Archibald's eyes widened. "May I ask your surname, sir?" He stepped forward, standing right in front of Charles, his tone hostile.
Charles gave him a glance but completely ignored the question.
"Uh, this is my good friend, Mr. Charles Cadogan. He's a well-known professor at LSE," Ali Ahmed hurriedly tried to smooth things over.
"A university professor?" Archibald let out a sneer. "No wonder he talks so arrogantly and acts so full of himself!"
Charles shot him a furious glare.
Archibald smiled back at him with a mocking,眯-eyed stare.
Ali Ahmed swallowed hard. "We're all friends here, our own people!" Seeing the situation turning sour, he was starting to regret it—why on earth did he bring Charles Cadogan along? He was just asking for trouble.
"You want to know the answer? Fine, I'll tell you!" Charles stared straight at Archibald, his eyes colder than ice. "That stack of photos? I'm the one who gave them."
Ali Ahmed let out a huge sigh of relief—Charles Cadogan had confessed; at least this had nothing to do with him now.
"You gave them?" Archibald demanded. "Did Sophie offend you somehow? Why would you do this?"
Charles gave a cold laugh. "What? Don't tell me you've fallen for this Sophie Davies too?"
Archibald's eyes widened. He stepped forward and grabbed Charles by the collar. "What did you just say?"
"Talk nicely! Let go!" Ali Ahmed panicked.
Archibald didn't release him. He asked icily, "What did you just say? Say it again!"
Charles didn't even glance at him and stayed silent.
Archibald tightened his grip. "Speak!"
"Let go, let go—don't fight!" Ali Ahmed rushed forward and grabbed his arm.
Only then did Archibald release him. "Professor Cadogan, aren't you usually so sharp-tongued? Cat got your tongue now? You're fucking pathetic!" He was openly provoking him.
Charles merely sneered, straightened his collar, and refused to look at Archibald. "I only speak to civilized people. I have nothing to say to savages."
Ali Ahmed held Archibald tightly, preventing him from lunging again—he was terrified something serious would happen.
"If she had conducted herself with a little more decency and hadn't shamelessly seduced men left and right, she wouldn't have ended up like this!" Charles said coldly.
The moment he heard those words, Archibald tried to charge forward again—
Ali Ahmed barely managed to drag him out of the restaurant. "I wasn't finished talking! Why the hell did you pull me out?!" For the first time in his life, Archibald had completely lost control!
"What else is there to say? There's no need to say anything more. Everything you needed to know already has an answer now, doesn't it?" Ali Ahmed soothed Archibald. "Besides, nothing you say now will make any difference! LSE has already expelled Sophie from her program."
"How can it make no difference? At the very least I could curse him out for a couple of sentences!" Archibald was still fuming.
"Alright, I know you came to ask because of Sophie Davies. Now that you have the answer, you can at least give her a proper explanation."
Back in the sports car, Archibald immediately called Sophie to report the whole story. His tone on the phone sounded furious beyond words.
"Don't be angry anymore. I should have guessed it was him from the start. For the sake of his own daughter Lara, he's willing to hurt other people. A person like that is truly terrifying—and truly pathetic! That must be his life philosophy and the way he handles things." Surprisingly, Sophie wasn't sad; instead, she felt pity for Charles as a human being.
"He's Lara's father? No wonder he looked a bit familiar when I first saw him!" Archibald's anger still hadn't subsided. "How can we just let him off so easily? He's a university professor, for God's sake! Is this how he teaches and educates people? So in other words, he deliberately targeted you just so Lara could marry Ned?"
"Forget it!" Sophie tried to calm Archibald, speaking slowly and clearly: "People like him never reflect on themselves! Because all he sees is his own benefit—he can't see the pain he causes others. There's no point wasting words on such a selfish, self-serving person."
"What's wrong with you? Now you're the one comforting me? I'm seriously about to explode!"
"Don't be angry, don't be angry, okay? Cursing him would just be a waste of your energy." Sophie kept soothing him.
Archibald fell silent, his expression clearly unconvinced.
"People like him—you curse at them and it's pointless. He doesn't feel a thing, and it would only make him even more smug!"
"Smug? What does he have to feel smug about?" Archibald sounded stunned.
Sophie paused for a moment on the phone. "All he wanted was to hurt me! If I get furious, if I go all out trying to get revenge on him, then he'll know he succeeded in hurting me—and that would only make him happy. But I refuse to let him win."
Archibald gradually calmed down and listened quietly to Sophie.
"Actually, now that we know it was him who handed those photos over to the board of trustees—that's enough. At least now I know exactly who my enemy is." She explained slowly and steadily.
Archibald was quiet for a while before asking, "So we're just going to let him get away with it?"
Sophie, still wearing the mascot costume and sitting on the steps while on the phone, saw a child running over to greet her. She forced a smile, then lifted her head and said firmly: "Don't worry. I won't be defeated. I'll work even harder, keep climbing up. I absolutely will not give up just because of something this small!"
Archibald pressed his lips together; the corners of his mouth slowly curved into a smile.
Even though he knew full well these were just words Sophie was using to comfort herself…
He simply couldn't bear to expose the truth.
After hanging up the phone, Sophie put the mascot head back on and continued waving to attract tourists at the entrance of the amusement park. But tears had already covered her face. The pain in her heart could no longer be held back—strings of tears fell uncontrollably…
She could never forget that on the very same day, she had not only been expelled from school, but had also lost her mother forever…
Just as Sophie reached the entrance of the alley, she spotted Ned's business car parked there. Puzzled, she continued walking toward the apartment entrance and then saw him — the man she hadn't seen in more than half a month — standing there, staring at the apartment door.
She froze at the mouth of the alley, unable to move. It was as if Ned sensed her presence; he turned around and their eyes met.
He looked fine — exactly the same as before.
But these past few days, worn down by worry and insomnia, she knew she looked terribly haggard…
Ned raised an eyebrow. His sharp gaze swept over Sophie from head to toe. She looked even thinner now, her face pale — a gust of wind seemed like it could knock her over.
"I heard from Archibald that you found a new job?" he asked.
"Yes, I did!" she replied.
"Restaurant server and dishwasher?" Ned's usual cool, detached tone pierced her like a needle.
"Yes, same line of work as before — service industry." She tried hard to stay composed, but her answer — and her expression — remained passive.
Ned let out a short, scornful laugh, his face full of disdain. "So you're working until midnight every day now?"
"It's a well-known high-end chain restaurant. The boss is really nice — they provide staff meals and the benefits are good. The manager told me that if I work hard, I could be promoted to store manager quite soon." Sophie wasn't telling the truth.
Ned stared at her in silence for a moment. "Sounds like a bunch of empty promises."
Sophie fixed her gaze on the ground. "If there's nothing else, I'm going home. It's late."
With that, she lifted her heavy legs, stepped past him, and prepared to enter the apartment.
"If you want to work at another five-star hotel, I can make some introductions for you. And Hebe still has the recommendation letter I wrote for you—"
"I'm not planning to work at any star-rated hotel anymore!" Sophie suddenly cut him off.
Ned fell silent and watched her intently.
"Yes, I'm not planning to work at any star-rated hotel anymore!" she repeated firmly.
Ned countered, "I remember you once said that working at a prestigious five-star hotel was your dream and your passion."
"Passions can change — especially when they're unrealistic, out-of-reach dreams!" She deliberately lied, deliberately looking straight at him.
Ned stared directly back into her eyes, as though waiting for her next passionate declaration.
So Sophie went on: "Because I've already worked at C&C for over six months, I have experience now, and I already understand what it's really like to work at a high-star hotel. In those so-called 'prestigious' hotels, the work is exhausting and complicated. Even if you want to become a manager, you'd probably have to rotate through endless positions — and still might not get the chance. "