CHAPTER 221: CHAPTER 220. MUTINY

"Toilet!"

The moment he heard the front door close, Austin burst out of the laundry room and ran around desperately.

"Where’s the toilet?!"

Sarah simply pointed at the door beside the laundry room, and Austin entered it while cursing about why the fuck they didn’t connect the toilet to the laundry room.

"It wasn’t even that long," Hajin rolled his eyes.

Sarah peeked inside the laundry room and saw an empty bottle of soda and water. "Who told you to drink so much, anyway?"

"I was just eating two plates of food!" Austin argued. That was a quick discharge. "Besides, you were the one who gave me all of those drinks!"

"For you to choose, not to gulp down," Sarah rolled her eyes. "Anyway, you counted, right?"

Austin clicked his tongue and picked up the rest of the drinks and snacks from the laundry room before taking them all to the kitchen table. "Assuming the other children support the chairman and we get the first wife’s shares?" he narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips while making a calculation in his mind. "You’re shot about six percent."

"That goddamn prosecutor!" Sarah hissed.

If she got Lee Hyun’s shares, she would have more than the chairman--assuming the chief secretary managed to persuade those four executives and the rest were siding with the chairman. It was impossible to get Amber’s shares--naturally, Axton’s too. Ruby’s shares, which came from the chairman, were only for HS Jewelry, so it wasn’t that important.

"It’s impossible to get any more from buying or bartering at this point," Austin said. "I’ve got to focus on the first wife’s shares."

Sarah knew that. The Group hadn’t fallen so low that everyone wanted to sell them. Thankfully, most of them were minor shareholders, so they would typically follow the one with the bigger stake.

The thing was...it wasn’t her.

Not yet, anyway.

"Who knows--maybe that guy can persuade more than four executives?" Austin shrugged.

"It’s too unreliable," Sarah shook her head, pacing around the kitchen to think while Hajin was doing the dishes and Austin was busy packing the rest of the paella into a lunchbox.

Six percent...six percent was a big number. Even if she had the money, there was no availability. She couldn’t possibly visit dozens of minor shareholders just to gather those six percent. Seven, if she wanted to be sure. And in two weeks, for that matter.

"Perhaps it’s time for you to talk to another major shareholder," Austin said. Sarah turned around with raised brows, but the guy pointed at his phone instead. "Big Boss said that."

Sarah raised her brow higher, before tilting her head in confusion. "The only major shareholders are us and the chairman, though?" Sarah said perpexedly.

"Exactly--was what he said," Austin conveyed, shrugging.

Sarah widened her eyes, lips parted in a gasp. "You want me to bring the torch through the front door?"

Austin narrowed his eyes, wishing these people would stop talking so cryptically. Still, he read the answer. "It’s already half-burning, anyway. What are you hiding for?" Austin said. "Ugh, why don’t you just talk through the phone or something?"

"Because you’re the one who reported what happened here, dummy," Sarah said.

"So? What are you going to do now?"

"I need you to know how much capital we can move in the next week if we sell everything we have except for HS’s shares," she said. "And I mean everything."

"Including your grandparents’ land?"

Sarah gritted her teeth. "Everything."

"I’ll round up the total tomorrow," Austin nodded. "What are you going to use it for?"

Sarah took a deep breath and stared at her own phone. "Burning the rest of the house."

* * *

"Aaaaargh!"

Ruby smacked a teddy bear she once received from her mother when she was a child against the table, each hit turning the poor doll into a ragtag. If only it were really from her mother, she would have cherished it more. But what--turned out, her mother didn’t actually pick it herself, just told the housekeeper to get something. She didn’t even know what was in the box until Ruby opened it.

Such a mother she was!

"Aaah! Aah!"

Ruby had thought that her mother did what she did for her, for Jasper, for their future. She excused her mother’s thirst for money and power as a way to make her children have a better future, but no!

Jeong Mina did everything because she was jealous of her best friend; because she felt that she had the right to enjoy what her friend had--wealth, status, man, everything. She never fell in love with anyone, just seeing them as a means to feel superior. She never loved her children either, just seeing them as a means to maintain the wealth and status she held.

Even until the end, all she could see was that dead friend.

Ruby felt her tears pooling in her eyes, and scrunched her nose to hold them in. She had her life planned already, a whole dreamy future. She’d done well in college and got close to the executives so she’d excel right away once she got stationed in the company. She’d attend many business meetings and got close to Kang Daniel. She’d become the future madam of the biggest Group in this country.

But that glorious dream was shattered by none other than her own mother.

The employees and the executives didn’t want to get too close to her anymore, and it was just a matter of time until people outside the family found out that her mother had been institutionalized. How could she face other people this way? How could she face her dream man?!

Oh, the embarrassment! The agony!

And while she was frustrated over their future, her useless brother could only hide in his room, wailing in withdrawal. Stupid, stupid boy! Useless! As if their mother wasn’t enough embarrassment, she had to face the mocking smile from people because her stupid brother got arrested!

"Son of a bitch! You bastard!" Ruby slammed the teddy bear so hard that its neck and limbs started to rip.

At least, it wasn’t a vase or anything that could shatter and be a pain to clean--Amber thought while watching her younger sister crash out from the door. Poor girl didn’t even realize someone else had entered her room.

It showed that not even her attendant cared anymore. Amber easily asked them whether Ruby had met the chairman or not, but the attendant said there had been nothing since the New Year. Not yesterday, not that day either. Jasper was actually too scared about being summoned, and Ruby was too scared to request an appointment.

So it was confirmed: their father only talked to Sarah. Even after leaving fruits and herbal medicine, the chairman still didn’t call her. Just a simple thank you texted by Vivian, and that she would deliver it to the chairman.

God! Everyone and everything was just annoying these days.

Amber clicked her tongue and watched Ruby for five more seconds before knocking on the wall to get the girl’s attention. "Are you done pitying yourself?"

Ruby gasped with a start. "What are you doing here?!" she glared at Amber before looking around the suite. "W-where’s my attendants?"

"I told them to have some coffee," Amber said while closing the door shut, keeping the attendants and the bodyguards outside. "It’s not like they are doing anything."

Ruby clutched the ragged teddy bear like a shield and shifted onto the back of the couch cautiously. "Get out!"

"What? Are you scared I’m going to throw poison at you or something?" Amber rolled her eyes.

"Bitch--you dare?!"

"Are you sure you want to use that kind of tone with me?" Amber tilted her head. She leaned against a decorative table and crossed her hands. "I can ask Father to throw you out of this house. You and that useless brother of yours."

She actually couldn’t--well, she could ask, but the chairman granting it was a different matter altogether. Still, at that house, she had the second biggest authority after the chairman. Even if Vivian became the official madam one day, Amber knew the staff members--and the house manager--better.

And Ruby should know that. At least if she wasn’t stupid.

The girl bit her lips. She still shielded herself behind the couch, still glaring, but could finally say something other than get out. "What do you want?"

Seems like she wasn’t that stupid after all.

"Don’t be spiky," Amber chuckled. "Aren’t we in the same boat anyway?"

"What are you even talking about?!" Ruby flung the teddy bear to the window, as if pointing somewhere. "My mother is in the lunatic ward!"

"At least she won’t be bothering you every day asking for money because Father is suing her," Amber sneered--more to herself than the frustrated girl. Well, she was a frustrated girl herself. "You can just pretend you don’t know her. She doesn’t seem to remember you anyway."

"How could you say that?!"

"How could you still mop around instead of looking for a lifeline?" Amber quipped.

Ruby gripped the couch and gritted her teeth. It wasn’t like she didn’t know that--but how could she search for a lineline when no one was willing to talk to her? But seeing that Amber was standing in front of her like this...

"What?" Ruby scrunched her nose in irritation. "Are you telling me you’re going to be my lifeline?"

"Do you even have anyone else?" Amber smirked, arching her brow. "Your brother is useless, Uncle Hyun is now broke and banished. Who? Who are you going to lean to, huh?"

Ruby clenched her jaw. She knew that; she wasn’t stupid. But, goddamnit--it was so annoying to be told that by someone else.

"See? We’re in the same boat. Same problematic mothers, same useless brothers..." Amber shrugged, adding bitterly. "Even the way Father neglects us."

"So?" Ruby frowned. "I can try to gain points too from now on. It’s not like I have been making trouble or anything."

Amber scoffed. "From now on? When you’re already at a minus point for being your mother’s child?"

"That’s the same with you!"

"At the very least, I have done something profitable for the company. But, yes..." Amber nodded. "I am also the same."

Ruby squinted her eyes. Why was this woman suddenly agreeing with her?

Amber snickered in self-mockery. "Father doesn’t really look at me. At us."