Chapter 52 The Antidote Is Survive Tonight
That car with the fake plates - it turned out to be Alvin's!
When Sophia showed up with her people, he was drowning himself in booze at a bar. She had someone bring in a bucket of cold water and splash him awake.
"Sophia?"
Seeing her, Alvin's face went pale. Thinking of Linda Cooper lying in that hospital bed, he asked, "Did something happen to Linda?"
Sophia threw some photos in his face with a cold expression. "Alvin, this car is yours, right?"
The drunk Alvin leaned in for a closer look and nodded. "Yeah, that's my car, but I gave it away a while back to..."
"You gave it to your mistress, right?"
Sophia finished his sentence. "Linda found out you were cheating because of this car. She was so heartbroken that she jumped off a building while pregnant. Am I right?"
Alvin's face went pale. He didn't argue back.
Sophia's words weighed on him like a thousand pounds, making it hard to breathe.
She grabbed his phone from the table and handed it to him, her eyes cold and sharp. "Now! Right now! Call that woman out here!"
Even an idiot could tell something was wrong.
Alvin quickly asked, "Sophia, what happened?"
As he asked, he removed someone from his blocked list.
The woman was a regular actress in the entertainment industry named Helena Wells. Pretty good-looking, she'd been brought to a party and sent his way for entertainment. He'd played around with her for a while.
He dialed her number. Helena's excited voice came through.
"Alvin, you finally remembered me. I miss you so much."
"Nightclub 808. You've got twenty minutes."
Twenty minutes later, Helena rushed over.
Seeing Alvin soaking wet in the dim private room, she froze for two seconds, then flashed a smile and flew toward him like a butterfly.
Just then, the lights in the room blazed on.
Sophia was sitting on the couch behind Alvin, watching Helena with icy eyes. Helena's face instantly went pale.
"Looks like you know who I am."
Helena snapped back to reality and shook her head. "No, I don't!"
Her face was white, her eyes darting around. Her hands clutched at her impossibly short skirt, not daring to meet Sophia's eyes.
"Where were you this afternoon at four o'clock?"
"I... I was home."
Sophia's fingers were slender, like a pianist's hands, but right now they were gripping Helena's throat hard, making it difficult for her to breathe.
"Helena, I'm not some softhearted person. I'm giving you one last chance. What did you do this afternoon at four o'clock?"
Scared by Sophia's fierce presence, Helena tried to pry Sophia's hand away while shaking her head frantically.
"Or let me ask it differently - what did Alice promise you?"
Helena's eyes widened in fear and guilt. She hadn't expected Sophia to know all this. The fear in her heart grew bit by bit.
But then she thought about how Alice was about to become Mrs. Smith of the Smith family. Wealth and status would be easy to grab then.
Helena told herself it was fine. Just get through this.
But...
"It hurts so much! Please let me go!"
"I really don't know anything. I was home all day."
Alvin watched the shadows moving under Helena's skin and sobered up in fright. The usually reckless guy now sat quietly to the side without a word.
Sophia looked at Helena with a dark expression, her eyes ice cold. Her gaze swept over Helena's eyes as she spoke calmly.
"Continue."
Helena shook her head frantically in resistance, but she couldn't match Monkey's strength.
At the last moment, she finally broke down and gave in, spilling everything.
"The kids are at Sunset Village in the suburbs."
Monkey immediately had his people go find them.
When it came to legitimate business, maybe he wasn't as capable as William.
But for things hidden in the shadows, no one had better connections or stronger power than him.
"It was the Rivera family. They said if I cooperated with their act, they'd give me two hundred thousand dollars. My mom's hospital bills are huge. I had no choice. They forced me. Please let me go."
Sophia looked at the fake tears on her face.
She let out a light snort.
"Helena, I'm not a fool like Alvin. You think you can be forgiven just by playing the victim after doing something wrong?"
Helena, who was faking her tears, froze.
"You're an orphan. A childless couple from Sunset Village took you in, fed you, and put you through school. And the first thing you did after graduating was steal your foster father's medical money to live large."
"Your foster father died from his illness. As for your foster mother... You sold her to the Rivera family for ten thousand dollars. Who knows which remote mountain village widower she's with now?"
Helena's eyes filled with terror. Sophia knew her secrets!
Under the double torture of mental and physical pain, she curled up on the floor, trembling with fear.
Alvin stared in shock.
He'd paid extra attention to Helena back then because of her tragic background. It gave him the illusion that he was her savior.
Was it all fake?
Thinking about how many times he'd lied to Linda for her, how he'd left home at night to take care of her, regret churned inside him like stormy seas.
Alvin looked at Helena with hatred. It was because of her lies that he'd wronged Linda!
Soon after, Monkey got word from his people.
He moved close to Sophia and quickly whispered a few words.
Sophia nodded and left with him and their people to that address.
Helena lay on the floor like a dead fish. Seeing Sophia about to leave, she immediately crawled over and grabbed her leg.
"You said you'd give me the antidote!"
Sophia kicked her away and looked down at Helena from above. She wasn't tall, had an average figure, and looked even worse than Linda.
Her almond-shaped eyes glanced mockingly and coldly at Alvin. His eyeballs were just decorations.
For this kind of trash, he let Linda down?
Blind. Even more pathetic.
Catching the mockery in her gaze, Alvin's heart tightened.
He understood what her eyes were saying.
He lowered his head, not daring to make a sound.
Sophia looked down at her with a cold laugh. "The antidote is... survive tonight."
Helena asked in terror, "What if I don't survive!"
She looked up at the beautiful woman before her, as noble as an angel, with delicate features more beautiful than any woman she'd ever seen.
Sophia glanced at her. "If you don't survive, then die."
Helena trembled all over, unable to believe what she was hearing. She tried to lunge forward again, but was kicked back by Monkey.
The sharp pain in her chest left her speechless.
The room fell silent. Helena placed her hopes on Alvin, but before she could speak, she saw the contempt in his eyes.
Sunset Village, Empire City suburbs.
When Sophia arrived, Monkey had already cleaned up the scene.
James and Michael were escorted by bodyguards.
Sophia immediately checked James and Michael's bodies. No external injuries, but the way the kids were sleeping clearly meant they'd been drugged.
The emotion of getting them back made her eyes red, and her hatred for Alice deepened another layer.
Sophia had Monkey go back to get Emily, while she took James and Michael back to ZN Laboratory first.
She needed to confirm whether the drugs in the two children's systems would damage their brains and bodies.
Soon, a helicopter was called over.
Just as Sophia was getting on the helicopter with the kids...
A black Maybach came speeding up and stopped next to the aircraft.
William got out and walked quickly toward Sophia.
He reached out to take James from Sophia's arms, while Tony went to take Michael from the bodyguard.
But Sophia turned to avoid him, and the bodyguard also dodged Tony's hands.
The Smith family and the Johnson family faced off again.
Sophia tightened her hold on the child, a contemptuous smile curling at her lips. Each word stabbed into William's heart like a sharp knife.
"The great CEO of Peace Group - your ability to find people isn't even as good as mine?"