A hundred thoughts filled Sophia’s mind, and just as she was about to pick up the phone, the ringing stopped.
Sophia cast a glance at the bathroom. Judging from the reflection she saw through the glass, it seemed that he needed a while longer.
She should have enough time to snoop around on his phone now. Although he was a meticulous man, there was still a chance that he might have kept the chat records between him and the netizen who indirectly prompted her mother’s suicide.
If she did not find anything, at least she would have enough to convince herself that he had nothing to do with her mother’s suicide.
Sophia licked her lips and bent over to retrieve his phone.
Just as she was about to grab it, the sound of water running in the bathroom suddenly stopped.
Her heart sank as she withdrew her hand and straightened her back. Her heart was pounding against her chest as she glanced at the bathroom.
There was no sign of Charles. After a short moment, the water continued running again.
The back of her hands was beaded with sweat now. She stared a little longer, and when she finally confirmed that he was not coming out anytime soon, she bent over and took his phone.
However, just as her hand almost touched the phone, she shrunk again.
He had left his phone at such a conspicuous spot when he went to shower. Clearly, he was not hiding anything from her… Suddenly, she did not have the urge to check his phone anymore.
Right then, his phone began ringing once again.
Thinking that it was someone from the office calling Charles, Sophia answered the call without even checking the caller ID. “I’m sorry but Charles is in the shower now. You can let me know if there’s any message you want me to pass along or if it’s something important, I can…”
“Soph, it’s me!” Sterling’s enthusiastic voice sounded from the other end of the phone.
Soph was speechless.
She removed the phone from her ear and glanced at the phone number. Sure enough, it was her brother’s number.
Her brother and Charles never saw eye to eye though, so why did Ster suddenly call Charles and sounded so happy too?
“Soph? Can you hear me?”
Ster’s voice sounded again, and Sophia came around. “Yeah, I’m here.”
Ster seemed to be in an unusually good mood and the excitement in his voice showed. “I’m looking for Harris, can you pass him the phone?”
“He’s in the shower now,” Sophia said.
Sterling only raised his voice, “Both of you already have a child together, for goodness sake, what’s wrong with seeing him naked? Hurry up and bring him the phone. I have something important to tell him!”
At the end of the sentence, he broke out into peals of laughter. He sounded just like a devil.
Sophia, “...”
Was her brother possessed by some spirit? He was always looking for a fight whenever he saw Charles, so what was with the sudden change of mood?
However, Sterling kept pestering her on the phone, so she had no other choice but to do as he asked. She got up begrudgingly and walked toward the bathroom. Just as she was halfway there, the bathroom door opened and Charles sauntered out.
He was wearing a dark blue bathrobe, and droplets of water dripped from his wet hair to the floor. He had left his bathrobe loose, so she could see the water dripping down his chest, streaming all the way down his taut muscles.
The entire image of him screamed sexy and sensual.
Sophia was stunned for a moment when she saw him and quickly averted her gaze as she handed him his phone. “My brother is on the phone, he says he has something important to tell you.”
Charles gestured his hands at her, indicating that he was unable to take it as his hands were wet. However, she misunderstood him and instead, grabbed the towel from him and helped wipe his hands dry. Then, she handed him the phone and stood on her tippy toes to help dry his hair.
As their skin pressed against each other, she could sense the heat radiating from his body through her pajamas, which made her feel hot and tingly inside.
“Charles.” Sterling continued. “Mr. Long wants me to ask you something. He just needs to pretend that something is wrong with his company’s funds, right? Is there anything else that he needs to do?”
“Nope, just ask him to wait for Leah to approach him and sell her his shares,” Charles replied.
“Alright, I’m going to hang up now and call him right away!” Sterling said, but just as he was about to hang up, he added. “Charles Harris, this does not mean in any way that I admire you. I’m just happy that our plan is running smoothly!”
Charles merely grunted and after reminding him a couple more things, he ended the call.
By then, Sophia had dried Charles’ hair and was back in bed. She had her phone out and was chatting with Sterling.
[Ster, did you get a hacker to find the netizen after you found the chat records on Mom’s phone? Where is the hacker? I want to talk to him.]
After typing out the message, she hesitated before pressing the send button. In the end, she deleted the entire message.
She did not want to doubt Charles or her sister-in-law.
The next day, the police brought Lisa to the station and took her statement. A public statement was issued the next day.
Technically speaking, the public statement could at least prove that the White family was not a family of snobs who treated their help poorly. However, the official statement released by the police was only trending at the bottom of the top trending topics before it was completely removed.
Instead, headlines like ‘Leah’s suicide’, ‘Leah on her knees’, ‘Madam Harris slits her wrist and kills herself’, and ‘James Harris hospitalized’ were suddenly top on the trending topics list. Naturally, netizens were even more furious and generous with their ruthless comments.
White Industries’ stock market value hit a new low and some of their investors began to sell their shares.
Sophia merely took one look at the news and closed all the tabs.
“White Industries won’t fare well with the netizens for this short period of time. I think it’s best if you stop checking the news for now.” Charles grabbed his coat from the hanger and tucked it under his arms.
Sophia frowned slightly and decided to express her concerns. “Every corporation’s biggest fear is negative press. The public will never forget a bad press in ten years, yet White Industries...
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: Atrophy of Love: Mr. Harris, Stop Fooling Around!