Chapter 95 Hawthorne, Lydia

Chapter 95: Chapter 95: Hawthorne, Lydia

"Julian, what are you talking about?"

Stella Sutton’s voice came from behind. She had already walked over. Julian Sterling paused slightly and glanced back at her. Stella had retrieved the bag she left in the car and was walking toward him with a bright smile.

Finn Lockwood exhaled a ring of smoke and chuckled, deliberately omitting any mention of Sophie Winslow. "Nothing much. Julian and I were just chatting."

Only then did Julian look back toward the direction where Sophie and the child had been. The entrance to the alley was completely empty. It was as if the little girl looking at him just a moment ago had been merely an illusion. This caused his brow to furrow imperceptibly. An indescribable sensation brushed against his throat, vanishing as quickly as it came.

Stella noticed Julian looking thoughtfully into the distance. She walked up to him. "Julian? Is someone over there?"

Julian finally registered the light tug Stella gave to his suit cuff. He pulled his gaze back and glanced down. "No. It’s not important."

With that, he turned and headed back into the restaurant’s courtyard. Stella smiled and followed him inside.

The restaurant was filled with friends today. Evan York was sitting next to Finn, and it was only then he heard Finn mention bumping into Sophie earlier.

"We’re having a private gathering here, and she just so happens to show up," Finn said, shrugging with a teasing edge to his tone. "If the restaurant manager hadn’t said the place was booked out, she probably wouldn’t have left."

Evan paused mid-sip. "She was here?"

"Yep. She probably caught wind of this somewhere and followed Julian here."

Evan frowned silently. He wondered what Sophie was playing at now. Hadn’t they just discussed divorce? She had been so resolute and uncompromising that day, yet here she was, already keeping tabs on Julian’s whereabouts? Had divorce become just another one of Sophie’s tactics to win back her husband’s heart?

At the thought of this, Evan tugged the corners of his lips up in a humorless smile. An inexplicable sense of displeasure flooded his eyes.

"What’s wrong? You don’t seem in high spirits, Mr. York," Stella asked with concern as she looked over.

Julian leaned against the back of his chair, slowly sipping his brandy while casting a mild, sidelong glance at Evan.

Evan met his gaze and set his glass down. "It’s nothing. How did you handle the situation with Sophie? I heard you withdrew from the project team?"

At the mention of this, the smile on Stella’s face faded slightly. "Yes, you could say I withdrew voluntarily. Such an excellent project... if it just becomes a medium for certain people to use the back door to pad their resumes, then its scientific significance is tainted. My principles simply won’t allow me to accept something like that."

They all knew exactly who Stella was talking about. They were also well aware of Sophie’s previous job. She made her living working grueling shifts in a hospital emergency department. For someone with only a rudimentary understanding to participate in such top-tier pharmaceutical research was absurd in itself.

"You and Sophie have completely different starting points," Finn said consolingly. "She just got lucky to snag a fringe spot in this project group. You’ll have plenty of opportunities in the future; you won’t miss this one."

Stella finally smiled, shaking her head helplessly. "It’s fine. I heard that Sophie, relying on Mr. Preston’s favoritism, made sweeping changes to my ratios in the research group. She completely replaced my formula. It seems she cares a little too much about me. At the end of the day, I am her older sister. She doesn’t need to go to such lengths to prove herself. If arbitrarily changing the formula leads to a disaster, she’ll end up paying the price for her blind arrogance."

She had been told about this by a woman at Kingsford University whom she was on good terms with. She was genuinely angry. This meant that if the experiment succeeded, the last remaining trace of her contribution would be entirely erased. Just how afraid was Sophie that this drug would bear her mark? With her mind filled with such petty, competitive thoughts, it would be difficult for Sophie to ever achieve anything great.

"What do you think, Julian?" Stella turned her head to look at the man beside her.

Julian lowered his eyes, thoughtfully rubbing the pad of his thumb against his glass. Hearing her, he looked up mildly. Instead of answering, he abruptly started a new topic. "Does Peter Preston have a child?"

The question came out of nowhere.

Evan shook his head. "No. He’s the only son of the Preston family. He’s not married, so where would a child come from?"

Julian lowered his gaze to the ice cubes in his glass. "Then it must be the Hawthornes’."

That pretty little girl was highly likely the same one who had almost gotten into a car accident with Seth Sutton and was hospitalized a while back. Moreover, she was the little girl Sophie had furiously lost her temper over with him.

Finn understood who Julian was referring to. He explained, "Just now downstairs, I saw Sophie and Mr. Preston with a kid. She was treating that child like her own. Her desire to be a mother was practically written all over her face."

"The Hawthornes?" Evan thought of the young helmsman of the Hawthorne family. "Sophie is only close with Ivy Hawthorne, isn’t she? Ivy has a younger brother who is still in college. So it’s not a child from their branch of the family. When did the Hawthornes get close enough to Sophie to let her run around with one of their own kids? Are you sure the kid is a Hawthorne?"

Julian’s eyes were as dark as ink. "Yes."

Back at the hospital, he had asked the nurses’ station. The little girl’s name was Lydia Hawthorne. She was definitely a Hawthorne.

Seeing Julian take an interest in someone else’s child, Stella pursed her lips and asked, "Julian, why are you suddenly so curious about a kid from the Hawthorne family?"

From what she knew, Julian wasn’t a man who particularly liked children. He hadn’t even shown this much concern for Seth. At her question, Evan and Finn also looked over.

Julian leaned back in his chair, his handsome, cold features displaying no particular reaction. "Just asking casually."

Stella thought about it and figured that made sense. He had run into them downstairs, and Sophie was present. It was probably Sophie using someone else’s child to parade in front of Julian to attract his attention, hinting to Julian that she wanted a child. Stella wasn’t incapable of guessing such petty schemes. At this, she silently frowned in displeasure. Sophie was simply too shameless!

As soon as Sophie arrived at work, she circled a date on her desk calendar.

The day she would get her divorce certificate would be here in the blink of an eye. It was rare for her to have something to look forward to in life.

Over the next few days, aside from the clinical trials for the cardiovascular drug project, Helios was also making a major new move. They were publicly seeking investment for a new project: a neurosurgical robot.

Equipped with a neural modulation system based on Traditional Chinese Medicine, it aimed to ensure absolute precision when removing tumors in critical areas of the brain. Combined with traditional acupuncture, it would significantly reduce errors. This intelligent, East-meets-West solution was designed to solve the two biggest technical challenges in current brain tumor surgeries: the risk of massive hemorrhage and the risk of paralysis.

Once successfully developed, this project would represent an epic breakthrough in smart healthcare and the broader medical field. The conceptual plan had already been made public. In just the short time it took her to come to Helios to upload the clinical trial data, several rounds of investment inquiries had already come in.

Peter Preston was in an excellent mood. "Helios is currently the hottest trend in the investment world. A lot of people want in. However, there are certainly some who have doubts, believing that it’s too difficult to execute flawlessly with current technological methods."

Sophie understood. It was indeed a massive undertaking. Integrating Eastern and Western medicine required extensive coordination. There were technical barriers, and the conceptual theories were inherently conflicting. But she had studied medicine for over a decade and had majored in Artificial Intelligence in college. She knew what she was doing.

"Helios has garnered a lot of attention because of this project, but what people are most curious about is the R&D team," Peter noted. "They’re trying to dig up information on the lead developer. Some are even already suspecting that Faye is the one at the helm."

It had to be said that some people were incredibly sharp. Sophie was Faye. Regarding this point, she had thought it over thoroughly.

"Let’s wait until I get my divorce certificate before we consider going public. When I went to Linden to give birth to Lydia, I used the name Faye. If I’m exposed as Faye right now, it won’t be safe."