Alexander left after having his dinner. Sophia did not even ask him to go, but he tactfully left after changing his clothes.
Sophia’s mind was chaotic as she held a glass of water in her hand while gazing at the document left behind by Alexander.
Alexander had listed all his assets inside the document. It was evident that he was not hiding anything from her.
The last page was an agreement. The gist of the content stated that if he cheated on Sophia, gave her the cold shoulder, or became the cause of any factor that might lead to them getting a divorce, he would willingly give up all his possessions, and the above assets would become Sophia’s.
The witness and Alexander had signed the agreement. The only blank column left on the right side of the paper was where she was supposed to sign.
Sophia replaced the agreement after she browsed through every page of the document.
Amidst her frustration, Katherine called. She hesitated for a long while before deciding to answer the call.
The sound of Katherine clicking her tongue was heard through the speaker right after she picked up the call. “Why did you take so long to answer my call? Are you hanging out with another girl behind my back?”
Sophia chuckled. “Is there a need for me to keep you in the dark if I hang out with another girl?”
Katherine began to sob right after Sophia finished her sentence.
However, Sophia was not in the mood to entertain her. “Kathy, I’m facing a huge dilemma.”
Snorting, Katherine replied, “What kind of dilemma? Are you hesitating about whether you should get back together with Alexander or not?
“Your mind works wonder sometimes,” Sophia commented in surprise.
“What do you mean by ‘sometimes?’ I am always brilliant, okay?” Katherine said indignantly. She cut to the chase afterward. “What did he do this time?”
Sophia placed a hand over her eyes. “He gave me an agreement today.”
“What kind of agreement? Is it a prenup? What a jerk! I can’t believe he’s still worried that you may be coveting his assets at this point!”
“No, not a prenup. It’s a postnuptial agreement. It clearly states on the agreement that he will leave the marriage with nothing to his name should we divorce because of him, meaning all his assets will become mine. He has already signed the paper.”
Katherine was stunned. She pinched Joshua, who was sitting beside her, in disbelief. “Oh, my god! Are you worried that you may have so much money that you’ll never be able to spend all of it?”
Sophia was rendered speechless and wondered if she was talking to a wall. “Bye.”
“Hey! Don’t hang up! My word choice may be unrefined, but the meaning is there, Soph! Think about it. You should know how much Alexander’s net worth is! I know you don’t lack money, but who would say no to more riches? Putting everything else aside, now that he signed this agreement, if you two get a divorce in the future, you’ll undoubtedly become the richest woman in the world! After considering this matter thoroughly, you’ll find this isn’t such a bad deal.”
Sophia pondered briefly and realized Katherine’s words actually made sense. “I can’t seem to disagree with you.”
Joshua, beside Katherine, could not stand listening to more of their conversation. He took the phone away from her. “Sophia.”
For a moment, Sophia was taken aback. She chuckled after regaining her senses. “Am I interrupting you two?”
“If you find it too difficult to hold on, just let it go.”
They were friends who grew up together, after all. Katherine and Joshua both knew the reason behind Sophia’s hesitation.
However, Katherine did not want to be too straightforward with Sophia, whereas Joshua did not share her sentiment. On the contrary, he thought it was better to address the issue directly.
“It shouldn’t be this difficult to love someone. You don’t have to put yourself through these troubles for the sake of keeping up a resolution you made in the past.”
You’re already an adult now, Sophia. Why do you still need your friends to counsel you on your relationships?
Clarity washed over Sophia after listening to Joshua’s advice. “All right. I know what to do now. I’ll stop interrupting you two and hang up the call now. Goodnight.”
“Okay.”
After she ended the call, Sophia stared at the document on the table and scolded to herself while wearing a smile, “You’re so despicable, Alexander.”
Why did I fall for this despicable man? Why him, of all people?
After finally reaching a conclusion, she slept soundly through the night.
When she woke up the following day, the sun was already shining brightly outside the window.
Sophia did not have any meetings that morning, so she did not need to rush to the company.
She received a few messages on her phone after finishing her breakfast.
Sophia picked up her phone and saw that Katherine had sent her some WhatsApp messages. She raised her brows and tapped into the application.
Katherine was being nosy early in the morning. She had texted: “Soph, hurry up and check your Twitter. I think Melissa is being targeted. There’s a lot of bad news about her circulating on Twitter. Her ambassador contracts with a few international brands will be ending in May. With these scandals going around, I doubt she will be able to resume many of her partnerships!”
Sophia clicked on the link attached by Katherine. The content was filled with damaging information about Melissa, including things that happened before and after her debut.
Moreover, the scandals leaked seemed to be definitive cases. She would not be able to weasel out of any of these no matter how she explained it.
Those details appeared to have been uploaded online at around two o’clock in the morning, and those articles became the top trending headlines by seven.
Melissa’s public relations team had probably failed to anticipate someone leaking harmful information about her in the middle of the night.
Now that news related to her has become the top trending headline, it is already too late for her public relations team to do anything about this. After all, these are conclusive proof of her ill behavior, spreading like wildfire on the Internet. No matter what she does now, the public will have something bad to say about her, even if she remains silent.
Sophia joined Katherine in browsing through the articles. Only then did she realize there was indeed an abundance of scandals revolving around Melissa. The latter had given birth to a child five years ago when she had just begun garnering fame, a son who she then abandoned.
Putting aside the countless men she had slept with, Melissa had also promised a young local model that she would help her advance her career internationally. In the end, Melissa had instead sent that young model to a pedophilic organization abroad. When the young model’s guardians found out her whereabouts, she was already pregnant. Last year, that young model gave birth to a daughter. Then, she jumped off a building to end her life due to failing to cope with her psychological stress.
Melissa’s team had threatened the young model’s family and spent over ten million to keep that incident a secret from the public. That was why no one had heard about the young model’s misfortune before.
At that moment, Katherine sent her a voice message, “Who do you think Melissa offended? That person must be fearless and powerful to have the guts and capability to target an international model like her!”
Sophia was reminded of something that happened last afternoon. Alexander was gazing downward when he opened the box and saw the cufflink, so she could not see his facial expression. Nevertheless, Sophia had distinctively sensed his burning wrath for a brief second.
Therefore, she reckoned that this incident most likely had something to do with Alexander.
Sophia told Katherine she did not know anything about that. Then, she exited the page and stopped herself from gossiping further.
Meanwhile, pandemonium reigned on Melissa’s end.
She had never anticipated waking up to all her wrongdoings being exposed to the public over one night.
Who did I offend?
Melissa could not fathom the answer to that question. All of a sudden, Alicia Yarbrough, her manager, yelped, “Alexander! It has to be Alexander!”
Melissa froze upon hearing his name. “B-But I didn’t do anything.”
Alicia bored her eyes into Melissa after hearing the latter’s words. She asked, “Did you really do nothing, Melissa?”
Suddenly, Melissa recalled something. “I-I stumbled into Sophia the other day. I…”
After listening to her, Alicia lost her mind. “Are you crazy? Why did you provoke that woman? How many times have I warned you? Alexander is not a man you can mess with! We cannot retract those articles because they are on the trending list now. Those media companies have refused to give in regardless of how much money we are willing to pay them! You’re done for, Melissa.”
All colors drained from Melissa’s face as she stared at Alicia in disbelief. “That’s not possible, Ali. We can go overseas. I’m still marketable overseas…”
“Do you really think you can hide these from those people abroad?”
No, I can’t. Melissa knew news this big was impossible to contain.
Moreover, she had not been doing well overseas in the first place, and her career had progressively worsened in recent years. Initially, she wanted to target the local market and earn more money while she was still popular. Unexpectedly, she was met with the end of her career upon her return.
She was doomed.
