Not long after hanging up on Samuel, Charles went home and was immediately greeted by the sight of Charlize pouting on the couch in the living room.
Raising an eyebrow, he asked, “Who ticked you off?”
She shot him a glance and huffed. “How can they be so mean? In the past, no one called them out when they bullied Ms. Yarrow, yet now, they had the nerve to criticize Ms. Yarrow over something so trivial.”
Charles knew that his sister had blind admiration and adoration for Sophia. Admittedly, he was biased against Sophia in the past. However, he recently realized that it was shallow of him to do so. It was not a bad thing for Charlize to like Sophia.
Furthermore, Charles realized that if innocent Charlize could have a tenth of Sophia’s wit and wisdom, he would not have to worry about her being bullied after she got married.
“So why are you paying them so much attention?”
The corners of Charlize’s lips curled. “Mr. Schild called me. He asked me to take down the headlines.”
Charles flashed a glance at her. “You’re not the one that released the audio recording. How are you going to take it down?”
“Exactly! It’s not even me who—”
Halfway through her sentence, Charlize realized he had tricked her into admitting it. She quickly clasped her hands over her mouth, but it was too late. What was said had already been said.
Annoyed, she could not help but shoot Charles a glare. “Charles!”
Amused by her reaction, Charles chuckled. “I’m not chastising you.”
He paused briefly before asking her, “It was Sophia who asked you to claim it was your doing, wasn’t it?”
Afraid that he would dislike Sophia, Charlize quickly shook her head. “Of course not! It’s just that… It’s just that I couldn’t stand it any longer, so I admitted to it myself!”
Staring at his naïve sister in front of him, Charles sighed. “You should continue to learn from Sophia.”
She couldn’t even come up with a good excuse. What am I supposed to do with her?
Upon hearing his comment, Charlize blinked in surprise. “I thought you’d hate Ms. Yarrow.”
“What’s there to hate?”
“I mean, I wasn’t the one who published the audio recording today, but Ms. Yarrow made me take responsibility for it.”
Despite being willing to support and help Sophia unconditionally, Charlize was not a fool. In the past, she intentionally chose not to read between the lines to save herself the pain. Nonetheless, after spending so much time with Sophia, the older woman’s wit began to rub off on her. As of then, she would also put more thought into certain situations.
An example would be the incident of Sophia asking her to bear the responsibility of the audio recording being published online. Since Charles was not fond of Sophia, to begin with, Charlize reckoned he would think of Sophia as a scheming person who would use people for her own benefit should he find out about it.
To her surprise, Charles smiled. “You’ve begun to think in depth. Not bad. You’re showing some improvement.”
A brief pause later, he added, “Didn’t she discuss it with you? It’s not like she pushed the blame onto you without your consent. Besides, this isn’t a huge issue. Whether you or Sophia admitted to it, the only thing that would change is the Queen family’s sentiments. It wouldn’t cause you any harm. Since it’s such a small issue, coupled with the fact that she had discussed it with you, you as a friend have every right to help her, so why should I hate her?” It was not often that he would have such conversations with his sister.
Realization dawned on Charlize. “No wonder Ms. Yarrow told me that I could be honest if you were to ask me about it.”
“Mm-hmm,” Charles responded. He then glanced at her and added, “That’s why you should keep learning from Sophia. She’s very intelligent.”
Hearing him compliment her idol delighted her so much that she only fixated on his last sentence. “I think Ms. Yarrow is very intelligent too! Yesterday, in the restroom, I almost burst into tears from anger when I heard Megan’s and Mrs. Queen’s remarks about Ms. Yarrow, but Ms. Yarrow managed to shut them up with just a few sentences! She’s so cool! Ms. Yarrow also taught me how to win an argument. She said I have to hit them where it hurts most, and…”
Charles was not interested in Sophia, so he merely replied halfheartedly and exhorted Charlize to interact with her more before heading to his room upstairs.
Nevertheless, he was pleased that Sophia was willing to teach Charlize.
On the other hand, Sophia had no idea that Charles was reading so much into it. Truthfully, she merely thought that Charlize was too naïve for her own good. The latter could not even hold an argument. It was almost pitiful.
Upon entering the car, Sophia tilted her head to look at Alexander with a smile. “Did Mr. Schild call you?”
“Yeah,” Alexander responded.
A beat later, he added, “There’s no need to entertain him.”
Sophia arched an eyebrow but dropped the subject.
The incident did place Samuel in a tough spot, but Jessica and Megan were truly annoying.
Since the previous incident did not seem to have taught them a lesson, she did not mind teaching them another one.
That way, they would stop obsessing about causing her trouble.
However, Sophia had not expected Jessica and Megan to show up at her workplace to apologize.
The moment she ended a meeting, she saw Yvonne making her way over to her. “Ms. Yarrow, Mrs. Queen and Ms. Queen are here to see you.”
Sophia smiled. “Do I have to see them just because they want to see me?”
Shooting a glance at her, Yvonne nodded. “Understood, Ms. Yarrow.”
The audio recording trended all over the internet the previous day, so one could safely infer that Jessica and Megan were visiting to make peace.
While staring at Yvonne’s retreating figure, Sophia suddenly had a change of mind. “On second thoughts, invite them in.”
Therefore, she brought Megan to Sunshine Group to look for Sophia even before the clock struck ten. However, the two of them were stopped by the receptionist for visiting without an appointment.
If it were in the past, Megan would have thrown a tantrum and left without looking back, but after being reprimanded by both Harold and Bruno, she could not possibly act willfully.
Jessica tossed and turned in bed the previous night, ruminating on the incident. Even though she disliked Sophia, she was well aware that she had lost her composure that time around.
She had no reason to hold a grudge against Sophia over such a matter, and neither did she have a reason to keep finding faults with everything the latter did.
After all, Sophia and Stephen were no longer together. Moreover, he was just her godson, not her biological son.
At the end of the day, she had no say in Stephen’s actions.
Having thought things through, Jessica was extremely patient that day.
Harold was right—what had happened already happened. The public knew what was supposed to be known as well as things that were not supposed to be known.
The incident had spread all over the internet. Unless she and Megan had the superpower to erase the minds of whoever had heard the recording, the only thing they could do was apologize to Sophia personally. That way, they could still salvage a tiny bit of their dignity.
At the very least, the public would not view the Queen family as arrogant and unreasonable for still acting all high and mighty even after something like that had happened.
While the mother-daughter duo was lost in their own thoughts, they saw Yvonne exiting the elevator.
“Ms. Leighton, what did Ms. Yarrow say?”
Jessica merely thought that Yvonne had a good relationship with Sophia and did not think much about it. After all, both Yvonne and Sophia were Suny’s capable subordinates. Sophia asking Yvonne to receive them while being in a meeting herself was nothing out of the ordinary.
“Ms. Yarrow asked me to escort both you and Ms. Queen upstairs.”
Yvonne was polite, but her expression was cold.
Nodding her head, Jessica brought Megan into the elevator.
