Chapter 105 Caught Red-Handed
"Sophie, what are you doing here? Did I scare you?"
Arthur heard the gasp and looked over, only to see Sophie standing at the doorway, looking startled.
His heart jumped, and he quickly walked over, looking at her with concern.
Sophie leaned toward him slightly, shaking her head weakly, "I'm fine. What's wrong with you? Why are you so angry?"
Arthur froze at her words. Meeting Sophie's eyes, a flash of guilt crossed his face. He cleared his throat and said, "Nothing, just some company matters. What brings you here?"
"I wanted to see if you were free. Can we go check out how the venue setup is coming along?"
Sophie stated her purpose.
Arthur's eyes flickered at Sophie's words. After thinking it over, he nodded, "Okay, I'll go with you once I finish up here."
Sophie nodded in agreement, "Okay."
She waited while Arthur finished his work before going to the hotel venue with him.
Originally, Arthur had wanted to hold the wedding abroad—that way it wouldn't be so conspicuous and he could explain it to Aria.
But Sophie insisted on having the wedding domestically, saying her current physical condition wasn't suitable for traveling.
After some consideration, Arthur ultimately listened to her and agreed to hold the wedding in the country.
But Arthur had been very careful, yet Aria still found out.
After that, he handed all the wedding arrangements over to Sophie to coordinate with vendors, including choosing and decorating the venue—all overseen by Sophie. He barely participated.
So when Sophie brought Arthur to the venue, it was his first time there.
Arthur looked at the wedding decorations without saying much, but when he saw some bags containing flowers, he paused. The name on them—wasn't that Aria's studio?
Realizing this, Arthur's heart jumped. He was about to take a closer look at the bag when he heard a surprised voice from beside him, "Ms. Hall? What a coincidence!"
Arthur's tall frame stiffened involuntarily. His eyes flickered as he took a deep breath and followed Sophie's gaze. There stood Aria, holding a tablet, apparently directing staff on the setup.
Arthur's throat moved involuntarily. His instinct was to pull his hand away from Sophie's, but Sophie, as if anticipating this, tightened her grip on his arm and walked toward Aria with him.
"Ms. Hall, are you setting up the venue for Arthur and my wedding? Thank you so much for your hard work."
Aria hadn't expected such a coincidence. A bitter smile curved her lips. The big job Mr. Monroe had introduced turned out to be Arthur and Sophie's wedding venue.
And here she was, setting up their wedding...
Ha!
"I didn't expect it either. The world really is small! This is actually your wedding venue."
As Aria said this, her gaze lingered deeply on Arthur.
Arthur met Aria's eyes, his breathing tightened. Just as he was about to explain, Aria shoved a bill right in front of him and said coldly with a sneer, "Since we've run into each other here, please pay the progress payment, Mr. Grant."
Arthur was stunned by Aria's move. Looking at the bill she thrust at him, his expression changed, "Aria..."
Seeing Arthur not moving, Sophie's eyes flashed with darkness. She deliberately pressed closer to Arthur and reached out to take the bill, "Okay, Ms. Hall. I'll have my assistant verify it later and transfer the payment. Please take good care of things here."
Aria just glanced at her coolly and turned to leave.
Sophie's gaze followed Aria for a while, noting her loose-fitting clothes, and a dark gleam passed through her eyes.
From the looks of it, Aria hadn't gotten rid of the baby. She needed to speed things up, or once Arthur found out about the child's existence, everything would change.
Sophie pulled her thoughts back and looked at Arthur, only to see him also staring at Aria's retreating figure. She bit her lip slightly, coldness flashing in her eyes, but when she spoke, she feigned confusion, "What's wrong, Arthur? What are you looking at?"
Arthur snapped back to attention at her voice. Meeting Sophie's curious eyes, he cleared his throat to cover up and shook his head, "Nothing. Is there anything else you need to see?"
Sophie nodded, "Yes, let me look around a bit more."
So Arthur stayed with Sophie at the hotel for a while longer, distracted the entire time.
Sophie noticed Arthur spacing out several times, and her mood grew increasingly sour.
Throughout, both had their own preoccupations.
After Aria left the hotel, she contacted Lucy and handed over all the venue setup responsibilities to her.
Now that she knew this was Arthur and Sophie's wedding venue, there was no way she could continue coming here.
She wasn't that magnanimous—magnanimous enough to knowingly help set up a wedding between her husband and another woman without being affected.
But something from earlier made her uneasy...
The way Sophie looked at her wasn't right.
More precisely, the way Sophie stared at her belly—it was as if she knew something.
A suspicion suddenly crossed Aria's mind. Could the letter sent to Arthur have actually been taken by Sophie?
As soon as this thought formed, a chill ran down her spine. If that was the case, she needed to divorce Arthur as soon as possible. Otherwise, given Sophie's willingness to use any means to deceive Arthur, she would probably cause trouble for her.
Recently, as her pregnancy progressed, her belly was gradually showing. To prevent Arthur and Elizabeth from noticing, she had already changed all her clothes to loose-fitting ones.
But when she got further along, even loose clothes wouldn't hide her belly, so she had to get everything done before then.
First and foremost, she needed Arthur to agree to the divorce, then find a comfortable place to have the baby.
The best approach now was actually to use Arthur's wedding as grounds to file for divorce.
As long as she sued him, Arthur would have to face the problems between them directly, and only by taking him to court could she successfully get him to agree to the divorce.
Thinking about it this way, this seemed to be the most suitable option. Aria quickly formulated a plan in her mind—a plan to get Arthur to agree to divorce.
Arthur had no idea that his wedding had made Aria determined to leave him for good.
After dropping Sophie off, he contacted the person coordinating the hotel wedding setup and said in a low voice, "Why was this studio hired for the wedding setup?"