"What are you trying to say? That you think I’m not as good as Sophia Shaw, so you regret having me as your daughter? Is that it?"
Joanna Sherman bristled, her reaction intense.
She snatched the bowl from Chad Jennings’s hand. "If you think Sophia Shaw is so great, then go to her!"
With that, she stormed into the room.
SLAM!
The door slammed with a deafening crash.
Chad Jennings flinched. He stared at the closed door and let out a heavy sigh.
In the past, whenever Joanna Sherman threw a tantrum, he would always soothe her with kind words. But now, Chad Jennings simply picked up the phone she had tossed on the table and repeatedly scrolled through the photos and their captions.
The more he scrolled, the more his heart ached.
’Regret. So much regret.’
’If only I had treated Sophia Shaw better back then, I wouldn’t have been reduced to babysitting for my daughter.’
’I’d be living the high life right now!’
Joanna Sherman stormed into the room, as if she hadn’t seen Stella Grant sitting and playing by herself on a mat.
She strode into the bathroom and, with all her might, smashed the bowl against the bathroom wall!
"Damn it! Damn it!"
She lunged toward the mirror, gasping for air. Her reflection was a twisted, contorted mask!
"How did it come to this? Why is everyone fawning over Sophia Shaw?"
The image from the ribbon-cutting ceremony flashed in her mind. The adoration in those four men’s eyes for Sophia Shaw was sharper than a blade, stabbing her heart over and over again.
Those four men were the very people she had been trying so desperately to win over!
She had put in so much effort without making a dent with a single one of them, yet Sophia Shaw had stolen their souls with ease!
Hatred!
She was consumed by it!
With no other outlet for her rage, Joanna Sherman could only smash her fist into the mirror.
The mirror spiderwebbed with cracks, and her reflection shattered along with it.
A startling splash of blood bloomed across the fractured glass.
Frightened by the noise from the bathroom, Stella Grant burst into shrill, terrified wails.
Joanna Sherman slid to the floor, burying her face in her hands.
She had been trying to contact Vincent Grant for days, but he hadn’t given her any response.
She had traded a suicide threat for Vincent Grant’s silence, and for a while, she thought she had won.
’It turns out I’d lost. And so miserably.’
***
Sophia Shaw left right after the ribbon-cutting.
She never liked schmoozing anyway, and she had a mountain of work to do.
Jacobs followed close behind her, unable to resist glancing back as she nervously wiped away sweat.
’Thank goodness Mr. Shaw left. Otherwise, tonight would have turned into a total war zone.’
’With her years of experience reading trashy romance novels, she could tell: all those men inside were in love with Mr. Shaw!’
’Trashy romance novels usually topped out at a love triangle. Mr. Shaw was facing a love pentagon!’
’A love... pentagon!’
’Just thinking about it is so exciting!’
’And with four such incredible men!’
Then, Jacobs started to worry on Sophia Shaw’s behalf.
As she held the car door open for Sophia Shaw, she thought to herself:
’All four of them have their own unique qualities, and every one of them is a total catch. There’s no way to choose.’
’If only Mr. Shaw could go back to ancient times and be an empress. She could snap up all four of those top-tier men, stick them in her harem, and pick one each day depending on her mood...’
’Yeah, and I’d go be Mr. Shaw’s handmaiden.’
’I could take turns looking at handsome men every day.’
’Hahaha.’
CRUNCH!
With a violent jolt, Jacobs’s joyful daydreaming came to a tragic halt. She’d been so lost in thought while backing up that she hadn’t seen the car behind her.
She’d hit a car!
’That car...’
’Seeing the familiar emblem, Jacobs just wanted to die.’
’That’s Young Master Croft’s favorite sports car!’
’For the past few days, Young Master Croft has been so attached to that car he might as well have carried it to work. He washes it every morning, noon, and night.’
’If he finds out his baby has been hit, he’ll definitely kill me!’
’I’m screwed. So screwed!’
After getting in the car, Sophia Shaw picked up her laptop and started working. When the car jolted, she only frowned slightly, not realizing that Jacobs had hit another car.
Jacobs stole a glance at the still-working Sophia Shaw, then slammed on the gas.
’I’ll just make a run for it!’
Sophia Shaw arrived back at the company.
Chad Jennings was also at the entrance of Lead Aerospace.
He was offering a cigarette to the security guard with a fawning smile.
The security guards at Lead Aerospace were all rigorously vetted. The guard blocked the cigarette with his hand. "Company policy. We can’t accept anything from anyone. Take it back!"
His tone was cold and firm.
The forced smile on Chad Jennings’s face stiffened. He was about to lose his temper when he caught sight of a familiar black car approaching. Forgetting the guard, he rushed to the car in a few quick steps.
He knocked urgently on the car window.
The window rolled down a crack, revealing the elegant lines of Sophia Shaw’s profile.
Chad Jennings’s face was alight with excitement. "Faye, I was just looking for you."
"What is it?"
Sophia Shaw didn’t even deign to look at him, her gaze fixed on her laptop. Her expression was completely cold.
Chad Jennings ignored Sophia Shaw’s indifference and pressed his phone screen tightly against the car window.
He said, bubbling with excitement, "Have you seen the news? I did it! I personally cleared your mother’s name!"
Chad Jennings said with great emotion, his eyes reddening at the rims, "Faye, the injustice your mother suffered back then... I’ve explained everything!"
Sophia Shaw’s fingertips paused. She finally looked up, her gaze falling on the phone screen.
What met her eyes was a black-and-white photo of her mother.
Her features were gentle, a faint smile in her eyes.
A wave of long-forgotten familiarity washed over her, instantly breaching the dam around her heart as a bitter pang shot to her nose.
But in the next second, her gaze was riveted on another photo right next to her mother’s!
Yvonne Sherman!
The woman in the photo wore exquisite makeup and a dignified smile. Every detail of her being screamed of a "nobility" built on a mountain of cash.
One plain, one opulent. The two faces, side-by-side, created the cruelest of contrasts.
It was a constant reminder to Sophia Shaw that Yvonne Sherman’s opulence was built on the flesh and blood she had feasted on from her mother’s corpse.
Her nails dug violently into her palm, the sharp sting barely enough to suppress the metallic taste of blood rising in her throat.
"Read the article! The point is in the article!" Chad Jennings reminded her, his voice brimming with an urgent need for praise.
Sophia Shaw suppressed the urge to destroy everything and quickly scanned the text.
Chad Jennings sighed heavily. "Faye, Dad was just too young back then, which is why he made mistakes. But Dad has truly repented, and this article is the proof!"
"Don’t you worry. From now on, I’ll be devoted only to you. I’ll never be fooled by anyone ever again!"
"Hah!"
Sophia Shaw had long been aware of Chad Jennings’s shamelessness, but his sheer audacity still provoked a cold laugh.
"And what, exactly, were these ’mistakes’ you made? I don’t see a single mention of them."
In the entire article, Chad Jennings didn’t say a single word about his own part in it. Everything was about Yvonne Sherman.
Yvonne Sherman had seduced him. Yvonne Sherman had framed her mother.
Even the car accident that caused her mother’s death was whitewashed into Yvonne Sherman forcefully kissing him, causing her mother to have a misunderstanding.
"How can you twist something I saw with my own eyes into something so unrecognizable?" Sophia Shaw’s fingers gripped the edge of her laptop, still unable to suppress her rage. "If you’re so good at making things up, why don’t you become a screenwriter?"
She took out her phone, pointed it at the screen, and with a CLICK, took a picture. Her fingers tapped a few times.
"Where did you send that?" A sense of dread suddenly washed over Chad Jennings.
"I sent it to Yvonne Sherman, so she can see for herself just how shameless the man she ruined her own reputation to steal really is!"
"Faye, don’t! We can talk about this! She’s in prison, she won’t see it."
Chad Jennings wasn’t saying this because he was afraid of Sophia sending it, but because he was hoping she would let the matter drop and reconcile with him.
"Don’t worry," Sophia Shaw slowly raised the car window, her voice coming coldly through the last remaining crack, "Her lawyer will show it to her."
The moment she finished, Chad Jennings’s face went white as a sheet.
Yvonne Sherman was in prison; he had only dared to twist the truth so brazenly because he was certain she would never see it!