KISS THE SCUMBAG Chapter 11

Watching Winston’s face distort in a way that was pleasing to see, Yujin felt a small sense of triumph and added in a much lighter tone:

“Sleep well, Winston. Sweet dreams.”

With that, Yujin closed the door and stepped out into the hallway. In the sudden silence that descended, he let out a deep breath. Tension began to dissipate, causing his whole body to start trembling. It’s okay. The beginning was a mess, but I finished well. All’s well that ends well. Just as he repeated the words of comfort he always whispered to himself, it happened.

Crash! A loud, resounding noise echoed from inside the room. Startled, Yujin gasped and quickly clamped a hand over his mouth. His heart hammered in his chest, and tension flooded back into his body. Suddenly, the image of the large vase that had occupied the table flashed through his mind. Fearing the worst, Yujin hurried away, still barefoot. He was terrified that Winston might come out of the room and catch him. As he ran down the endless hallway, his feet slipped on the smooth marble floor, causing him to fall twice, but he couldn’t even feel the pain.

After glancing back several times, he finally found the staircase he had climbed with the maid and limped down to the floor below. His knees, bruised from the falls, began to ache belatedly, but he could not stop. Yujin only felt a surge of relief after wandering the halls, finding his daughter’s room, and seeing the sleeping face of the child.

In this vast house, having found the only person on his side, his nose stung and tears welled up in his eyes. It was only then that Yujin realized there had been no one in front of Winston’s room. They must have left once they confirmed Winston had returned. And he had walked right into their trap.

But for now, relief outweighed his indignation. At the very least, he had made it here safely. That was enough. Brushing his hand over the child’s peacefully sleeping face, Yujin muttered in a low voice:

“Don’t worry, Angie. I will never leave you alone.”

It was a promise he had made countless times since he first had her. If not for Angela, he might have disappeared from this world a long time ago. Having sworn to the child who was the only one to stand by his side when he was utterly alone, Yujin had pledged to her again and again that he would never leave her behind. And for the sake of such a child, Yujin could do anything.

Insults and expressions of contempt like this were nothing. Had he not already endured far worse than this? He hadn’t been hit, so it was fine.

I only need you.

Yujin whispered the words to himself again and squeezed his body onto the small bed, holding the child tightly. Perhaps sensing something in her sleep, Angela shifted and burrowed into Yujin’s chest. Yujin held his lovely child close and closed his eyes. It was a cramped and uncomfortable sleeping arrangement where he couldn’t even properly stretch out his legs, but he was content, and he fell into a deep sleep, not waking once until the maid came to wake him in the morning.

#7

Winston had been in a bad mood since morning. Although he had suffered from insomnia for a long time, it was rare for him not to get even a wink of sleep. At the very least, he usually managed short naps of 30 minutes to an hour, but last night, he had spent the entire night wide awake. Winston knew the reason, but others hadn’t suspected a thing. Mrs. Campbell, who cherished him specially among all the children she had borne, also guessed that the tired, sharp look on her son’s face was due to other reasons.

He is taking on all the work since Harold left, so of course he would be exhausted.

Nevertheless, he was handling it well. In truth, it had been a while since Harold had stepped back from the front lines, so it wasn’t anything new. However, the burden pressing down on his shoulders must be different than before. Harold was no longer in this world, and now his son was not just “Harold’s deputy,” but the “head of the family.”

Sitting across the tea table, Mrs. Campbell looked at her son, who was rubbing his brow while leaning one arm on the armrest as if exhausted, and smiled benevolently.

“Just hang in there a little longer. Once the will is made public, everything will be fine.”

Winston stopped rubbing his brow and peered at Mrs. Campbell through his fingers. She looked at him with a face full of love and said:

“You have nothing to worry about. Isn’t it obvious what kind of will Harold left behind? He might distribute a reasonable amount to your other siblings, but those are mere scraps. You will take possession of everything. Trust me.”

She spoke in a tone full of conviction to boost her son’s spirits, but it was completely off the mark. Winston thought that she, then as now, knew absolutely nothing about him. But he was past the age of complaining about that, and it was a matter that didn’t concern him anyway. The problem currently on Winston’s mind was something entirely different.

“Mother.”

Winston opened his mouth without changing his posture. To Mrs. Campbell, who immediately focused her attention on him, he asked in his usual chilly tone:

“It was your instruction to have Yujin escorted to my bedroom, wasn’t it?”

“What?”

At the completely unexpected question, Mrs. Campbell was visibly flustered, and that was a reaction Winston had already anticipated. Knowing his guess was correct, he furrowed his brow even deeper.

“Mother, don’t do such childish things.”

“I know nothing about that.”

Mrs. Campbell straightened her expression and denied it. But she knew it was already too late. Inevitably, Mrs. Campbell confessed honestly.

“I thought that if you smelled his pheromones, you would lose your mind and make a spectacle of yourself in front of him. I only wanted to show you his true colors, in case you were swayed by that filthy thing again.”

She offered a lengthy excuse for herself, but as expected, Winston only let out a deep sigh with a frown.

“You did that to make me wary? Mother, what would you have done if I had actually lost my mind to the pheromones and done something?”

At Winston’s point, Mrs. Campbell retorted sharply:

“That couldn’t possibly happen, could it? He is just a common Omega. And you are a Dominant Alpha. Besides, you must have sufficiently vented your pheromones at the party, so there is no way you would be swayed by the pheromones of someone as insignificant as him.”

This, too, was as Winston had anticipated. If Winston had not gone to the pheromone party the night before, she would never have pulled such a stunt. However, she was vastly overestimating her son.

“Your son is also just a mediocre Alpha.”

Winston said, but Mrs. Campbell straightened up and immediately denied it.

“You are different. You are a Dominant Alpha, just like your father.”

The only Dominant Alpha in the family.

Thanks to that, Winston inherited most of the family estate despite being the youngest. Mrs. Campbell had expected that Winston, the most outstanding among the children she bore, would inherit the family, but when he manifested as a Dominant Alpha, that belief became a certainty. Her youngest son was perfect. The leech that had clung to him for a moment was not even a small blemish on his life.

However, the cleverness of the son she was so proud of became a hurdle at times like this. He always saw through the tricks or schemes of others so easily that it was impossible to interfere.

Yet, that same Winston had been tricked once. It was partly because it was a scheme meticulously crafted by everyone, including Mrs. Campbell, but the ultimate reason it succeeded lay elsewhere. Mrs. Campbell was always bothered by that reason. Even as she comforted herself that she had achieved what she wanted, so that was that.

If Winston hadn’t loved that filthy thing that much, he wouldn’t have fallen for such a shallow trick.

Blinded by love, he had been unable to make any rational judgment, and consequently, had made a massive mistake. And he still hadn’t noticed it. If things had gone as planned, he would have lived the rest of his life without ever knowing.

To think Harold would pull such a trick at the very end.

Mrs. Campbell felt hatred toward her late husband once again. Did he feel some petty guilt before he died? What about the children he left behind? What about me?

He had turned Mrs. Campbell’s life upside down until the very end before leaving. She thought that if she could, she would bring Harold back to life just to kill him with her own hands.