After leaving the restaurant, Sophie walked alone on the street, furious.
Even though she wasn't her mother's biological daughter, she would never allow outsiders to insult her mom like that! If Mom had been there today and heard Lara's parents not only insulting her daughter but also criticizing her for not raising her child properly, she would have been heartbroken.
And the root cause of it all was none other than herself. The reason Mom and she were humiliated today was because she had given them that opportunity.
She felt utterly devastated. The more she thought about it, the more her heart ached, and her eyes reddened with unshed tears…
If just her background alone could attract so much humiliation, then back when Mom was raising a tiny baby all by herself with no husband to rely on—just the two of them depending on each other—she must have faced far more insults and finger-pointing.
In that kind of environment, raising her with such hardship… who knows how much courage and determination Mom had to summon just to keep going strong!
She didn't dare visit her mom at the hospital with her red, swollen face. She could only take the bus back to her little apartment. Tonight she had to deal with these obvious marks and bring the swelling down; otherwise, when she went to work at C&C tomorrow morning, her office colleagues would drive her crazy with questions.
On the small road from the bus stop to the apartment Sophie rented, Ned spotted her walking along the roadside, arms wrapped around her shoulders, looking utterly alone.
He drove slowly behind her, silently watching the lonely half of her face…
Only when he rolled down the window did he notice the injuries on her face—her cheek was swollen high, with visible scratches. He immediately opened the door and got out.
Yet even though Sophie had clearly turned her head and seen him, she didn't stop. She kept walking forward, her steps quickening…
"You clearly saw me!" Ned caught up in two strides and grabbed her hand.
"Let go…"
"What's wrong? Are you angry? What happened to your face?" He looked at her cheek with worry.
"I said let go!" She yanked hard to free herself, but the excessive force ended up hurting her own wrist.
He stepped closer to her side, his voice softening into a low, husky tone: "Did something happen? Your face is swollen, and there are scratches—it looks pretty serious. Let me take you to the hospital to get it treated, okay?"
Even though the look she shot him was full of resistance and cold indifference, his tone remained just as gentle.
"Tonight you're so different from usual. Didn't you say this afternoon you were going to the hospital? I waited for you for ages, and you never showed up. Did you meet someone?" His low, husky voice was still as intoxicating as ever. "Did that person hit you? Tell me!"
Sophie kept glaring at him, her face blank and cold, but gradually her eyes began to sting, growing moist. The tears she had been holding back finally spilled over and rolled down her cheeks…
Ned's heart ached as he pulled her into his arms, pressing her head against his chest.
"Sophie, if anything's wrong you can come to me. I can fix anything for you. You really don't have to pretend to be so strong. Why do you always have to show that cold, indifferent side to the world?" He gently rubbed his chin against the top of her hair.
"We're lovers who know and love each other deeply. Don't be so hard all the time; soften a little. I'll take all of you—your happiness, your anger, your sadness—every bit of it." He tried to sound lighthearted.
Sophie lifted her head, clutching tightly at her chest where the pain came in sharp, stabbing waves. "This afternoon Lara's parents viciously insulted me. They said I have no manners, that my mother never taught me properly! Then one of them slapped me hard across the face! They called me a roadside weed who dares to dream of climbing into high society…"
She stared at Ned with burning hatred. "This is exactly the result you wanted, isn't it? You kept telling me to be brave and face our love head-on. I listened to you; I did everything you said, and I did it well! So look what happened: Lara humiliated me, I got slapped, your mother threatened me and tried to buy me off, and my mom… my mom was slapped by your mother too and is now lying in the hospital fighting for her life…"
She was panting as the words kept pouring out. "Or is it that none of this concerns you personally, so you can just stand on the sidelines and watch the joke unfold? Deep down you think this is what I deserve anyway. You don't have a heart at all… In your eyes, I'm nothing but a cheap woman who's after wealth and status!"
Sophie finished in one breathless torrent, gasping desperately for air.
"I know you're furious right now, so I'm not going to take anything you say to heart—"
"Exactly! You don't take it to heart! Because you're the favored son of heaven, born with wealth, prestige, and family status! People like you never have to care about anyone else's pain!"
"That's not fair to me," Ned said, his expression still mostly unreadable.
"Fair? Have you ever been fair to me? Has your mother been fair to me? Has Lara been fair to me?" She shouted at him, then let out a desolate, wrenching cry: "This world has never been fair!"
"And you've never been fair to me either!" His voice rose at last, turning hard. "Because you're insecure, because you feel sorry for yourself, because you're terrified of losing even the tiniest scrap of pride you still cling to!"
She stared at him, gasping hard, her eyes filled with agony as stinging, bitter tears poured down like a broken dam.
"Let it out. It's better than bottling it up. You've been holding it in for far too long." Ned gazed at her steadily. "Sophie, I've told you before—I love you. If Lara's family is going to make things difficult for you with Professor Cadogan at LSE, I can arrange for you to study in the States. Your mother can get better treatment there too."
Sophie's eyes widened as she stared at him, her chest heaving violently, as if there wasn't enough air around her to breathe.
"So that's it. You want to ship me off, so you can have women on both arms while Mom and I are stranded in a foreign country, left to fend for ourselves and rot—"
Ned just looked at her in silence, saying nothing.
"Your father said the exact same thing to me. He suggested it because my mother used to be his lover. And now you're saying the same words… does that mean we're about to become 'former lovers' too?"
"Enough! Stop with these unrealistic thoughts of yours." Ned's anger was completely ignited by Sophie's distrust.
"What the hell is in that head of yours?" His gaze was as resolute as his tone. "No matter what happens, no matter how far apart we are—you are the only woman I will ever want! As long as I'm still breathing, as long as I have one last breath left in me, I will love you forever."
He gripped Sophie's shoulders and declared like an oath: "Sophie, you can never escape me. No matter how far you try to run, I will love you until the day I die!"
His words, combined with the intense, unwavering look in his eyes, made Sophie's heart ache…
Yes, it hurt—hurt so much that she could barely breathe.
Sophie glared at the man in front of her, desperately trying to push him out of her heart, only to realize she couldn't.
"Don't reject me. Don't fight me. I would never hurt you." Ned gently cupped her face in his hands and said in a low, husky voice, "All I want is to love you, Sophie."
The burning warmth of his palms enveloped her, rendering her unable to move.
Then, suddenly, he pulled her into his arms—holding her tightly, so tightly!
His crushing embrace nearly suffocated her…
Sophie had only been holding her breath before, but now she had completely melted under Ned's deep affection. At last, she hesitantly raised her hands, grasped the solid back of the man holding her, and hugged him back just as fiercely.
"I knew you loved me too." He let out a low, childish chuckle.
Sophie lifted her eyes, wanting to see his expression clearly, but his face was blurred—blurred by the tears that clouded her vision.
She no longer knew whether these were tears of happiness or tears of bitterness.