Chapter 529The Battle for Sophia
In the evening, Jennifer swung by to drop off some grub for Celeste.
"Did Sophia come to see me yesterday?" Celeste kinda remembered chatting with Sophia at home the day before.
She was sick and out of it, so her memory was all over the place.
Jennifer nodded, "Yeah, it was Sophia who noticed you were burning up and hauled you to the hospital."
"Sophia carried me to the hospital?"
Celeste's eyes went wide. She stopped munching on the porridge Jennifer brought and tried to piece things together.
She wasn't really with it at the time, but she kinda remembered someone lugging her in and out of a car.
Celeste thought, 'No way, that was Sophia.'
Celeste was super touched, her fingers even shook a bit.
She had once ditched Sophia for Patricia, but Sophia still treated her like family. Sophia never hurt her and always had her back.
"Sophia's a good kid," Celeste said, her voice all shaky.
Jennifer chimed in, "Yeah, Sophia's the real deal, for you and all of us. Mom, I wanna take Sophia under my wing."
With her help, Sophia's career could totally blow up.
"No," Celeste shot back immediately.
Jennifer was puzzled, "Why not?"
"In the future, Sophia's not just gonna be my junior; she's gonna be my successor."
"What?"
'So Celeste wants to snag Sophia from me!' Jennifer thought.
Sophia had no clue her role in the Blackwoods was getting bigger. She wasn't going to Fusion Dynamics Corporation anymore and had gone back to the Lancaster Group.
By chance, Sophia showed up just in time for the Lancaster Group's annual bash.
At last year's party, Sophia almost had a disaster. Even though Tiffany wasn't around this year, Sophia was still on edge.
Gabriel had also sent Alex to keep an eye on Sophia, just in case.
Before the party kicked off, the host got on stage and announced, "Ladies and gents, Mr. Lancaster will randomly pick a lady to be his partner for the opening dance."
The crowd went nuts.
This was huge, especially for the single ladies, who were all buzzing with excitement.
They thought, 'Oh my God, it's hard enough to even see Gabriel in person, and now we might get to dance with him at the party.'
Each one of them was hoping Gabriel would pick them.
The host added, "The chosen one will get a sweet reward."
They thought, 'The reward's cool and all, but the real prize is getting close to Gabriel. What if he likes me 'cause I dance well?'
To keep things smooth, only single ladies were allowed to join in.
The selection was done electronically. Gabriel had just stepped out to take a call when Harrison set up the game.
Harrison handed him an iPad.
"Come on, I set it all up. It's definitely gonna be Sophia."
Gabriel didn't say a word.
This whole thing was Harrison's spur-of-the-moment idea.
"Don't you wanna dance with Sophia?" Harrison whispered in his ear.
Gabriel quickly tapped the iPad screen in front of everyone.
The scrolling bar in the lottery program stopped, and the big screen flashed the name of the chief designer from the fashion design department, Sophia.
"What, she got picked?"
Voices of grumbling and envy filled the room. A spotlight zeroed in on Sophia, who was casually sipping on a glass of juice. When the light hit her, she blinked, took a sip, and quickly flipped her phone screen down.
She was video chatting with her three kids and had no clue what was going on.
It wasn't until she heard her female colleagues whispering around her that she pieced it together.
She was gonna dance the first dance of the night with Gabriel.
Gabriel, rocking a black custom-made suit and a watch worth a fortune, looked even more striking as he strolled towards Sophia. His tall frame and straight posture made him stand out even more.
Under the spotlight, his features looked even more chiseled and handsome.
Sophia's heart was pounding, and she almost dropped her glass as he got closer.
Gabriel bent down all gentleman-like and extended his hand.
"Miss Kelly, may I have this dance?"
"Why wasn't I picked? Mr. Lancaster is so dreamy."
"I'm so jealous. Mr. Lancaster is being extra charming tonight."
"Sophia must've done something amazing in her past life to get picked by Mr. Lancaster for the first dance tonight."
Envious and jealous eyes were all on her. If looks could kill, Sophia would've been toast.
Looking into Gabriel's starry eyes, Sophia pulled herself together and extended her hand to him.
Gabriel gently pulled her in front of him, holding her hand tightly with one hand and sneakily taking her phone with the other, slipping it into his pocket.
No one noticed, and as the music started, Gabriel led Sophia onto the dance floor.
"I was video calling with the kids," Sophia whispered.
"It's all good."
Sophia hadn't danced in ages. The dance steps she learned for parties were rusty, and she stepped on Gabriel's feet three times within a few beats.
From a distance, Kathy was watching them closely.
As a designer at the Lancaster Group, she was also at the annual party.
When the host announced that Gabriel would pick a female employee to dance with, she was excited and hopeful. But when Sophia's name popped up on the screen, she had a hunch.
Sophia had probably been involved with Gabriel for a while, and this whole thing was likely set up for her.
Kathy thought, 'These people think Sophia is lucky. If they knew the truth, they'd probably want to tear her apart.'
Harrison was snapping photos of Gabriel and Sophia with his phone, and Alex started recording.
The spotlight shone on Gabriel and Sophia. Gabriel looked dashing, and Sophia appeared beautiful and gentle, making them a picture-perfect pair.
"I think Mr. Lancaster and Sophia make a perfect match," someone whispered.
"I agree. It's kinda exciting."
"Mr. Lancaster looks at Sophia so tenderly."
"They seem to be talking. Is Mr. Lancaster smiling?"
"Of course, he is. Mr. Lancaster's smile is polite yet distant," someone said jealously.
As the dance ended, Gabriel reluctantly let go of Sophia.
Alex sent the recorded video to Ruth, and Harrison posted the photos on Gabriel's Facebook.
"I need to hit the restroom," Sophia said, trying to avoid being noticed, and quickly dashed away.
Harrison walked over.
"Gabriel, check your Facebook."
Gabriel pulled out his phone and saved each photo.
"Nice work."
Harrison whistled proudly.
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