Chapter 252: Wishful Thinking
Covering his face with his palm, Joey, however, laughed out loud.
He suffered much more pain in his heart than on his face.
"You mean Anna is your child?"
Nathan almost choked out the words.
Joey slowly removed his palm from his face and nodded.
Nathan gazed at Sophie in horrified disbelief.
Sophie herself was looking pretty flustered and embarrassed.
"Dad, he is talking nonsense. It’s not like that. The child is Chris’ daughter." Sophie was still lying, despite the fact that the truth was clear already.
Chris, in the meanwhile, was standing aside with his fists clenched. He had refrained from exposing her as a liar for Joey’s sake, but never did he expect that she would be so unrepentant.
"Why can’t you just stop lying, Sophie? Look at this!" he snorted.
With that, he threw a document on the table.
Sophie was curious and looked toward it.
Chris said, "This is the paternity test result of myself and Anna. Come and take a look at it."
Sophie’s mind went blank for a moment, and then she hastened to pick up the result.
She went white as a sheet when she saw what it suggested.
"It’s not real! It can’t be!"
Nathan snatched the result from her hand, and when he saw the conclusion, his face hardened momentarily.
"What’s this exactly, Sophie?"
Sophie explained in panic, "Listen to me, dad. The child is Chris’ daughter. It must be a fake."
"Fake? I’m not sure whether you yourself are a fake or not, Sophie."
Nathan was heartbroken.
Sophie staggered back a step, yet she remained obstinate. "It’s a conspiracy. They’ve all colluded to use this against me." She cast a malicious look at the faces of a few around her.
"Sophie, do you have to keep lying all the time?"
Joey was astonished to see that Sophie was so obstinate as to deny such conclusive evidence.
"Shut up!" The rims of Sophia’s eyes were red with crying. She continued, "It’s all your fault. I would have been together with Chris but for your existence. Why do you have to like me? Why did you have to sleep in his room that day? Why!?" Sophie roared.
She was becoming hysterical. Joey found that his aching heart made him breathless. It never occurred to him that someday his affections for her would be met with such outright revulsion.
"I didn’t want that child. You forced me, Joey. You’re a criminal! You have to go to jail. I’ll call the police now."
While blurting these mad utterances out, she took out her phone and asserted, "I’ll call the police to arrest you."
Upon seeing this, Chris darted forward and snatched her phone.
"That’s enough, Sophie!"
"No, give me my phone."
She went forward to take the phone back, but Chris directly threw it onto the floor.
With a crack, the phone was split into two.
Sophie stood there staring blankly at her broken phone.
"You know exactly why you went to my room that night."
Chris was blunt enough.
Sophie was rendered pale-faced and speechless.
Chris added, "You think I’d fall for you if Joey wasn’t around? Well, you’re wrong. I wouldn’t by any chance love you, regardless of who else was involved."
"No, Chris, that’s not true! You’d accept me if it wasn’t for him messing things up." Sophie shook her head in disbelief.
"I’m afraid it’s only your wishful thinking. I never liked you, and I’ll never like you it has nothing to do with Joey."
Chris blurted out.
...
"You’re lying," Sophie refused to accept the fact. She pointed her finger at Janice and said indignantly, "She’s no match for me; why do you have to choose her?"
Chris found it slightly amusing.
"There’s no comparison at all between you and her."
This one single sentence rendered Sophie mute.
Out of the blue, something seemed to strike her, and she immediately ran back to Nathan.
"Forgive me, father. I was wrong."
She grabbed Nathan’s arm and begged him.
Nathan found it all hard to digest. Sophie had been a good girl in his mind’s eye; never did he expect she had committed so much wrongdoing behind his back.
"Dad, please forgive me, for mom’s sake."
As the tears ran down her delicate face like dewdrops sparkling on a petal, the weeping Sophie looked rather pitiful.
Nathan was beginning to soften towards her.
At that moment, a servant came in.
"Mr. Bateman, some police officers are asking to see Miss Valen."
On hearing that, Sophie took fright hid behind Nathan.
"Dad, don’t let them arrest me! Save me!"
Nathan was at a loss why would policemen visit them. He looked to Chris, "Did you call them?"
Chris frowned, "Not me."
He had no reason to lie about it.
Nathan cast a backward glance at Sophie.
"Let them in."
Sophie’s face turned pale at this.
The police entered one following the other and their gazes swept around the room before they finally landed on Sophie.
"Sophie Valen?"
Sophie just hid behind Nathan, terrified to utter even a single word.
"Is Wade Valen your father?" the police officer went on.
Sophie hesitated for a moment, then she shook her head in terror.
"There is no use denying it. We’ve found out that Wade Valen is your father. He’s recently suffered a stroke and was sent to hospital; we received this picture from him."
With that, a police officer passed her an old picture that had somewhat yellowed.
However, Sophie didn’t even dare to take a look at it. All she was able to do now was cower behind Nathan pathetically.
The picture looked faintly familiar to Janice, and she stepped forward to examine it; this was the exact one that Lucy had shown her before.
She thought to herself, "Sure enough, it’s Sophie."
Without expecting Sophie’s reply, the police went on, "There is a large sum of money on Mr. Valen, which is suspected to be related to a kidnapping case ten years ago. Now please assist us with the investigation, Miss Valen."
As he finished the words, two police officers stepped forward in an attempt to grab Sophie.
"A kidnapping case ten years ago?"
Nathan wondered in surprise.
The police officer nodded, "We’ve investigated it, Mr. Bateman. It’s the same kidnapping case you’re involved in."
On hearing that, he staggered on his feet and nearly fell over.
Uncle Charlie hurried forward to support him.
"Dad."
Knowing that she was about to get arrested, Sophie screamed to implored Nathan.
However, Nathan did not say another word.
Sophie was thus taken away by two police officers in full view of the large crowd.
Everyone present had yet to recover from the shock of what had just occurred.
It was all so sudden.
Joey was one who was stunned the most, for he intended only to clarify what had happened that year and clear Chris’ name.
Little did he expect the police would come and take Sophie away.
He hesitated for a few agonizing moments, then decided to catch up with them.
"Where are you going, Joey?"
Mr. Charlie saw this and called out.
Joey stopped and turned to his father.
"Dad, no matter what, I still owe Sophie a lot. I can’t just leave her alone." With that, he hurried out and gave chase.
...
The Batemans were in a terrible mess from Sophie’s sudden departure.
Nathan was supported back to his bedroom.
There left only Chris and Janice in the living room.
They were here with the simple aim to debunking the facade of Sophie; little did either of them know it would escalate in the manner that it had.
On the way back, Janice had mixed emotions about what just happened, regardless of the fact that the full story of the incident three years ago came out already.
The situation seemed, nevertheless, to be more complicated.
More appalling new headlines about this might yet surface.
Her phone suddenly rang; it was Lucy.
Janice answered it.
"The truth about the photo has been found out, Janice. It’s indeed Sophie."
Lucy said over the phone.
Janice thought to himself, "Yeah, I just found out about it myself."
"I see," she said.
"How did you find out that the girl in the photo is Sophie?"
She asked out of curiosity.
Lucy explained: "It happened when I went for an interview at a school in the mountains, the headmaster showed me a photo of their former school. Guess what? Sophie was there, and the two girls in the two photos looked exactly the same."
Janice deemed her narrative plausible that where she went was Sophie’s hometown.
She asked another question, "Then what about the Notice for Missing Person posted by the police?"
Lucy explained, "It seemed to be found on a suspect."
"Suspect?"
Janice was flabbergasted.
"Seems like it is a ten -year suspect, but I’m not quite sure about the details; I’m not the interviewer, after all."
"Thanks, anyway, Lucy."
Janice hung up.
"What’s the matter?" Chris noticed the stern expression on her face and asked.
Absent-mindedly, Janice turned to Chris.
"It looks like Sophie’s father had something to do with the kidnapping from ten years ago.
"Really?"
Chris’ voice was toneless.
"It doesn’t surprise you at all?" Janice was a little surprised.
Chris replied, "What’s there to be surprised about? Like father, like daughter. The apple never falls far from the tree."
Janice agreed on second thought: Certain characteristics do run in our blood.
"Then why don’t you take after your father?"
She gave him a wink.
Chris chuckled.
"I’m an exception."
Janice said to herself, "Fortunately, you’re an exception, or I’ll lose you, my Mr. Right."
Instead of going home, they paid a visit to the Allson family after deliberation.
Janice knew Chris must have suffered a lot for the scapegoating, and now the justice was delivered, he could at last feel a degree of inner peace.
Wanda, being another victim of the same scandal, led a miserable life after that. She went to Old Mr. Allson after exchanging the usual pleasantries with her, thinking it was better to leave the mother and son alone now.
When Chris’ narration was finished, Wanda couldn’t help but exclaimed "Great!" in delight.
Sophie had been running amok at the Batemans only by dint of Nathan’s protection, and now that her protector had forsaken her, she was done for.
"I’m sorry, mom, for those years of bitter memories you’ve suffered."
Chris said in earnest.
Wanda, nevertheless, replied with a simple smile of relief.
"Actually, I’ve long since come to terms with it. It’s basically your father’s fault, though it seems like Sophie’s the one who made trouble for him all this time. Had he defended Janice the way you protected her, I wouldn’t have left him. Alas, as fate would have it, your father and I have to lead our separate lives."
She let out a long sigh.
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