Sterling swallowed with difficulty as the bloody veins spread in his eyes. He clenched his teeth as green veins popped up on his forehead, but he did not say a word.
“Ster, you’re not a little boy anymore. Don’t be so rash when handling things or you’ll only bring trouble to yourself. You might even place Nicole and the two kids in a precarious position. You need to remember that you’re not alone. You can’t be doing this with wanton disregard,” said Sophia.
Tears flowed down one side of Sterling’s cheek. His whole body was tight with tension. “So, we can’t… We can’t return to how we were?”
“Yeah.” Sophia lowered her eyes and nodded, her fingers grasping the corner of her sweater.
Sterling trembled as he took a breath. “I’ll do my best to be more powerful, then we can…”
“We can never return to the past,” Sophia finished his sentence.
“Ster, even if you work hard right now, all you can do is make a better life for yourself and stop yourself from being manipulated by others, but no matter how hard you work and how powerful you become, even if you’re on the same par as Charles, we can never return to before.”
Sterling crouched on the ground with both hands hugging his head. He shouted in pain.
Sophia lowered her eyes to look at him, quietly sighing several times. Her heart was like the dirty laundry in the washing machine, all entangled in a vicious mess.
The commotion upstairs was too loud. James rushed upstairs. “What’s going on? Sterling, why did Lisa say you were arguing with Charles?”
Jenny followed behind him as she stared at the room door. There was an undeniable look of anxiousness on her face. She could not see what had happened in the room, and her gaze turned toward Sophia. She breathed a quiet sigh of relief when she saw the red marks on Sophia’s neck.
Sterling stood up and glared angrily at James. He shouted at James with reddened eyes, “Can’t I argue with him for no good reason?! I hate that son of a b*tch’s gut and I hate your guts too! If you weren’t so selfish, things would never have turned out this way!”
James was bewildered by this sudden angry attack. He roared back, “What’s the matter with you again?”
“This is because of you! Everything that happened is your fault. I’ll never ever forgive you!” Sterling said viciously as he strode away and went downstairs.
James watched him run out of the villa with a confused look. He turned to ask Sophia, “What’s going on? Why did your brother go crazy?”
“Nothing,” Sophia said with a calm expression.
Master Harris’ opinion was like a fishbone stuck steadily in James’ heart.
He was not bothered by Sterling and stared at the closed room door while asking, “Is Charles in there? Get him out here for me. I’d like to ask him something.”
“It’s not really… Convenient for him right now. You can ask him later,” Jenny said nervously.
She pushed Sophia and said, “Everything’s fine now. Hurry up and get in. Don’t let Charles wait up for you.”
James was baffled. “Why would it be inconvenient? How do you know Charles is not convenient to see me now?”
“Soph, hurry up and get in.” Jenny prompted Sophia, and before Sophia could answer, Jenny opened the door and pushed Sophia in. She then closed the door behind her.
Sophia watched the door shut and heard the sound of her parents arguing outside the door. She pursed her lips and locked the door before proceeding to take off her clothes as she walked toward where Charles was.
Their dripping sweat became entangled with their heavy breathing as Sophia’s body moved along to Charles' rhythm. She wrapped her hands around his neck at passionate moments. Those annoyingly unsettling matters seemed like something that had happened in a past life.
Sophia was now unable to tell if she was living in reality or was existing in a hallucination.
Their passion burned through the night.
The next morning came.
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