation in the past were justified. She couldn’t change the way she felt about the situation unless she somehow returned to her child self with her adult mind intact--which was impossible.

At the very least, however, she could stop seeing Sarah as an enemy.

Because she had a bigger one, right under her blanket.

"She would have to tell Father why Axton was being sent away in the first place for that to work," Amber muttered. Her mother could lie and say it was nothing more than a misunderstanding, but the chairman would question why Mason took an extreme stance in that case. "How stupid."

"We still haven’t heard that the second young master would come, but the madam had been away since yesterday night."

"What a mess," Amber shook her head.

Oh, well...she could ask the chairman directly when she was called--which she was sure she would. From her attendant’s snooping, the sealed envelope was delivered to the chairman a day after she handed it to the Chief Secretary. Unsealed.

How amusing.

And as she expected, someone came knocking right after she finished her bath. "Miss, the chairman is looking for you."

"At last," Amber smiled and quickly put on her clothes, forgoing make-up to make sure she wasn’t late.

She couldn’t afford to make a bad impression at this point.

"You called, Father?" she arrived at the chairman’s study fifteen minutes later. The chairman was sitting behind his desk in casual clothes, which meant he had been home for a while. "It’s rare for you to be at home this early."

"Mm," the chairman muttered without raising his head, eyes reading a familiar stack of documents. "Is this your doing?"

Amber wondered if he had only read the document that day, but what did it matter? She nodded before replying verbally. "Yes, Father."

"You even got a DNA test, huh?" the chairman flicked a particular piece of paper and Amber flinched slightly.

"...I’m sorry for doing it in secret, Father."

Her attendants had secretly taken Mason’s cup and a piece of the chairman’s hair for a DNA test. Of course, since it was done without both of their consent, it was illegal on many fronts. Amber was lucky that her spending was no longer under watch the moment she took on a job at the company--unlike Sarah.

"But, Father..." Amber peered at the chairman’s face. "You don’t look surprised."

She knew her father wouldn’t be surprised about her mother’s betrayal--he was basically doing the same with his affairs anyway. Still, shouldn’t there be some kind of reaction to the fact that his heir wasn’t his son at all? About his heir not having a drop of his blood?

And yet, that face was as impassive as ever. Still the same face that told her he didn’t care about her at all. About any of his children, for that matter.

Amber clenched her fist. "You already know."

"Do you think I’m stupid?" the chairman threw the documents lightly onto the desk, finally setting his gaze on his eldest daughter. "You should know already that my marriage to your mother was just a farce. I agreed to marry her because she told me we could still play with other people."

A contract marriage. Anyone with eyes could immediately see that since they never looked like they were even slightly in love. They couldn’t even pretend to be affectionate for a second in a picture, much less in public.

"I just never thought she would be stupid enough to give it up for a swindler."

As the chairman snickered, Amber bit her lips. She wasn’t pissed about the fact that she was born into a joke of a family, but...

"Why..." Amber furrowed her brows, both in irritation and confusion. "Then...why do you still make Mason the heir?"

"Because none of you is good enough for the Board," the reply was dry and sharp, painfully calling out her incompetence in his eyes. "Seul-ah...Sarah was, but she left the path already."

"I’m still here!"

Amber raised her tone in reflex as her pride was slapped again. It pissed her off the way her cold father softened up while mentioning Sarah, even for just a little bit. The envious little girl inside her screamed for injustice.

"You?" the chairman arched his brow, which only flared Amber’s temper even more.

"Yes, me! I know I’m not the best, but I had been doing well too," Amber clutched her chest. "I know I can do whatever Mason is doing."

"Is this why you’re giving me this?" the chairman tapped the document in front of him. "Because you want to be an heiress?"

Amber bit her lips, the dry reaction made her doubt this direction she was taking for a bit. But if she couldn’t even convince her impassive father, how could she convince the stiff Board of Directors?

So Amber took a deep breath and straightened her back, replying firmly. "Yes."

The chairman laughed--one that sounded more like a mockery than amusement. Of course, Amber knew one season wouldn’t be enough to show her improvement. In the first place, she only did it for survival, so she wouldn’t get thrown away. But that dismissive reaction, be it from her mother or father...

It was a matter of pride now.

"Is this also why you have been doing things diligently these days?" the chairman smirked. "Do you think it’ll be enough to convince the Board?"

"Maybe, if you support me."

"And why should I do that?" the chairman tilted his head. It was as if he were looking at an employee asking for a promotion instead of his daughter. "If I care about bloodline at all, I would have done something from the start."

Amber sighed inwardly--it was truly like what Sarah had told her. The chairman wouldn’t care as long as it was still advantageous for him. Being seen as having a decently competent heir was better than having his own blood succeed him. That was why she told Amber to get achievements first before dragging Mason down.

And Amber could see it: a way to drag Mason down. From his tone, the chairman seemed to care about Sarah somewhat. It was annoying, and the reason why Amber could never come to like Sarah no matter what.

But she could use that.

"What if I tell you Mason had been lusting over Sarah?"

The chairman paused and gradually widened his eyes. There was finally a shift in his impassive face. Amber hid her smile as she continued.

"Would you still not care?"