She turned and said to Yancy Shaw and the others, "Uncle, you and Grandma get in the car first. I’ll be right there."
With that, she stepped aside.
Vincent Grant followed after her.
The two of them stopped beneath a pine tree.
Sophia Shaw turned back, her clear eyes fixed seriously on Vincent Grant. "Vincent, I can tell you genuinely want to get back together. But as you’ve seen, the animosity between us runs too deep. It’s beyond repair."
"Let go of this obsession. Your actions are bothering me, and they’re bothering my family."
Vincent Grant’s lips tightened as he looked at the woman before him.
They were standing so close, yet it felt as if a deep chasm lay between them, forever keeping them apart.
"It’s my fault," he said in a low voice.
"There’s no point discussing who was right or wrong anymore," Sophia Shaw said, looking at him calmly. "Let’s just treat it as a dream we’ve woken up from. From this day forward, let’s go our separate ways and be at peace."
His head hung so low it was almost buried in his chest. Beneath his sleeves, his fingers tightened, then loosened, over and over again.
After a long while, he finally murmured, "Alright."
——
By the time Sophia Shaw returned home from the cemetery, news of Chad Jennings’s arrest had already broken.
He owed the bank four hundred million and, with no way to repay it, was facing a long prison sentence.
Someone sent Sophia a video.
The video showed Chad Jennings and Yvonne Sherman meeting in prison.
The once inseparable couple was now locked in a vicious public brawl.
Chad Jennings was yanking her hair and spewing the foulest curses, while Yvonne Sherman had clawed his face until it was covered in scratches, screaming the most vicious hexes back at him.
The scene... was quite the spectacle.
Sophia sent the video to Yancy Shaw.
Yancy Shaw forwarded it to a group chat with a single tap.
Leah Evans took it a step further, sending it to all the major online platforms.
No one online pitied them; everyone applauded and cheered.
"The heavens may not punish the wicked, but they’ll tear each other apart."
"Two scumbags locked up in prison forever. This ending is so satisfying."
"I suggest the warden put them in the same cell. They can stage a brawl every day as a bonus for the other inmates!"
"I wish these two scumbags a long life, so they can torture each other for a long, long time!"
"..."
「The next morning.」
Joanna Sherman sat in the conference room.
Normally so glamorous and impeccably dressed, she was now wearing a plain work uniform. Her face was ashen, and her lips were completely colorless.
Her eyes were sunken with exhaustion.
Her assistant jumped upon walking in. "Ms. Sherman, what’s wrong? Are you ill?"
"I’m fine." Joanna Sherman shook her head weakly, but it was clear she was forcing herself to stay upright.
From the corner of her eye, she watched the man who had just walked in.
Vincent Grant strode to the head of the table and sat down. "Let’s begin."
He didn’t even glance in her direction.
Feeling wronged, Joanna Sherman bit her lip and spent the entire meeting with her hand pressed to her forehead.
Halfway through, Vincent Grant called for a recess, and her assistant rushed to her side again.
"You look awful. Why don’t you ask President Grant for some time off?"
"There’s no need." Joanna Sherman swayed but feigned strength. "I’m fine. I can manage."
The assistant glanced surreptitiously in Vincent Grant’s direction and, intentionally raising their voice, sighed, "Oh, Ms. Sherman, you have it so tough. With such a huge crisis at home, you’re shouldering the burden all by yourself, with no one to help you."
"When I took you home yesterday, I saw an old woman and a young boy crying at your doorstep. Were they relatives of yours?"
"That was my grandmother and my younger brother." Joanna Sherman gave a humorless smile. "My dad’s in prison, so they have no money for rent. They have to live with me now."
"Oh, but how can you all possibly fit?"
"It’s fine. We can squeeze."
Those three words, "We can squeeze," said everything about her desolate and pitiful state.
Joanna Sherman expected Vincent Grant to show at least a sliver of concern, but he acted as if he hadn’t heard a thing, his pen continuing to move swiftly across the document before him.
Her forced composure suddenly shattered. Joanna Sherman’s eyes instantly turned red, but she continued in a defiant tone, "I used to have several properties to my name, but I can’t just ignore my father’s bank debts. I’ve already listed them with a realtor!"
"The house I’m living in now isn’t even mine; I have to move out in a few days! Hayes, help me find a house in the countryside. I don’t care if the conditions are poor, as long as it can fit my whole family!"
"But..."
As she said this, Joanna Sherman stared fixedly at Vincent Grant.
Still, Vincent Grant gave no reaction. The tip of his pen never even paused.
Her assistant secretly texted Joanna Sherman, "President Grant must be busy. There’s a lot going on these days. I’ve heard he tunes everything out when he’s focused on work. He’ll definitely pay attention to you once he’s free."
"President Grant!"
Timothy Morgan rushed in and whispered a few words in his ear.
Although Joanna Sherman wasn’t sitting far away, she could only faintly make out the two words: "Sophia Shaw."
"Let’s go!"
Vincent Grant immediately shot up from his seat and strode out of the conference room with Timothy Morgan.
Joanna Sherman: "..."
Her assistant held their phone, mortified.
The text on the screen was still fresh, yet President Grant had just personally proven them wrong.
Joanna Sherman felt a sharp pang in her chest, as if she’d been stabbed.
The humiliation was absolute!
’So much for Vincent ignoring everything when he’s busy!’
’It wasn’t that he tuned things out; it was that *I* wasn’t worth his attention!’
’Unworthy of his concern!’
Joanna Sherman had been coddled her entire life, and for a long time, Vincent Grant had granted her every request. Unable to bear being snubbed so coldly, she bolted out of the room after him.
Outside, there was no sign of Vincent Grant.
Seeing her, Timothy Morgan said, "Ah, Ms. Sherman, perfect timing. President Grant had to step out. He asked me to inform you that the meeting has been postponed."
"Did Vincent go find Sophia Shaw? What’s wrong with her?" Joanna Sherman asked quickly.
’Vincent left in such a hurry. Something terrible must have happened to her!’
In that moment, Joanna Sherman couldn’t wait to hear that Sophia Shaw was dead.
Timothy Morgan said, "Oh, it’s nothing serious. Ms. Shaw is going out of town for an experiment, and President Grant asked me to keep an eye on the weather there and notify him."
"I just told him the wind direction over there was unstable, so we couldn’t get an accurate weather forecast. He got worried and went to the site himself."
Joanna Sherman: "..."
’She didn’t die!’
’There was no accident!’
’It was just... an inaccurate weather forecast!’
Timothy Morgan’s words were like a sharp arrow that shot through her heart.
The pain was so intense that Joanna Sherman clutched her chest.
Then, she heard Timothy Morgan let out a soft sigh.
"Sigh—"
"It’s just an inaccurate forecast, not a sandstorm. President Grant is doting on Ms. Shaw a little too much."
THWIP!
Another sharp arrow pierced her body, the pain unbearable.
Joanna Sherman could no longer keep up her proud facade. Tears poured down her face like pearls from a broken string, and her entire body trembled as she wept.
"Vincent... How could Vincent be so cruel!"
Both her parents were in prison.
Her grandmother and brother were constantly fighting at home.
She was busy with work and had to deal with her difficult grandmother and brother, yet Vincent didn’t say a single word of concern.
Yet he would run to the site himself over an unimportant weather forecast for Sophia Shaw?
Joanna Sherman grabbed her phone, dialed a number, and screamed into it, "Is Lead Aerospace so poor you can’t even afford a meteorologist? Do you have to pester Vincent Grant to go do your weather reconnaissance for you?!"
"Sophia Shaw, you’re disgusting! You claim you want to draw a line with him, but then you manipulate him into doing your dirty work! Do you just love playing with men and wrapping them around your little finger?"