Chapter 481: Indulgence
Lachlan's pupils contracted sharply. "Impossible! You're lying to me, aren't you?"
His eyes were full of disbelief.
How could Preston not be his biological father?
If he wasn't part of the White family, then who was he?
Over twenty years ago, Madeline had personally told him that it was Preston who had torn them apart.
From that moment on, he couldn't help but resent Preston.
Until Madeline fell from the building, all his hatred reached its peak.
From then on, he made up his mind to take revenge, to get back at every single member of the White family.
Especially Preston and Magnus!
Since he couldn't have peace, then no one else should either.
Sophia's tone was clearly light and casual, yet it hit his heart like a heavy thunderclap.
Sophia glanced at him coldly. "If you don't believe me, you can go ask Preston yourself."
Lachlan shook his head. "No, it can't be..."
Sophia didn't insist on making him believe. Instead, she turned and walked back to the lab bench.
Their experiment had been wrong from the very beginning.
Sophia could hardly imagine that for the sake of a flawed experiment, Lachlan and his team had harmed so many lives.
Those children were so young—they might have had bright futures and wonderful lives ahead of them.
But everything those children could have had was destroyed by Lachlan's ambition.
Sophia closed her eyes hard, then suddenly reached out and knocked the vials to the floor.
Various bottles and containers crashed to the ground, making loud noises.
The liquids inside spilled out, spreading across the smooth, flat floor.
Different colored liquids mixed, standing out starkly against the white floor.
It added an eerie quality to the scene.
Ivan cried out and shouted angrily, "My experiment! Sophia, do you know what you're doing?"
Sophia glanced at him casually. "Just some useless stuff. No big deal if it's destroyed."
Given their research methods, even if they had another ten years, they might not be able to develop what they wanted.
No wonder after nineteen years, they still hadn't made any progress.
Ivan was shaking with anger. "Sophia, I think you came here specifically to cause trouble! These are years of my hard work."
Sophia raised an eyebrow. "Sorry, but your hard work is just garbage to me."
Hearing this, Ivan got even angrier.
How could someone be so arrogant?
But they couldn't come up with a single word to argue back.
Because in this field, they really couldn't compare to Sophia.
According to Lachlan, Sophia had developed sample data for the toxin in Benjamin's body in just a few months.
In this regard, they had to admit defeat.
Ivan took a deep breath, trying to stay calm.
He forced himself to be patient and asked her, "Do you have a better solution?"
Sophia's eyes curved with a sincere-looking smile. "I do, actually."
Ivan's face lit up with joy.
But before he could ask, he heard Sophia continue, "But why would I tell you guys?"
If she remembered correctly, during those two years Benjamin was missing, he was frequently having blood drawn for research.
It must have been this group of people, right?
She held grudges very well!
Ivan clutched his heaving chest and cursed at Sophia, "At such a young age, you're so vicious! You destroyed our experiment—shouldn't you compensate us?"
Sophia laughed lightly. "Compensate? What about all the blood you drew from my husband—how are you going to compensate for that?"
She hadn't even gotten revenge on them yet, and they had the nerve to turn the tables on her!
Now Ivan couldn't say a word.
They looked at each other, their eyes full of shock and disbelief.
No one expected Sophia to hold such a grudge.
They had indeed drawn Benjamin's blood for research.
And they had drawn quite a lot.
Almost exceeding the maximum standard for adult blood donation.
Thinking about this, they felt a bit guilty and turned to Lachlan for help.
But Lachlan couldn't care about them right now.
Sophia's words from earlier kept circling in his mind.
He wasn't Preston's biological son.
He wasn't Preston's illegitimate child either.
Then who was he?
Why would Preston let him stay in the White family, and as the White family's second son at that?
Countless questions swirled in his mind, weighing so heavily on him that he could barely breathe.
He felt his vision darkening and his thoughts in complete chaos.
He left the lab in a daze and gave instructions to his subordinates standing outside.
"Keep a close eye on Sophia. Report her every move to me."
"Yes!" the subordinates replied in unison.
After Lachlan left, Ivan hung his head in disappointment.
Lachlan was way too indulgent with Sophia!
It was infuriating!
They were angry, but there was nothing they could do.
After all, Lachlan had dirt on each of them.
They came here to do research partly because the conditions Lachlan offered were too tempting, and partly because Lachlan had leverage over them.
They could only swallow all their grievances and glare at Sophia resentfully.
Sophia ignored their cold, angry stares and took out some new vials from the storage cabinet.
Then she returned to the lab bench and started working.
The professors didn't know what she was doing. They looked at each other, their eyes full of confusion.
They didn't want to interfere with her experiment, so they could only watch her curiously from the side.
At first, they didn't take Sophia seriously at all.
They didn't even consider her worth their attention.
Sophia was simply too young, which made them unconsciously overlook her abilities.
More precisely, they couldn't believe in Sophia's capabilities.
But as they watched, they couldn't help showing surprised expressions.
"This..."
"Is this the antidote we've been trying to develop all along?" Ivan couldn't help but gasp.
Just three hours.
Even if they knew the formula for the antidote, they couldn't have prepared it in just three hours.
But Sophia had done it!
Eventually, curiosity drove them to carefully approach Sophia's side.
"Ms. Brown, did you really develop the antidote?"
Sophia glanced at them coolly. "When you need nothing, you call me Sophia, but when you need something, you call me Ms. Brown?"
The older professors froze, then guiltily touched their noses.
"Ms. Brown, we were too rude before. We apologize."
Sophia responded with a casual sound.
Did this mean Sophia had forgiven them, or not?
Ivan felt troubled.
Are all young people nowadays this hard to communicate with?
Or had he been isolated from the world for too long and no longer understood how young people think?
Sophia put away the prepared antidote properly, then turned to ask them, "Where are those children you captured being held?"
Ivan snorted stubbornly. "You won't tell me what I want to know, so I won't tell you what you want to know either."
"That's fine. I can find those children myself." Sophia dusted off her hands and turned to leave the lab.