Chapter 7

Marcus brought his phone to his ear. After hearing what Royce said, he thought about his schedule next week and replied, "Next Monday is fine. Tell her not to be late. I won't wait around or reschedule for her."

Before he finished, the elevator arrived, and the doors opened. After entering the elevator first, Sophia politely pressed the button to hold the doors open.

When she glanced up and saw the tall man with a commanding presence, she couldn't help but freeze for a moment. She'd run into that unapproachable man in the sunglasses again.

Only this time, he wasn't wearing those sunglasses indoors.

Perhaps due to his exceedingly cold bearing, she didn't even get a good look at his face before looking away.

Done with the call, Marcus lowered his hand, his expression austere. But just two seconds later, his phone started ringing again.

After glancing at the caller's name, he took the call. "Hey, Jason. Have you found anything?"

"You were actually right. Lucas' donation was used," Jason replied.

Expression tightening, Marcus asked, "Who is it?"

"I'm still looking into it."

"Let me know the moment you find something."

"I will. Don't worry about it. It shouldn't take more than two days."

The elevator arrived on the first floor. After Sophia stepped out, Marcus ended the call and lowered his phone again, feeling a little agitated. The fact that Lucas' child might be somewhere out there made his breath hitch a little.

If he could find that child, he would stop at nothing to let his parents meet the child, regardless of what the family asked for.

It would even be perfect if the two families could continue to keep in touch as relatives.

…

On the way back, Sophia called Phillip, but the call didn't go through. She figured that he had deduced her reason for calling and refused to take her calls to avoid giving her any money.

She would've gone straight to the company to look for him, but alas, time was of the essence. The hospital needed a deposit before it could start the treatment for Joshua. It'd end up causing an unnecessary delay if she went to his company and failed to get the money.

Thus, she decided to sell off her expensive belongings first. Once she got the money to cover the initial medical expenses, she could slowly deal with getting money from that scumbag.

When Sophia got back to the house, she dashed straight to her walk-in closet and started gathering everything. She dumped all of the luxury goods she'd bought over the years into the storage bags and stuffed them into the car before heading straight to the mall.

When the owner of the luxury resale outlet saw her pile of things, she froze for a moment before asking, "Are you sure you don't want all of these pieces anymore, ma'am?"

Sophia nodded. "Please go through everything and try to give your best offer. My child is sick, so I need the money urgently."

Looking somewhat doubtful, the owner put on her gloves and started authenticating the handbags.

A couple was strolling past the store when the young woman, Lianna Springer, abruptly turned her head and looked through the store window.

"Huh? Isn't that my sister-in-law? What's she doing in a resale outlet? It looks like she's selling off her bangs…" Lianna mumbled, her expression shocked.

Her boyfriend, Harry Arnett, remarked, "You can go in and ask her."

"Why would I want to talk to her? I can't even stand the sight of her. I can just call Phil and ask him about it," Lianna said disdainfully before giving Phillip a call.

It took a while before he answered.

"Hey, Phil. Have you run into some kind of problem with your company?"

Phillip, who'd just finished a meeting, was completely clueless. "The company's just fine. Why do you ask?"

"I thought you were going bankrupt or something," Lianna replied.

"Why would you think that?"

"Well, Harry and I are at the mall, and I ran into Sophia. She's in a luxury resale store with a pile of bags, and it looks like she's selling them," Lianna reported.

Clutching the phone, Phillip said nothing.

"Why would Sophia be selling her bags all of a sudden if your company's doing just fine? Did you two get into a fight? Did you cut her off?"

That was the only possibility Lianna could think of.

Phillip had just seen Sophia's earlier call. Now, after hearing what Lianna told him, he figured out the situation.

It seemed as though Joshua did have leukemia after all. Sophia was probably forced to do something as embarrassing as sell off her bags just to get money for his treatment costs.

But he'd been giving her tens of thousands of dollars each month. After all these years, surely she would've put aside at least a million or so by now, wouldn't she? Why would she end up in such dire financial straits?

It never occurred to Phillip that the money he gave her had to go to the family's daily expenses as well, including the cost of raising Joshua and paying Helen's salary. There were also gifts for friends, family, and acquaintances during various festivities and special occasions.

Sophia had already done a pretty good job of being careful with the money. She also occasionally did some coding for her old classmates to earn extra money. That was the only reason why she managed to put aside some savings.

Alas, the money could never remain in her bank account for too long. The Laytons would come up with all sorts of reasons and excuses to get her money from her.

At Phillip's silence, Lianna pressed, "What's going on, Phil? What happened between you two?"

Figuring that he couldn't hide the situation much longer, Phillip explained, "I'm planning on divorcing Sophia."

"You're divorcing her? Why? I don't like her, of course, but I thought you two were getting along just fine!" Lianna exclaimed.

"Roxanne's back," Phillip replied.

"Who? Roxanne Hough?" Lianna sounded even more shocked. "What's she doing back here? She left you all those years ago to marry some rich guy right after dumping you, but now that you're doing good for yourself, she's started regretting her decision?"

"She had her reasons for getting married so quickly back then. I've forgiven her for what happened," Phillip said.

Lianna snorted. "She had her reasons, huh? What could they possibly be? It was just her greed and vanity."

Roxanne claimed that her mother had cancer, and the treatments cost way too much. She'd been a broke college student who'd recently graduated, so she didn't have the money to cover the expenses. She'd only married that rich scion because he'd promised to give her the money to pay for her mother's medical bills.

But of course, Phillip didn't tell Lianna that. He was afraid she wouldn't believe it and started ridiculing Roxanne again.

"If you two are divorcing, what's going to happen to Joshua?" Lianna asked. "He'll stay with you, right?"

"Joshua… I did want custody of him at first, but now…" Phillip trailed off.

"Now what?" Lianna questioned. "Is Roxanne forbidding you from keeping him?"

"Certainly not!" Phillip quickly said. He hesitated for a moment before explaining the situation. "Josh has leukemia. It's going to cost a lot to treat him. Sophia's probably selling her bags to raise funds for that."

"What? Josh has leukemia? Why didn't you tell us, your family, about everything that's been going on with you two?" Lianna's voice grew so loud that the passersby started looking.

At that moment, Sophia walked out of the store. She was briefly startled when she noticed Lianna standing by the entrance.

When their eyes met, Lianna lowered her phone, her expression complicated as she eyed Sophia.

Knowing that Lianna had always disliked her, Sophia didn't intend to greet her. She turned to leave as if she hadn't seen Lianna, but Lianna came running after her.

"Hey! Sophia!" Lianna called out rudely before stopping in front of Sophia, blocking her path.

Sophia's disdain for Phillip extended to the rest of his family now. Pausing in her footsteps, she gave Lianna an icy glance. "What do you want?"

"Does Josh really have leukemia?" Lianna questioned.

Sophia didn't want to answer that question. She tried to sidestep Lianna and leave, but Lianna stood in her way again.

"Don't walk away from me! I haven't finished asking my questions yet. Are you seriously going to get a divorce from Phil?"

Uninterested in entertaining any of Lianna's questions, Sophia pushed Lianna away and started walking.

Alas, Lianna kept following her and throwing even more questions at her. "How will you two be splitting your marital assets? What's going to happen to the house, the car, and the company shares? Are you going to be like those gold diggers online and cling to the fact that Phil is in the wrong to force him to walk away with nothing?"

Sneering, Sophia retorted, "You finally said something sensible. At least you know he's the one at fault."

"Hey! What are you trying to imply, huh? Even if Phil made a mistake, you should be reflecting on yourself, too, you know! It's your fault for always being so controlling, making him listen to you both at home and outside. Men like wives who are gentle, docile, and understanding, okay?"

Lianna's accusations left Sophia speechless, but she didn't refute Lianna. She simply looked at Harry, who was still standing outside the store.

"So what you're saying is, all a woman needs to do is be gentle, docile, and understanding for a man to love her and be loyal to her?" Sophia questioned Lianna.

Lianna followed Sophia's gaze and looked at Harry as well before waving her chin in the air. "Of course! Harry loves me to death!"

Sophia scoffed before dropping a bomb on her. "In that case, you should ask him who the redhead he was hugging at that jewelry boutique in Haven Plaza last month was."

Lianna's eyes nearly popped out. "What are you trying to say?"

Instead of answering, Sophia took out her phone and showed Lianna a photo. After craning her neck to take a look at the picture, Lianna was dumbstruck. She was just about to reach for the phone when Sophia retracted her hand, flashed Lianna a knowing smile, and left.

Sophia had gone out with Christa last month. They were window shopping at Hazen Plaza when she saw Harry in a jewelry boutique with a redheaded woman. He had his arm around her, and the two were all over each other.

When she got home, she'd dropped hints of it to Phillip, saying that Harry might not be a trustworthy boyfriend. She thought that, as Lianna's older brother, Phillip should pay closer attention to them and do something about it.

However, Phillip said she was being sensitive and that he thought Harry seemed like a decent guy. Since he said so, she dropped the subject.

After all, it was also wise to respect other people's choices and not interfere with their lives.

Sophia wouldn't even have bothered exposing this to Lianna if Lianna hadn't provoked her in the first place.

She'd just reached the elevator when she heard a loud argument breaking out behind her. When she glanced back at them, she saw Lianna hitting Harry with her handbag, screaming, "You bastard!"

As Harry avoided her attacks, he kept trying to explain himself. He even tried to hug her.

Once the elevator arrived, Sophia got in. She couldn't be bothered to stick around for any more of the show. She had her own matters to deal with.

All of her luxury bags and jewelry had cost her hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years. But when she sold them off now, she only got a bit over a hundred thousand back.

That was a far cry from the 500 thousand dollars she needed.

Sophia was still trying to think of how she could get more money when her phone started ringing. She looked down and saw Phillip's name on the screen.

Her expression shifted. She thought about it for a moment before taking the call.

"Hello?"

"Did you need something? I was in a meeting just now, so my phone was on silent mode." Phillip's tone was a lot more curt and distant now, his previous gentle warmth disappearing.

Sophia's heart still ached when she noted the change in his attitude. They'd been married for years, and she'd made so many sacrifices for this marriage. Once upon a time, she thought they would grow old together, but now…

Her heart clenched for just a moment before she swiftly regained her composure and responded just as curtly to him, "I need money for Josh's treatment. Transfer 500 thousand dollars to me."

"Has the diagnosis been confirmed?"

The fact that Phillip was still hung up on this made it impossible for Sophia not to retort sarcastically, "Why do you ask? Do you think I'd fake his illness just to get money from you?"

Phillip remained quiet. He did consider that possibility.

"I know very well how the company is doing, Phillip. Don't even try to lie to me by saying that you don't have 500 thousand dollars. If you back me into a corner, I'm perfectly capable of ruining your reputation and making sure you end up with nothing," Sophia declared.

She was never some dumb, naive woman. The only reason why she hadn't gone scorched earth with him yet was because Joshua was sick, and she couldn't divert too much of her attention from him.

That being said, if Phillip and Roxanne crossed the line, she didn't mind blowing things up, turning them into social pariahs.

Evidently, Phillip was fully aware of what Sophia was capable of. After a brief silence, he said, "I can give you the money, but can you sign the divorce papers first?"