Chapter 551 A Talk With Grace
A cold smirk appeared on Sonia’s face. “I’ll pass!”
“What?” Taylor’s face froze as Sonia coldly looked at her and explained, “I will never work together with you. You should leave.”
“Why?” A confused Taylor leaned forward. “Tina is your nemesis and she’ll definitely try to get her revenge on you. Us working together will definitely make it easier to subdue her.”
“You’re not wrong. Still, that doesn’t mean that I have to work together with you.” Sonia burst into laughter. “Do you really think that you’re powerful? Well, I won’t agree to it even if you are. Don’t forget that you had already betrayed me once. Do you really think that I’ll trust you again?”
Now that Taylor was taken aback, her expression darkened.
She knew that she had lost Sonia’s trust after she had previously betrayed Sonia. However, she really wanted to work together with Sonia this time because looking for Tina alone really was an arduous task.
Sonia is right. I’m not powerful and I’m not stinky rich either, so I can only work with others to find Tina. On the other hand, Tina’s target is Sonia, whom she has loathed her entire life.
Despite that, Sonia refused to work with Taylor.
“Miss Reed, I’m really sorry for what previously happened. Still, that’s an entirely separate matter, which we can set aside for a future discussion. It’s imperative that we find Tina as soon as possible. None of us will be able to live in peace with Tina at large, so—”
“You may stop talking now.” Sonia raised her hand and impatiently interrupted, “My answer still remains the same. I won’t work together with you, but you don’t have to worry because I’ll find Tina myself. The person whom I’m waiting for is here and you’re taking up her seat, so you should leave now. Don’t make me ask the waitress to send you out if you still refuse to leave!”
“You—” Taylor glared at Sonia with a dark look.
Then, an annoyed Sonia snapped, “Leave!”
“Hmph! You’ll regret this!” Despite not being able to accept Sonia’s harsh rejection, Taylor suppressed her urge to throw a tantrum and rose in a fit of rage before leaving with her purse.
When she arrived at the cafe’s entrance, she almost ran into Grace as well.
Grace had fortunately reacted in the nick of time and moved aside, therefore successfully avoided from being knocked to the ground by Taylor.
When she noticed how Taylor didn’t even notice that she almost ran into another person in her hurry to leave, Grace frowned before a disdainful look appeared on her face.
“Mrs. Lane.” Sonia waved at Grace. “Over here.”
When Grace heard Sonia, her disdain disappeared before she turned around with a smile to head to where Sonia was. “Sonny, I’m sorry for making you wait for me. I was caught up in a traffic congestion on my way here.”
“That’s alright. I just arrived as well.” Sonia rose to help Grace pull her chair out, after which she patted the back of Sonia’s hand in a friendly manner before sitting down.
Then, Sonia returned to her seat before pushing a cup of coffee toward Grace. “Mrs. Lane, I’ve ordered your favorite iced Blue Mountain coffee for you.”
“Thank you, Sonny.” Grace happily took a sip of her coffee.
Sonia took the coffee stirrer and started to stir her own coffee.
At this moment, Grace asked, “By the way, Sonny, who was the girl that went out earlier? I saw you guys talking to each other when I got out of my car. Do you know her?”
Sonia nodded. “I guess you can say so. She’s the missing eldest daughter of Mr. Gray and his wife and they have finally found her.”
“Eldest daughter?” Grace had a look of realization on her face. “As expected from the daughter of Titus and his wife, huh? What an impolite person.”
Sonia nodded in agreement.
“Alright. Let’s not talk about her anymore and cut to the chase. Sonny, do you know why I have asked you out?” Grace placed her cup down and looked at Sonia.
It was at the same moment when Sonia stopped stirring her coffee as well. “I’m guessing that it’s because of Charles?”
It was Grace’s turn to nod. “That’s right. Charles has been acting weird for the past few days and he was drunk when he returned home two days ago.”
“He drank?!” Sonia’s volume increased in shock.
At the same time, Grace hummed in acknowledgement. “Yeah, he drank a lot. He was still drunk when he returned home. He even tripped on the stairs while he headed upstairs.”
“Is he alright now?” an anxious Sonia asked.
Grace nodded her head. “Don’t worry, Charles is fine. Other than bumping his head into the wall, he’s rather okay.”
“I see…” Sonia felt guilty as she pursed her lips in response to what she had heard.
She never expected Charles to react in such a manner to the discussion that they had the other day and he even resorted to making himself drunk.
“Sonny.” Grace glanced at Sonia before she continued, “Did you know that Charles is in love with you?”
As Sonia bit on her lip, she quietly mumbled an acknowledgement. “Yes, I could already guess it from what Charles said two days ago.”
“Did he scare you?” Grace chuckled.
After Sonia lowered her gaze, she responded, “Indeed, I was shocked by his words. I had been treating Charles as a friend all along and we’ve been friends for such a long time, even though the way he addresses me is somewhat inappropriate. Still, I never imagined Charles to harbor that kind of feelings toward me.”
“Yeah. I’ve seen how you two have interacted with each other as well. If it weren’t for Charles’ drunk confession on the night of your wedding six years ago, even I, as his mother, wouldn’t have noticed that he had feelings for you. That kid is extremely excellent at hiding his own feelings,” Grace explained before she took a sip of her coffee.
“Six years ago?” Sonia was stunned. “Charles has been in love with me for six years?!”
“Nope.” Grace shook her head. “He was already head over heels for you ever since you guys were teenagers.”
Sonia’s mouth was agape. Teenagers? That’s when we were still in our late teens! Doesn’t that mean that Charles has been in love with me for more than ten years?!
At that moment, she couldn’t explain the mixture of emotions that coursed through her body.
Despite being shocked, touched and guilty at the same time, she wasn’t moved at all because she wasn’t able to reciprocate Charles’ love for her.
Although she was touched by the fact that he had been in love with her for more than ten years, it didn’t mean that she would fall for him because of this reason.
In the meantime, Grace was observing Sonia’s reaction.
She had intentionally informed Sonia about how long Charles had been in love with Sonia to gauge whether his efforts would move Sonia.
Nevertheless, it seemed like Grace’s expectation was futile.
“Sonny, have you rejected him?” she asked.
Sonia nodded again. “I suppose so. Charles has never confessed to me and I could only sense that he’s in love with me from his words, so I didn’t reject him in a straightforward manner. All I could do was use other ways to convince him that a romantic relationship between us is impossible and hope that he’ll let me go and search for someone suitable for him instead.”
“That’s why Charles suddenly went to have a drink.” Grace felt her head hurting as she sighed.
As a result, Sonia quickly placed her cup of coffee on the table and apologized, “I’m sorry, Mrs. Lane. I didn’t mean to hurt Charles like this…”
However, Grace smiled. “You don’t have to apologize. I don’t blame you for not liking Charles. Moreover, you told him the truth as well. You didn’t do anything wrong, nor did you hurt him. Charles is the only one at fault here since he’s unable to handle the rejection and endure it psychologically.”
It was true that she thought Sonia did the right thing.
It was better to reject someone whom you didn’t love instead of leading them on with vague answers for the fear of making the other person sad.
After all, if things had spiraled out of control in the end, it would only hurt Charles even more.
