CHAPTER 65: CHAPTER 65: I’M HIS WIFE

"Do these people seriously imagine in their heads how many times they’ve slept with the boss in every possible place? Eight hundred times, at least?"

"Pfft pfft..." Sophia Lowell snickered under her breath.

"Look at them! For real though, it’s all hunks." Lily Ellison zoomed in on the photos, scrutinizing again and again.

Sophia unlocked her phone, tapped on the photo, just about to save it when she spotted two familiar profile pics.

It’s Melora Vance and Miles Lockwood!

These two... they actually know Zane Sterling?

No wonder during that basketball game, things felt off.

So this was it!

Her heart thumped wildly—like someone had just caught her red-handed with something.

She sent the photo over to Zane Sterling.

[Pretty handsome.]

But surprisingly, the message sent faster than the photo, the image was still buffering, and the message already showed "read."

[On the bed or off the bed?]

"..."

Someone’s got guts.

Sophia hurriedly turned off her screen.

What is up with him lately?

Has he been overdosing on yellow dye?

She didn’t reply again.

"Hey, did you see it? Manager Sawyer’s been running upstairs all day." Lily Ellison, swamped and still gossiping, leaned over next to Sophia.

"You don’t feel any sense of danger at all?" Lily asked.

"I feel embarrassed." Sophia shot her a glance. "If he was going to go back for seconds, he’d have done it ages ago."

"You’re not scared he might lose control?"

"I’m more scared the scissors by the bed aren’t sharp enough."

"Savage!" Lily gave her a big thumbs up.

Sophia pursed her lips, opened WhatsApp, and inexplicably stared blankly at his profile picture.

Did he use to say such cheesy things to Tim Sawyer, too...

She shivered all over.

Soon, Tim Sawyer walked out of the elevator, glowing with pride.

"Manager Sawyer, what’s got you looking so pleased?" A colleague just came out of the break room, walked over, and entered alongside Tim Sawyer.

"Having dinner with Mr. Sterling and the crew tonight." Her face was beaming with pride.

"Wow! Oh my god, you and Mr. Sterling—don’t tell me..."

"No way, don’t start rumors." She fluttered her hair seductively, but couldn’t hide the smile on her lips.

The sound of high heels in the office grew louder.

"The boss is really swimming in honeys—yesterday it was Professor Irving, today he’s taken Manager Sawyer out."

"No telling which is more important, new flame or old love."

"Boss has been wearing his wedding ring for two or three months now, he must be married."

"He really doesn’t know what personal boundaries are."

...

Sophia listened to their endless gossip all day—her ears were about to grow calluses.

She popped in her earbuds and headed for the sample room in the design studio.

——

She holed up in the sample room for a whole day.

When she got home, she was exhausted.

She crashed onto the first-floor couch, and from upstairs heard unfamiliar footsteps shuffling about.

She slowly sat up.

Assuming it was Zane Sterling, she was surprised to see a young, fresh-faced woman.

She stood in the middle of the spiral staircase—their eyes met, both froze.

Sophia then noticed a pink suitcase in the living room.

"Are you the kept mistress Zane’s taking care of?" Shock flashed in her eyes, then she stared with unmistakable disdain.

Sophia had striking looks—even the girl was momentarily stunned.

Can’t for the life of her understand why a woman like this would agree to be someone’s low-key side chick.

Sophia gave an awkward chuckle, must’ve been gossip from that night’s cocktail party.

Dragging her tired self, she stretched with a yawn.

The fact that this girl could waltz into the apartment, past both the bodyguards and the butler—had to mean she was pretty significant.

Not one of those random side flings outside.

Seemed about twenty-something, both about the same age, but Sophia looked a bit more mature than her.

"I asked you a question!" Seeing no response from Sophia, she got anxious.

"Say what?" Sophia replied lazily.

"..."

The girl huffed—obviously irritated.

Sophia let out a long breath, really too tired, so she picked up her phone and called Zane Sterling.

He didn’t answer.

But Hugh Irving called her instead.

[T-Bar, come grab a bite then head over.]

[Okay.]

After hanging up, she saw Hugh Irving had messaged her a table number, along with a picture.

Sophia glanced at her phone, then at the girl.

"Zane’s coming home late tonight. There aren’t any spare rooms. If you don’t have a place to stay, I’ll ask Butler Langley to book you a room. I’m heading out. Do as you like."

The way she looked, she was clearly trouble. Sophia didn’t want to fight, or stay with her. "And FYI, I’m not Zane Sterling’s mistress. I’m his wife."

She said that last part real serious.

"Hold up." The girl walked down the stairs.

Sophia slung her chain purse over her shoulder, didn’t rush out, just watched her approach.

She had on a fancy merino sweater, jeans, and this season’s new black boots.

Dressed like a rich girl, but plain features, and absolutely zero class in her mannerisms.

"Move out." She spat out those three words—the ordinary face twisted nastily.

Sophia folded her arms, face showing a hint of disdain. "Who’re you?"

"Sylvia Coldwell."

"You want me out?" Sophia grinned. "Zane might not be onboard."

Sylvia Coldwell couldn’t match Sophia’s vibe—even though she was 5’7", her baby-face offered no edge. "What’s a mistress like you so cocky for?"

Sophia didn’t bother explaining, just shrugged and left.

Who’d have thought Zane Sterling—mr. old log—had so many messy flings?

Behind her, Sylvia Coldwell thought she’d hit a nerve and was kinda pleased.

Then she went upstairs and started packing all of Sophia’s stuff from the room, dumping it in a heap in the middle of the second-floor lounge.

——

Sophia didn’t drive, so she ordered a ride from her phone.

Just as she got in the car, she saw a missed call from Zane Sterling.

[What’s up?]

[Who’s Sylvia Coldwell?] — Sophia.

[Sister of a buddy. You ran into her?]

[Yeah, at home. She wants me to move out.]

Silence on the other end.

[What do you need me to do?] Sophia couldn’t make sense of his silence.

[Ignore her. I’ll take care of it.]

[Okay.]

After that, Sophia hung up.

Zane Sterling frowned down at his phone mid-dinner.

"Zane." Tim Sawyer picked up her chopsticks and tried to serve him a piece of beef.

Zane curled his lips, dumped the beef off into the bones plate.

She laughed awkwardly, lucky no one else noticed.

The get-together was originally just the guys—Tim Sawyer snuck her way upstairs in the morning with the "signing files" excuse, and chatted for a bit.

Melora Vance offhandedly invited her to dinner, and Tim Sawyer said yes right away.

Melora got an earful for that.

Tim Sawyer met a ton of Zane’s friends when they were together.

After he got injured, she dumped him—he spent over a year getting over it, was basically trashed, a total wreck.

To this day, most of the guys don’t really care for her.

"Melora, go pick up Sylvia." Zane said.

"Huh? Sylvia’s back? Where is she?"

"My villa." said Zane.

Melora heard that, immediately put down her chopsticks and bolted out, jacket forgotten.

"Sylvia’s back?" Tim Sawyer jumped in.

The others looked over at Zane.

"Yeah, probably school break," said Zane.

Tim Sawyer’s face changed a little.

Back when she was with Zane, Sylvia Coldwell never gave her the time of day.

Even though Zane Sterling wasn’t into her, only saw her as a kid sister, he still took good care of her—maybe too much sometimes.

Now that she and Zane broke up, Sylvia’s probably the happiest one out of all of them.