Chapter 82 Full of Doubts

Chapter 82 Full of Doubts

"No time." Sophia's refusal was crisp.

"Come on!" Victoria's voice took on a playful whine. "It's at the Virensia film lot, only half an hour from the Caldwell estate. I'll send a driver. One day, that's all. You'll get to catch up with old friends."

She added, with a conspiratorial lilt, "And Joseph's dropping by the set to visit Celeste. There's plenty of gossip. Don't you want to hear it?"

Sophia paused. 

Joseph, the golden boy from a wealthy family, had claimed at last week's gala that he'd found a lead on Jesse. She hadn't had the chance to press him for details.

"We'll see," she said, deliberately vague.

Once she finally got Victoria off the line, her phone lit up again — Emily, her landlady.

"Sophia, I baked that apple pie you love. Can you stop by this weekend to pick it up?" Emily's voice was warm, almost motherly. "And I've got a fresh loaf of sourdough bread — a friend brought it over, and I've been saving it just for you."

A soft warmth spread through Sophia's chest. "Saturday afternoon. I'll come by."

"Good! Don't bring anything, just yourself. And… Henry's treating you well, isn't he? If he's not, you tell me, and I'll have words with him."

"He's fine." 

Sophia glanced toward the light spilling from Henry's study window. She didn't dwell on what Emily meant; she simply replied with quiet sincerity.

She hung up and turned toward her room, only to nearly collide with Henry in the doorway. He was in dark loungewear, a mug of steaming milk in hand, the heat curling faintly in the air around his sharp features.

"Who were you talking to?"

"Victoria and Emily." She took the mug from him with practiced ease. "I'm going to Emily's on Saturday."

"I'll drive you," he said, as casually as if he were noting tomorrow's weather.

"No need, I'll just call a car—"

"I know why Thomas is desperate to get back to the Caldwell Corporation." He cut her off, voice even. "Susan's brother, Ollie Simmons, cornered him last week. Wanted two million dollars for a house."

Sophia's fingers tightened around the mug. "And?"

"And I have business in that direction on Saturday." His gaze was steady, unreadable. "I'll also take a look at Susan's place."

She knew it was an excuse, but she nodded.

On Saturday, after leaving Emily's, Sophia headed straight for the Caldwell Corporation. Though she was officially on leave pending an investigation, no one dared stop her from pulling files now and then.

She hadn't expected to run into Henry the moment she stepped into the tech division.

In the division head's office, Sophia projected a decrypted code fragment onto the wall screen. She tapped a line of flickering characters. 

She said, "This encryption is an exact match for the 'Nightingale Project' your father mentioned in his notes."

Henry stood behind her, holding one of John's old file folders. "The Nightingale Project was a classified program from thirty years ago. My father mentioned it only once in his diary—said it was 'born of the same root as the Black Ice Project, and must be sealed away forever.'"

"Same root?" Sophia pulled up the Black Ice Project's framework on her screen. "Black Ice was a data security system. If Nightingale shares its foundation..."

"It could be the opposite—a weapon." Henry set her coffee aside and replaced it with warm milk. "A virus that can tear through any firewall."

Their eyes met, the weight of the thought pressing between them. If Nightingale truly existed, its capacity for destruction would eclipse anything they had ever faced.

The code on the screen suddenly glitched, spitting out garbled text before auto-generating a blurred map. Sophia's fingers flew over the keys, bringing the image into focus — a single marker pulsed over the Caldwell Corporation's underground archives.

"Looks like that's where the answers are," Henry said, drumming his fingers lightly on the desk. "Tomorrow, Edward will apply for clearance."

Sophia nodded, eyes back on the screen. She didn't notice the faint thaw in Henry's gaze as he watched her work.

Meanwhile, Thomas was slouched in a bar booth, drowning his mood in whiskey. Family trouble was piling up, and the Simmons clan was making it worse. On top of that, he had to drag himself to work each morning and endure the whispers in the office.

Across from him, a friend was in the middle of a crude story. "She waited till the guy was asleep, poked holes in the condoms, and bam — pregnant. Forced him to marry her, walked away with three houses."

"People actually do that?" another laughed.

"Plenty do," the storyteller said, taking a swig. "Some women will try anything to marry into money."

Thomas's hand froze mid-lift, his glass nearly slipping. The words hit him like a shard of ice. Poked holes in the condoms. Images of Susan's pregnancy swam into his mind, suddenly edged with doubt.

He'd never wanted marriage. With Susan, he'd been careful — always double-checking protection. Except that one time at the hotel, when she'd gone to get the condom herself…

Back then, the timing had seemed like a fluke. Guilt had pushed him to agree to her proposal. Now, it felt… wrong.

"Thomas, you zoning out?" a friend asked, nudging him. "You're getting married soon. Keep an eye on your fiancée — make sure she's not just after Caldwell money."

Thomas didn't reply. He grabbed his coat and stepped into the cold night air, a single thought burning in his mind — he had to know the truth about Susan's child.

"Miss Bennett, you really do make people chase you down," Joseph said the next day, sliding an encrypted file across her desk as sunlight dappled the glass.

He adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses, a boyish smirk tugging at his lips. "I was looking into my father's business partners and found something off about a man named Terry."

Inside the file were records of Terry's transactions with offshore accounts — huge sums, labeled as "cargo transfer fees."

Sophia's finger paused over one date. It matched perfectly with the Caldwell Corporation's overseas data breach.

"He's selling corporate secrets," Joseph said. "And I swear I've seen him before. Then I remembered — his face was in one of the files you asked me to decrypt."

The door opened. Henry walked in, his gaze sweeping over the file before settling on Joseph, cool and assessing. "What's your angle, Mr. Mellon?"

"Partnership, of course. What else?" Joseph grinned. "I figured where Miss Bennett is, you won't be far behind. Perfect — I can tell you both now. My father wants deeper ties with the Caldwell Corporation, and I want to date Celeste — you know, Victoria's friend. Met her in City S—"

"Get to the point," Henry cut in, impatient.

Joseph ignored him, eyes back on Sophia. "Help me win Celeste, and I'll help you unmask your mole. Deal?"