Chapter 20 Deceiving Lucas
Back in the classroom, Amelia pulled a blue-covered honor certificate from her backpack and placed it on Sophia's desk. "Sophia, I did exactly what you asked. Take a look; if it's not good enough, I'll call and have them remake it. I can get it delivered by lunch."
Sophia flipped it open for a quick look. The wording was professional, the printing and design quite exquisite. Aside from missing an official school seal, it could easily pass for the real thing.
"Looks great, thanks."
Wayne curiously leaned over to peek. "What are you planning to do with this?"
"Trick Lucas."
Sophia tucked the certificate into her backpack, finding the whole situation amusing.
At seventeen, she was actually scheming to deceive a little kid.
Connecting this to yesterday's conversation, Amelia had an epiphany, "You want to tell Lucas that you entered his artwork in a competition and won, then give him some money as prize money?"
"Exactly," Sophia admitted without hesitation.
She'd already decided on five thousand dollars. Spending five grand to buy her reputation—this deal was a sure win.
Wayne's mouth twitched. "So you're not planning to tell the Johnson family about the real prize?"
"No need to hide that part. I'm only pretending there's prize money involved. Once I give out this money, it changes the whole narrative—from me exploiting Lucas for fame to me refusing to let his talent go unrecognized, wanting more people to see his excellence. Even though I'm the one who gets the certificate, giving him the prize money shows I have no intention of stealing his credit."
Sophia spoke as calmly as if recounting a story, seeing nothing wrong with this approach.
Even Amelia fell silent. This was truly someone raised by the Smith family, eyes only for business interests, with no room for sentiment or conscience.
But it made sense. Sophia got along with them because they were the same age and had known each other for years, building trust through time.
The Johnson family had only just reunited with Sophia a few days ago. To her, they were just strangers who happened to share her blood.
...
After school that evening, Sophia waited at the school gates for a while before seeing James cycling up at full speed.
"Sophia, sorry I'm late." He was breathless, immediately reaching to take her backpack.
Sophia held onto her bag without letting go, studying James's slightly apologetic expression. "James."
"What?" James looked up, and when he met Sophia's probing gaze, his pupils trembled as if he had nowhere to hide, as though all his emotions were transparent under those bright eyes.
She could see through his habitual guilt and believed he shouldn't feel that way.
He'd forgotten—the Sophia standing before him now was no longer Emily.
Only after seeing the guilt fade from James's eyes and watching him smile again did Sophia look away with a slight curve of her lips.
Sophia climbed onto the back seat, holding her backpack with one hand and wrapping the other around his waist. "I'm ready, let's go."
Perhaps because she'd spent her time at the Smith family constantly battling her two brothers in a life-or-death struggle, encountering such a wonderful older brother like James made her especially want to grow closer.
...
Ray didn't finish work until seven, and Mary had been out meeting with various suppliers, preparing to open the shop.
With neither spouse having time to grocery shop or cook, they decided to take the kids out for a hearty meal tonight.
"Sophia, do you like all-you-can-eat restaurants?" Mary took Sophia's hand and held it in her palm, asking in a gentle voice.
Sophia wasn't used to physical contact with people she didn't know well. After thinking about it, she decided not to pull her hand away and answered Mary's question, "I haven't really tried them much."
The only time she'd eaten at a buffet was two years ago for Amelia's birthday, when they went to an all-you-can-eat hot pot place she'd opened. The food was pretty good, but the prices probably weren't very accessible, and wealthy people rarely went out for buffet dining.
So it closed after a month.
Sophia hadn't eaten at a buffet since then.
"Then let's go to that all-you-can-eat place! The one at the corner has pretty good food and fresh ingredients," James suggested. Since Sophia had invested in their mother's shop, this could be treating their benefactor to a meal.
They quickly settled on the plan. After everyone got ready, they headed out together.
The family of five walked to the buffet restaurant. Mary held Sophia's hand and didn't want to let go. Sophia felt that her attitude today was even more affectionate than usual.
Maybe this was normal between biological mothers and daughters. She didn't think much of it and let Mary hold her hand.
The restaurant prepared a large table for the group. After they were seated, Ray took James and Lucas to get food.
When the three returned with their plates, Sophia rummaged through her backpack and pulled out an honor certificate and a thick envelope, handing them to Lucas.
Time to start deceiving Lucas.
"Lucas, that calligraphy piece you gave me the other day? I took it back to school for a competition, and it won first place!"
Lucas opened the certificate and was stunned by the beautiful printing and design. "Wow, what a gorgeous award certificate!"
"Yeah, but since I entered it under my name, the certificate has my name on it. This prize money belongs to you, though, keep it safe."
"First place is so amazing! Let me see." Ray became interested, taking the certificate from Lucas while the envelope ended up in Mary's hands.
"Wow, Silver Fir Academy certificates really are different, even the craftsmanship is so high-end!" Ray examined the certificate closely. Both the outer cover and the inner award displayed obvious quality.
Sophia rested her chin on her hand, feeling not the slightest bit guilty.
There was no mention of Silver Fir Academy anywhere on the certificate; they just overlooked this detail. Mary suddenly exclaimed, "W-what, so much?"
She'd opened the envelope to look, finding a thick stack of bills inside, no fake checks or vouchers.
She remembered when James had participated in a speech competition before; the prize was five hundred dollars, but when he received it, it turned out to be a five-hundred-dollar bookstore gift certificate.
Where did they give out real money like this?
Sophia sipped her coffee. "Five thousand dollars prize money. Silver Fir Academy is full of wealthy kids—this prize money is just pocket change to the school."
Well, since everyone didn't care about money anyway, Silver Fir Academy didn't actually give out cash prizes—but now she had a perfect excuse for funding this herself.
Lucas's little eyes went wide. "Sophia, you're giving me all this prize money?"
"Of course, you're the one who earned it." Sophia's face showed no embarrassment. Lying wasn't exactly difficult for her.
After all, she'd told plenty of lies to those two lunatics in the Smith family before.
"Sophia, you should keep this prize money," Lucas said thoughtfully. "If you hadn't used your entry slot to enter the competition, my calligraphy would never have had a chance to win. Since we won the competition, the prize money should be yours."
Sophia was somewhat taken aback, staring at Lucas for a long moment, not knowing what to say.
She was surrounded by so many relationships based on mutual benefit. Suddenly having several sincere family members left her feeling at a loss.