Burning The House Of Cards: taking revenge on my billionaire family
Chapter 71 - 70. Trustfall

Chapter 71: Chapter 70. Trustfall

When Sarah first cooked up the plan to use Hajin as bait, she was thinking about the third wife, her daughter Ruby, or Amber. After all, those three were the ones in her direct revenge plan.

But she forgot quite a few things; Ruby was obsessed with Daniel, and Mina only latched onto someone she knew could shower her with wealth. As for Amber...well, she mostly cared about appearance, but also status.

Not in the ’wealthy’ sense--she knew she would marry someone from the conglomerate circle anyway, so she played with whoever she wanted before then--but recognition. She loved fooling around with celebrities, those young actors and idols who would worship her if she gave them a place in a television show, or a gig for one of their family brands.

Not of it fitted Hajin, unfortunately, even if he was better looking than some of the celebrities she was fooling around with.

"Auntie, huh..."

The aunt, however, simply likes to fool around with handsome men younger than her. She was already wealthy from inheritance, dividends, and allowance--also huge alimony from her ex-husbands--so she could afford to indulge a boy toy.

Basically what Sarah had been cosplaying.

The thing was...she wasn’t in the family business enough, or around the main house enough to be useful for Sarah’s plan.

"Do you think she’ll be willing to give you some shares?"

Hajin, who was in the middle of placing Sarah’s tea on the table, paused to give the girl an incredulous look. "Not in a short time," he said. "And I might need to do more than talking."

Sarah didn’t have to ask about what Hajin meant by that, because it was quite clear. She also didn’t seriously think someone would just give away a company’s shares to a lover, no matter how bewitching they may be. Showering them with expensive gifts and luxurious travels was wholly different than giving them something sustainable. That simply wasn’t how you play with a paramore.

Unless, of course, she wanted to bring the relationship into something more serious.

Knowing the aunt’s penchant for getting in and out of marriage as if she was shopping for husbands in a mall or something...

Hajin placed the tea on the table and shrugged. "But of course, if that’s what you want me to do, I’ll try to--"

"No!" Sarah said quickly--perhaps almost too quickly, with a higher pitch than usual that made Hajin raise his brow in surprise. She bit the inside of her reddened cheek while turning her face away. "I mean...you don’t have to do that."

The leather couch creaked under the weight of a grown man, and Sarah brought her knees up, hugging it as if seeking protection as she felt Hajin hovering beside her. "Really?" that sultry voice that sometimes he used to wake her up caressed her ears. "You might lose a chance to get a share, you know?"

"S-shut up!" Sarah snapped, glancing at Hajin with a sulky look. "I’m not that crazy to sell you off, okay? I still have a conscience, you know?"

"Really?" Hajin tilted his head, and Sarah pulled her face away in reflex so they didn’t face each other. "That’s all?"

Sarah bit her lips in frustration. It was truly annoying when her feelings slipped out unconsciously and she couldn’t hide behind ’acting’ anymore. Double annoying that she couldn’t say she hated it. It was liberating to be more honest about her feelings after basically banned from emoting all her life, but it was also hard to get used to it.

Especially under scrutinizing grey eyes that never failed to pull her back anytime. How could she anyway, when his warm thumb also rubbed her bitten lips while the grey lake glowed softly?

"I told you it could bleed, Master," Hajin sighed, no longer using his teasing tone. "If you must, then try not to do it too hard."

Oh, it was even more infuriating how easy it seemed for Hajin to just speak his mind, showing his feelings without any hint of fluster. It made Sarah envious, and she wondered if there would be a day when she could look that...free.

"Master, if you keep looking at me like that, I might be tempted to do something that will make you angry," Hajin whispered as Sarah unconsciously fell into her thoughts again.

"...like what?" Sarah asked, looking all dazed and even more tempting.

With a soft chuckle, Hajin leaned down and lightly kissed the lips he had just brushed. He pulled back as quickly as he stole the chance, before he was tempted to do everything he wanted to do all at once.

"Like that," he said, with a smile that was hiding a bit of nervousness and a lot of self-control.

Sarah blinked once before clearing her throat and pushing the man back--way gentler than usual--and turned her face away again. She used the chance when Hajin was chuckling away while getting off the couch to lick her lips and stabilize her wildly beating heart.

"A-anyway, you can’t do anything that will make you leave my side for too long," Sarah made an excuse. "Let’s not stray from why you are here. Right--"

Sarah snapped her fingers; the desperation to not turn Hajin into a literal boy toy brought forth an inspiration.

"Rather than taking something for her, let’s use her to sow chaos inside the house, instead."

Hajin took the warm teacup and placed it on Sarah’s hand while tilting his head. "How?"

"Well...she’s a nosy one, right?" Sarah curled her lips. "Let’s use her nosiness and point it toward another person."

Hajin arched his brow. "The third wife?"

Sarah patted the bodyguard’s head. "Good boy," she giggled lightly. "I want to know if she could find something suspicious about my uncle and that woman."

"Wouldn’t she already have some before? It’s suspicious even for outsiders."

"Maybe," Sarah shrugged. "But if a little bird whispers some damning evidence, she wouldn’t just do it out of nosiness anymore."

The grey eyes narrowed. "What damning evidence?"

"We’ll look for some," Sarah smiled, patting the man’s cheek. "Or planted same."

"You’re being naughty, Master," Hajin smiled, looking every bit in agreement.

Sarah laughed softly--taking advantage of a situation she didn’t quite predict was rather nice. Haa...perhaps she wasn’t really that different from her family members anyway. Sarah exhaled heavily, wondering what would become of her at the end of this journey, when the fire of revenge had licked her dry and burned her heart away.

Would she still have some to live? Would she still have enough...to give?

"Master," Hajin called out, in a gentle voice that reminded Sarah of their rainy night, and it pulled her back from the edge of the cliff.

"We need..." Sarah took a deep breath and a sigh escaped her again, no matter how much she tried to hold it back. "We need to think about..."

She stopped, the words heavy in her tongue. It was Hajin who continued for her. "The traitor," he said, without the hesitation that still plagued his master’s mind. "We need to take care of the traitor."

It sounded so final, and Sarah could feel her stomach churn from it. But the firm, merciless grey eyes drove Sarah to steel her heart. She stroked her inked shoulder to strengthen her resolve and nodded. "Let’s call Helios and the twins."

At that point, a team had been informally formed to help Sarah with her endeavor, aside from Hajin who inserted himself from the start. The twins and Austin were the youth force that Yonghwa appropriately sent, perhaps so Sarah could have people around her age in her journey. Little Bird was an absolute resource that couldn’t be replaced, but Sarah was actually surprised when Lee Sol involved himself with her business.

Perhaps the man was curious about her since he was the first person to observe the changing Lee Seul-ah, and wanted to see the end of her journey. But with how much she used the hotel room and Helios’s secret account, his involvement became inevitable. Before long, Sarah was even comfortable enough to borrow his car for her reckless mountain adventure.

And so, he was also there during the group call. For security and secrecy purposes, they decided to have a grocery run while making the call inside the car on the way.

[How could he do that?!] Sua smacked something--perhaps a table--angrily after Sarah finished telling them about Ethan’s betrayal. [He was one of your people!]

Sarah smiled bitterly. Her ’people’ were probably never hers. She thought they were, especially Ethan, but she was but a girl who knew nothing of the world then. Those people could easily be sent by her family members or the company’s executives to watch over her and report her every move.

She was truly naive back then, so perhaps she had been seeing things--including people--through rose-tinted glasses.

Still, it was nice to hear people being angry on her behalf. It was calming for some reason. Even Suoh didn’t warn his sister about being too rowdy. Instead, he asked cautiously. [Were you close, noona?]

"Well..." Sarah leaned against the car window, watching raindroplets on the glass as she recalled her memory of the man. "He was...the closest thing I could consider as a big brother?"

For her, it had been a decade already--even more than that. Thanks to this, the pain was manageable somewhat. If it was fresh--if she hadn’t regressed--Sarah couldn’t think she would be this resolute. Even now, Sarah couldn’t help but stroke her shoulder and look at Hajin to steel her determination.

"But the wall of employee and employer was still there, no matter what," Sarah continued. And it would be felt stronger by the employee. Sarah could call them ’friends’ all she wanted, but they couldn’t call her anything but ’young miss’.

[B-but...it’s s-still unforgivable!] the usually quiet Little Bird got infected by the yelling.

[Naturally] Sol said. [No reason could justify murder of innocents--well, assisting, that is]

It was rather weird hearing it from someone hosting an illegal fighting ring, but the truth was the truth.

"It is, but I still need decisive evidence about his involvement," Sarah said, adding quickly when she saw Hajin’s deeply furrowed brows. "I need to know his intent to decide the exact degree of punishment."

[Well, that makes sense] Sol remarked.

[But, noona...will you really be alright?] Suoh asked carefully.

Sarah closed her eyes--it was a question she had been giving herself since she got the information. She already knew this might happen, that someone she once trusted might be behind this. She had told herself to be resolute, giving herself a tattoo to remember it.

Still, when the truth was in front of her eyes, she wobbled. She found herself making excuses and looking for possible reasons to think Ethan was innocent.

If she was alone, she would probably deny it still.

"I don’t know," she said after a deep breath. Looking at the man beside her, Sarah continued. "But I think I will."

A gentle smile graced Hajin’s lips, and Sarah let the bodyguard hold her hand for a minute as the car arrived at the grocery store.

Yeah...she might not be alright after dealing with this, but she was sure Hajin would do everything to make her feel better.