Chapter 4

After saying those words, Sophia clearly felt the air freeze.

Robert's eyes filled with danger. "What did you say?"

His anger always sent chills down people's spines. Sophia nervously swallowed and summoned the courage to repeat herself. "I said, let's end this relationship!"

As her words fell, a ceramic cup came flying, landing right at her feet. Cool liquid splashed onto her foot, making her flinch involuntarily.

Robert's gloomy voice rang out. "Sophia, I already told you. Unless you can bring Margaret back to life, forget it!"

In the past, hearing those words would have made Sophia give up immediately. After all, no one could bring the dead back to life. But today, Sophia gave Robert a bitter smile. "Fine. I hope you'll keep your word."

Sophia left. Her retreating figure remained thin and fragile, yet for the first time, Robert felt an unfamiliar irritation in his chest. He rubbed his temples in frustration and refocused on his work.

Back in the office, the scattered files had been picked up. Sophia could feel curious, scrutinizing gazes from her coworkers. Made sense—her behavior today would seem like she'd become a different person to anyone watching. She calmly sat at her workstation, ignoring Samantha's murderous glare, and opened her computer to tackle the morning's backlog of work.

Before the end of the workday, Sophia received another call from Bianca. Looking at "Mom" flashing on the screen, her heart jumped to her throat.

For Sophia, the person who'd hurt her most in Margaret's fake death wasn't actually Margaret—it was her parents, who'd deliberately hidden the truth and coldly watched Robert degrade her! Sophia had thought about this all day and still didn't know how to face them. But running away was useless. She wasn't the one who'd done wrong.

With this thought, she took a deep breath and answered.

Bianca's furious voice came through. "Sophia, so you do know how to answer your phone!"

Sophia opened her mouth. Before she could say a single word, tears fell. She wiped them away and asked in a forced calm tone, "What do you want?"

This seemingly indifferent attitude made Bianca even angrier. Suppressing her rage, she said icily, "Come home right now. We need to talk."

Sophia pressed her lips together. She could probably guess what Bianca wanted to say. Something about Margaret, no doubt. She needed to have a proper conversation with her parents too.

Forty minutes later, Sophia pushed open the front door. The first thing she saw was Margaret lying on the living room sofa looking at her phone. She wore a silk nightgown, hugging a huge bucket of chips, one foot casually propped on the coffee table, looking utterly at ease.

Sophia's heart suddenly ached. She'd never been allowed to be so casual at home. Even slightly relaxing would earn her mother's lecture about not being ladylike enough, about embarrassing the family. In that moment, she saw with absolute clarity—she and Margaret were different. Margaret was the daughter their parents truly loved. Sophia was nothing.

Just as she was feeling sorry for herself, Bianca's displeased voice came from behind. "You come home and don't even know to greet people? You're becoming more and more impossible!"

Her father, Vincent Windsor, tugged Bianca's hand, his face arranged in a gentle smile. "Your mother just has a tough exterior but a soft heart. She really means well for you. Sophia, we called you home to explain about Margaret."

Sophia straightened slightly, a hint of expectation showing in her eyes.

After coughing twice, Vincent said with a smile, "Actually, Margaret really did jump into the sea back then, but luckily a kind person saved her. She's been recovering all this time. Now that she's fully healed, she's come back to us. Isn't that a good thing?"

Sophia never expected Vincent, whom she'd always respected, to tell such an absurd lie. Her gaze dimmed as she said with a bitter smile, "Really? But Dad, Margaret admitted to my face that she was deliberately messing with me."

Caught in the lie, Vincent didn't seem embarrassed. He continued explaining unhurriedly, "She was just joking around with you. Margaret, hurry up and apologize to Sophia."

Only then did Margaret sit up from the sofa, saying perfunctorily, "Sorry!"

Joking around? Sophia was having trouble breathing. To cover for Margaret, Vincent could actually say something so illogical! Did he think Sophia was an idiot?

Seeing Sophia say nothing, Vincent took her silence as acceptance and shot Bianca a look, signaling her to continue. Bianca was still bothered by Sophia's attitude when she'd entered. Her tone wasn't friendly. "There's one more thing. Now that Margaret's back, you can end things with Robert."

Sophia laughed in disbelief. Though she too wanted to end that shameful, hidden relationship with Robert, hearing these words from Bianca's mouth was utterly ridiculous. Back then, she hadn't wanted any of this!

Sophia bit her lip, her voice trembling. "Margaret clearly faked her death. Why did you—"

Why protect Margaret without limits while ignoring Sophia?

Her accusation was cut short by Bianca's slap. She always used full force when hitting Sophia. This time was no exception—Sophia was knocked to the ground.

"Who gave you permission to call your sister by her name? So ill-mannered!"

Margaret put down her phone and clung to Bianca's arm coquettishly. "Mom, calm down. I'm guessing she probably doesn't want to break up with Robert, so that's why she's saying this! Since she likes Robert so much, I guess I'll just have to make the sacrifice!"

Her fake act made Sophia want to vomit. In fact, she did start dry heaving on the floor.

Vincent sighed deeply and walked over to help Sophia up, but she dodged him. Bianca had felt a bit regretful about her impulsiveness, but Sophia's stubbornness enraged her again. "Sophia, do you have any shame left? He was Margaret's boyfriend to begin with!"

Sophia's cheek was already swollen, and her lower abdomen throbbed with dull pain. But she gritted her teeth through the pain and demanded loudly, "When he made me drop out of school to become his kept woman, why didn't you stop him?"

Back then, Robert had been like a madman. But not only had her parents not defended her, they'd secretly advised Sophia to behave well and stabilize the relationship between the Windsor Family and the Howard Family.

This question was too sharp, completely tearing off these parents' mask of loving kindness. Even the refined Vincent became furious with shame and kicked Sophia hard in the waist.