CHAPTER 9: CHAPTER 9: WHAT A PAIR OF SCUMBAGS

Lunch time.

"Hey, did you check the group chat yet?" Lily Ellison carried her tray of food over and sat across from Sophia Lowell.

"Nope, couldn’t be bothered." Sophia’s look of utter indifference made Lily secretly admire her.

"If I could stay half as chill as you when shit hits the fan, I’d be set." She started digging enthusiastically into her food:

"Rumor has it, that manuscript on your desk was put there by Elsie Erickson, who took a day off that day. She’s the new intern—probably doesn’t know better, put it in the wrong spot."

"Mm."

She could tell, when she walked in, most people had dropped that old accusatory look, but still didn’t dare get close to Sophia, the office gossip queen.

"By the way, did Mr. Sterling chew you out today? You looked totally out of it when you came out." Lily just kept on yapping.

"Getting yelled at by him is par for the course. That icy mug," she muttered.

Lily lowered her voice, "He doesn’t yell at anyone. Never has."

"Oh? You’re just blinded by his pretty face—you can’t go through life being so superficial."

Sophia let out a snort, set her chopsticks down, and glanced up—just in time to see Zane Sterling walking over with his plate.

She couldn’t help but kick Lily under the table, shooting her a look to shut up, then faked a smile: "Hello, Mr. Sterling."

Like absolutely nothing awkward had happened that morning.

Lily jumped a mile, buried her head in her food.

"Mm."

He didn’t even spare them a glance, sat at a window seat nearby, and started talking work with Ethan Sinclair.

"He didn’t hear us, right?" Lily fretted.

"Please. Gossiping about the boss behind his back? Saying a couple things isn’t gonna kill us." Sophia couldn’t care less.

Finally clock-out time rolled around—Sophia changed into a daring red dress and did up her makeup with surgical precision.

She drove straight to Henry Quinn’s workplace, parking her car in the most conspicuous spot she could find.

People filtered out in twos and threes after work, gawking at this sudden bombshell by the building.

Sophia smiled—exactly the reaction she wanted.

Henry played it cool, waltzing out like it was nothing, grinning from ear to ear.

Absolutely clueless he was about to walk face-first into this honey trap.

He froze when he saw her—never expecting the Sophia who never bothered dressing up could look this good, like she’d popped out of a novel: a total knockout.

"Henry."

She was surprisingly warm as she walked straight up to him in public, wrapping her arm sweetly around his waist.

Henry looked stunned, half convinced he was hallucinating!

The Sophia he knew never did this; her flirting had always been low-key, at most a hand-hold or a forehead kiss, and even that was rare—this was pushing her boundaries.

"Fucking gross."

While clinging to him, Sophia was internally cursing him out in disgust!

But against this man with zero shame, she had to out-trash his trash if she wanted satisfaction!

Henry looked at his girl with that pampered gaze.

She could feel all those people from the office eyeing them as they walked by.

"Let’s go. Dinner’s on me."

Sophia plastered on her fake smile, acting all lovey-dovey as she grabbed his hand.

"Alright."

Henry, treating her like a little kid, opened the passenger door for her, buckled her seatbelt, then walked around and drove off.

Sophia discreetly patted off his presence from her dress, wiped her hands with a tissue—couldn’t hide the disgust.

"I made a reservation at The Grand Eatery. What do you think?"

Henry’s a trust-fund baby, Grand Eatery’s basically his cafeteria. Hundreds of bucks per head, a single meal runs several grand easy.

Sophia used to turn down these splurges, but now she figured, screw it: eat, drink, don’t you dare short-change yourself.

"Hell yeah."

Sophia flashed him a syrupy smile.

——

The Grand Eatery

She ordered everything she’d never dared before—Hollington steak, French baked escargot, plus a bottle of ’82 Lafite.

Bottom line, if it’s expensive, she’s ordering it. Tonight, she’s not leaving unless she can barely walk!

Henry didn’t care, just wanted her happy.

He was probably over the moon for Sophia, but his cheating ass made her want to throw up, just made her sick!

The nicer he was, the bigger the joke it seemed to her!

No sooner had they started than, big surprise, Henry’s dad called.

"Sophia, gotta take this!"

Henry guiltily flipped the phone screen away from her so she couldn’t see.

"Go ahead."

Sophia shot him a sultry smile, and his face went beet-red.

Just as Henry left, Sophia dropped that nauseating smile—only to lock eyes with a familiar stare...

Zane Sterling!

He was here too!

Sophia quickly looked away, nervously sipping her water.

How weird—she hadn’t even done anything. Why was she acting so guilty?

She snuck another glance and saw Zane Sterling still staring at her.

And then she noticed: sitting across from him was a gorgeous woman.

Even Zane Sterling apparently eats out with women—hell just froze over.

The woman also turned after noticing Zane had been looking her way. Sophia ducked her head—instant social death.

"I didn’t do anything, okay..." she muttered to herself.

"Zane, what are you looking at?"

The woman’s voice was soft and sultry—even a table away, Sophia’s eavesdropping skills picked up all the keywords.

"Nothing..." Zane withdrew his gaze, raised his wine glass and clinked with the woman.

——

The call was probably from Henry’s dad—after the little drama outside his work, most people had seen it, the Lawson Family likely started pressing their agenda.

Sophia rested her chin on her hand, gazing out at the city night—damn, it was beautiful!

Ding—

Sienna Lawson just pinged her on WhatsApp: [pic of an ultrasound] I’m pregnant!

"..."

Sophia’s hand holding the phone started to shake, eyes burning red.

So soon? Are those two families fast-tracking the marriage alliance?

No wonder Henry wouldn’t answer his dad’s call in front of her. That call was probably Sienna!

Sophia hurriedly got up and headed for the restroom.

She’d already forced herself to accept this reality a hundred times, but for one split second, she wanted to tear Henry’s fake, hypocritical face to shreds.

The bitterness in her mouth spread through her body like icy pain and numbness—and the deep ache from her nails digging into her palms pushed her right to the edge of snapping.

Ha! What a pair of fucking degenerates—

She composed herself and walked out of the bathroom.

"Hey."

Zane Sterling was leaning by the corner, eyes downcast.

Those deep, shadowed eyes mirrored her delicate, pretty face—his thin lips pressed together.

She nearly jumped—his looming presence was downright menacing.

"Well, looks like you survived. Sure you don’t need help?" His breath reeked of booze.

"Nope. I need to finish him off myself."

"Alright, then." Zane pushed off the wall and staggered away.

Sophia let out a long breath.

When all this went down, Ethan Sinclair admitted he and the boss saw everything—and it became their regular after-dinner gossip.

Never imagined even the stickler-for-work boss liked gossiping about the staff.

She just felt like a punchline now, starring live in their private show, but there was nothing she could do to get back at either of them.

Some days, she really wanted to rip Ethan Sinclair’s mouth to shreds.