Atrophy of Love: Mr. Harris, Stop Fooling Around! novel Chapter 80

Zachary and Clara’s voices were heard outside the door. It was difficult to hear what they were talking about, but from their tones, Clara, who was usually playful and lively, sounded somewhat angry.

Sophia opened up her palm and looked at the thin calluses on it. She smiled, yet her smile did not reach her eyes.

At five-thirty in the afternoon, Sterling arrived with a bunch of food that she liked to eat. "I went to several stores and queued up all afternoon just to buy them. Eat more."

He set everything on the table, handed her a pair of chopsticks and a disposable lunch box before picking up a bottle of liquor and setting it on the table.

"Why do you suddenly want to drink?" She asked because Sterling did not like to drink due to the unpleasant taste.

Sterling suppressed the irritability in his heart, poured a small glass of white wine, and drained it in a gulp. "I just feel like drinking."

He was not wearing a suit nor a tie, even two of his blouse buttons were undone, revealing his collarbone and chest muscles.

His movements when he drank opened up his blouse slightly, revealing an injury resulting from a nail that scratched all the way from his lower right neck to his collarbone.

"What's with the neck injury?" Sophia asked, putting down her chopsticks and frowning slightly.

Sterling was taken aback and tugged at his collar hastily. He then quickly put on an ambiguous and mischievous look on his face. "Must you ask something that can’t be any obvious? Can't you guess now that you’re an adult yourself?"

"Sterling." Sophia stared straight into his eyes. The depth of her eyes was all dark and serene.

Sterling scratched his neck and murmured, "Why have you completely changed after two years of being in prison?"

"Don't change the subject," Sophia said.

Sterling was choking from anger. He had wanted to talk to someone about it since a long time ago.

He smacked his chopsticks on the table and reiterated what happened today by garbling up the story and adding details in it.

In the end, he held his breath, scrunched up his face, downed a glass of white wine, and roared with a suppressed voice, "I actually thought that Dad was going to seek justice for you. F*ck, I’m so mad!"

"Leah was right," Sophia mumbled. There was a flash of overwhelming sadness in her eyes.

Sterling was puzzled by her response. "Huh?"

"You’re confused as to why Dad has turned hostile so suddenly, no?" Sophia let out a self-deprecating grin and continued. "Because Leah’s right. The things Dad said contained elements of anger from being constantly oppressed all this while, but more of it is to let the Jones know that it hasn’t been easy for him either."

That was why Leah used the theme park project to quell Dad's anger... Heh, never in a million years would she have thought that her dad would use the pain she had suffered in exchange for benefits.

Sterling's expression changed unpredictably. In the end, he picked up the wine bottle with a livid look on his face and poured its content into his mouth. A mixture of tears and wine flowed down his cheeks.

"Don't drink so much, it’ll make you uncomfortable." Sophia snatched the bottle away and set it on the table. Her heart felt as though it was being splashed with sulfuric acid and was instantly riddled with thousands of wounds. It hurt so bad that it was suffocating her.

"Say, why has this happened, Soph?" Sterling hammered his heart again and again, choking with sobs. "Mom and Dad clearly doted on you in the past, so why did they suddenly... Why did things suddenly turn out this way?"

Sophia pulled out a few paper towels and wiped the wine and tears from his face. "You have been away from home for far too long. Go home. Mom, Dad, and Nicole will be worried."

"No! When I came out today, I swore to the old man that I will never return to the White residence again!" Sterling was no drinker. His gaze was starting to look tranced already. "I don’t want to return to that heartless home ever again!"

Sophia sighed softly. "If you don't go back, what will Nicole and the two kids do? Sterling, you are already an adult now. Don't be so headstrong."

"If Aunt Lewis and Mr. Jones, they… Burp… If they can believe Leah that scheming b*tch, then why can’t Mom and Dad…" Sterling sprawled out on the table before he could finish his sentence and began snoring.

Sophia got out of bed, endured the pain in her leg, and heaved him onto the chaperone bed before covering him with a blanket.