The Call Boy I Met in Paris – Episode 31
Justin kept his phone in his hand and claimed Patrick followed Lake Enterprises news because of his past project work. Sophie did not look convinced, but an urgent call from her father interrupted before she could press him. At the Swift residence, the family’s financial trouble was already giving Derek the opening humiliation had denied him.
Derek kept his expression sympathetic, although the crisis offered exactly the leverage he wanted. Sophie had rejected him, married another man, and watched while he failed to buy Stella a house. If he could make her family desperate enough, pride might accomplish what affection never had.
“It’s all Sophie’s fault,” Mr. Swift said. He treated his daughter’s refusal to obey as the cause of every falling share, ignoring the weaknesses that had existed long before Justin entered her life. Blaming her required less honesty than admitting how much the company depended on the daughter he constantly insulted.
Derek leaned forward. “Sophie and I had a tiny misunderstanding.” Calling his affair with Stella a misunderstanding was shameless, but he delivered the lie with polished confidence. “She rushed into marriage because she wanted to get back at me.”
Mr. Swift wanted to believe him. If Sophie’s marriage was merely an impulsive act of revenge, it could be undone without forcing him to acknowledge her will or Justin’s importance. The stranger she had married would disappear, and the original business arrangement could be restored.
“If she begs me to take her back and apologizes,” Derek continued, allowing a magnanimous smile to appear, “I won’t mind marrying her.” He spoke as if accepting Sophie would be charity rather than a prize he had already thrown away.
Stella stood near the window and listened without interrupting. Only hours earlier she had proposed marrying Derek herself, but her father had rejected the idea as scandalous. Now Derek was volunteering to return to Sophie, and jealousy burned beneath the obedient expression Stella wore so well.
“You’ve always been a perfect match for Sophie,” Mr. Swift said. He meant financially useful, socially acceptable, and easy for him to control. Whether Sophie could ever trust Derek again did not enter his calculation.
Derek nodded as if receiving deserved praise. “Once Sophie and I are married, our companies can unite. We’ll be unstoppable.” The promise transformed betrayal into strategy and made coercion sound like rescue.
The falling stock price had frightened investors and threatened the authority Mr. Swift had taken for granted. A merger with Derek’s family could stabilize the company quickly, but only if Sophie surrendered the independence her mother’s will had finally given her.
“Make Sophie divorce him and dump that freeloader for good,” Derek urged. The word freeloader carried all the resentment Justin had inspired. Derek still believed money defined a man, never suspecting that Justin possessed more of it than everyone in the room combined.
Stella’s hands curled at her sides. She had helped destroy Sophie’s engagement because she wanted Derek for herself, yet he was now using their affair as though it had never mattered. Speaking against him would expose her jealousy and risk her father’s approval, so she remained silent.
Mr. Swift rose from behind the desk. “I’ll make sure Sophie marries you, Derek.” He offered the promise with the certainty of a father who had never understood that his daughter was no longer asking permission.
Satisfaction eased the tension in Derek’s face. He had lost the confrontation at the boutique and the contest at the sales center, but this battle would be fought on ground Justin could not easily enter: Sophie’s guilt over her mother’s company.
“All right,” Derek said, standing. “I won’t take up any more of your time.” He had planted the demand and left Mr. Swift to turn it into an ultimatum.
After Derek departed, Stella looked toward her father. She wanted him to remember her proposal, to recognize that she had remained loyal while Sophie rebelled. Instead, he reached immediately for his phone.
The call connected after several rings. Mr. Swift’s voice changed from frustration to command. “Sophie, come home right away. It’s urgent.” He ended the call before she could refuse.
Across the city, Sophie stared at the silent phone. Her father used urgency whenever obedience was required, but the falling stock and the recent confrontation made this demand harder to dismiss.
Justin noticed her expression and asked what was wrong. Sophie slipped the phone into her bag and said it was another family problem, unwilling to let him become the target of more insults.
By the time she reached the Swift residence, Derek was gone but his plan remained. Sophie entered the study expecting a financial emergency and found her father waiting with divorce papers on his desk.