Chapter 836 Is This Karma?
Daphne grabbed Sonia’s hand worriedly. When Sonia saw her assistant’s pale face and bony hands, she let out a sigh before using her other hand to hold Daphne’s. “Calm down. I’m not firing you. I just figured that it’d be bad for you to continue working when you’re pregnant and when your body’s weak. That’s why I wanted you to take a break and rest a little more before coming back to work.”
“I know, but there’s no need for that.” Daphne shook her head. “I’m about to abort this child, so I’ll be able to come back to work soon. I won’t need a break.”
“What?” Sonia’s expression changed immediately. “Are you really going to abort your child?” When Daphne heard the way Sonia phrased her sentence, she wasn’t surprised by the fact that Sonia had expected her to abort the child. After all, if Tim told Sonia about Daphne’s pregnancy, it was likely that he also told Sonia about Daphne’s enquires about abortion.
“Yeah. I want to abort the child!” Daphne nodded with a bitter and disappointed look on her face. “This child shouldn’t have existed, after all. The child’s father doesn’t know about my pregnancy, so I should abort it as soon as possible so that everything will go back to normal. I can just pretend that nothing happened between the child’s father and me.”
Sonia gazed at Daphne for a long while before questioning her. “The child’s father is Charles, right?”
Daphne froze with a dumbfounded look on her face as she locked gazes with Sonia. She was clearly stunned by the fact that Sonia knew about this. Sonia sighed upon seeing Daphne’s reaction. “I knew it. I was right. Charles is the father. You’ve always had feelings for Charles, so I didn’t expect you to sleep with anyone else. Furthermore, there haven’t been any other men in your life, so the child has to belong to Charles, right? When did you and Charles…” Sonia didn’t finish her sentence as she felt rather shy to utter the remaining words, but both of them knew what she meant.
Daphne hung her head low. There was a mixture of embarrassment and awkwardness written all over her face. “It was that time when Mr. Lane left your office after he got mad. You were worried about him, and you told me to check on him to make sure he didn’t do anything stupid.”
Sonia recalled what happened back then. Charles had just confessed his feelings for me at that time. I rejected him and told him that I didn’t have any feelings for him. I told him that he’s only a good friend and that I couldn’t be with him. He was really sad when he left. I was worried that he might do something rash, but I couldn’t chase after him since I had just rejected his confession. Wouldn’t I be confusing him if I chased after him and showed him my care? That’s why I told Daphne to help me watch over him to make sure he didn’t do anything stupid. I figured that Daphne is his ex-secretary, and they were classmates, after all. I thought it’d be good for her to check on him. But she didn’t return after checking on him, and she was walking in a rather odd manner when she came back the second day. I didn’t think much about it then, but it seems like there were a lot of things I neglected. Sonia rubbed her temples as she reflected on how careless she had been.
“So, it was that day. That explains it.” Sonia pressed her lips together. “I just realized that things had been odd between you and Charles after that day. Before that, you guys seemed like normal friends. But after that day, his attitude toward you changed drastically, and he became really rude. You also seemed rather conflicted when someone mentioned his name.”
“Yeah. It was because I slept with him that night.” A bitter look spread across Daphne’s face. “After Charles left that day, he went to buy alcohol. I told him not to drink too much, but he wouldn’t listen to me, so I had no choice but to sit and watch him drink. I figured I would send him home after he got drunk. But I didn’t expect him to mistakenly think of me as you after he was drunk. He pulled me…” Daphne looked up at Sonia.
Sonia felt extremely awkward at that moment. What else could she feel apart from awkwardness? Based on what Daphne’s telling me, she’s saying that Charles thought she was me, and he dragged her into bed. So, Daphne was like my replacement that night, and Charles slept with her… A strong sense of guilt surfaced in Sonia’s chest as she gazed at Daphne. Sonia couldn’t help but blame herself for this. “I’m sorry, Daphne. I…”
“I know what you’re going to say, President Reed.” Daphne shook her head while smiling at Sonia. “This is none of your business, and it’s not your fault either.”
“No. It is my fault.” Sonia rubbed her face guiltily. “If I didn’t tell you to follow Charles that day, then Charles wouldn’t have—”
“I did it willingly.” Daphne interrupted Sonia.
Sonia was stunned. “Willingly?”
“Yeah.” Daphne nodded. “You know that I like President Lane, President Reed. When President Lane thought that I was you and dragged me into the hotel, I didn’t protest at all. I chose to follow him because I liked him. That was why I didn’t reject him that day. I knew I would never get the chance to sleep with him if I rejected him that night. On top of that, I also drank a little with him. Although I wasn’t drunk, he managed to lure the dark side of me out that night.”
Sonia seemed to understand the situation a little better as she looked at Daphne. Daphne let out a scoff that was meant for herself. “Did you know this, President Reed? When President Lane dragged me into the room, my first instinct wasn’t to push him away. Instead, I imagined that he would take responsibility for me if I slept with him. Then, I could be with him. He might not love me, but I thought I could touch him with my sincerity once I got together with him. I slept with him because of that, but the next morning, he didn’t just refuse to take any responsibility. He even began to despise me for what I did. I didn’t expect that.” Tears welled up in Daphne’s eyes as she spoke.
Daphne wiped the corners of her eyes with the insides of her wrists before she forced a smile. “Do you think this is karma, President Reed? I brought this all upon myself, didn’t I?’
Sonia parted her lips to say something, but she remained silent in the end. She didn’t know how to comment on this matter. At first, she assumed that she was the one who was at fault since she had told Daphne to go after Charles. Sonia thought that they only ended up sleeping together because of her. But after hearing Daphne’s side of the story, Sonia realized that while she was at fault, the main reason for this whole incident was Daphne herself.
After all, Daphne claimed that she could have pushed Charles away and avoided all contact if she wanted to. Yet, the dark side of Daphne had come out, and she chose not to push Charles away. In other words, Daphne was trying to manipulate Charles to get him to marry her so that they could be together. However, Charles didn’t go along with her plan as he didn’t want to take any responsibility. So, it was true to say that Daphne brought this upon herself, but Sonia felt like it wouldn’t be right for her to say such things.
Daphne didn’t seem to care whether Sonia responded to her or not. The assistant simply took a sip of her milk before she continued speaking. It was as if she wanted to let out everything that she had been keeping to herself throughout this period. “President Lane is so cold and hateful toward me because he knows that I was trying to manipulate him. He knew that I chose not to push him away. He was the only one who was drunk, after all. I was still sober.”
