One of them reached out to wrap an arm around Sophia Shaw’s waist.
Sophia Shaw dodged to the side. "You three pieces of scum think you’re worthy?"
Their faces turned hideous at being called scum.
However, their lust for Sophia Shaw’s body won out over their anger.
Besides, this was a woman Vincent Grant had used.
Vincent Grant was a god in their circle. Even just playing with a woman he’d cast aside was enough to brag about for a lifetime!
The three of them exchanged a look.
’If being nice won’t work, we’ll do it the hard way!’
The three of them closed in at once, reaching out in unison to grab her...
Upstairs, Patrick Payne saw the scene unfold. "Fuck," he cursed under his breath, quickly pulling out his phone to call Vincent. "Vincent, your ex-wife is in trouble! She’s being harassed by three rich playboys."
"Those three have a terrible reputation in our circle; they’re capable of anything. Sophia Shaw’s family background isn’t nearly enough to take them on. If something really happens, she’ll have no way to get justice. For your ex-wife’s sake..."
BEEP... BEEP... BEEP...
Patrick Payne stared at his phone screen in disbelief.
’...He just hung up?!’
’Vincent is truly ruthless. She’s the mother of his own child, for heaven’s sake. Was he really just going to let her die?’
Patrick Payne muttered a few curses.
’Vincent wasn’t going to get involved, but as an onlooker, I can’t just do nothing.’
Patrick Payne rushed downstairs, his mind filled with all sorts of images of Sophia Shaw being assaulted, his heart pounding wildly!
However, when he arrived, breathless, at the spot where Sophia Shaw and the three men had been standing, it was completely empty.
’Where was Sophia Shaw?’
Patrick Payne looked all around, and his heart sank to the pit of his stomach.
’Could it be... I was a step too late? Have they already forced her into a car and left?’
’If so, Sophia Shaw is almost certainly doomed!’
Patrick Payne anxiously ran his hands through his hair, his mind racing, trying to figure out how to find Sophia Shaw.
Just then, a car door in the nearby shadows was pushed open.
Patrick Payne whipped his head around and saw Sophia Shaw getting out of the car.
She lightly dusted off her sleeves as if she had just taken a short nap in the car, and walked back to the hotel with a composed gait.
"This..." Patrick Payne stood frozen in place, rubbing his eyes hard.
’Did I miss something?’
For a moment, Patrick Payne even thought he had been hallucinating and that Sophia Shaw had never been harassed at all.
Intense confusion compelled him to move toward the car, wanting to get a clear look inside.
He had only taken a few steps when four agile, black-clad men appeared out of nowhere. They pulled open the four car doors and quickly slipped inside.
Immediately, muffled thuds erupted from within the car, interspersed with the clear, hair-raising crack of breaking bones!
There were also the pained, suppressed wails of men whose mouths had clearly been covered!
The whole process took no more than a minute or two.
Before the four men left, they also smashed the car to smithereens!
Patrick Payne peered through the shattered car window and saw only four bloody, mangled faces and limbs twisted into grotesque shapes!
His body jerked back instinctively.
Cold sweat instantly soaked his back, and Patrick Payne quickly ran back to the hotel.
In the distance, an inconspicuous white sedan was parked in the shadows of the trees.
Inside the car, Joel Hale lowered his binoculars, a cold smirk on his lips, and sneered at Joanna Sherman, who was sitting beside him. "See that? That’s President Grant’s attitude toward Sophia Shaw! The only reason you’re not dead after all the stupid things you’ve done is because President Grant still feels a last shred of guilt for you!"
"Don’t use up that last bit of guilt. From now on, you need to be careful with every step you take."
After speaking, he tossed a room key card onto Joanna Sherman’s lap. "Go here tonight. We’ll plan our next move!"
Joanna Sherman picked up the key card, a cold smile playing on her lips. "Joel Hale, you’re just an assistant. Who are you to ’plan our next move’ with me?"
She threw the key card hard at Joel Hale’s face. "Take your card and get a room with someone of your own status!"
With that, she pushed the door open and got out.
Joel Hale instinctively covered his stinging cheek, watching in shock as Joanna Sherman walked away...
Joanna Sherman walked quickly, her fists clenched so tightly her knuckles were white!
’I will not lose to Sophia Shaw!’
’Absolutely not!’
’From now on, I will defeat Sophia Shaw in a completely new way!’
Inside the hotel, Sophia Shaw had no idea what had happened in the car after she left.
She had picked up the few silver needles that Ivan Murray dropped last time, not expecting to use them so soon.
She had secretly held them in her hand ever since the three men started making trouble for her.
As soon as they got in the car, she had jabbed each of them with a needle, paralyzing them in their seats.
The reason she returned to the hotel was to find Fiona Sullivan and Ingrid Hughes and settle the score.
She had originally planned to deal with them another day, but they had dared to use such a despicable method, which crossed her line!
The two silver needles left in her bag were reserved just for them!
Sophia Shaw searched the entire banquet hall but couldn’t find Fiona Sullivan or Ingrid Hughes, and she couldn’t help but frown slightly.
A waiter approached her and said in a low voice, "Miss Shaw, the people you are looking for are in the rear courtyard. Please follow me."
Sophia Shaw’s eyes flickered. Though she was suspicious, she still followed the waiter through the bustling hall.
The waiter led her to the very back of the hotel, where there was a drainage channel meant specifically for rainwater.
However, the hotel’s sewer system had been broken for the past few days, so all the wastewater was being diverted through here. The channel was now filled with black, stinking sludge.
The waiter pointed to the channel. "The two of them are over there."
Sophia Shaw looked over and saw Fiona Sullivan and Ingrid Hughes with their hands tied behind their backs by some unknown person, their bodies mostly submerged in the channel.
Their mouths were sealed with tape, so they could only make muffled sounds. They were in a truly pathetic state.
When they saw Sophia Shaw, the two of them struggled frantically, tears mixing with the filthy water streaming down their faces. They shook their heads repeatedly, begging to be spared.
Sophia Shaw was taken aback, completely bewildered, and looked toward the waiter.
The man had already bowed slightly and quietly withdrawn.
She walked over and tore the tape off Fiona Sullivan’s mouth. "Who tied you up here?"
Fiona Sullivan and Ingrid Hughes were both stunned and exchanged a blank look.
From their terrified and confused eyes, Sophia Shaw knew the answer—they had no idea.
"Sophia... I’m sorry! We were wrong! Please, I’m begging you, let us go." Fiona Sullivan pleaded tearfully. The feeling of being soaked in the stinking water was driving her to the brink of collapse.
’No matter who tied them up, they were clearly acting on Sophia Shaw’s behalf.’
’She was truly terrified!’
"I swear, I’ll never bully you again."
Beside her, Ingrid Hughes also propped herself up and nodded desperately, making pleading, guttural sounds in her throat.
’To be able to tie them up so silently... Sophia Shaw’s backer must be someone extraordinary.’
Sophia Shaw gave a cold smile.
Then she sealed her mouth with the tape again.
"If a simple ’sorry’ was enough to atone for your mistakes, what would be the point of laws and the police?"
The two of them stared at Sophia Shaw in shock, never expecting such words to come from someone as seemingly soft as her.
Sophia Shaw slowly took the needles from her bag and jabbed them into the two women without hesitation. "This is my punishment!"
"I have plenty of silver needles in my bag. I can give you more for free next time!"
The two women were instantly in too much pain to even scream. They felt every muscle in their bodies convulse and tear, as if they were no longer their own!
Sophia Shaw felt no sympathy for them.
When they had bullied her back then, their methods had been just as cruel, if not more so.
’Being soft on bullies is the greatest folly in this world!’
She bent down, picked up the two women’s phones that had fallen by the edge of the channel, and shone the screens on their faces.
A moment later, the phones unlocked via facial recognition.
Fiona Sullivan and Ingrid Hughes’s phones were still on a bullying website. Not only did it have the video of her humiliation from all those years ago, but it also had clips of many other victims!
Even though so much time had passed, Sophia Shaw still couldn’t control her anger, her anxiety, and the feeling that she was about to break down!
She took a deep breath, forcibly suppressed her roiling emotions, and saved a few of the video clips.
Then she tossed the phones back next to them and walked away.
By the time she returned to the banquet hall, filled with the clinking of glasses and lively conversation, her expression was once again calm.
But the atmosphere in the hall was somewhat strange.
The engagement ceremony was about to begin, but only the bride-to-be, Vivian Forrest, could be seen in the crowd.
Jaden Rhodes had not appeared.