Chapter 239 Do You Want Revenge?

Chapter 239: Chapter 239: Do You Want Revenge?

Just a single sentence sent a chill through Sophie Winslow’s entire body. The blood in her limbs rushed backward, triggering a sudden, sharp pain in her brain. Her breathing froze, the oxygen seemingly siphoned from her lungs. In near-shock, she met his eyes—eyes piercing enough to dissect a person and lay their secrets bare.

"...What?" she whispered, her voice incredibly faint as the air left her throat.

He didn’t miss a single trace of emotion on Sophie’s face. Julian Sterling closed the distance between them with his long strides, step by step. "Where is the child you gave birth to a few years ago?"

Sophie’s pupils shrank violently. Julian knew. He knew everything.

This realization snapped her thoughts in an instant. It was far too sudden. The timing couldn’t have been worse—they had just finalized their divorce, and she hadn’t yet had the chance to transfer Lydia’s household registration with Adrian Hawthorne. The sheer shock of it was enough to shatter her soul.

As if seeing right through her, Julian held up the phone. His gaze was a chaotic mix of unrecognizable emotions. "Your phone. It has photos of you when you were pregnant. It also has... it has the medical records from when you were in critical condition due to massive bleeding during childbirth."

His tone was utterly devoid of warmth. His crisp articulation carried a bone-chilling undercurrent.

Sophie suddenly understood. There was no avoiding the situation at hand. The phone she had lost back then had somehow found its way into Julian’s hands, sealing this exact confrontation. What was meant to come would always come.

She met his deep, fathomless gaze. "So, how do you want me to explain?"

He looked at her. "Why did you hide it from me?"

Sophie suddenly let out a short laugh. "Why should I have told you? Weren’t we living apart in different countries for the past few years?"

During the first two years of their marriage, they had lived separately, stationed on opposite ends of the earth. Furthermore, he had never even considered having children with her. Why on earth would she tell him?

Julian stared at her for a long time. The sharpness of Sophie’s emotions pricked at his eyes.

Suddenly, he asked, "Whose is it?"

His voice wasn’t loud; it was even somewhat calm. Yet, those three clean, simple words easily stripped away the last remaining warmth in Sophie’s eyes.

It took her only a few seconds to realize what Julian meant. And why he would ask such a question.

Her throat felt as though it had been force-fed highly corrosive acid, burning straight through her lungs. Every inhalation and exhalation was agonizingly painful.

At that moment, pushed to the absolute limits of anger, fury, and heartbreak, her first reaction was actually to smile.

What an unsolvable misunderstanding. Living apart in different countries, yet she ended up pregnant and gave birth. It was almost like a perfect crime—there was no conceivable way out of it.

She knew very well that Julian’s assumption wasn’t unfounded. If she weren’t the one involved, even she would be suspicious of such circumstances.

The only time they hadn’t used protection was the night before he was dispatched to Vesparia. But he had been drunk then—how could he remember anything? Furthermore, Julian didn’t know that the old chairman had secretly forced her to sign a seven-year divorce agreement seven years ago. They were doomed from the very beginning; their marriage was never meant to last. Under that premise, Julian naturally wouldn’t believe she had any reason to hide his child from him. He could only assume one thing... betrayal.

It was a perfect closed loop of logic.

Yet, Sophie didn’t think there was anything wrong with this. It was for the best. This way, Julian wouldn’t obsess over searching for his own child. Instead, the child would become a mark of shame—a scandal that couldn’t be made public.

She simply stiffened her neck. Even with her red-rimmed eyes, she didn’t offer a single word of explanation. "Do I need to remind you, Mr. Sterling? We are divorced now. We have the divorce certificates. Is there any need for me to answer to you?"

Julian’s thin lips twitched slightly, his eyes devoid of any light.

Sophie, however, felt it wasn’t enough. "We are exactly the same. I didn’t stop you and Stella Sutton, and I even stepped aside to make room for you two. Similarly, you have no business interfering in my affairs."

She didn’t mind adding fuel to the fire of his misunderstanding at all. Since Julian was the one who first asked her, "Whose is it?" she would play along.

This was the best outcome. It was best if he thought this way.

She didn’t care in the slightest whether he misunderstood her. She only cared that, at the very least, even if Julian later found out that she was Lydia’s mother, the lingering thorn of "Whose is it?" would force him to turn a blind eye.

Julian stared deeply at Sophie, taking in her reckless, defiant resolve. Taking another step toward her, his voice was laced with a frigid chill. "Tell me. Who is the father, and where did you hide the child?"

Enveloped by his icy aura, Sophie couldn’t help but take a step back. She hadn’t expected Julian to be so relentlessly determined to get to the bottom of it.

Gritting her teeth, she retorted, "Why on earth should I tell you? What? Are you planning to take revenge?"

He stared intently at her defensive posture and bloodshot eyes. After a few seconds of silence, he spoke, enunciating every single syllable, "You could have just told me earlier. Perhaps I would have even gladly stepped aside to fulfill your wishes."

Even though Sophie had been through so much that she was practically impervious to pain, hearing those words still dealt a heavy blow. Julian had completely invalidated all her years of devotion. He was telling her that he had never once cared for her, that he could have given her away at any moment, like discarding a bothersome burden.

"Does Adrian Hawthorne know?" Julian asked. "But I suppose he might not mind. Everything has to be fair, doesn’t it? You two share similar experiences, both dragging a child along."

Sophie didn’t say a word.

Julian mirrored her silence for a moment before continuing, "You don’t need to be so on guard against me. I wouldn’t sink so low as to do anything to a child. Maybe if we meet, I could even give the kid a red envelope. And I certainly wouldn’t tell them how their mother managed to give birth to them while still married."

He didn’t even raise his voice; his tone remained steadily monotonous throughout. Yet, its lethality was astonishing.

SLAP!

Feeling the sharp sting of his words, Sophie couldn’t control herself. She raised her hand and delivered a resounding slap across his face.

That sentence had crossed her absolute bottom line. Julian could do anything he wanted, but he was absolutely not allowed to use Lydia as a weapon.

Julian’s face was turned slightly to the side, his taut jawline casting a stark shadow. The atmosphere was pushed right to the brink of collapse once again. Yet, he displayed almost no anger. His eyes remained freezing cold.

Pressing the tip of his tongue against his numb lip corner, he looked at Sophie. He had finally seen exactly where her limits lay.

The mere mention of that child turned Sophie into a fiercely protective lioness, ready to fight tooth and nail without a second thought. She didn’t care if her relationship with him ended in absolute destruction; she only cared about that hidden child.

He lowered his gaze. He saw Sophie’s body trembling with rage, and he noticed how she was digging her nails into her own fingers in a desperate attempt to restrain herself. The thin skin on her fingers was so raw it was almost bleeding.

Julian suddenly fell silent. He stared at her for a long time before slowly taking a step back.

Sophie hadn’t expected things to escalate to this point. She had struck Julian. In his entire life, from the day he was born until now, no one had likely ever dared to do such a thing to him.

He didn’t retaliate over the slap. With a glacial stare, the words that left his mouth were even more cruel. "If you haven’t confessed to Adrian Hawthorne that you have a child, don’t worry. I won’t ruin your wonderful romance."