Chapter 56
Sophia was in a decent mood earlier that day. However, she did not expect to bump into Alexander after leaving the party, let alone hear him making those narcissistic, arrogant remarks.
It had been more than seven months since their divorce. Sophia had been living a comfortable and cozy life afterward. When she occasionally thought of him, she would be annoyed at her stupidity in those three years of marriage.
She never thought of returning to Alexander's side, not even once.
"Genie, fill the tub for me."
Only soaking herself in a scented bath could help to soothe Sophia's tension.
Perhaps due to her encounter with Alexander in front of the club, Sophia did not sleep well that night.
In her disrupted sleep, she dreamed of many things that happened during her three years of marriage with Alexander.
She snapped open her eyes when the alarm rang.
Sophia got up on the wrong side of the bed after a rough night.
The sky outside was still a bit dark. Nights were longer than days during winter in Jadeborough.
Turning to the side, Sophia put on her coat. She got out of bed and went to the bathroom to wash up.
While she was making breakfast, Yvonne called her.
Sophia answered the phone. "Good morning, Ms. Leighton."
"Good morning, Ms. Yarrow. I've sent the main points of today's meeting to your email," Yvonne informed.
"Thank you for your hard work."
There would be a meeting at ten o'clock in the morning about whether to pursue further funding for a company. As the largest shareholder, Sophia naturally had to attend the meeting.
It was around nine o'clock when Sophia finished her breakfast. Then, she drove to Sunshine Group.
The meeting lasted for an hour and a half. After a comprehensive evaluation, the executives and shareholders unanimously voted for further funding.
After the meeting ended, Sophia left the company.
She received an unexpected call not long after leaving the company.
The call was from Samuel. At first, Sophia thought it was a scam call and hung up directly. If Samuel did not call her again straight afterward, she would never have answered it.
"Hi, this is Sophia."
"Sophia, it's me. Samuel Schild."
Oh, he's one of Alexander's buddies.
What happened the night before made Sophia lose sleep. She had been suppressing her anger all morning. Samuel could only blame his luck for calling her at the wrong time. "What's the matter, Mr. Schild?" she asked.
Samuel frowned on the other end of the phone. Despite not being face-to-face, he could hear the hostility in her tone. "I heard that you've bought the copyright of The Sound of Wind."
Sophia stopped the car before the red light. Arching an eyebrow, she said, "Mr. Schild, you're more resourceful than I imagined."
"I also heard that you plan to invest in filming," said Samuel.
"That's right. Do you have a problem with that?"
"Well, not exactly. However, I think it's easy to lose money in the film industry nowadays. Haven't you thought of pulling some of your investments to lower the risks?"
Samuel had long set his sight on the copyright of The Sound of Wind. Moreover, he had already asked someone to contact the film's copyright owner. However, the other party refused to relinquish the copyright unless they offered three million. From Samuel's perspective, the two million bid from Midway Media was good enough. Only a few companies in the current market could be so generous with their bidding.
Nevertheless, both sides refused to give an inch. At first, Samuel wanted to let them calm down for a few days. After each party took a step back in the negotiation, he planned to buy the adaptation copyright a the price of two million and five hundred thousand.
That was what Samuel had hoped for. Unfortunately, the reality was a far cry from his expectation.
In the past, the copyright of The Islander was snatched by Planetary Media thanks to Sunshine Group's intervention. Samuel was left empty-handed.
A few months later, Samuel had turned his attention to The Sound of Wind. However, Specter Entertainment came out of nowhere and bought the film copyright before him. Samuel nearly lost it when he heard the news the day before.
Therefore, he immediately called Sophia after the meeting that day.
Samuel knew the situation was bleak the moment he heard Sophia's words. Still, he was unwilling to give up that easily.
To find a good film like this is akin to finding a needle in a haystack. I've finally found a dark horse. Perhaps I should be happy that someone has the same vision as me.
The thought of losing out on another film made Samuel feel displeased.
For some reason, I can't figure out what Alexander's ex-wife is thinking.
Upon hearing Samuel's suggestion, Sophia suddenly laughed. "Mr. Schild, do you have some kind of misunderstanding about me?"
"What sort of misunderstanding?" Samuel was baffled.
The next second, Samuel heard the woman's soft voice coming from the other end of the line. "Do you think I'm short of money?" she probed.
"You aren't short of money. You..." Samuel could not finish his sentence.
He had nearly forgotten that Sophia did not receive any money after getting divorced from Alexander. Besides, it was Alexander who told them about it.
"What?"
When the traffic light turned green, Sophia hit the accelerator again while waiting for Samuel's reply.
"It's nothing. I just wanted to share the burden with you," he answered.
Sophia snorted at him. "Tens of millions aren't considered as a huge burden for me. However, it's stressful staring at the greedy eyes of a hungry wolf in front of me every day."
Samuel could roughly guess that she was indirectly calling him a beast.
Upon realizing that, Samuel sneered with displeasure, "Come on. I'm not short of money either. Since you're so confident in this, I won't bother you anymore."
"Okay," Sophia replied monotonously.
At that moment, Samuel was bereft of strength.
After ending the call, he was so furious that he nearly smashed the phone.
On the other hand, Sophia was in a much better mood. After all, Samuel had mocked her in the past.
She raised her eyebrows before picking up her phone to inform Katherine of this matter.
"Wow. You've killed several birds with one stone," Katherine praised.
She managed to deal with both Elise and Samuel at the same time.
Laughing, Sophia said, "I didn't think that way before. That reminds me of something. Since Samuel is so optimistic about The Sound of Wind, we aren't going to share the film rights. Our company can handle this on our own."
"Indeed. Money talks."
Sophia snorted and replied, "All right, I'm hanging up."
Samuel's phone call provided Sophia with a platform to vent her frustration. By the time she returned to the mansion, she was already in a much better mood.
On the other hand, Samuel was in a foul mood. The person who made him feel bad was Sophia.
Furthermore, Alexander disappeared without a trace the night before. After signing a few documents, Samuel immediately drove to Odyssey and complained to Alexander. "Alex, your ex-wife is truly something else. I wanted to help her by sharing the responsibility of the investment. Do you know what she said? She called me a greedy wolf! What an ungrateful person she is!"
Alexander scoffed. "You? Helping others?"
"We're talking about business here. It's less risky if there's one more investor," Samuel said while rubbing his nose, feeling somewhat guilty.
Alexander cast him a cold glare. "She doesn't want to give you a share of the pie."
"Hey, do you think I'm short of money?" Samuel snorted.
"If you aren't short of money, then why are you here? Why don't you join that lousy reality show if you like to whine so much?" Alexander snapped.
Samuel was rendered speechless.
He felt that his childhood friend and Sophia were a match made in heaven. Both of them had sharp tongues.
Since Samuel could not win a verbal war against Alexander, he had no choice but to change the subject. "Where did you go last night? Did you wander off to a woman's bed? Charles and I called you all night, but you didn't answer once."
When Samuel brought up what happened the night before, Alexander instantly became irritated. Tugging at his tie, he looked askance at Samuel. "What a waste of talent if you didn't become a screenwriter."
"To be honest, I've thought about that before," Samuel said.
It was Alexander's turn to be at a loss for words.
Gosh, what a shameless guy!