Chapter 242: Julian Sterling Plans to Marry Her

Chapter 242: Chapter 242: Julian Sterling Plans to Marry Her

That night, Sophie Winslow did not sleep well.

Her dreams were plagued by Julian Sterling’s expression when he confronted her about the child, leaving her drenched in a cold sweat. Even though she had already gotten the divorce certificate and the matter should have been settled, Julian finding out about her giving birth still left her plagued by a senseless, lingering unease.

In her dream, Julian had suddenly found Lydia. With bloodshot eyes, he interrogated Sophie. "Is she my child? Why did you lie to me? Sophie, the Sterling family’s flesh and blood cannot be left wandering out in the world."

Sophie woke up with a start. Her heart was still pounding wildly against her ribs as she urgently messaged Caldwell to ask how Lydia was doing.

Hector Caldwell scoffed. "My precious girl has already gotten up and gone to school. Do you think I’d let her get lost?"

Sophie finally felt grounded again. She had been far too tense lately; the fear and insecurity had buried themselves deep into her subconscious. She had no idea what exactly happened at the Sterling family’s villa last night, but it definitely wasn’t peaceful. It wouldn’t be easy for Julian to handle this mess.

She had originally thought that Julian—misunderstanding that she had a child with another man during their marriage—would drop all pretenses on the spot. Instead, they had merely had a massive argument yesterday, the biggest one in their seven years together.

She had witnessed the cold-blooded sharpness deep in Julian’s bones. His words were invisible blades, laced with deadly poison.

But she didn’t care. As long as she achieved her goal, that was all that mattered.

After getting up and washing up, Sophie headed out to the research team at Kingsford Medical University. Now that she had officially taken up her post, she needed to join the research group. There was a major conference she had to attend today.

When Sophie arrived, she only saw the doctoral students of the other professors, but Stella Sutton was nowhere to be seen. Through Julian’s arrangements, Stella had been transferred to Professor Young’s tutelage by the university. She hadn’t shown up today.

Sophie was actually rejoicing over this.

Thank goodness she had divorced and gotten the certificate before this whole incident blew up. Otherwise, with Julian discovering she had given birth during their marriage and Charles Sterling being released from prison, Madam Sterling would have absolutely used this to trap her. The old lady would have been even more reluctant to let her go. To maintain the superficial harmony and prosperity of the Sterlings and to uphold the facade of brotherly love, she would have been left trapped in a cage without salvation. That was exactly the kind of thing the Sterling family would do.

There was another student who had taken a leave of absence today, but Sophie wasn’t curious about them. During the break, she found a moment to call Adrian Hawthorne.

He picked up quite quickly. "Sophie? Is your foot feeling any better?"

Sophie glanced down. "I iced it when I got back yesterday and had some acupuncture done. It doesn’t affect my mobility anymore."

"That’s good. Sorry, I was busy until very late last night. I was worried I’d disturb your sleep, so I didn’t call to check on you."

"It’s fine," Sophie quickly said. "It wasn’t a big deal to begin with."

Adrian was a man who handled everything impeccably. He seemed rigid and old-fashioned, but the way he did things always put people at ease.

"I just wanted to ask when you might be free so we can handle Lydia’s paperwork."

Adrian knew that Lydia’s situation was what Sophie cared about most, and his tone was soothing. "I’m free whenever you are. Lydia was originally registered under an indirect guardianship, and you used the name Faye through a special channel when you gave birth to her. The review process will be much stricter. A birth certificate alone won’t be enough. You’ll need to do a DNA test to provide irrefutable proof."

Sophie hadn’t expected Adrian to understand the requirements even better than she did. It was true that Lydia’s situation was complicated. It required a mountain of paperwork and proof, and given the complex relationships involved, the review process would have many extra steps.

"Okay, I’ll go get it done today," she said.

"Once you have the results, we’ll head over together. Don’t worry, I’ll be staying in the country for the foreseeable future."

Sophie’s mind was put at ease. Taking advantage of her free time, she made a quick trip to Hector Caldwell’s home, grabbed Lydia’s toothbrush, and headed straight to the hospital.

Test results were processed quite quickly nowadays; the samples would yield answers in just three days. Having sorted this out, Sophie finally breathed a massive sigh of relief.

Perhaps because she had blocked the number of the Sterling family’s old estate, Sophie was left undisturbed. Neither Julian nor Stella had made another appearance. Julian was likely tied up with whatever was going on between Stella and Charles. He didn’t even have the time to get to the bottom of Sophie’s "betrayal" in hiding the fact that she had given birth. This gave Sophie time to think of a countermeasure.

Two days later.

The Kingsford Medical University research team conducted a project inspection and booked a restaurant to meet with university research teams from other provinces and cities. There, Sophie saw the missing Stella Sutton.

She had come alongside Professor Young. When Sophie walked over, she noticed Stella’s complexion wasn’t looking too great. The side of her face where Charles had slapped her was still slightly swollen, though she had tried her best to conceal it. Sophie guessed that quite a few things must have happened over the past two days.

When Stella spotted Sophie, her eyes instantly turned icy. Over the last two days, she had racked her brains for ways to prevent Charles from going crazy and ruining the public persona she had built, as well as her future. This included, but was not limited to, calling Sophie. Whether it was her calling or her father and the rest, they had all been blacklisted by Sophie.

Sophie was probably just waiting to watch her make a fool of herself, wasn’t she?

Stella greeted every professor, including the teams from out of town, yet deliberately skipped over Sophie. Sophie didn’t care in the slightest. She directly took her seat next to Philip Preston.

Knowing that everyone present was a prominent figure in the country, Stella did her best to make herself stand out, raising her glass to toast those around her. However, the professors next to her were speaking in low voices with Philip and Sophie about their research progress. They seemed completely deaf to Stella’s overtures.

Stella froze. She looked around. Everyone nearby was immersed in conversation, yet they had exclusively left her out of their discussions. It felt as though she was being... ignored.

Her face darkened at the realization. In the end, she could only bite her lip and sit down in silence.

She couldn’t understand it. If Sophie could participate in these academic discussions, why wouldn’t they talk to her? Wasn’t her experience far broader and deeper than Sophie’s? Aside from that inexplicably acquired professorship, what did Sophie even have?

Philip noticed Stella’s ugly expression. Shaking his head, he murmured to Sophie, "She skipped two days immediately after joining the research group, and everyone is pretty unhappy about it. People in research have incredibly eccentric tempers. If she wants to be taken seriously, she has to prove she has the skills to back it up."

Sophie had noticed it too. Stella was getting the cold shoulder. Everyone sitting at the table was at the pinnacle of their field and exceptionally proud. Stella was still miles away from their level.

After chatting for an unknown amount of time, the door was suddenly pushed open. When Sophie glanced over, she saw Julian Sterling’s figure.

The moment Stella saw him, she stood up.

Julian gave a nod. "Everyone, apologies for my late arrival."

Sophie subconsciously clenched her fingers. When it came to having a showdown with Julian over the child, she couldn’t remain entirely unbothered.

Upon seeing him, Philip whispered to Sophie, "Mr. Sterling is willing to invest in a laboratory for us."

Sophie understood why he was here. But showing up halfway through the event... This was clearly a spur-of-the-moment decision. And the reason for this last-minute decision...

The people in the room looked at the empty seats at the table. One was next to Sophie, and the other was next to Stella.

Julian didn’t even seem to see Sophie. With an utterly glacial expression, he stepped forward with his long legs and sat directly beside Stella.

In an instant, the various team members who had previously ignored Stella all looked over and began offering their greetings one by one. By extension, Stella suddenly became the center of attention.

Stella, whose face had been an ugly mask of awkwardness, was suddenly beaming, a brilliant smile climbing onto her cheeks.

It only took Sophie a few seconds to understand Julian’s intention. He was here to back her up. He wasn’t going to allow Stella to be left out in the cold. With Julian present, the people in the room would be more or less willing to give Stella some face and welcome her into the fold.

Sophie let out a silent scoff. She quietly got up and headed to the restroom.

While washing her hands, she heard Stella talking on the phone outside the door, her voice dripping with absolute bliss. "Julian is planning to marry me, so Charles wouldn’t dare try anything now."