It was time to leave, and Sophia, Natalie, and Joachim were still bidding their farewells. Subsequently, they bumped into Alexander coincidentally.
Decked in a black suit and pants, Alexander had a trace of surprise on his face — an expression not normally shown to others — when he noticed the group. “Ms. Thompson.”
His gaze fell on Natalie’s face for one second before switching to Sophia’s.
As Alexander focused his gaze on Sophia, his facial expression was a little cold.
After Sophia exchanged a glance with him, she lowered her gaze, avoiding him. Then, she smiled at Natalie and took a step to leave. “Ms. Thompson, I’ll be leaving now.”
Natalie nodded and watched Sophia’s back until she disappeared in the distance. After that, Natalie turned to look at Alexander. “What a coincidence, Mr. Xenos.”
Alexander’s brows creased. “Ms. Thompson, aren’t you awfully familiar with my ex-wife?”
Natalie knew what Alexander meant. She flashed him a smile before answering, “Why not? I really admire Ms. Yarrow.”
Her words indirectly confirmed Alexander’s claim. At her words, Alexander’s eyes darkened. He watched Natalie nod at him in politeness and left with his secretary.
As Joachim watched the man leave, he asked, “Mom, is that man Ms. Yarrow’s ex-husband?”
Natalie turned her head to face her son. “Yes. Did you see that? A scumbag will look like a decent human, but they always act scummy. I don’t want you to be like him. I want you to grow up and be a good man, you hear me?”
Joachim scowled in disdain. “Sure. Moreover, I think nobody in their right mind wants to be a scumbag.”
Natalie smiled in satisfaction. Then, a sudden thought occurred to her. “Didn’t you dislike it when I use my connections for you?”
Joachim’s ears reddened. “It’s fine if it’s once in a while.”
At the end of the day, Natalie was still Joachim’s mother. She knew him all too well.
Natalie also thought of reminding him, but she changed her tune after giving it some thought. “Ms. Yarrow isn’t your average woman, you know.”
Joachim didn’t think his mother would see right through him. Instantly, he was red-faced with embarrassment. “Mom! What nonsense are you spouting?”
“Okay, okay, I’ll shut up.”
Meanwhile, Sophia didn’t know she had just obtained a new and young admirer. After she parted with Natalie, she headed straight to the parking lot, got in her car, and drove back to her mansion.
As for Alexander? Sophia upheld her promise. After all, she had said she would treat him like a stranger, so that was what she would do. So, there was no reason she should say hi to a stranger.
That night, Sophia told Katherine about Joachim and reminded her to prepare a contract and send it to him.
Katherine, the psychic, stared at her in amusement. “Soph, don’t tell me you’re a young and hot guy collector? Why do the young and hot men you hire for your company come from influential families?”
Sophia raised her eyebrow. “Hmm? Do you want me to inform Joshua that you personally hired James?”
Upon hearing that, Katherine backed down.
“Soph, I was wrong. Please don’t.”
Sophia chuckled. “I’ll hang up now.”
“No, wait! Soph! Please attend the Shining Stars Awards ceremony that will be held in the middle of the month. After all, everyone now knows that you’re the boss of Specter Entertainment. Please come. I need you to be my support that day!”
Katherine knew how to deal with Sophia. All she would have to do was act cutesy. If it didn’t work, then she had to throw a tantrum. Nevertheless, these tactics of hers always worked on Sophia.
Moreover, Sophia knew that if she didn’t acquiesce to Katherine’s demands, the latter would most probably pester her until she did.
“Only this once.”
“Love you, Soph!”
After hanging up the phone, Katherine smiled smugly at Jonice. “Jonice, what did I tell you? See, Soph said yes! Hurry and pay up! Ten! Transfer it to me.”
Exasperated, Jonice said, “Why do you want Ms. Yarrow to come so badly? She’s not even a celebrity. Why do you care so much about what Elise Gardner and the others said? Let them say what they like.”
Katherine grimaced. “You don’t understand. If one has never seen an angel, one’ll never know when one of them walks among them.”
All of a sudden, Jonice was rendered speechless.
Some time ago, Thalia maliciously spread rumors of Sophia being a sugar mommy to a young man. As the rumors circulated, some people started to add fuel to the fire by saying that it was, in fact, a marketing tactic for Sophia to become a celebrity. These fake news had been popping up sporadically on the internet.
The allegation was so ridiculous that even the netizens couldn’t believe it. Why would Sophia, a boss of a company, be a celebrity who would depend on the complicated yet colorful world of the entertainment industry for money when she could be her own boss?
However, some netizens posted their conspiracy theories about the whole incident. They claimed that Sophia wanted to turn herself into a global star and make money out of it.
After her divorce from Alexander, the web traffic and searches on her kept increasing daily. At this moment, Sophia kept topping the trending chart as the most searched person, which the other celebrities dearly wanted but failed to achieve.
Those with such opposing views were not too many, but it was not a small number either. Hence, Katherine’s competitors, who wanted to make Katherine look bad, slandered Sophia too.
Even so, Katherine knew what she had to do — damage control. When she made Sophia into the most trending person on the internet for her sake in the past, she also took the chance to destroy images of Sophia’s frontal shots on the web. This was made possible because the netizens were numbed by the many trending topics of the same person.
Therefore, when the netizens, who eagerly devoured the drama that unfolded, finally came around, the only pictures they could find of Sophia were blurred images of her.
Alas, Katherine’s competitor was shooting a movie at the time. With no clear photos of Sophia, Katherine was verbally attacked online with vulgar words.
Katherine was incensed. But she knew words wouldn’t win because they didn’t see the pictures. Therefore, to prove to them, Katherine tried hard to get Sophia to show up at the awards ceremony.
Just you wait! I want all of you to cower beneath Sophia’s majesty when she graces us with her angelic presence during the event! You must be crazy when you say Sophia needs to undergo plastic surgery in Koandria before she can be a celebrity! Pshh! Who’s the delusional one now?
Meanwhile, Sophia knew Katherine had a hidden agenda when she invited her to attend that awards ceremony, but the former couldn’t be bothered to pry.
Since it was almost ten o’clock at night, she needed to apply her face mask and get her beauty sleep. After all, she wanted to stay young and be a beautiful, wealthy lady.
Although Katherine was a little chatty, she could do her job well. After Sophia told the former about Joachim yesterday, she had already sent someone to take Joachim for training in Specter Entertainment the following afternoon.
Moreover, Sophia had signed a contract with Natalie stipulating that the former didn’t need to monitor Joachim’s progress after joining the company. True to her word, Sophia never inquired about Joachim after that.
After Joshua returned from Xanfield, he asked Sophia out for lunch.
It was November in Jadeborough, and temperatures were starting to fall. A woman was seen. She wore a pair of black boots with jeans tucked into her shoes. The jeans snugly enveloped her sexy and slender legs. Then at her top, she wore a rabbit wool sweater, making her look as gentle as ever.
Not long after she got out of her Ferrari, she was approached by a man for her contact details. Sophia stared at him indifferently until the man backed away in embarrassment and left.
She and Joshua rarely met up alone. But this time, Technology Innovations was the reason for their lunch meeting.
Technology Innovations had just become a listed company in Xanfield last week, thus effectively becoming the top investment company in Jadeborough.
Before it became a listed company, many mega corporations offered to invest in Technology Innovations, but their offers were turned down. Due to this, many thought Joshua was young and reckless to have the gall to turn his nose up at money.
However, they did not know that a large sum of capital was infused into the business every year since eight years ago, making it possible for a startup to grow into a big company like this.
Of course, not many knew Sophia was the major shareholder of Technology Innovations and that she wasn’t short of money.
