Chapter 5

A man's strength was far greater than a woman's. Sophia passed out on the spot.

When she woke again, it was already deep into the night. She lay on her bed in her own room—her waist hurt, her stomach hurt, her face hurt. But her heart hurt most of all. The pain was so overwhelming that Sophia leaned over the edge of the bed and retched up bile. From yesterday to today, she'd eaten nothing, only drunk some alcohol. Her stomach was completely empty—there was nothing to throw up.

Just then, her bedroom door was pushed open and a sliver of light spilled in. Sophia sat up straight, unwilling to let whoever it was see her in such a pathetic state. Whether it was her parents or Margaret, not one of them treated her like family or cared about her. So why show them her weakness and give them something to laugh at?

"Ms. Sophia Windsor, are you alright?" Hearing that voice, Sophia realized she'd overthought things again. The person who'd come to check on her wasn't her parents or Margaret, but the family's housekeeper, Uma. She held a cup of honey water in her hands, carefully placing it on the nightstand. "This is honey water. You should feel a bit better after drinking it."

Hearing Uma's concerned words, Sophia's nose stung with tears. To think that in this house, it was Uma—someone with no blood relation at all—who gave her the only bit of warmth. She took the cup of honey water. After hesitating, she couldn't help but ask, "Where are they?"

Uma looked at her with pity. "Mr. Windsor and Mrs. Windsor took Ms. Margaret Windsor out to dinner and shopping."

The hand holding the cup trembled violently. Honey water spilled onto the blanket. Sophia smiled bitterly. She was so stubborn, always humiliating herself over and over again.

Uma looked at her with sympathy. To help her stop dwelling on it, she changed the subject. "Miss Sophia, when I helped you back to your room earlier, I noticed your pants were stained. Is it your time of the month? Do you need to go to the bathroom to take care of it?"

Her period? Sophia's heart jumped. With Uma's reminder, she vaguely realized her period had been delayed by over half a month. Could it be... Impossible! Robert always watched her take the birth control pills. No, not always.

The accident from early last month surfaced in Sophia's mind. At the Russell Family's party, that playboy from the Russell Family had said a few flirtatious things to Sophia, enraging Robert. He'd drunk quite a bit and exhausted Sophia throughout the entire night. That night, he'd been completely wasted and she'd been utterly drained—both of them had completely forgotten about the pill. Counting the days, it seemed to line up.

Sophia gently shook her head. This kind of speculation was pointless. She needed to go to the hospital for a checkup.

The next morning, she asked her manager for the day off and headed straight to the hospital downtown. The OB-GYN department was crowded. The test results would take an hour, so Sophia found a chair and sat down to wait. Her face was expressionless, but her heart was a mess. If she wasn't pregnant, there was nothing to worry about—she could just continue with her original plan. But what if she was? Sophia gently closed her eyes. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't come up with an answer.

Her phone rang abruptly, drawing looks from several people and startling Sophia out of her thoughts. She steadied herself and saw it was a call from Robert's assistant, Ian Miller.

"Ms. Windsor, there's an urgent matter at the company that requires your attention. You must arrive within half an hour." He didn't give Sophia a chance to refuse. After speaking, he hung up.

There were still over forty minutes until the results came out. Sophia had no choice but to leave the hospital and return to the office.

The moment she walked through the company doors, she sensed something was off. Several young receptionists were huddled together whispering. When they saw her, they immediately scattered, pretending to be busy with their work. Clearly, she'd been the subject of their gossip. Sophia's heart jumped to her throat, but she maintained a calm exterior as she entered the elevator.

When she pushed open the secretary office door, she finally understood why. Over a dozen young, beautiful assistants stood in a row, trembling before an elegantly dressed woman. Victoria Brown, the Brown Family's eldest daughter. Robert's marriage alliance partner.

She was casually admiring her freshly manicured nails, not even glancing at Sophia, as if she were nothing but insignificant air.

One assistant suddenly spoke up. "Ms. Brown, she's Sophia! We're all just employees doing our jobs properly. She's the one who's been having an inappropriate relationship with Mr. Howard, always seducing him!"

Sophia opened her mouth but couldn't come up with any rebuttal. Whether she'd been willing or not, what had happened between her and Robert was real.

Victoria looked Sophia up and down, her gaze like she was evaluating merchandise. "She is rather pretty. My fiancé has good taste, I'll give him that."

Sophia lowered her eyes, feeling humiliated. Everyone else in the office didn't dare breathe too loudly, afraid a single movement or glance would offend the future Mrs. Howard.

Victoria stood up and said slowly, "I don't care what ideas you had before. Now that my engagement to Robert is settled, you'd all better put away any inappropriate thoughts and do your jobs properly as assistants! If I find out anyone's still trying to overstep boundaries..." She paused here, looking meaningfully at Sophia before continuing, "Then don't blame me for not being polite."

The dozen or so assistants said "understood" one after another.

Victoria walked up to Sophia and specifically called her out by name. "Sophia, do you understand what I mean?"

Though deeply embarrassed inside, Sophia kept her face calm. "I understand."

But the next moment, Victoria slapped Sophia hard across the face. Gasps of shock filled the room. Sophia's head snapped to the side. Blood trickled down from the corner of her mouth. She looked at Victoria in disbelief. "Ms. Brown, what's the meaning of this?"

Victoria laughed coldly twice. Without explaining, she raised her hand to slap Sophia again. Sophia instinctively tried to dodge.

Seeing through her intention, Victoria looked at the assistant who'd spoken earlier and arrogantly lifted her chin. "Hold her for me."

The assistant froze, then excitedly stepped forward. She had a grudge against Sophia and naturally wouldn't miss this chance for revenge. Sophia had been very weak lately. She was easily restrained.

Victoria grabbed Sophia's chin, her long nails digging into her flesh. "Who the hell do you think you are? I slap you twice and you don't just take it—you dare to dodge?"

Sophia bit her lip hard. She didn't want this either, but no one had ever respected her wishes.

This time Victoria wound up her arm, looking like she intended to knock Sophia out cold. Just as her hand was about to land, a well-defined hand grabbed her wrist.