When Sophia walked to the lobby, she bumped into her coach. As he had called out to her, she had no choice but to stop. “Mr. Leyburn.”
“You know Alexander Xenos?”
“Yes.” It was obvious by her short answer that she did not want to elaborate further.
Aaron smiled. “I don’t mean anything by it. It’s just that he’s been training here for around seven to eight years too. If I had known you knew him, I would have arranged for both of you to be together.”
Sophia was stunned. She had been training there since her university days, which was around eight to nine years ago. However, she had not once bumped into Alexander there.
Looks like we’re not destined to meet.
“I don’t think he likes to train with others.” After saying that, Sophia decided to end the conversation. “I still have something to do, so I’ll make a move first, Mr. Leyburn.”
She nodded, retracted her gaze, and walked out of the building.
When she walked out of the boxing gym, it was still cloudy and raining outside.
Remembering she had placed her umbrella in the storeroom, Sophia did not want to return and take it since the rain was not heavy. She gripped her bag and rushed into the rain.
The parking lot was only three hundred meters away. However, the rain got bigger when she was on the way there. She could only take shelter from a nearby condominium corridor.
There was a twenty-four-hour convenience store beside it, and a few teenagers were buying cigarettes inside.
The teenagers looked sixteen to seventeen years old and were wearing high school uniforms. After buying a pack of Seven Stars, they walked out of the convenience store.
Sophia looked on as the trio sat beside the trash can and lit the cigarettes.
Although they seemed young, they were experienced smokers from how they lit their cigarettes.
The rain got heavier and heavier, causing rain to splash onto Sophia’s shoes.
She lowered her eyes to look at them and stepped back.
The smoke was heavy. Raising her eyebrows, Sophia glanced at them. After staring for a while, she walked over to them. “Is smoking nice?”
The young man who bought the pack of cigarettes narrowed his eyes at her. However, he was stunned upon seeing her face. Immediately, all the viciousness in his face disappeared, and he answered obediently, “Not really.”
Sophia smiled. “I saw that you guys seemed to enjoy it a lot.”
Young men their age were naughty, but they also cared about their pride.
Even though Sophia did not seem to have bad intentions from her smile, her words could be interpreted in many ways. One might even misunderstand that she was mocking them.
The trio exchanged glances at each other. In the end, the same young man asked, “Do you want to try?”
Sophia looked down at the cigarette he handed over and nodded. “Thank you.”
After saying that, she mimicked the students and held the cigarette between her fingers. Then she put it into her mouth. When she wanted to ask for a lighter, one of the young men had already placed one in front of her.
Staring at him, she lowered her head and inched closed to him with the cigarette in her mouth.
Sophia started coughing. She was stifled by the smoke.
She immediately took the cigarette away from her mouth. “Thank you. But I don’t think I’m that suited for it.”
She then put out her cigarette in a nearby trash can.
The young man who lit her cigarette asked, “Did you have a bad day?”
Sophia smiled and did not answer. She turned around and headed straight into the convenience store.
When she got out, the few young men had already finished smoking and were preparing to leave.
Sophia called out to them, “Hey! Smoking isn’t good for your health. Perhaps you can try this instead.”
She flung the few packets of mint sweets she had just bought over to them.
Out of reflex, the male students caught them. Seeing that it was a mint sweet, one of them snorted.
Sophia grinned and ripped open the packaging, popping one mint sweet into her mouth. Then she disappeared into the rain with her newly bought umbrella.
When the mint sweet melted into her mouth, she thought she had never been so clear-minded before.
Walking to the parking lot, she kept her umbrella and got into the car.
The rain was still as heavy as ever when she returned to the mansion.
Feeling exhausted, Sophia took a hot shower and fell asleep upon getting into bed.
It was already seven o’clock in the evening when she woke up, and her surroundings were pitched black.
She had a headache, and her nose was stuffy.
She had caught a cold.
It had been two years since Sophia had had a cold, so she almost forgot how it felt like.
As she felt terrible from being light-headed, she did not even bother to order food. Instead, she cooked a simple bowl of pasta. However, she only ate half of it, as she had little appetite.
When Katherine called, Sophia was just hesitating if she wanted to eat medicine. Glancing at her phone, Sophia closed the medicine kit and returned to her room with her phone. “Hello?”
“Soph, do you remember the variety show I told you about yesterday? I’ll let Jonice bring a copy of the contract tomorrow. You can sign it too.”
Sophia felt a pounding headache as she sat down on the bed. “How long does it take?”
“Don’t worry. I only agreed to appear for three episodes, so it’ll only take a week.”
Upon hearing Katherine’s words, Sophia laughed in exasperation. “How much are they paying?”
“Don’t worry about that either. You’ll be satisfied with it. Remember to sign the contract tomorrow. All right, now. Get some rest. Bye!”
“Genie, turn off the lights.” She hoped that her cold would get better once she woke up tomorrow.
That night, the phone on the table did not stop buzzing, and Alexander did not even care to look at it. He had already finished smoking an entire pack of cigarettes.
He was the only person in the spacious mansion, for he had moved back inside alone after chasing Thalia and Kristen out.
The room he was staying in was once Sophia and his marital bedroom. The butler told him that Sophia did not take anything away from the room except the things she had brought there.
After she had moved out, Kristen had ordered the housekeepers to burn the things she had used.
He had not minded back then. However, it was a different story now. He felt angered and pained upon thinking of it.
After all, only the possessions of dead people would be burned.
He could no longer find any evidence that Sophia had once lived there. When he thought back to one random afternoon, he remembered she had posted a photo of the plants on the room balcony on Instagram.
However, there was nothing placed on the balcony right now. It was uncertain if she had brought the succulents with her or if Kristen had thrown them away.
Anyway, he could not keep anything.
Whether it was Sophia or her possessions, he could not keep any of them by his side.
However, he still had her ear stud.
Sophia had accidentally dropped it at Charlize’s birthday party. The ear stud even had the engravings of her initials. Although he wanted to return it to her, he decided to keep it out of selfishness.
After all, he had lost everything.
While he was lost in thought, a sharp knock suddenly sounded at his door.
Alexander furrowed his eyebrows. Most of the housekeepers in the mansion had been laid off. Except for the old butler from the Xenos residence, there was not a single housekeeper in the house.
The old butler was fast asleep at this hour.
“Alex, it’s me. I have something important to tell you!”
Samuel had called Alexander more than ten times. Remembering his reddened eyes in the afternoon, he feared the latter’s mental condition. Samuel had also made a huge discovery just now, so he had quickly driven there despite the time.
The door opened right after he said that. “It’d better be something important.” Alexander, who was in a bathrobe, glared at him.
