Felix Preston had stormed off in a rage. Sonia Quincy had just transmigrated here, so even if she wanted to go find him, she had no idea where to look.
She stood before the empty doorway for a moment, let out a helpless sigh, then reached out and closed the door.
Heaven may have given her a second chance at life, but it hadn't given her a respectable identity to go with it.
She had transmigrated as the notoriously wicked villainess of a novel, with a past full of shameful deeds. It was only natural that Felix Preston didn't believe her. She could only rely on herself to wash away the villainess's stained reputation, bit by bit, to change his impression of her.
It was already late. She limped back to the room, picked her phone up from the floor, and replied to Ethan Lockwood's message.
——I told you, I won't help you frame Felix Preston. I'm going to stay by his side and build a good life with him. Don't contact me again.
Ethan Lockwood sent a long string of question marks in reply: ????
——Sonia Quincy, is there something wrong with your head? Look at the damn state Felix Preston is in now. What kind of good life can you possibly have with him?
Sonia Quincy: None of your business. This is my choice. From now on, just stick with your precious Cecilia Quincy and stop meddling with me and Felix Preston. If I find out you're pulling any more dirty tricks on Felix, I'll smack you silly!
Ethan Lockwood: You're completely insane! Idiot!
'He dares call me an idiot?' Sonia wasn't one to take that kind of abuse. She had been about to clean the room, but instead, she sat there with her phone and engaged in a full-blown flame war with Ethan Lockwood. In the end, her insults got so vulgar that he deleted her.
She let out a satisfied breath, tossed her phone onto the table, quickly freshened up, and then started to slowly clean the room.
The room wasn't large, so cleaning it wasn't difficult. The only tricky part was the shattered glass covering the floor.
Sonia took her time, working bit by bit. It took her over two hours to restore the room to its original state.
The sky outside had already darkened, but Felix Preston still hadn't returned.
Sonia picked up her phone from the table, found Felix Preston's WeChat, and sent him a message.
——Where did you go? It's dark out. Aren't you coming back?
As expected, Felix Preston didn't reply.
Sonia didn't wait long. She went to the kitchen and rummaged for something to eat, finding only a few eggs and two packs of instant noodles in the fridge.
It was already seven in the evening, and the nearby wet market had long since closed. There wouldn't be much to buy even if she went out. Ordering takeout was too expensive, and she couldn't bear to waste the money, so she made do by cooking the instant noodles for dinner.
Cooking instant noodles didn't take much time. Within ten minutes, she had prepared two bowls.
And it was at this exact moment that Felix Preston returned.
He was holding a newly printed divorce agreement. The moment he saw Sonia, he handed it to her.
"Sign it."
Sonia pretended not to see it, instead placing the instant noodles on the dining table and calling him over to eat.
"You're back just in time. Let's eat. It was too late to go grocery shopping today, so you'll have to make do with instant noodles for now. I'll go out and buy groceries tomorrow and make you a proper meal."
Felix Preston was unmoved, merely repeating his earlier words. "I said, sign it."
Sonia stood firm in front of him, looking him straight in the eye. "I said, let's eat."
Felix Preston frowned. "Sonia Quincy, you were the one kicking and screaming about wanting a divorce. Now I'm giving you what you want, putting the papers right in front of you, and you refuse to sign. What exactly are you trying to pull?"
Sonia's voice suddenly softened, but her tone remained firm. "I'm not trying to pull anything. I just had a sudden awakening. I don't want to divorce you, and I don't want to get rid of the baby. I'm willing to change for the better and be with you, properly."
Sonia had said this before, downstairs, but Felix Preston hadn't believed her then. Of course, he didn't believe her now either.
He stared intently at Sonia's face, his gaze dark and scrutinizing, as if trying to find a crack in her facade. But there was none. Her eyes were sincere, her expression innocent—a complete departure from her previously sharp and mean demeanor.
They say you can tell a person's character from their face. Sonia Quincy wasn't bad-looking, but she didn't have a kind face. But now—and Felix wondered if it was just his imagination—he felt that her features had changed slightly, becoming softer, clearer.
This was something the old Sonia Quincy never possessed.
"If you don't divorce me, you'll just be stuck living a hard life with me." Felix Preston stared into Sonia's eyes, emphasizing each word carefully. "I'm bankrupt. This ninety thousand yuan is all I have. I can't give you the life of a rich man's wife anymore. I can't even afford to buy you a designer bag. Are you sure you don't want a divorce? Are you sure you still want to be with me?"
"I'm sure!" Sonia's answer was without a hint of hesitation. "As long as I can be with you, I don't care about living like a rich man's wife. I believe you won't be trapped in this mire forever. You'll definitely get back on your feet."
"Ninety thousand yuan might not have been enough to buy a single piece of clothing for the old you, but for us now, it's enough to live on for a long time. The baby is only a little over three months along, so there's still a long time until the birth. I can get a job during this time, too! I have a marketable skill. Even if I don't earn a lot, it will be more than enough to help with our expenses."
"Felix Preston, you don't have to worry. I'll do everything I can to lighten your burden."
Sonia said this with such sincerity that Felix Preston couldn't find any fault with it.
Seeing his expression soften, Sonia snatched the divorce agreement from his hand and tossed it into the trash can. Then, limping, she pulled him to a seat at the dining table.
"That whole thing with the media today was a misunderstanding. I wasn't trying to help Ethan Lockwood frame you... frame you for rape. I was deliberately luring him in, trying to get some leverage on him."
The villainess's plan had been exposed, so Sonia couldn't hide it anymore. She had to invent a reason to placate Felix.
She took out her phone, pulled up the chat history with Ethan Lockwood, and showed it to Felix Preston.
Felix Preston didn't look at it right away. Instead, he got up from his chair and crouched down in front of Sonia.
"Is your foot badly hurt? Did you treat it?"
Although he was still angry, he couldn't help but soften when he saw Sonia's pitiful appearance.
Sonia froze for a second, surprised that Felix Preston had remembered her foot was injured.
"I-I treated it myself. It should be fine." She looked at Felix Preston's bright eyes behind his glasses, feeling as if her soul was being pulled in by his gaze.
'This man is so handsome,' she thought. 'Looking at this face, how could the villainess have been so ruthless as to torment him?'
"Let me see." Felix Preston slipped off Sonia's slipper, lifted her injured right foot, and examined it carefully. He saw a distinct, bloody cut on her heel.
The cut wasn't large, but it looked painful.
Felix Preston straightened up and went to the room to find the first-aid kit. The room had been utterly wrecked, but now Sonia had cleaned it until it was perfectly tidy.
He froze, genuinely stunned for a moment, before coming back out with the first-aid kit.
Sonia had already removed the glass fragments, so he just had to disinfect the cut with an iodine swab and cover it with a bandage.
"Leave the bandage on for a day. You can take it off once the wound scabs over."
"Mm," Sonia replied, staring at him blankly. It was the first time in her twenty-plus years that a man had personally treated a wound for her, and she couldn't stop a blush from creeping up her face.
Felix Preston put the first-aid kit away, casually placing it on the coffee table, and then sat down opposite Sonia, ready to eat.
Only then did Sonia return to their previous topic.
"A week ago, Ethan Lockwood approached me. He wanted me to help him set you up. I knew he was just trying to kick you while you're down, so I pretended to agree to his terms while secretly gathering evidence."
As he listened, Felix picked up her phone and read the chat history. There was a lot to read. He went through it line by line, seeing the full extent of Ethan Lockwood's plot against him, as well as Sonia's tirade against Ethan—a colorful rant that cursed him, his ancestors, and all his future descendants.
...The profanity was incredibly foul, but damn, it was satisfying!
Felix Preston turned his head and looked at Sonia in shock.
"..." Only then did Sonia understand the meaning in Felix's eyes. She quickly reached out to snatch her phone back, stammering as she tried to explain.
"That... uh... okay, fine, I wrote that."
'The chat history is right there in front of him. There's no point explaining!'
A brief, fleeting smirk touched the corner of Felix Preston's mouth, but he said nothing.
Sonia blinked, tilting her head as she looked at him. "Felix Preston," she asked tentatively, "should we eat? I made these instant noodles myself!"
Felix Preston still didn't speak, but he picked up his chopsticks.
Sonia laughed out loud in delight and picked up her chopsticks to eat with him.
While eating, she mumbled, "That Ethan Lockwood is a crafty one. I was going to use this chat history to expose him, but I didn't expect him to be using a burner account. He deleted me, and the next second, he deactivated the WeChat account... I'm so pissed!"
Throughout the meal, Sonia was noisy and chattered away. Both her tone of voice and the topics she discussed were worlds apart from the Sonia of the past.
Felix Preston couldn't help but steal a few more glances at her.
After the meal, Sonia proactively started clearing the dishes, but when Felix Preston saw this, he quickly reached out to take the task from her.
"You rest. I can do it."
Sonia felt a bit bad, since Felix Preston had been running around all day.
"No, let me," she said, following him to the kitchen to help. But just then, the phone in her pocket suddenly rang.
The call was from an unknown number. Sonia answered without a second thought.
"Hello?"
"Sonia Quincy, I got in touch with that old geezer for you. Did you get rid of the kid? He said he wants to 'try you out' this Saturday. If he's satisfied, he'll start sponsoring you immediately."