Burning The House Of Cards: taking revenge on my billionaire family
Chapter 74 - 73. When It Rains, It Pours

Chapter 74: Chapter 73. When It Rains, It Pours

"Who are you working with?" Sarah asked once more when no answer came from the man forced to kneel in front of her.

Ethan pressed his lips tightly. Indeed, Sarah had changed into something formidable. Still, Ethan thought it was too late. The heir was already appointed, and she was a woman anyway. Ethan had no idea why Sarah was acting like a trash outside, but he didn’t think it mattered anyway. If he thought she could reach a higher position than that person, he wouldn’t have betrayed her.

"You don’t want to open your mouth? How laughable," Sarah leaned back, tapping the man’s cheek with the tip of her boot. "It was so easy for you to betray me, and yet you stand by that person’s side so firmly?"

Ethan gritted his teeth. Even while he was restrained with no chance to run, he still couldn’t stand being humiliated that much. He had tried hard for the past five years, yearning for the life that people like Sarah could get easily by being born...

He refused to bend down, to give up on those privileges he had gained by clawing his way up, even if he had to drag others down.

And Sarah could see it clearly in the man’s eyes; the greed and twisted ambition poisoning his mind.

Ah...it was hopeless.

"Hmm...you think that person is more powerful than me," Sarah concluded. "Could it be..." she tilted her head, "...you were waiting for that person to save you?"

Ethan narrowed his eyes; he knew Sarah--at least the old Seul-ah--would be smart enough to deduce that far. But why couldn’t she see further? Of course, that person would be more powerful than her.

Why else would Ethan switch sides?

And with her current situation...wouldn’t she have an even weaker position than before? Why did she act like she actually had power within the group?

Sarah leaned her head back. Ethan clothed himself in branded goods, improving his appearance through gyms and treatments; and yet...he looked so pathetic. The plain, fresh graduate with shining eyes she met the first time was way better than this clout-thirst goblin.

"How pitiful..." she sighed.

[Wi-wicked p-person does not de-deserve to b-be pitied!] a distorted voice came from a hidden speaker inside the room, the emotion behind it could be felt even though the robotic sound.

Ethan flinched and moved his head around. "Wh-who is that?!"

"I agree, Master," Hajin pressed the struggling man harder. "Please don’t waste your benediction on someone like this."

"Ugh--"

Sarah shifted her gaze back to the struggling man. "Can you guess what he’s thinking, puppy?"

"Probably thinking he could still call for help from his phone," Hajin took the rectangular device from Ethan’s suit and kept it in his pocket. "Or seeking help from the club’s staff."

"You mean, the people who helped us set this all up?" Sarah chuckled; the dry tone made the room feel colder.

Ethan, whose head was getting pinned to the floor, widened his eyes. The room with screens as walls, the way the door locked from the outside, the fact that there was no phone reception on that floor...

It only occurred to him then that everything could only have occurred by this place, Helios’s, involvement.

But, still...

"Maybe still thinking that if he disappeared somewhat, people would be able to investigate where he was last seen and who he was meeting with," Hajin added, as if he could hear Ethan’s thought.

"Can you take care of it, Birdie?"

[Of course!]

The enthusiastic reply felt so jarring with the distorted, robotic voice. It only added to the dread creeping down Ethan’s spine, as the fact that he had no escape slowly settled in.

"There would be no one looking for you, since people won’t know you’re missing. No one will even know this meeting takes place," Sarah confirmed the man’s dread. "We can throw you into a sewer and let you rot for all we care."

As Sarah spoke, the pressure on Ethan’s neck increased, and Ethan couldn’t help but think that Hajin did look like he could really do that.

No. He looked like he really wanted to do that.

Clenching his jaw--more from settling fear than bravado--Ethan asked with bated breath. "What...are you trying to do to me?"

"You tell me," Sarah replied nonchalantly. "After all, it depends on your cooperation, Team Leader Yoo."

At that time, Ethan suddenly remembered what the people in the Lee family could do. He forgot since Sarah wasn’t like her siblings, but...they had the same blood, right? The blood of people who had no qualms about destroying someone’s life just from the bearest inconvenience.

For the first time, Ethan actually shivered.

"Now, let me ask you again," Sarah asked like she was giving an order. "Who gave you the instructions?"

Ethan swallowed--everything tasted bitter and hot, of fear and despair. But just like in the past, he had to think about his survival above anything else.

This time, it was a real survival. Not for his career, but for his life.

"...Seo..." Ethan murmured against the floor.

Sarah narrowed her eyes, trying to catch the low voice. "Yes?"

"It was...Director Seo," Ethan said with a tremble, a bit louder than before. "Your Uncle Joseph."

The silence inside the room was as loud as it was painful. Even Hajin widened his eyes in shock, and immediately looked up to check on his master--all the while keeping the traitor’s head down so he couldn’t see the way those cold eyes were breaking.

They were rippling, like a tumultuous dark sea. Like the end of the world.

Perhaps it was.

It was the end of her old world, where she thought she still had something left to believe in. People whom she thought deserved her compassion, her guilt.

For a moment, Sarah entertained the thought of Ethan lying to save himself. But his breathing and heartbeat bore no indication of falsehood, and there was no reason for him to do that at this point.

More importantly...

It all made sense: why Ethan requested to be stationed under Director Seo’s department, and how smoothly the transfer was being handled. She had thought it was the grace of his loving uncle, but...

"Ha--" a sound slipped past Sarah’s stiffened lips. "Hahaha..." her shoulder shook, and she threw her head back as laughter filled the room. "Ahahahahaha!"

Ahh...might as well.

Might as well let everything burn.

"Ahh..." The laughter ended with a sigh and apathetic gaze. "Throw him to the dungeon."

"W-what?" Ethan gasped as his body jerked up, pulled off the floor harshly by the bodyguard. "Wait! Wait! But I told you!"

Ethan had no idea what this ’dungeon’ was, but it sounded gnarly nonetheless. And he was right to think so, for beneath the illegal fighting ring, Helios kept prison cells for Yonghwa’s enemies.

As one of his investments, Sarah had the privilege to utilize it.

Sarah merely closed her eyes and lay her head back as if she were taking a nap as the door unlocked and Sol’s men took Ethan from Hajin, dragging him out of the room.

"No! I told you! Seul-ah! Seul-ah!" Ethan kept on screaming even when he was no longer in the room. "No--please! Seul-ah--"

And then it was silence. Whatever the men do to the traitor, Sarah only had one instruction.

"Keep him alive."

Sol glanced at the girl from the door, tilting his head. "You’re sure?"

Sarah added dryly. "As humanely as you can."

"You’re the boss," the manager shrugged. "So...want a drink? I know you stopped, but on this kind of day, it--"

The door shut right in his face, and Sol could only step back while raising his hands in defeat. "Okay, okay," he muttered while walking away, instructing the other staff to stay away from the room.

Inside the private room, it was so quiet that Hajin could hear Sarah’s disturbed breath. He didn’t even say anything about his master being too merciful, just letting her digest everything.

Every pain and heartbreak.

"Birdie, can you shut down the camera?"

[Okay, Sarah]

Little Bird replied immediately, even breaking her habit of calling people by nickname. Just to make sure, Hajin checked everything with his own device before informing his master.

"It’s all turned off, Master."

Sarah took a deep breath, leaning against her palm as she stared at the sky outside the window. It was a beautiful blue when she came, but the rain was pouring from the grey, bleak sky without her noticing.

Just like that day, when Ethan offered her an umbrella.

A pair of warm hands held hers, and only then did Sarah realize she had been clutching them so tightly her nails were digging into the skin. Kneeling in front of her, like always, Hajin silently stroked her hands.

"I’m...I’m okay," Sarah parted her lips, voice breaking in a choke. "It’s--it’s good, isn’t it? I don’t have to feel guilty anymore. I don’t...I don’t have to..."

Hajin nodded. "You don’t have to hold it in anymore."

"Hicc..."

The black eyes, which had been so firm, so resolute, so cold for the past hours, were trembling. The heart, which had been trying so hard to be strong, was breaking apart. Her mind, which had been working so hard to search for reasons, was exhausted.

From the single hiccup, the girl sought refuge inside a pair of warm arms, strong and tough, and yet so gentle. They caressed her back and hair, silently, soothingly, as her tears fell as hard as the pouring rain.

There were no words of solace, because who could offer one? Who would understand how devastating it was to know that her enemies were the people he trusted in the past?

But then...weren’t they all?

And that thought...the thought that in the end, there was no one on her side, no matter how hard she tried to be loved and accepted...it was just...painful. Painful and exhausting.

So she cried. She cried out in pain and exhaustion; the sorrow gnawed at his heart. It wasn’t enough--the tears were just droplets dripping from the sea--but at least...at least she felt like she could breathe.

Sarah cried until she felt the shirt of the man she leaned on was wet from her tears. Stuttering on her breath, she looked up and drowned herself in a deep lake reflected in those grey eyes.

Familiar, soothing, gently propping her tethering soul from the edge of the abyss.

When Sarah resurfaced from her emotional drowning, the grey eyes softened in a curl. "Master, would you like to go on a date with me?"

"...huh?"

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