Many things happened during the night the annual dinner was held, so it was impossible for Sophia’s mood to remain unaffected.
Three years was neither long nor short, but she still vividly remembered the events that transpired that fateful night when she was pushed into the pool.
She initially thought that Alexander would still take her away no matter how much he disliked her.
However, that wasn’t the case.
That night, she left the mansion area by herself and hailed a taxi back to the Xenos residence. Because of the night wind, she ran a high fever for two whole days and nights.
Alas, the man never knew that, for he never returned to the Xenos residence.
Every single time Sophia recalled those events of the past, the more she found herself foolish. She herself had no idea what went wrong with her in those three years that she could actually put up with it all.
That night was destined to be a restless night for her. The next day, she woke up before dawn.
The previous night, she had a lot of fragmented dreams. All of them were related to Alexander. Some were real while some were fantasy. Consequently, she was half-dreaming and half-awake the entire night.
When she woke up in the morning, her head felt heavy, and she didn’t feel quite well.
Sitting up, she turned and glanced at the time, only to see that it was twenty-five minutes past seven o’clock.
Fortunately, she had no early meeting that morning, so she didn’t have to rush.
With her phone in hand, she scrolled through Twitter and saw that Megan’s incident last night had gone viral. The trending video of “a self-directed suicide” featuring Megan threatening to jump into the sea to blackmail her was then at the top of the list.
Sophia was initially in a pretty bad mood, but the gloominess within her eased significantly at the sight of that.
Well, I didn’t do anything this time!
No sooner had she finished breakfast than Katherine’s phone call came in. “Did you see the trending list, Soph? I heard that the incident of Megan jumping into the sea last night came to light at a little over eleven o’clock. Around three o’clock in the morning, it shot to the top of the list and remained there until a little over seven o’clock!”
Sophia took a sip of milk. “Yup, I saw it when I woke up.”
“Hey, it wasn’t my doing this time! I didn’t do anything! I just woke up now, so I didn’t pay for it to make it trending!”
Sure enough, Katherine understood her and explained herself right after broaching the subject.
In response, Sophia chuckled. “I didn’t say anything.”
Harrumphing, Katherine remarked, “I read the netizens’ comments, and they seem to be wondering what exactly the stakes of the bet were that caused Megan to go so far as threatening to jump into the sea. This time, she has really shot herself in the foot. It’d be fine if she hadn’t done this, but with this mess now, she has no choice but to stream herself apologizing live. Thousands of netizens are pressuring her to keep her word!”
Sophia arched an eyebrow. “I’m only giving her three days.”
The incident was explosive, so the sensation would still remain even after three days had passed.
Indeed, the stakes of the initial bet were to apologize on a live stream channel with no less than a hundred thousand viewers. However, with it having made the trending list then, there would likely be millions of people watching when Megan streamed herself apologizing live.
After all, everyone liked to mill around and watch the show.
Katherine clicked her tongue. “When she streams her apology, I’ve got to post about it on Twitter to help spread the word!”
Sophia drummed her fingers on the table. “That’s a good idea.”
While they were speaking, Joshua’s voice sounded from Katherine’s end of the phone. Quirking an eyebrow, Sophia tactfully ended the call.
Good Lord! They’re being all lovey-dovey early in the morning! Tsk!
Sophia continued scanning through the trending news related to Megan. On the contrary, the Queen residence was in chaos.
Shortly after Samuel sent Megan home, the latter started running a fever. When Jessica learned of the entire incident, she surreptitiously hated Sophia for her refusal to let things slide.
Meanwhile, Harold was so livid that he almost punished Megan by the family rules, only relenting at Jessica’s tears.
However, it didn’t take long before the video of Megan blackmailing Sophia by threatening to jump into the sea circulated all over the internet.
Harold phoned Samuel, asking the latter to contact someone to remove the trending headlines and videos.
Regretfully, a headache assailed him when Samuel told him that Alexander was the one behind that matter.
Neither Harold nor Jessica slept well the entire night. Conversely, the culprit herself—Megan—slumbered soundly after taking some medicine and knew nothing about everything that was going on.
When she woke up the next morning and saw the trending list, she promptly went off the deep end, declaring that she was going to seek Sophia out to settle a score. Her words were overheard by Harold, who hadn’t gone out to work. This time, he disregarded Jessica’s pleading and punished his daughter by the family rules right away.
Needless to say, Sophia naturally had no inkling about it all.
She counted down the days. After the final day of the timeframe she granted Megan ended, she personally went to the Queen residence.
Having had a fever the other night and been punished the next day, Megan had been lying at home for the past few days.
As soon as she heard that Sophia had come looking for her, she was instantly intimidated. The look in her eyes as she gazed at Jessica was as though she would burst into tears anytime. “What should I do, Mom?”
Jessica shot her a glare. “Why are you panicking? Do you think I’ll allow her to gobble you up just because she came knocking on our door?”
Megan pursed her lips and said nothing, for she knew the purpose of Sophia’s visit.
Seeing that, Jessica lifted her hand and jabbed Megan on the forehead. “How useless! Wait here! I’ll go and get her to leave!”
“Thank you, Mom!”
Jessica snorted before spinning on her heel and stalking out.
Sophia was ushered to the living room on the second floor. Mere moments after she had taken a seat, Jessica came downstairs.
Sophia lifted her head and cast a look at the woman. Flashing her a faint smile, she murmured, “We meet again, Mrs. Queen.”
Jessica smiled coldly as she looked at Sophia. “Yes, we meet again. You’re far more impressive than I thought, Ms. Yarrow.”
Hearing that, Sophia raised her brows slightly. “You flatter me. When it comes to impressiveness, I’m far beneath Ms. Queen. An average person can’t possibly think of the method she thought of.”
Jessica could tell that she was implying that Megan was stupid, but since it was just a vague hint, she could only suppress her wrath. ”Meg is young and naïve, so she naturally doesn’t have many deplorable ideas.”
With an unchanged expression, Sophia countered, “In that case, your memory seems rather poor, Mrs. Queen.”
Jessica’s expression, on the other hand, went chilly. “What do you mean by that?”
“Nothing much. I just didn’t expect you to have forgotten about the incident of me falling into the pool at your house three years ago so quickly.”
At once, Jessica’s expression froze. Why had I never realized that she’s so eloquent? I can’t win against her!
Since she wasn’t Sophia’s match, she decided not to bicker with the latter any further.
“Meg had just recovered from a high fever, and her father punished her, so she has been lying on the bed for the past few days. It’s best to forgive when possible, Ms. Yarrow. Don’t go to such extremes so that we’ll be able to get along amicably in the future.”
Sophia languidly took a sip of coffee before commenting nonchalantly, “As you’re aware of the purpose of my visit today, Mrs. Queen, I’ll cut to the chase. It’s now past the three-day timeframe I gave Ms. Queen. I don’t have any strengths. The only thing that can be considered my strength is my determination in keeping a promise. Staking a bet is consensual. Since one is willing to make a bet, one must be willing to accept the consequences. The vase is a counterfeit. Ms. Queen lost, so she should keep her promise.”
At that, she paused for a moment and glanced at Jessica. “I’ve already made myself clear, Mrs. Queen. I’m the kind of person who’s particularly obstinate,” Sophia continued.
Having said that, she took another sip of coffee. Then, she stood up and nodded respectfully at Jessica. “I’ve still got something to do, so please excuse me. See you, Mrs. Queen. But then, I don’t think you want to see me again.”
As her words fell, her lips curved into a smile.
That smile was no different from a declaration of power, making Jessica’s face flush red with rage at the sight of it.
