Chapter 405

Chapter 405

After washing her face, Sophia lifted her head and stared at herself in the mirror. Her face was deathly pale, eyes filled with panic, lips turned down—she looked like she was about to burst into tears from sheer terror. But what good would crying do now?

She had to get moving.

Sophia bit down hard on her lip and grabbed her phone to call Robert. When he answered, he sounded both dazed and polite. "Sophia? It's so late—why are you calling me? Your ringtone just now nearly gave me a heart attack."

Sophia completely ignored his rambling. "I need you to find me a driver right now. Someone with a criminal record, desperate for cash, and knows how to drive."

Robert was half-asleep, his brain still foggy. "Huh? Why do you need someone like that?"

Of course Sophia couldn't tell Robert that two members of Ash's family were already dead.

And that she was now planning to stage an 'accident' to send the rest of them to join those two.

Furious and humiliated, she snapped, "Just find him! Why are you asking so many questions? I already helped you kidnap James so you'd have leverage against Alice. Now I'm asking you for one favor and you're making excuses?"

Robert definitely didn't dare cross Sophia right now. He hurried to explain, "No, no, I'm not trying to get out of helping! Sophia, don't misunderstand—I was just asking!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked. You need me to find someone like that, I'll start looking right now. As soon as I have news, I'll contact you immediately."

Sophia: "The faster the better. I need him ready before noon tomorrow, or you'll regret it."

After rattling off her demands in one breath and dropping that vaguely threatening line, Sophia hung up.

She braced both hands against the sink, her heart pounding so hard it hurt. She gasped for air like a fish out of water. For the first time, she felt time crawling by unbearably slowly. She wished Robert could call her back the very next second and tell her the driver was ready.

Sophia stayed in the bathroom, trying to calm herself down. After double-checking that her phone was on silent, she slipped out and quietly returned to bed. She lay down and closed her eyes. Just when she thought she'd been quiet enough not to wake Beck, he suddenly spoke from beside her. "You were in the bathroom for so long. What were you doing? Who called you?"

Sophia's body went rigid. She felt like she was no different from Ash and his family now—just another corpse lying in bed. So the ringtone had woken Beck after all. He'd been pretending to sleep this whole time.

Sophia pressed her lips together. "It was my dad. He had a fight with Alice and doesn't dare go home right now. He was feeling down, couldn't sleep, so he called to vent."

Beck let out a soft laugh.

Sophia swallowed quietly.

Suddenly, Beck raised his hand and grabbed Sophia by the throat. He squeezed hard. Sophia had just started to lift her hands to pry his fingers away when the lack of oxygen left her weak. Her tongue lolled out as she struggled to beg between gasps. "Beck, I'm sorry—I shouldn't have forgotten to silence my phone. I woke you up even though I know you have trouble sleeping. I really know I was wrong. Please let go, okay?"

"Sophia, do you think I'm stupid? You were talking to your dad? He's upset and stressed? Doesn't he have a mistress? If he's got problems, why wouldn't he talk to her instead of calling his daughter in the middle of the night? Oh wait, I almost forgot—you're not even his real daughter. Is there something inappropriate going on between you two that I don't know about? Otherwise, why would he choose to call you to vent? Huh? Say something!"

I can't talk when you're choking me to death, Sophia thought bitterly.

Beck kept going. "Or maybe it wasn't Robert calling you at all. Maybe it was some other man trying to hook up with you while I'm asleep. Am I not good enough to you?"

"How dare you even think about cheating on me? My expectations for you are already so low! All I ask is for you to give me one healthy, exceptional child, and you still can't be satisfied? You still resent me, don't you? You want to go out there and mess around with other men?"

Sophia couldn't believe Beck would accuse her of this.

She managed to choke out a few words. "I didn't..."

"Beck, I really was talking to Robert. If you don't believe me, check the call history..."

Beck let go and got up to grab Sophia's phone. Finally able to breathe, Sophia clutched her throat and curled up on the bed in pain. The sudden rush of cold air into her lungs made them ache, and she started coughing violently.

Beck scrolled through Sophia's call history with a dark expression. After that, he went through her messages, checking to confirm that her recent contacts were mostly nutritionists and doctors helping her with her health—and that most of them were women. Only then did the shadow lift from his face.

Sophia's vision had stopped going black. Looking at Beck, who'd nearly strangled her to death just moments ago, she cursed him silently. Old pervert.

Good thing she'd deleted her call history with Erik ahead of time. Even though Erik had been the one to bring her and Beck together, she knew Beck couldn't stand her having regular contact with younger men. He'd suspect her of wanting to cheat.

And once he started suspecting her, he'd torture her.

He always went hard. Sophia was genuinely afraid that one day, Beck might accidentally beat her to death. So she had to be careful and cautious, keeping her distance from other young men to avoid giving Beck any reason to doubt her.

Beck tossed Sophia's phone carelessly onto the bed, then lay back down. "Go to sleep."

Sophia: "..."

This old pervert was just going to act like nothing had happened.

But she couldn't not respond, or she'd risk getting beaten again. Sophia cleared her throat. Beck had squeezed so hard that her voice came out hoarse, making her sound thirty years older. "Okay..."

Suppressing her disgust, Sophia moved closer to Beck and nestled into the crook of his arm. Her proactive attempt to please him earned his approval. Beck patted the arm wrapped around her. "Tell Robert not to call you in the middle of the night from now on. It's inappropriate."

Sophia nodded obediently. "Okay. But I still need to say this—Robert and I really are just father and daughter. Please don't misunderstand..."

Even as she said it, she felt sick. Beck was filthy, so he saw filth in everyone else.