By the time Sophia parked the car and checked the surveillance cameras, Kristen and Thalia were already not by her front door.
She had no idea how Alexander managed to keep them away, nor was she interested to find out about that.
The New Year’s long holiday was coming up in two days. Katherine and Joshua had decided to return to Coldbridge for the holidays, and Sophia also had the same idea.
Although the old house had been demolished for the redevelopment of the area, her parents were still buried at Coldbridge. Sophia had purchased a house in Coldbridge three years ago, but since she was married to Alexander back then, she had had to spend the last three New Year’s holidays in Jadeborough instead.
She did not intend to tell anyone about Leonard. Now that Kristen and Thalia had caused a scene, Sophia was even more reluctant to tell anyone about Leonard.
Back when Sophia was living at the Xenos residence, Leonard was still studying abroad. He recently returned to the country in July. In the past, he would only return home during the New Year’s holidays.
Whenever Leonard returned to the country, he would return with his gang of unscrupulous friends. A year ago, his friends got drunk and wanted to harass Sophia, but she shoved them into the pool instead. Leonard threatened her with the video footage of that incident, saying to apologize to his friends or he would tell Alexander about the incident.
There were more similar incidents, and they were still fresh in Sophia’s mind. Now that Leonard and his friend had gotten themselves into trouble, she would never bother showing them mercy.
Hmm… Now that I think about it, quite a lot of people have offended me in the past three years. As for Charlize…
Sophia had little to no impression of Charles’ younger sister. She only met Charlize twice. Charlize was very different from Thalia. She had her friends, yet her closest friends were not in the same social circle. If Sophia was not mistaken, Charlize was closest to her university roommates.
When compared to people like Megan and Thalia, although Sophia did not have much impression of Charlize, at least Sophia did not hate her, and it was rare for someone with that status not to appear hateful in Sophia’s eyes.
However, Sophia would still have to meet Charlize in person to understand why she spoke up for Sophia on the internet.
Yvonne had arranged for Sophia to meet Charlize at three in the afternoon. Since Sophia had nothing set on her schedule before that, she spent some time shopping inside the mall after lunch before heading to the agreed-upon dessert shop.
The dessert shop was Yvonne’s choice. Unlike other ladies, Sophia was not crazy about desserts. In fact, she did not even enjoy having desserts, but she knew Charlize liked desserts.
During the three years she was married to Alexander, Sophia had her fair share of meeting people who mocked and looked down on her. It was rare for someone to speak up for her, so she told Yvonne to adjust to Charlize’s preference and book them a dessert shop instead.
That day was not a weekend, but since it was near the New Year’s holidays, many corporations had already started their New Year’s break. Thus, there were many customers at the dessert shop when Sophia arrived.
Yvonne had booked them a private room in the dessert shop. Not long after Sophia sat down, the door was pushed open again.
Charlize, in her white sweater, stepped inside the private room. “Ms. Yarrow.”
Unlike Thalia and Megan’s arrogance, Charlize appeared to be a sweet and gentle young lady, and her tone was calm and composed too.
Sophia raised her brows. “Take a seat, Ms. Johnson.”
Staring at Sophia before her, Charlize felt her heart beating rapidly. She walked over to the table awkwardly and finally got seated.
Sophia could not help but chuckle at that. “Ms. Johnson, are you afraid of me?”
“N-No. It’s not like that.”
“Then, what was that about?”
Sophia gave Charlize a cup of coffee.
“Thank you. I was just a little nervous.”
Nervous? That’s an interesting choice of word.
Sophia took a sip of her coffee. “Ms. Johnson, I guess you know why I decided to meet you today.”
Charlize hurriedly put away her cup. “I do. Ms. Yarrow, please understand I did not have any malicious intent to do that. I did that because I think everyone deserves to know the truth.”
Sophia propped her chin with a hand and gazed casually at Charlize with her pretty eyes. “The truth?”
“That’s right. Ms. Yarrow, I know you aren’t someone like that.”
“Like what?”
“Someone unreasonable.”
Hearing that, Sophia laughed out loud. “But I am that kind of person.”
“What?” Charlize was visibly taken aback to hear Sophia saying that. She stared at Sophia for a long moment before blurting out, “Still, I believe you have your reasons.”
Sophia found her reaction interesting. In Katherine’s words, Charlize’s reaction right now was no different from those die-hard fans of other celebrities in the entertainment industry. No matter what their idols did, those die-hard fans would find all sorts of excuses and reasons to justify their idols’ actions. To them, their idols would never be at fault.
Amused, Sophia handed the menu to Charlize and said, “Here, take a look. You can order whatever you want.”
Charlize was overwhelmed. She took several glances at Sophia before finally taking over the menu. “Are you sure I can order whatever I want?”
Sophia smiled at that. “Go ahead. I can still afford to buy you a meal.”
Flustered at the thought that she had messed this up, Charlize hurriedly explained, “Ms. Yarrow, sorry, that was not what I meant. I was asking because I don’t know what you like—”
“It’s okay. Don’t be nervous. I was teasing you.”
Blinking her eyes, Charlize lowered her head and ordered the signature dessert of the shop.
Sophia curled her lips after Charlize placed her order. “Ms. Johnson, do you not hate me?”
“Why would I hate you? You’re gorgeous and kind. I adore you so much, so why would I hate you? You know, it would be great if you married my brother instead. I would never let anyone hurt you like that!”
Again, Charlize blurted out her internal thoughts while being nervous. Her ears turned red after she realized what she had just said.
Sophia was also startled to hear that. “It seems like you think very highly of me.”
Charlize pursed her lips for a brief moment before saying, “Ms. Yarrow, actually, we met before.”
“We did?”
Despite Sophia having a strong memory, although not to the extent of having a photographic memory, she could not recall meeting Charlize before this.
If she did meet Charlize before this and to leave such a strong impression on Charlize, she believed it was more than just a brief meeting.
Judging by Sophia’s reaction, Charlize could tell that Sophia had forgotten about meeting her. She was a little disappointed, but she was still happy to get a chance to have coffee with Sophia.
She got rid of her faint disappointment and said, “We met five years ago. My friend and I were harassed in Allure Bar, and you helped us out of the situation.”
As opposed to her current quiet and sweet appearance, Charlize used to be the destructive and rebellious daughter of the Johnson family.
Since she was the only daughter of the Johnson family, it was inevitable for the other family members to dote on her. As her brother, even Charles was helpless about this.
Charlize was the most rebellious during her second year in university. She used to spend most of her time hanging around with the gang of students she thought were cool to be with, and she also used to dress up like a juvenile delinquent.
One night, she was hanging out with her friends at the bar. They had many rounds of drinks. Charlize had high alcohol tolerance. Although rebellious, she knew better than to stir up trouble. However, the same could not be said about her friends. Some of her friends accidentally irritated some gangsters nearby. Her guy friend was so cowardly that he ran away after being intimidated, leaving only Charlize and another girl friend behind. The girls had never experienced something so terrifying in their lives, and Charlize almost broke down in tears.
Meanwhile, other patrons at the bar acted like onlookers as they watched the terrifying scene unfold. Her girl friend cried in fear, but Charlize dared not break down in tears. Instead, she braced herself to act tough in front of the gangsters. Yet, in the end, the gangsters forcibly took her phone away, and she could not contact Charles to come to save her.
Just when the gangsters were about to drag the girls away from the bar, Sophia, who was by the counter, threw an empty beer bottle in their direction.
It was a chaotic night. Charlize and her friend curled up in a corner as they cried and trembled out of fear. Then, with some swift movements, Sophia knocked down the guy that tried to block Charlize and her friend’s path.
Charlize, curled up in a corner, watched Sophia saving them like a hero in disguise.
She had never seen a woman knocking down a couple of burly men with such clean and swift movements.
That night was certainly a memorable one for Charlize. She realized a woman could be gorgeous and cool at the same time after seeing Sophia in action.
After that night, she slowly drifted away from her terrible friends and got rid of her rebellious outfits. As time passed, she matured and grew into the decent little princess of the Johnson family.
Still, Charlize picked up boxing, kickboxing, and some other self-defense classes so that no one could easily pick on her anymore.
