Sophia had known Derek for several years now; it turned out that he had been pretending to be poor in school. The guy who couldnât even afford to eat an extra piece of meat was actually Alexâs illegitimate sonâhe had been living so poorly!
Although he was an illegitimate child, he was still Alexâs illegitimate son. Their lifestyles were completely different!
Everyone was not interested in Alexâs illegitimate children. They were not afraid of Alex, let alone his illegitimate son.
Sophia slapped Ben so hard that he fainted on the spot.
âGet lost! Get going now! Today, your boss has been dethroned. Go back and study your f*cking asses off!â
âIf I see you guys out here hanging with these thugs again, Iâll beat every single one of you!â
The students fled like scattered birds as they cried and ran around looking for their school bags. While Celine drove out all the students, she caught sight of a young, tender-looking pair of firm buttocks. She couldnât help but slap the young manâs butt, and that young man fled with his backpack in fear.
Justin watched the whole scene in silence.
Celine was quite pleased with herself as she smirked at the boyâs direction. When she met with Justinâs cold gaze, she quickly wiped the smile off her face and put on a solemn look as she picked up the unconscious Ben and chucked him in the car, ready to dump him at the nearest police station they could find.
Meanwhile, everyone else was busy cleaning up the battle scene. They picked up all the school bags that were left behind.
Stanley picked up a paper and glanced at the score. âHey, this idiot couldnât even solve such a simple question!â he scoffed.
Sean picked up a school bag and exclaimed excitedly, âLook, Stan! There was an art student here!â
Rosie had lost her voice from crying so much and was dragged to the car by Sarah. They put her together with the unconscious Ben.
Meanwhile, Sophia helped Derek back to his feet. The 18-year-old boy was terrified with tears on his face.
She patted the dust off him. She seemed to be at a loss for words, but Ben spoke up first and said, âI didnât mean to hide the truth from you, Sophia. I also didnât mean to cheat you by freeloading off of you.â
Back then, Derek was often too poor to eat; Sophia would painfully share half of the only bun she had with him.
âI didnât want to do it. My mother told me to be like my sisterâshe wanted me to study hard and please Alex. Iâve only seen my so-called father a few times since I was born, and he doesnât even remember my name. I didnât want people to know my relationship with Alex; Iâd rather become an orphan. Since my mother did not care about me, I followed my uncle out into the streetsâ¦â
He wiped his tears as he spoke, and all the words that Sophia wanted to reprimand him with had vanished together with his tears.
Derek was a smart genius in school. When she was a senior in high school, she would look for him in the junior section to discuss subjects with him. Back then, Sophia couldnât afford to buy the books she needed for her studies; she couldnât even afford to buy a better dictionary that cost several hundred, and she was too embarrassed to ask the principal for money. Derek lied to her, telling Sophia that his family collected junk in front of the school. Every year, they would find a lot of books as well as a variety of informative reading materials.
Hence, Sophia would always look for Derek and asked for more books. He would give her a dozen different books every time, such as teaching aids, word cards, extracurricular reading, romance novels and dictionaries. She had saved a lot of books that were given to her by Derek, but she couldnât bring them with her when she left.
Even at that time, the situation felt quite strange to her. Whenever she liked a book in the bookstore but couldnât afford to buy it, Derek would find the exact same book from the pile of junk collected by his family the very next day; he even explained that they collected it by weight and would exchange a book for a steamed bun. It seemed like Derek had gone out to steal the book specially for her, but he lied about being a junk collector since he was afraid that it might hurt her pride.
All of a sudden, Sophia remembered those days where she would run to the nearest playground during the holidays to collect mineral water bottles and sold them to Derek. The bottles that Derekâs family collected had always paid her 10 cents more than the others. In hindsight, Derek was probably quite speechless back thenâ¦
After all that had happened, she could only sigh. Sophia patted his shoulder and solemnly warned, âWell, youâre still young. Since you missed the college entrance exams, just repeat another year of high school.
Whatâs more, you havenât missed this yearâs exam yet!â
With Derekâs intelligence, getting into Bayside University would be a piece of cake for him. Although she was disgusted by the fact that he was Alexâs son, it was not a choice that he could make; who would want to be born as an illegitimate child?
While she talked and ushered him to the car, Sophia told him that theyâd be sending him back to school first.
In the car, Derek hung his head and murmured, âSophia, I donât want to go back to school and I donât want to get into Bayside University as well.â
He leaned against the window. âMy mother has been using me as a tool to please Alex. She would do anything to get me into Bayside University as long as Alex would pay attention to her.â
There was reluctance in his tone.
Sophia patted his shoulder lightly and said, âDonât think too much about it. Studying in Bayside University has always been your dreamâdonât give it up because of your mother! Stop worrying about everything else and just focus on getting into the university. You can talk to me if you need money.â
Michael hadnât spoken a word, but he had taken off his mask and was driving the car. His handsome face would occasionally glance at Sophia and Derek, who were both sitting in the backseat.
Even though he didnât know what their relationship was, it seemed that Alexâs illegitimate son was quite close with Sophia. Iâm jealousâ¦
Derek was also stealing glances at Michael as he secretly tugged at Sophiaâs clothes. âSophia, are you really married to Taylor? Is it really him?â
As Sophia glanced at Michael, who was driving with a serious face, her eyes filled with pride as she nodded, âYes. Thatâs my husband, Taylor.â
Derekâs eyes were filled with admiration. He usually did not pay any attention to celebrity gossip, but he heard that Sophia had been expelled because she was pregnant. It turned out that Young Lady Edwards was married to the movie star named Taylor.
When he thought about what had happened in the past, guilt trickled through him as he hung his head and avoided Sophiaâs gaze. âIâm sorry, Sophia. I couldnât help you much back then.â
âI would have liked to help, but my words carried very little weight⦠I couldnât persuade my uncle when he received the money from the Harper Family to cause trouble for you, so I went over to the bridge cave and couldnât find you. I got so angry that I dropped out of school and went out into the streets. I didnât even take my exams, but I still made it into high school somehow.â
When Sophia found out the real reason why Derek had dropped out of school, she was quite perplexed.
Feeling touched and angry at the same time, she finally slapped him gently on his head.
âWho told you to drop out of school?! How dare you miss your midterm examsâdo you think youâre so incredible?!â
After the slap, Derek pouted and said, âI just wanted to make my mother angry⦠Iâd rather skip classes daily and visit Internet cafes to watch news broadcasts. Iâm not going to study! She has my sister, and that should be more than enough for her. My sister is better than me, so Iâll just let my sister make Alex happy.â