"Mom, why do you have to force me to choose? Didn’t you always say I was free? That I could be friends with anyone I like? And I like Auntie Joanna."

"Mom, if you just get to know Auntie Joanna better, you’ll see how wonderful she is."

"Mom, as long as it doesn’t mean I have to stop seeing Auntie Joanna, I’ll do anything you say."

Sophia Shaw smiled faintly.

She had told Cedric he had the freedom to make his own friends, but she had also taught him that you must never be lenient with enemies who have hurt the people closest to you.

She had never asked for anything from Cedric his entire life.

Cutting ties with Joanna Sherman was the one and only thing she had ever asked of him—and a demand she would see through to the end.

Sophia Shaw didn’t reply.

While she hadn’t explicitly detailed the bad blood between them, she had told Cedric that Joanna Sherman’s family had hurt both her and her mother.

’Had Cedric forgotten, or was he choosing to ignore it?’

「In the hospital.」

After taking some cough medicine and getting an anti-inflammatory shot, Cedric’s coughing subsided for the moment, but he lay with his eyes wide open, refusing to sleep.

"Cedric, you should sleep. You’re so weak right now; how will you get better if you don’t rest properly?" Chad Jennings coaxed.

Yvonne Sherman yawned and chimed in, "He’s right, it’s after midnight. How about we let Auntie Joanna stay and keep you company tonight, okay?"

Joanna Sherman was visibly more alert than the drooping Chad Jennings and Yvonne Sherman, though her face was also a little pale.

Even so, she said, "That’s right, Cedric. You like Auntie Joanna the most, don’t you? Would it be okay if Auntie Joanna held you while you slept?"

Cedric looked toward Joanna Sherman.

’He liked Auntie Joanna, but when he was sick, his mom was always the one who held him to sleep.’

’Auntie Joanna didn’t smell like his mom.’

Cedric shook his head.

"Joanna, I’ll take over here. You should take your parents home first," Vincent Grant said as he walked in.

He had just gotten off the phone, and a gust of cold air followed him in.

He’d had several sleepless nights, and the dark circles under his eyes were prominent, but they didn’t detract from his natural, refined air.

Yvonne Sherman quickly interjected, "We drove here, so we don’t need Joanna to take us home. She should stay and help you."

She shot a meaningful glance at Joanna.

’This was a perfect opportunity to shine; she couldn’t let it slip by.’

"I’d better go back with you," Joanna said instead. "If I stay here, the person Cedric wants to see will refuse to show her face, and that will only hinder his recovery."

Yvonne Sherman couldn’t argue, so she just walked out sullenly.

Once they were downstairs and in the car, she turned to Joanna. "Joanna, I don’t mean to nag, but tonight was a golden opportunity."

"Sophia refused to see her own son, which meant you could have taken her place. After tonight, Cedric wouldn’t need that mother of his anymore."

"Sophia would be completely useless to the Grant family, and Vincent would divorce her that much faster."

"You can’t always be so reserved, you know?"

Chad Jennings, who was driving, couldn’t help but chime in. "Exactly, Joanna. Sophia can’t hold on to Vincent’s heart anyway. You might as well be the one to become Mrs. Grant."

Chad Jennings was only interested in personal gain.

Sophia couldn’t hold on to a cash cow like Vincent. She’d been married for years and had been completely useless, so they might as well let Joanna have a go.

The mention of Sophia’s name made Chad Jennings’s anger flare up again.

"That Sophia is so disloyal. She has no ability herself, yet she won’t even let Joanna have a chance."

"It would have been so much better if Joanna had gotten that project lead position!"

"How can she be so pigheaded?"

Yvonne Sherman’s mood soured at the mention of this as well.

She had paid off so many online influencers, originally intending to use their clout to pressure Lead Aerospace and Levin Sawyer into replacing Sophia.

But in the end, that bunch of damn geeks at Lead Aerospace didn’t fall for it. They even rallied together to protect her!

Now that the whole company was involved, what influencer would be bold enough to go up against Lead Aerospace?

No matter what her parents said, Joanna remained silent.

When they arrived home, Yvonne Sherman called her into her room.

"Joanna, is there something else on your mind?"

Yvonne Sherman knew her own daughter well.

If it weren’t something she wanted to hide from Chad Jennings, she wouldn’t have been silent the entire way home.

With her father out of earshot, Joanna finally spoke softly, "I heard that Sophia actually wants to divorce Vincent. Her lawyer already went to see him."

"Sophia is initiating the divorce? How is that possible?"

Yvonne Sherman was surprised for only a moment before a cold, knowing sneer spread across her face. "So that explains it. She used to cling to Vincent like a leech, and now suddenly she can’t even be bothered with Cedric."

"So it’s because she’s latched onto a bigger fish, Levin Sawyer, and doesn’t want Vincent anymore."

To Joanna and Yvonne, the statement Lead Aerospace released today was nothing more than Levin Sawyer mobilizing all his senior executives just to win Sophia’s favor.

"I can’t believe Levin Sawyer would go this far for that woman!"

Yvonne Sherman fumed at the thought.

"That wretched Brianna Shaw had zero appeal. How did she give birth to a daughter who’s such a siren!"

"What’s more infuriating," Joanna added, her resentment simmering, "is that Sophia seems to have an unusually close relationship with Mrs. Sawyer."

’Others might not have noticed, but I did. That wasn’t the first time Mrs. Sawyer and Sophia had met!’

"So you’re saying..."

"I don’t want her to be with Vincent, but I want her to end up with Levin Sawyer even less!"

"So you plan to use Cedric and Vincent to trap her?"

Joanna’s silence was her answer.

"Mom, you should play cards with Mrs. Fletcher more often. Introduce more eligible young women to Levin Sawyer."

"As long as she’s endlessly entangled with Vincent and Cedric, even a man as patient as Levin Sawyer will eventually get tired. He might just give up and agree to marry someone else."

The more protective Levin was of Sophia, the more Joanna was determined not to let them be together.

Yvonne Sherman nodded.

"But if you do that, Vincent and Sophia won’t be able to get divorced. Then what about you...?"

"What’s there to be afraid of?" Joanna wasn’t worried in the slightest.

"As long as I have a place in Cedric’s heart, it’s never too late for them to get divorced."

"Besides, she’s so full of herself right now. There’s no way she’s going to treat Vincent and Cedric well."

Yvonne Sherman clapped her hands together. "You’re killing two birds with one stone!"

’You’ll keep Vincent, Cedric, and Sophia tangled up in this mess, draining away any patience the father and son have for her until they give up on her completely.’

’And at the same time, you’ll use the situation to wear down Levin Sawyer’s patience.’

’As expected of my daughter! She’s always so strategic!’

"My dear daughter, you’ve done the absolute right thing."

"You have to be ruthless. When you see something good, you have to grab it and never let go!"

A murderous look crossed Yvonne Sherman’s face.

This was the philosophy she lived by, and it was naturally how she had raised her daughter.

Having finished with personal matters, Yvonne Sherman turned her attention to business.

"With Lead Aerospace pulling out, what’s going to happen to the project?"

At the mention of this, Joanna’s expression darkened as well.

"For now, all we can do is wait and see what Vincent’s next move is."

...

「The next day.」

Sophia made good on her promise from the day before and treated all the senior executives to dinner.

The tech geeks at Lead Aerospace were ecstatic.

Normally a scruffy bunch, they all showed up in suits and ties.

When they arrived at the private dining room, Zeke Hughes was pushing up his thick glasses, constantly jotting something down in a notebook.

Sophia and Levin Sawyer hadn’t arrived yet.

Samuel Goldman, bored out of his mind, leaned over to look at him. "What’re you so busy with?"

Zeke Hughes usually seemed like a dork, but he was the fastest-learning assistant Samuel Goldman had ever mentored.

He had since been promoted from his assistant role and was now managing projects on his own.

"An outline of things to discuss with the boss."

Samuel Goldman: "..."

"We’re just having dinner and chatting. Just be casual. Why do you need an outline?"

Zeke Hughes glanced at him.

It was clearly the kind of look one gives an alien.

"You wouldn’t understand."

Zeke Hughes, a man of few words, lowered his head and went back to writing.

Samuel Goldman: "..."

’What wouldn’t I understand?’

Samuel Goldman looked around. Everyone else was busy too.

They were either looking something up on their phones or fiddling with some gadget.

’I take one trip abroad and the whole atmosphere gets this weird?’

’Did they make some new rule while I was gone? Do you need to perform a ceremony just to have dinner now?’

’Is Sophia... into all that pointless formality too?’