CHAPTER 216: CHAPTER 215. DISAPPOINTING, BUT EXPECTED

"Huh..." Sarah arched her brow in the middle of her breakfast. "They are sending that woman to a facility."

Hajin stopped refilling Sarah’s soup bowl, also arching his brow. "You mean like...mental facility?"

"Uh-huh," Sarah nodded, reading the text that Amber sent him a bit more before putting her phone down. "Apparently, she became even more unstable--screaming and throwing things around."

"Hasn’t she been that way for a long time?" Hajin tilted his head.

"Yeah, but only if she was angry, so people know the reason. It seems like she kept on screaming at empty air, mumbling incoherently, and even trying to harm herself," Sarah said. "Even her children are too scared to be near her; it doesn’t seem like she recognizes them, too--or so Amber said."

At any rate, if Mina had fallen to self-harm, it was indeed best to seek professional help. If the chairman divulged the poisoning plan, he could even divorce her right away while she was being institutionalized.

Sarah lightly tapped the side of her clay bowl while musing about it. "Do you think it’s real?" she narrowed her eyes. "Maybe she’s just pretending to avoid jail time..."

"Well, I’m sure a professional was already consulted before sending her," Hajin shrugged. Otherwise, the facility wouldn’t be able to take her. "Besides, the chairman never said he’ll take them to jail, just for them to live far away. Do you think she’d risk getting locked up in a mental institution rather than leaving the country with the chairman’s brother?"

"True," Sarah nodded, pursing her lips. It wasn’t Mina’s first time living as a commoner, anyway. Not having enough money couldn’t be as bad as getting locked up in a facility...at least in Sarah’s opinion. "Honestly, though...I’m a bit disappointed," she sighed.

Hajin tilted his head. "Why?"

"She became like this because she couldn’t stomach the consequences of getting divorced and being thrown in jail, losing everything she had enjoyed for the past two decades," Sarah frowned. "Not because she realized her wrongdoing."

She clenched her fists in anger. It was truly unfair. Sarah wanted that woman to regret what she had done to Sarah’s mother; to regret the betrayal as she got thrown out of the house without anything. Without love. Alone.

"Even until the end, she still thought she was not in the wrong, as if she was forced to do what she did."

And at this point, she probably had forgotten her own wrongdoings. It was so, so frustrating. Sarah wanted that woman to grovel in front of her mother’s ashes and ask for forgiveness.

"There’s always someone like that, Princess," Hajin stroked the back of Sarah’s hair, kissing the top of the frustrated princess’s head. "The hopeless kind"

Sarah sighed and leaned her head onto the chiseled abdomen beside her. As perverted as it sounded, that did calm her a little. "I guess you’re right--hmm?" her attention was shifted to her vibrating phone, arching her brow when she read the caller’s ID. "Vivian?"

"Vi--"

[Sarah!]

"--vian?" Sarah blinked in surprise at the panicked tone in the mistress’s half-scream. "What’s wrong?"

[Sarah! Oh, Sarah...Hyuk-ssi is...] Vivian talked quickly, urgently, in staggered breath. [Hyuk-ssi is...]

"The chairman?" Sarah frowned. "Is something wrong with him?"

[J-just...can you come? Oh, please, Sarah!]

Sarah glanced at Hajin, who was checking his phone for any news from their spies. He shook his head in response, and Sarah narrowed her eyes. "Alright, where are you?"

[I’ll send you the hospital’s name! Please, hurry!]

The call ended right away; everything screamed urgent. But Sarah was sitting there staring at the phone screen quietly, in deep thought. Hajin waited until her gaze shifted from the phone before asking.

"The chairman’s collapsed?"

"I don’t know..."

Why didn’t Mari or Honey tell her about it, despite Vivian being there--or better yet...why didn’t Amber say anything about it in the text she sent Sarah just a few minutes ago?

Sarah shook her head and sighed. "Let’s just go and see what happens."

* * *

Following Vivian’s instructions, they came to a VVIP ward without going through the receptionists. Seeing as the nurses stationed in front of the entrance did not question them, it seemed like they were already informed of their presence.

The one who stopped them was the guards standing in front of the presidential suite.

"The chairman is not in good condition, Miss. I think it’s better for you to come alone," Chief Security Kim said, eyes narrowed at Hajin.

Sarah smiled; the sweet smile that often made Hajin sweat in dread. "And I think it’s better for me to go home," she said, turning away without a shred of hesitation. "Goodbye."

"Wait!"

The chief security called her immediately in panic. It was clear that this new guy hadn’t experienced Sarah’s summer menace. She stopped and turned her head to stare at the guard with dead eyes, as if she would only wait for one second more.

"Very well," the chief secretary sighed helplessly. It seemed like the scolding he would get by letting Hajin inside was less than the one he’d get if Sarah did not enter at all.

"Thank you, Chief Kim," Sarah curled her eyes, smiling cheerfully as if the cold stare a second earlier was just a lie. "Let’s go, puppy."

Hajin chuckled softly while following his princess inside the suite. Honestly, he could no longer tell if Sarah was acting or not these days. Perhaps she had grown into this bossy, conglomerate princess persona with time.

"Do you really need me here?" Hajin asked curiously while helping Sarah to take off her coat and hang it on the rack in the foyer.

Sarah turned around and squinted her eyes at him. "You used to say you can’t bear to be apart from me."

"I still do, my dearest Princess," Hajin smiled at the spiky girl, stroking her cold cheek to soothe her. "I just don’t think an old man would pose a danger to you--especially a vulnerable one. What if I give him a heart attack or something?"

"What if I do?" Sarah crossed her arms. "You’re here to prevent me from throwing hands."

Hajin raised his brows amusedly. "Are you going to?"

"Depends on how he behaves," she shrugged.

"He’s a sick man," Hajin whispered.

"So?"

Hajin laughed silently, letting his princess grab his hand as they walked to the patient’s bedroom. Not that it looked like one. It was basically a hotel suite with medical equipment--even that was disguised as much as possible so the patient wouldn’t feel like they were in a hospital.

Sarah also wondered if the chairman was truly a patient. He was lying on the bed that had been raised slightly so he was in a sitting position. He did look a bit pale, but not exactly dying. The IV drip was of regular vitamins, nothing that screamed emergency.

"I guess it’s impossible to separate you two," the chairman said.

"That’s right; we can’t stand being apart from each other, after all," Sarah gripped her man’s hand tightly, smiling sweetly at him. Hajin wondered how truthful she was about this one, but Sarah already shifted her gaze to the chairman before he could try to decipher it, and the sweet expression had changed to a cold one. "Not that you’ll understand how that feels."

The chairman chuckles dryly from the bed, and it was Vivian who sprang into action. "Oh, stop arguing!" The mistress came forward and pulled on Sarah’s arm, leading her to the chair beside the bed--the one she used just before the youngsters came. "Come, come--you sit here, Sarah," she paused, realizing that she sounded like ordering Sarah, and added quickly with an awkward smile. "I mean...please?"

Sarah narrowed her eyes at Vivian, not hiding her annoyance. But she sighed in the end and took that seat, crossing her arms as if showing off her displeasure toward the chairman, whom she was facing.

Vivian smiled sheepishly as she was scooting to the door, where a shelf of a little pantry was located. "Hajin--"

"J," Sarah interjected sharply, brows furrowed in warning. "It’s still J for you."

"R-right," Vivian smiled awkwardly. "J, can you help me with these drinks? I haven’t been able to do much lately."

Hajin had to really hold back from laughing this time. "Sure."

Sarah scoffed and turned her head back to face the chairman. "So, what are you planning?"

"No hello?"

"Greetings, Mr. Chairman," Sarah replied dryly. "What do you want to talk so cunningly about?"

The chairman tilted his head. "Cunning?"

Sarah sneered. "Telling a pregnant woman to lie so I’d come--"

"I...I didn’t lie!" Vivian defended herself from the door, and Sarah took a step back to their phone conversation.

Now that she recalled, all Vivian did was mention the chairman’s name with an urgent tone and give her the name of the hospital. There was no mention of the chairman’s condition itself.

"I guess," Sarah clicked her tongue. "You just deliberately acted as if something bad had happened."

The chairman raised his brows. "Is being poisoned not bad enough?"

"You live," Sarah said coldly. "Still."

"Would you rather I died?"

Sarah looked at the chairman silently; the desire to answer with a yes was dancing at the tip of her tongue. Oh, the way she had hoped her heart had become colder than the South Pole.

"I would rather my mother didn’t."

The chairman blinked slowly, silently for a few seconds. "Ah..."

"So?" Sarah asked again, quickly, so she wouldn’t have to see the old man’s melancholic expression--which she didn’t even know was true or artificial. "You were coming here secretly; I don’t think Vivian even tells anyone in the mansion about this."

Why would she be here alone, otherwise? A pregnant woman with no assistant? It was clear that she was only there to persuade Sarah to come.

When the chairman didn’t reply right away, Sarah asked again. "Does Amber know?"

"Maybe."

"Hmm..."

Again...why didn’t she tell Sarah? To make sure she was the only one taking care of the chairman?

Not a bad move, honestly...

Sarah exhaled heavily and shot the chairman an impatient look. "Let’s stop the useless chatter and tell me what you want."

"Can’t I just want my daughter to make a courtesy call?" the old man smiled charmingly, which only invited said daughter’s ire.

"Do you think you deserve my courtesy?"

Vivian sighed and looked at Hajin helplessly. With a soft chuckle, Hajin brought the ginger tea he had just made to the bedside table beside Sarah’s chair. He gently squeezed the non-inked shoulder and lightly kissed Sarah’s cheek before returning to the shelf to make something for himself.

It’s not the time for retribution yet...is it?

Sarah sighed, before taking a deep breath and letting the scent of ginger soothe the spikes inside her thorny heart. "If you just want me to see you, you could just call me to the house," she said. "No need for all of this when I know you don’t like being perceived as a sick person."

Sarah knew this old man would rather call the doctor to set up a ward in the mansion than go to the hospital.

Surprisingly for Sarah, the chairman smiled in satisfaction. As expected, his second daughter was still the smartest, despite all the shenanigans she had gotten into over the summer.

If anything, the chairman preffered this kind of Sarah rather than the meek, obedient child five years ago.

"Sarah," the old man said, still with that satisfied smile. "What do you plan to do with your shares?"