CHAPTER 226: CHAPTER 225. LET IT SIMMER

Amber hadn’t even drunk the coffee that her attendant had made when Ruby told her she saw Sarah’s car enter the driveway. Not long after, the girl said Sarah was heading to their father’s suite and stayed there while Vivian and the nurse left.

Again; another private meeting. This time, even the chief secretary was there. Wasn’t this basically a confirmation?

Amber canceled her afternoon appointment and returned to the mansion right away. She hoped she could catch the meeting and hear what was being said inside. If not, she wanted to catch Sarah at least and see how the girl would react in front of her, while looking at her face.

Unfortunately for Amber, she was just too late. Ruby told her Sarah had just left when she was only two-thirds the way home.

"Damn it! I should have planted a bug in the master bedroom!" Amber cursed. It shouldn’t have been difficult either, since the place was empty for a few days while the chairman was in the hospital.

Still, she continued the journey home, thinking she might be able to speak to the chairman instead. It would be ridiculous for that old man to reject her at this point, wouldn’t it? He couldn’t say he was busy when he was literally in his bedroom.

But her plan changed when she saw the chief secretary walking down the stairs. "Mr. Park," Amber greeted him.

"Young Miss," the chief secretary nodded politely before continuing his journey down.

It wasn’t particularly rude, but it annoyed her that the man didn’t even offer her two seconds of small talk. She paused in the middle of the stairs and called out to him. "Say," she turned her head, watching the chief secretary halt his step. "Did someone come?"

Chief Secretary Park glanced at her. "Why did you ask?"

"The guards told me Sarah was here earlier," Amber said. Of course, she actually heard it from Ruby, but this man didn’t need to know that.

The chief secretary replied dryly. "Why asked me if you already know?"

Amber narrowed her eyes and smiled. "I want to see if you’d hide it from me."

The chief secretary stared at Amber’s smile, musing. Indeed, it was different. She could see the cunning behind that smile, a false sense of superiority. It lacked the calm and coldness of one already set their heart in the path of war for a long time. One who was ready to burn themselves to get what they wanted. One with one leg already outside the edge of the cliff.

Like Sarah.

Those pair of deep black eyes...Chief Secretary Park still shuddered when he recalled it.

"May I give you some advice, Miss?"

Amber frowned. "Please do," she said, not sounding pleased at all.

Chief Secretary Park smiled. "Don’t fight a war you can’t win," he said in deep sincerity. "Then."

Amber watched the chief secretary bow his head and walk away. Her hands clenched into a pair of trembling fists as she turned around and climbed the stairs up while clenching her jaw. Rather than going to the chairman’s suite as she planned, Amber turned to her own bedroom, where she could curse out loud, as much as she wanted.

"Haa..." She took a deep breath after putting dozens of holes into the big family portrait in her room with the sharp edge of her fountain pen. "Bitch."

Amber threw the pen away and took out her phone, scrolling through the names. She had thought she would never call this number ever again, but...

"There’s more than one way someone can win a fight," he hissed at the faceless figures inside the portrait.

* * *

"Whoa..."

Mari looked around the luxurious interior of Helios’s private club in astonishment. She could barely go to a nice cafe because of her financial situation, so going to the place where celebrities and rich people partied was truly an experience.

It certainly had a different vibe than a house, even if it belonged to a conglomerate.

"Are you sure about this?" Sarah frowned. "You can go back to uni and have a respectable career, you know?"

"But I won’t be able to pay for Mom’s hospital bill while studying. Besides..." Mari turned toward Sarah and grinned. "I’m kind of addicted to the thrill now, Miss."

Sarah sighed helplessly, patting the giggling girl while shaking her head in exasperation. She had a plan for this girl: sending her back to school so she could develop her talent. But alas, the little lamb suddenly told Sarah that she wanted to intern in Honey’s troupe, as if Sol’s band of deceivers was some kind of promising start-up.

The pay was definitely good, though.

"An intern won’t be put in danger," Sol said. "I’ll educate her properly."

"Please do," Sarah sighed. What could she do when the girl was very eager about it? The little lamb had tasted the forbidden grass, apparently.

The manager smirked. "I need a little errand girl, anyway."

Sarah smacked the man’s arm, but Sol just laughed and told her he would have Ahn Noah introduce her to a filming set someday. Well, at least it was something.

"Ah, your new lackey is here, so I’ll be going," Sol flicked his fingers and disappeared with Mari after leaving a pot of mulled wine behind to soothe Sarah.

Sarah rolled her eyes. It felt a bit much calling the chief secretary a ’lackey’. She hadn’t trusted him completely, which was why she never told him what she was actually going to do with the Group. She also had Hajin frisk him for any bugs before allowing him to enter the private room.

"You have more free time than I thought," Sarah said, pretty amused that the chief secretary came immediately after she called.

"I’m working right now," Chief Park replied calmly. "Meeting a shareholder is also part of an employee’s job."

"Growing cheekier, I see."

The chief secretary smiled, observing Sarah’s relaxed expression. He wondered if what she showed the chairman was an act, or was that kind of intensity was only reserved for someone she truly hated.

"I wished you’d told me about your plan, Miss. I almost had a heart attack myself," he said.

"I didn’t trust you yet," Sarah replied sharply.

Chief Secretary Park chuckles helplessly. Well, that was apparent from the body search.

"Do you drink?" Sarah asked, glancing at the minibar in the corner. There was no bartender, but Hajin could make decent cocktails.

"Not now. I need to return to the company," the chief secretary raised his hand and shook his head. "Speaking of which--Miss, do you really...think you’ll win through votes?"

After her--quite literally--fiery provocation, Sarah told the chairman to think about it and left, just like that. She was confident from start to finish, as if there was no doubt of victory in her mind.

Although in reality...

"Of course, not," Sarah scoffed. "If I do, there was no need for me to go through all of that."

The chief secretary arched his brow. "I thought it was to lessen the blow?"

The cold look returned to her face again; more dull than sinister, however. "Mr. Park, I couldn’t care less about the blow."

Her mother didn’t even know a blow was coming her way before it was too late. She did not lie when she said she was giving grace.

"So, it was all a bluff," the chief secretary sighed. "How much do you have now, Miss?"

Sarah tilted her head to remember the calculation Austin sent her that morning. "Around...twenty-four percent without yours."

The secretary widened his eyes. "That’s...amazing."

Especially when he thought about how she had only started five years ago. He was tempted to ask how, but life experience taught him it was probably best if he didn’t pry.

"Well, I’ve got some help," Sarah said, stirring the mulled wine in front of her with a cinnamon stick. After a few seconds, she stopped stirring and threw the cinnamon stick away. "Ah, fuck--if only that damn prosecutor came to us first."

Hajin chuckled while picking up the cinnamon and throwing it into the bin. "He’ll probably go bald from how much you’ve been cursing him out since the New Year, Master."

"Are you talking about Prosecutor Jang?" The chief secretary raised his brows.

"We wouldn’t have been in this predicament otherwise," Sarah clicked her tongue. "What about your part, Mr. Park?"

As if he had been waiting for that question, the chief secretary straightened his back. "Before, I had told you would convince four executives, hadn’t I?"

"Yes."

"Had I known that was what you had in your arsenal, Miss, I would have told you that I’d convinced all of them."

Sarah arched her brow at the old man’s cheeky smile, watching him take out a folder from his briefcase.

"For now, this is a written agreement from the four executives," he placed the folder in front of Sarah, which Hajin took to peruse in her place. "I shall work to get the rest before the board meeting--ah, please decide the date soon."

Sarah narrowed her eyes. "Are you sure you can convince the other executives?"

The chief secretary nodded. "If I tell them they’d get dragged into the audit, they wouldn’t be able to say anything. Besides..."

"What?"

He looked hesitant for a bit. "Well...they believe the chairman wouldn’t last long," he said carefully, checking Sarah’s expression. The black eyes hardened slightly for a second, before returning to normal. The chief secretary continued. "A few years, maybe. But then, his condition will only worsen, so who knows how long he could effectively work this way. A year? A few months?"

"I see..." Sarah tapped her elbow in contemplation. "Burning the house doesn’t mean burning the land where it once stood, after all."

The chief secretary tilted his head. "Yes?"

Sarah smiled, ignoring the confusion. "The twenty-ninth."

Hajin stiffened, almost dropping the folder in his hand.

"Let’s do the board meeting that day," Sarah said.

The chief secretary glanced at the Hajin, wondering why the bodyguard looked alarmed all of a sudden. But what did it matter to him? He looked back at Sarah and nodded. "Yes, Miss."