Chapter 592: A Father’s Treachery

Melody Summers hurried forward and took her hand, comforting her, "Don’t say that. The important thing is you’re safe!"

With that, she opened the food container, taking out the congee and pear soup and placing them on the small bedside table. "Have you had breakfast? My family made this congee, and I just stewed this pear soup this morning. Give it a try and see if you like it."

The seafood congee was packed with ingredients. A single small bowl contained over a dozen nutritious Blue Scale Prawns, paired with mitten crab meat and dried scallop threads from The Arcadian Sea. The aroma was incredibly savory.

The pear soup was made with fresh snow pears picked from The Arcadian Space. They were fragrant and juicy. Rock sugar, lily bulbs, and fritillary bulbs—all medicinal herbs grown in the space—were added, and the snow fungus was stewed until it was thick and gelatinous. The moment the porcelain jar was opened, a sweet fragrance filled the hospital room, making one’s mouth water.

Sophie Thorne had too much on her mind and didn’t have an appetite for anything, but this was, after all, something Melody Summers and her family had gone to great trouble to make. She felt too bad to refuse outright, so she picked up the bowl and took a small taste.

But to her surprise, after that first bite, she couldn’t stop herself.

The seafood congee was savory and delicious, with a hint of sweetness from the seafood. The prawn meat inside was springy and tender, a texture she had never experienced before. The pear soup was light and sweet without being cloying; one sip made her feel refreshed, as if her entire body had been nourished from the inside out.

Sophie Thorne, who’d had no appetite just moments before, ate spoon after spoon. Not only did she finish all the pears in the soup, but she also had another bowl of the seafood congee, eating until her stomach was full and round.

After eating, Sophie Thorne’s complexion looked much better.

Melody Summers cleaned up the empty dishes, poured Sophie Thorne a glass of warm water, and asked, "By the way, what exactly happened last night? How did your house suddenly catch on fire?"

"And what was the deal with those two bodyguards? I’m familiar with most of your family’s guards, so how come I didn’t recognize those two at all?"

Hearing Melody Summers’s questions, Sophie Thorne’s expression turned complicated. She lowered her gaze slightly and said nothing.

For a moment, the hospital room fell silent.

Just as Melody Summers thought Sophie Thorne wouldn’t answer, Sophie closed her eyes for a moment and whispered, almost like a sigh, "...It was my father..."

"...Huh?" Melody Summers froze. "What do you mean?"

Sophie Thorne rarely mentioned her family to Melody Summers, so Melody didn’t have much of an impression of Sophie’s father.

She only recalled Sophie Thorne saying that her parents were divorced. After the divorce, Mrs. Thorne had settled abroad by herself and rarely returned to the country, while Mr. Thorne kept a string of mistresses, had a bunch of illegitimate children, and paid little attention to Sophie.

’Why would Sophie say now that the fire at the villa had to do with Mr. Thorne?’

Melody Summers was about to press for more details when she saw Sophie Thorne’s eyelashes tremble. The next second, two streams of tears rolled down from her tightly shut eyes.

Seeing this, Melody Summers didn’t dare to ask any more questions. She quickly pulled out a tissue to wipe Sophie Thorne’s tears, comforting her helplessly, "D-don’t cry... You can’t get too emotional right now, it’s not good for your recovery..."

Sophie Thorne seemed to lose all her strength and leaned gently into Melody Summers’s arms. Her tears wouldn’t stop as she murmured, "My father... he’s involved with that group of rebels..."

Hearing this, Melody Summers gasped.

Sophie Thorne continued, "I found out he was supplying those rebels with materials, and I even saw proof that he was colluding with foreign powers... I tried to convince him to stop, but he actually tried to kill me to silence me..."

"...He knocked me unconscious, sent everyone else away from the villa, and then set the house on fire... He wanted to make it look like an accident, to burn me alive inside..."

The bodyguards, maids, and driver had all been sent away by Mr. Thorne. The two bodyguards Melody Summers had knocked out were Mr. Thorne’s men, stationed there to make sure Sophie Thorne couldn’t escape the villa.

Listening to Sophie Thorne’s fragmented story, Melody Summers was utterly shocked—

’How could such a vicious man exist in this world!’

’Even the most vicious tiger won’t eat its own cubs, yet he was going to burn his own daughter alive!’

’And... to think that Sophie Thorne’s father was actually connected to that group of rebels... and even involved with foreign powers...’

Thinking of this, Melody Summers suddenly understood—no wonder Yuri Walsh had said what he did last night!

What Mr. Thorne had done was a capital offense. He had colluded with foreign powers and stirred up unrest in the country. The higher-ups would definitely call him to account, and it was hard to say whether Sophie Thorne would be implicated.

Sophie Thorne’s sobs were especially clear in the quiet hospital room. Seeing her cry so sorrowfully, Melody Summers didn’t know what to say and could only try her best to comfort her. "Don’t cry. He won’t meet a good end... It’s all in the past now. The important thing is that you’re safe..."

Sophie Thorne didn’t reply. She had been suppressing her emotions all night, not even crying in front of Ronan Rhodes. But now, seeing Melody Summers and remembering how Melody had risked her life to carry her out of the sea of fire, she just wanted to cry out all the grief in her heart to her.

But Melody Summers had never been good at comforting people. Seeing Sophie Thorne cry nonstop, she really didn’t know how to console her and could only say tentatively, "Um... where is your father now? ...If you’re really that angry and upset, how about I go kill him for you?"

Perhaps Melody Summers’s words had hit a funny bone, because Sophie Thorne, who had been crying, actually couldn’t help but laugh.

She raised a hand to wipe her tears and said with a wry smile, "I don’t think you can... I heard he escaped abroad on a private jet..."

Sophie Thorne had only learned this news this morning. Just two hours ago, Ronan Rhodes had told her that her father, knowing the rebels had been defeated and his own actions exposed, had simply liquidated all his assets and fled abroad on a private jet with his flock of illegitimate children.

Now that things had come to this, Sophie Thorne wasn’t too concerned about whether her father was dead or alive. Even if he was still living, he could never return to the country in this lifetime. But the problem was...

’My own father did something like this... how am I supposed to face the world?’

’Everyone knows I’m the eldest daughter of the Thorne Family. Now that my father has committed treason, how can I face other people? How can I face the public’s scrutiny?’

’On top of that, I’m Ronan Rhodes’s wife. Given the Rhodes Family’s standing in the political and business worlds, will my very existence affect the public’s perception of them? And how will the Rhodes Family view me then?’

’It’s not that I don’t trust Ronan Rhodes, but I know all too well how easily people’s hearts can change—my own parents are the best example of that. If the worst-case scenario really happens, what will I do then?’

Sophie Thorne thought about many things, and the more she thought, the more helpless she felt...

Just then, a knock came from the door, and a doctor in a white coat pushed it open and walked in.

Flipping through the chart in his hand, the doctor said, "Ms. Sophie Thorne, correct? Based on last night’s test results, your condition is very optimistic. However, we still need to run a few more lab tests. If the indicators are normal, you can probably be discharged tomorrow!"

Seeing that the doctor was about to take Sophie Thorne for her tests, Melody Summers offered a few more words of comfort, then got up and left.