Michael wore a grim expression on his face. He now understood that the main question wasnât who the kidâs father was, but whether he was willing to get married to Natasha. If he refused to do it, the Mitchells might really send their entire family after him!
On the other hand, the Fletchers were well-aware of their own capabilities, so they would probably stay out of this. Michael didnât want them to be a part of this eitherâthey represented the military, and he didnât want his own issues to tarnish the reputation of his family name.
Sean and Stanleyâs gaze were fixed on Michaelâs grim face as they anxiously waited for him to come up with a plan. Right then, Old Master Fletcher gave them a call, his voice concerned as he immediately cried, âWhatâs going on, Mikey? Everyone on the Internet is talking bad about you!â
âItâs no big deal, Grandpa. Let us youngsters handle these issues ourselves. You donât have to worry about it,â Michael uttered.
âIs that child really yourâ¦â Old Master Fletcher was clearly still concerned about the incident.
âNo.â
Old Master Fletcher didnât seem to be comforted by Michaelâs answer as he continued, âIt sounds like theyâre all extremely certain that youâre the father. Do you need me to help you out with this?â
âItâs fine.â After talking to Old Master Fletcher for a while longer, Michael glumly ended the call. Before he could say anything, he received another call from the security guard who was in charge of their residential areaâs entrance. Apparently, there were 10 members of the Mitchell Family who were already waiting outside the entranceâthey were demanding to meet him in order to discuss the childâs matters.
Apart from a few older members of the family, the family head, Alex, and Natasha herself were also present in the group. Stanley was extremely shocked to hear this. âSh*t, sh*t! It looks like the Mitchells arenât going to let you off the hook since Alex came over personally. What should we do now, Uncle Michael?â
With a nonchalant, breezy voice, Michael addressed the security guard on the other end of the call, âTell them to f*ck off.â The security guard passed the exact message to Alex, whose face darkened the minute he heard what Michael had said. He rolled his sleeves up in angerâthis simple sentence meant that Michael had just declared war against the Mitchell Family, one of the four greatest families in the whole of Bayside City! Things were about to change in Bayside City.
Both Stanley and Sean were shocked to hear how straightforward and heartless Michael was with his wordsâhe couldâve spoken to them face to face at the very least! It isnât a surprise that the Mitchells got furious after receiving such a cold, heartless rejection.
â¦
At the same time, Sophia was on a call in the study room. Linus was the first person to phone her the minute he found out about the incident. He kept quiet for a moment before speaking, âIâm sorry. I was careless, and it resulted in so much trouble for you. Iâm going to clear things up.â The guilt in his voice could be heard through their international phone call. This was the first time Sophia had spoken to him since he left a few months ago.
âThereâs nothing to apologize for. This entire incident stemmed from the long-lasting grudges Natasha and I have been holding against each other. Youâve already done enough for me. Thank you, but I think Iâll have to be the one to deal with the upcoming issues.â The line then fell silent for a while. After a few seconds, Linus offered, âYou can still look for me if you need me to help out with anything.â
Sophia giggled before she replied, âThank you, but please let me handle this. I can do it myself.â The line fell silent yet again. Sophia actually had tons of questions to ask Linus, but she didnât know where to start. He seemed to feel the same way toward her.
âWell, I guess thatâs it, then. It should be late where youâre staying. Iâll end the call now; donât stay up too late.â Linus ended the call only to realize that he had only gone through about one-tenth of all the things he had planned to talk about in his head. He wanted to ask if she was fine, if Nathan was fine, whether Nicholas was doing its job⦠Yet he couldnât seem to ask any of those questions.
After ending the call, he picked up the book he was reading, âMighty Meâ, and continued flipping through the pages. He was one of the first batches to have pre-ordered the book, and he finally got his hands on it. He glanced through the book, his eyes scanning across each page, as if the gentle, delicate words on the page could allow him to interact with her inner world. There was even her own signature scribbled on the title page of the book. He chuckled when he came to the part about âBrooke Edwardsâ. I canât believe she still remembers everything so clearlyâ¦
Meanwhile, in Villa No. 8 at The Imperial, Sophia couldnât help but giggle while she shook her head after ending the call and zoning out for a while. She finally understood Linusâ intentions. The most cruel thing he did wasnât selling Natasha off to a poor mountain area; it was to have her rescued and faced with the Mitchells and the public after she was sold off.
To Sophia, the scariest and toughest memory wasnât the traumatic incident where she was violated at a young age, but the experience of her traumatic incident being exposed to the public such that everyone was aware of how she had been violated as a young girl. It made her feel like she had nowhere to escape to back then⦠If a respectable and blue-blooded young lady had to go through what she had encountered, what would it feel like for her? It must be worse than death itself!
This time, the Mitchell Family really discarded their pride to start a fight with Michael. Judging by the situation, they seemed to have really given up on all their honor and dignity for the sake of starting a full-
fledged, tumultuous fight with Michael, where either party would lose terribly. The Mitchells made their stance clearâtheyâd never let him go if he refused to marry Natasha.
Most of the partnering businesses who had worked with Michael were forced to cut ties with him after being coerced by Mitchell Family. Even directors and producers in the film industry began to make public statements, criticizing Michaelâs irresponsible behaviors before stating that theyâd never work with him again in the future. The netizens who started off feeling doubtful about the whole situation gradually shifted their beliefs as Michael refused to make any public statements or repliesâthey took his silence as a sign that he was ashamedly admitting to his faults.
All of a sudden, everyone agreed that Taylorâs entertainment career had indeed come to an end.
Everything before this had merely been groundless accusations against him, but things actually got real this time. Michael had two movies that were scheduled to be screenedâone of it being âWar Dragonâ, and the other being a tribute filmâbut both, as expected, reported delays in their screening dates.
Taylorâs scandal wasnât just covered in local news reports; it even spread across countries and was turned into an international highlight. The issue of Taylor impregnating Natasha turned into the headlines of entertainment news across the globe. He was a well-known actor, and nasty incidents like these spread quicker than any other types of news.
Despite this, Taylor didnât seem interested in giving any comments about it. He remained calm as ever, and he didnât even post anything on his Twitterâonly Eddieâs Twitter remained active every now and then. Her Twitter content mostly included games, posts fangirling over other celebrities, and the occasional sharing of adorable puppies, kittens and robots. It was almost as if she was saying, âLife is good, and everything else is none of my businessâ, even though she received more than ten thousand hate tweets every day.
Although she didnât seem to be concerned, the public definitely expressed their great worries to her.
âDamn it, you have to say something about this, Sophia! Look at these news articles; theyâre all calling Uncle Michael a d*ckhead! They even said that youâre heartless! Uncle Michaelâs entertainment career is over! Itâs over!â
â¦
Stanley moved around like an active monkey every day, and he rushed over to look for Sophia one day.
He hadnât seen Sophia giving any form of reaction ever since the news of Natashaâs pregnancy surfaced;
she went to work like usual each day and even went out for meals and shopped, as if she wasnât affected by any of it. Stanley thought that he wouldâve been sobbing in fear if he were in her positionâimagine being cursed by ten thousand people each day! Who could remain calm in such a situation?!