“Yeah… It’s Rina’s death anniversary today…”
Julia’s hands––which were holding the bouquet of baby’s breath––trembled as she was reminded of her eldest daughter who had passed away at a young age. In the end, she couldn’t help but start to cry.
As she was too heartbroken upon losing her eldest daughter, Julia placed all of her attention on the youngest daughter. However, she would still feel her heart wrench every year during Rina’s death anniversary.
“There, there. Let’s not cry.” Titus embraced Julia and cooed, “Today’s not only Rina’s death anniversary, but it’s also Tina’s engagement day. I’m sure Rina would be happy for her sister if she knew Tina is getting engaged.”
Julia was crying so hard that she could even feel her chest hurting. “If it wasn’t for Henry the b*stard, Rina w-wouldn’t have…” Julia sobbed in a choking voice.
Titus’ eyes darkened. “The Reed Family has already been destroyed, and Sonia is the only one left.”
Six years ago, Titus had driven Henry to death and ruined the Reeds in order to avenge his elder daughter’s death. However, he couldn’t lay a finger on Sonia because she had already married Toby at that time. Little did Titus expect that six years later, Sonia would acquire Paradigm Co.’s shares and become the biggest shareholder of the company.
“All Sonia has is Paradigm Co. and nothing else. Dealing with her is going to be a piece of cake.” Titus was heartbroken at the thought of his deceased daughter, and his hatred toward the Reeds deepened even more.
On the other hand, Julia was hesitant. “Forget about it. She’s Toby’s ex-wife after all. If Toby becomes aware of this, I’m worried it would cause Tina trouble in the future.”
Titus snorted. “Don’t you know why Toby married Sonia? He doesn’t love her at all. If he did, he wouldn’t just sit back and watch the downfall of the Reeds, and he surely wouldn’t just watch Paradigm Co. slip away from him like that.”
“Stop worrying about this matter and leave it to me. Rina had fallen in love with the crown at first sight back then. Ask Tina for it later and keep it well lest Tina should give it away again.”
Julia nodded and stared at the bouquet sorrowfully.
On the other hand, Sonia planned to head back to the office to settle a few urgent documents before going home to rest. The moment she arrived at the office, her secretary informed her, “President Reed, Mr. King from Dwells is here and is now chatting with Mr. Lane in his office.”
Sonia smirked coldly. “I see. I’ll go and take a look.”
Last Friday when they were playing cards at Sakura Heights, Paul had said that he would send someone to bring the contract to Paradigm Co. the next day to sign it, but no one came in the end. Sonia wasn’t a fool; she knew Paul wanted to string her along and wait for her to call Dwells on her own. Fortunately, thanks to Zane, she had found a better business partner for Paradigm Co.
Sonia knocked on Charles’ door and entered his office. Seeing that Charles was making small talk with Paul, she walked up to them and smiled as she greeted Paul, “Hi Mr. King, it’s been a while.”
“Hi, President Reed.” Paul stood up and politely shook Sonia’s hand.
After sitting down, Sonia sipped her tea and did not bring up the matter about their collaboration. Seeing so, Paul had no choice but to bring it up. “I’m so sorry, President Reed. For the past few days, I was so busy I couldn’t make it over to sign the contract. I’m here today to make an apology.”
With that, he presented the contract to Sonia and said, “Please take a look at the contract and we can sign it if there’s no other issue.”
Charles frowned and wanted to say something, but Sonia gave him a look and gestured to him to refrain from speaking. Then, she said to Paul, “Mr. King, my secretary told me that she tried contacting you via your office number before this but couldn’t reach you. Because it’s an urgent order and we couldn’t afford to delay, I’ve already contacted another company to handle it.”
“President Reed, my company is the top manufacturer in the country for overseas orders. You claimed that you value the quality of the product, but how could you end up engaging a below-par manufacturer just because you’re rushing to ship the order?” Paul thought Sonia was merely saying so to bargain with him, so he became a little arrogant.
Sonia smiled. “Besides your company, Rentoor Inc. is also well-known in manufacturing goods for overseas orders.”
“But I heard Rentoor is fully booked until next year. President Reed, did you really sign a contract with Rentoor?” Paul was still in disbelief and pressed on.
What he said when they were playing cards the other day was merely out of respect toward Toby. In fact, he didn’t take Sonia seriously at all, but little did he think that she managed to engage Rentoor.
Sonia has just entered the business circle and has no connections. How would she know the boss of Rentoor? Could it be that Toby is helping her?
Paul was reminded of how Toby cared for Sonia that day when they were playing cards, so he thought it wasn’t surprising that Toby would help her to build connections.
Within a few seconds, Paul understood the situation. Gritting his teeth, he said to Sonia, “President Reed, to be honest, I was merely bluffing when I said that an old client requested additional orders. Earlier on, President Gray called me and asked me to not take up orders from Paradigm Co.”
Hearing that, Charles snorted. “No wonder! All this while I was wondering why you wouldn’t take up such a profitable business. I figured that there’s a possibility that someone is picking on our company. Ha! Turns out I was right!”
“Our company has quite a number of collaborations with Gray Group, so I was in a quandary.” Paul smiled awkwardly and continued immediately, “But I still wish to collaborate with Paradigm Co. Otherwise, I wouldn’t take the risk of offending President Gray and come here today.”
What Sonia needed currently was exactly this––connections. Moreover, there were no enemies in businesses and profit was the utmost priority.
Sonia smiled. “I perceive your sincerity, Mr. King, but I’ve already signed the contract with Rentoor. If I have other overseas orders in the future, I’ll definitely go to you first.”
Hearing that, Paul heaved a sigh and continued chatting with Sonia and Charles for a while more before leaving.
After Paul had left, Charles asked Sonia, “I’ve tried contacting Rentoor before this too but to no avail. How did you manage to contact their boss?”
“Zane referred me to him.”
Then, Sonia told Charles about the event where they played cards at Sakura Heights, and that Zane referred her to Rentoor after that.
After hearing that, Charles sighed. “If we had known that Zane has such a connection, you could have taught Mr. King and the others a lesson when you guys were playing cards at Sakura Heights. Teach them a lesson so that they won’t dare to play cards with you anymore.”
Sonia smiled. “Mr. King and the others are pretty good at playing cards.”
She had not played cards ever since she got married to Toby. After some time, besides Charles and a few others, many people thought Sonia didn’t know how to play cards. The last time she played with Paul and the others was the first time she played cards after six years.
“You’re too humble!” Charles rolled his eyes at Sonia and teased her, “We grew up together. Of course I know how good you are at playing cards. Even your father couldn’t beat you, let alone others.”
Because of Charles’ remark, Sonia was reminded of her father who committed suicide, and she felt terrible. “Let’s go. I’ll buy you dinner.”
Just as she stood up and wore her coat, her phone started ringing.
“Hello?”
“Is this Miss Sonia Reed? Your brother is at our police station now. Please come over immediately.” A lady’s solemn voice emerged from the other end of the line.
