THE HEIR'S REVENGE

chapter 24

She has come clean even though I didn't expect that from her. Coming to me like this didn't cancel everything that had happened between us in the past. Those viral videos she made mocking me which I found out about a few days ago didn't disappear suddenly, the photo she had also taken of me didn't disappear as well.

It was all real and it didn't give my mother back the days she lost, working in that house.

"Can I ask you something?" I said.

"Yes." She responded.

“The livestream you had done this morning and the photographer across the street.” I watched her expression. “Was all of this planned as one of your contents?”

She glared at me for a while, probably surprised that 8 had caught on. Then she looked away and that told me everything I needed to know.

“This meeting is real, Ethan. I know what you are thinking. That I'm probably trying to use you but..”

“Aren't you?”

“No. I'm not going to lie to you. I thought that I could show people that we already talked and that we are good. That would help with the followers and sponsors would get to consider me again.”

That was it? I couldn't help it, I just couldn't hide the disappointed look on my face.

“But.. but this is real. Me trying to make amends is real. Me trying to settle this is real.”

I nodded slowly. There was nothing more I could say.

“Sophia,” I said, her name with the same directness as she said mine. “I'm going to say something and I'll advise you to listen to me.”

“The photographer you called will get a good enough video and you're going to get the evidence you want.. evidence that we talked. Your followers will increase and those brand ambassadors will return too.” I paused. “That is your business and there's no way, I'd stop you.”

She was very still.

“But if you ever, use me or anything about me or my family at any point as content without my knowledge and agreement.” I continued. “I'll make sure that every platform you're working with will reject you and I'll make sure everything falls haywire for you. This is not a threat but a warning.”

I didn't stop there.

“I'll do that not just with excellent lawyers but by just being who I am. You must know what my presence commands seeing that you are here. Do you understand what I'm saying?”

She understood. The colour had shifted slightly in her face.

“I'm not your content anymore and I'll never be. Not me, not my family.”

Silence.

Outside, the street continued its buzzing. The waiter passed our table without stopping, I guess he understood the assignment.

“Okay.”

Did I hear her well?

Just okay? This wasn't the Sophia that I knew. She didn't argue, she said nothing but just okay.

I reached out into my pocket and pulled out a card. Henry had prepared it beforehand. He was always prepared for situations like this. He didn't like to be caught off guard.

I was about to stretch out the card to Sophia when she asked.

“You keep talking about your family. You always get triggered when something bad might happen to your family. If I may ask, do you still consider the Pierce family as your family?”

I smiled. Slowly.

There was no way in hell that I was going to consider having those people as family, not anymore. Not after what they'd done to me.

“No. I have another family. One that loves me, people that care about me unlike your family who ruined my mother and decided to ruin me too.”

Sophie didn't say anything.

I didn't want to brag so I was holding myself back from singing praises of this new family that I heard.

It was just Lily and Henry but they meant the world to me. I was willing to fight everyone just for their sake.

“You have a new family? What about us? The Pierce family?”

What?

“I know that we did you wrong but we still took care of you, fed you, clothed you and gave you shelter when you had nothing.” Sophia's tone was now shifting. She was getting upset. “You are going to reject us because now, you have money? Is that what you're going to do?”

She must know the answers to these questions.

You didn't take care of me. You made fun of me, you accused me. You bullied me and made me think that I wasn't enough. How is that a good thing? Is that how families behave?

I didn't have time to exchange words with Sophie. She was in my past now and I don't want her in my future.

I took out the card. "That's the number for a woman named Claire Foster," I said. "She manages rehabilitation and educational placement programmes. She works with the Blackwell Foundation." A pause. "If you contact her, she can help you find a course of study and a structured programme to build an income that doesn't depend on other people's pain as material. It won't be fast. It won't look like what your life looked like before."

Sophia looked at me like she was wondering how to respond to me.

“This is something stable, something that won't disappear just because the Internet suddenly hates you.”

“So you are helping me?”

“You can call it whatever you deem fit.”

"Your rent for this month will be covered," I said, standing. "Through the Foundation, not personally. You can call it whatever you want but it's not a gift.”

Ethan.” Sophie called me.

I waited for her to talk even though she was finding it hard anyways.

“I'm sorry for everything.” She said slowly and calmly. This was the first time I heard her speak this slowly.

This time there was a camera pointed at her face. It was just the two of us and a white tablecloth and the word. "I'm genuinely sorry. For all of it."

I looked at her for a moment.

"I know," I said.

I didn't know but of course, it wouldn't hurt to say that.

Then I walked through the restaurant and out into the afternoon, where the photographer got his picture of me leaving, tuxedo, steady walk, no readable expression and whatever story Sophia built around that image was hers to tell.

I had said what I came to say.

The rest was up to her.