“No, it’s someone else. For some reason, there have been a lot of controversial news articles popping up online today,” Carl replied.
Sonia was rather taken aback by this. “What sort of controversies?”
“Mr. Colehart of Hart Beauty Group was found to have a secret lover and child outside of his marriage, Mr. Ellen of Nexus Technologies was revealed to have evaded his taxes, Mr. Reinard of Commute Company was caught being a perpetrator of violence to his wife and children… The list goes on. There were about thirty different CEOs from different companies who had their dirty secrets leaked online, and the whole internet is a mess right now.” Carl’s coffee cup was already by the edge of his lips as he spoke.
Sonia widened her eyes in surprise. “Could they have offended some big shot? Is that why someone is making a fool out of them? But I don’t think it’s possible for so many different CEOs to have offended the same person.”
“Who knows? Perhaps someone just did it because they were annoyed with all the CEOs’ bad behaviors.” Carl chuckled.
Sonia nodded. “You’re right. Fortunately, Asher isn’t involved in any controversies; we’d see his name online otherwise. I don’t care if he loses his reputation, but I don’t want it to impact Paradigm Co.’s name.”
“Don’t worry. That will never happen to Paradigm Co.,” Carl uttered as he toyed with his coffee cup. She chuckled at his words. “We can never be too sure about such matters, even if—” Her phone rang before she could finish her sentence. She flashed Carl an apologetic smile before she glanced at her phone. It was a local number that she hadn’t saved in her contacts.
“Hello, who’s this?” Sonia swiped the green ‘answer’ slider on the screen before placing the phone by her ear.
The person on the other line was silent for two seconds before he responded. “Didn’t you save my number?”
Sonia blinked a few times. “Is that you, Tim?”
“It is!” Tim replied.
“Who is it, Sonia?” Carl tried to look at her phone, but Sonia gave him a look, telling him that they would talk later. She then shifted her focus back to the person on the call. “What is it?” she asked.
“Tina just contacted me. I’m sure it has something to do with you.” Tim gripped onto his phone by pressing his shoulder toward his ear while he used both his hands to deal with the animal carcasses on his surgical table.
“Why would you say that?” Sonia narrowed her eyes.
“Because she would never look for me unless she wants me to do something bad to you,” he replied flatly.
She pressed her red lips together. “Are you saying that you’ve done something bad to me in the past?”
The scalpel in Tim’s hand froze for a moment as he strung his words into a sentence. “Yeah, I’m sorry. I was the person on the motorbike who snatched your bag.”
“That was you?!” Sonia’s expression darkened as she stood up angrily. Carl got to his feet immediately. “What is it, Sonia?”
“It’s nothing.” Sonia massaged the space between her brows as she continued to speak to the person on the phone. “Where’s my bag now?”
“I threw it into a sewer tank,” Tim replied in a sorry tone. Back then, he hadn’t known that she was his angel. Therefore, he went according to Tina’s request to deal with the phone after snatching her bag. The phone consisted of footage of Tina pushing Sonia downstairs, after all.
“I won’t forget this, Tim!” Sonia could feel her lungs burning as a result of her anger, and she had to take a few deep breaths before she managed to calm down the burning fire within her. “Tell me; why did you call me today?”
“I just told you—Tina’s looking for me again, and I’m sure she wants to do something to you. I thought I’d ask you over to hear more about it.” Tim was nearly done with his surgery, and he lowered his scalpel and removed his gloves to wash his hands at the sink.
Sonia vigilantly clutched onto her phone. “How would I know that you’re not intentionally calling me over so that Tina could attack me? I know that you and Tina are close, so why should I trust you?”
“I was close with Tina because I thought you were her. However, I will no longer be nice to her now that I know her better. Furthermore, I hate how she always lies to me. If you don’t trust me, you can bring some people along with you,” Tim replied while he rubbed soap into his hands.
Sonia went silent for a moment before she came to a decision a few seconds later. “Okay. Send me the address.” Since Tim had offered for her to bring more people over, she would bring a safe number of people so that she could escape even if there were a trap.
More importantly, if what he said was true, then Sonia would be able to predict what Tina’s next move was. Soon enough, Sonia got a text message with Tim’s location. ‘I’ll be there ASAP,’ she replied.
Once Tim saw the text, he pushed his glasses up and stuck his phone back into his pocket. Then, he took a bottle of medication out of his glass cabinet before he walked out of the room—a creepy basement filled with all sorts of animal carcasses and a few human anatomical models.
“Are you heading somewhere, Sonia?” Carl hastily questioned Sonia when he saw her packing up. She nodded before telling him about the conversation she just had with Tim. He immediately insisted on following after he heard what she said.
Initially, Sonia intended to reject his offer since it was a grudge between Tina and her—she didn’t want anyone else to get involved. However, she finally gave in when she saw the hopeful gaze in his eyes. Both of them headed toward the exit together.
They had just left the office when Rebecca walked toward them with some documents. “Where are you going, President Reed?”
“I have some matters to handle outside. What is it?” Sonia looked at Rebecca.
Rebecca waved the documents in her hands. “These are last month’s financial statements. You need to go through them and sign them.”
“You can leave them in the office; I’ll take a look at them later,” Sonia replied.
“Okay.” Rebecca nodded. Her expression turned stern when she saw Carl standing beside Sonia. “President Reed, is this…” Rebecca’s gaze was still fixed on Carl as she spoke. If Sonia hadn’t realized the careful look in Rebecca’s eyes as she stared at Carl, she might have guessed that Rebecca was in love with him.
“This is my brother, Carl Lee.” Sonia turned to Carl once she finished introducing him. “Carl, this is the head of the finance department and also a good friend of mine, Rebecca.”
“Hello.” Carl pretended as if he hadn’t noticed the weird and judgmental look in Rebecca’s eyes as he grinned and reached his hand out for a handshake.
“Hello.” Something flickered across Rebecca’s gaze as she held her hand out to shake his. Carl was the first to pull away from the handshake two seconds later. Rebecca turned to glance at Sonia after that. “Aren’t you an only child, President Reed? Since when did you get a brother?”
“He’s not my biological brother,” Sonia explained.
Rebecca raised her chin thoughtfully before she shifted her gaze back to Carl. “Mr. Lee, is your surname actually Lee? Could you possibly be related to another family, like the Colemans… or the Hayes!”
“What do you mean by that?” The warmth was fading in Carl’s face as he spoke. Sonia looked puzzled as well. “Yeah, Rebecca. Why would you ask such a question?”
Rebecca beamed. “Please don’t misunderstand me. I just thought that he looks a lot like another person.”
“Do you think I’m related to someone you know?” Carl glared at Rebecca.
Rebecca met his eyes without any hesitation. “Yes.”
“Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but my surname isn’t Hayes or Coleman—it’s Lee. I’m not related to the person you’re talking about.” After fixing his sleeves, Carl grabbed onto Sonia’s arm. “Okay, let’s not waste any time. Shall we?”
“We’ll make a move now, Rebecca. We’ll talk once I’m back,” Sonia uttered as she looked at Rebecca.
Rebecca nodded. “Okay.” She then watched as Sonia and Carl stepped into the elevator before she looked away and made a phone call. “Hey, old man, I found a teenager who looks a lot like the master. I suspect that he might be the person we’re looking for. His name is Carl Lee. Can you find any information on him?”
Meanwhile, Carl was talking as he drove the car. “Rebecca is no simple woman, Sonia. She’s responsible for someone’s life! You should stay away from her.”
Sonia was shocked to hear this. “Rebecca killed someone? Stop scaring me, Carl. How could that be possible?!”
