DM Chapter 56
After a tough night, she ate a hearty breakfast, and the clever Blue found a ball somewhere and played with it instead of going for a walk. After three hours of chasing the ball bouncing off the walls, it was time for lunch.
Normally, she would have taken something from the fridge, but once again, room service delivered lunch. And a little while later, snacks arrived separately.
Seeing the snack box, Sarin thought Owen was indeed monitoring her. This was because the box had the logo of ‘Jam’ on it.
She looked down at the table with a peach tart as the main dish, beautifully decorated with various fruits. Blue, the leader of the pack, nuzzled Sarin’s arm for attention, seeming to signal snack time.
“Alright, let’s have snacks and play too.”
Observing the dogs enjoying their treats, Sarin finished a tart as well. Just as she was brushing off the cookie crumbs from her hands, she tensed up upon hearing footsteps approaching down the hallway. The dogs also focused on the direction where the sound was coming from, not interested in the snacks anymore.
Relieved to see the maid enter first, Sarin sighed.
“Someone from Orbis has come, Miss.”
Having bought nothing herself, Sarin gestured toward Owen’s belongings, and the maid smiled slightly.
“It’s all yours, miss. May I tidy up the dressing room for a moment?”
“Oh… yes….”
As Sarin nodded with a bewildered look on her face, the maid gestured to the people in the hallway behind her. It was the same as last time. However, this time, many more people came in one after another and headed towards Owen’s room.
They told her it was hers, but they went into Owen’s room and began a massive cleanup, clearing out one side of his dressing room and moving his things out. Even though it seemed like the whole room was being used as a dressing room, once half of the room’s items were brought out, the living room quickly filled up.
“And they said that the wolf at that time was useless because it fell into the water, so they sent another one.”
The maid said, looking at Sarin, expecting her to understand. Sarin, who had been eating a tart on the floor rather than on the sofa, took the suitcase that was handed to her with two hands. When she opened it, a white fur coat came out.
The fur coat, flowing with a glossy sheen to the point of feeling sorry to touch it with hands that had been eating tart, was even whiter than snow. Sarin knew what the wolf from that time meant. It was probably in the trunk of the car, so it must have been brought along with the car.
Sarin’s pupils shook as she couldn’t grasp the meaning of this.
Meanwhile, a steady stream of boxes and suitcases were being brought into Owen’s room.
She remembered the man who had told her to say what she wanted.
Was it a sign that if she didn’t speak up, he would take care of it on his own? It was strange that this was how he’d pay her back for saving his life.
“You can go in and take a look.”
After more than two hours of staring at them and watching the dogs, the maid, who had finished cleaning up, called for Sarin.
Without touching it herself, the maid carefully picked up the fur coat placed on the sofa and headed towards Owen’s room. Sarin followed behind. Naturally, as if it were expected, the three dogs also followed inside.
Sarin’s belongings filled one side of Owen’s dressing room.
Luxurious clothes she had never worn before were endlessly filling the space, and on one side of the display cabinet, jewels occupied their places. Sarin watched the dazzling scene under the crimson lighting as if it had been specially set up for her. Even though she heard that everything had been gifted to her, it didn’t feel like hers.
“If you need anything, please call.”
The maid hung the fur in the most visible place and bowed her head. Sarin returned the greeting with a nod. As Sarin nodded in return, the maid silently left. The dogs, who had been fawning on her, seemed unusually quiet. Curious, she turned around to find three dogs sitting in a row just outside the dressing room.
“Can’t you come in here?”
Their eager gazes seemed to confirm that.
“Your owner must be really wealthy.”
Money had always been an issue for her. She calculated her expenses and income every day in her head, living desperately to the point where she couldn’t sleep at night if she didn’t calculate.
There were times when she thought things would be better if she had money. When she considered that the value of a few clothes and a couple of jewels here was more than the money she had earned so far, a bitter smile escaped her.
With all this money right in front of him, Owen didn’t seem content. Like he was hungry and thirsty for something.
“It’s so weird. I feel like I’m never satisfied with anything.”
Was Owen feeling the same way?
Sarin’s gaze shifted from her dazzling dressing room to Owen’s contrasting one.
As she walked across the room with the thought of closing the half-opened cabinet door, her eyes caught something. Without realizing it, Sarin opened the door a bit more and saw what was inside.
There, she saw a sparkling silver revolver and, next to it, a familiar passport.
Her heart skipped a beat. Even though she couldn’t go anywhere right now, even if she had it, at least she now knew where it was.
Sarin briefly held the passport but quickly closed the door of the cabinet. Worried that she might feel tempted to open the door again and look for the passport, she hurriedly left the dressing room.
“It’s a secret.”
Though the dogs couldn’t speak, Sarin whispered in a low voice.
Feeling uneasy being alone in Owen’s room, she quickly left and saw Yuri standing still in the living room.
“Were you there?”
“He told me to stay here….”
Yuri raised one eyebrow. Despite repeatedly knocking on Sarin’s door and not finding her or the dogs, he opted to contact the bodyguard who consistently accompanied her, suspecting she might have disregarded the warning and gone for a stroll.
Noticing Yuri’s unexpectedly similar face to the maid’s, Sarin gave a bitter smile. With one arm still in a cast and standing awkwardly, Yuri looked at Sarin and smiled back. She sensed a hint of anxiety in his face.
“You have some clean clothes, don’t you? Change and come out.”
“I was told not to leave.”
“If it’s Owen, you don’t need to worry.”
Listening to Yuri’s stern words, Sarin fell into silent contemplation. If it’s okay to ignore Owen’s words, then it means someone higher than him gave an order. She could think of only one such person.
Nikolai, the man she’d heard so many times, was calling for her. She had thought she might see Hayan’s great-grandfather one day, but she felt Nikolai’s presence here.
“I’m going to change and come out.”
Owen’s grandfather was a formidable opponent as well. She couldn’t refuse to meet, as she lacked the power to resist. The thought of actually seeing the man who had been chasing Kirill and threatening him and Gayeon made her heart race in a different way than when she’d found the passport earlier.
As she felt increasingly entangled in dangerous situations beyond her control, a sense of unease crept up on her.
“Please hurry as much as possible.”
It wouldn’t matter what she wore anyway. Her steps were heavy as she made her way back to the dressing room. Sarin, thinking she was not called to see her attire, pulled out a black tweed suit from the organized clothes in the dressing room. Quickly changing into the outfit, she ran her hand through her hair a few times, brushing it back.
The way Owen cut her hair was beyond repair.
Standing in front of the full-length mirror in the dressing room, the woman in black clothes appeared even paler in the reflection. Only then did she realize she had chosen the wrong color, but no matter what she wore, she would still look similar.
There was no outfit here that truly suited her.
No matter what she wore, the signs of the years of hunger and life she had endured were not hidden.
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The sound of slot machines spinning wildly, ready to give luck to someone, echoed once again today.
Sarin, who expected to be led to a quiet place, felt even more uncomfortable when she realized that Yuri had taken her to the hotel’s casino. Her fists clenched involuntarily as they approached the roulette table, the place where everything was revealed to Owen.
Yuri, who had passed through many games, finally stopped in front of the roulette game. Sitting with his back to Sarin, a huge figure was visible in front of her, surrounded by men of similar stature, with only him seated to play the game.
His neatly combed curls were visible.
He was huge, almost two meters tall, but he didn’t appear overweight.
It was hard to think of him as an old man. Owen’s grandfather and Hayan’s great-grandfather, estimating his age just by looking at his back was difficult. Sarin’s steps slowed involuntarily.
Approaching the man, Yuri whispered something, and the fingers adorned with a large sapphire ring lightly tapped his face several times. Without showing any displeasure, Yuri calmly accepted what the man was doing, then straightened up and called Sarin, who had unintentionally stopped some distance away.
“This way.”
Yuri sighed inwardly as he watched Sarin stand there, looking scared.
Whether she remembered the advice he had given her or not, Nikolai was not an easygoing person. No matter what advice he offered, he was the kind of person who could swallow a petite woman like her in one bite, leaving no bones behind.
Which is probably why Russia still needs him.
