Sophia's mind went blank for a second, then filled with excitement because he had just agreed to marry her through the contract.
She smiled with joy, "Okay."
This time, she took control of her own destiny and would no longer be manipulated by anyone, including Joseph.
She quickly picked up the document and followed him, trying to keep up with his unhurried pace.
Robert noticed Sophia's actions and deliberately slowed down his steps.
Suddenly, Sophia remembered her bet with Joseph, and her smile froze on her face, her heart in a panic.
"Master Miller, I forgot to tell you something," she spoke up. "I am still Joseph's fiancée. Are you still willing to marry me?"
"Fiancée and wife are two different things," Robert replied calmly without even looking back.
Sophia was stunned by Master Miller's words.
Indeed.
Being a fiancée was not the same as being a wife.
She was afraid that Robert would change his mind about marrying her once he found out she was Joseph's fiancée.
Fortunately, he saved her from the predicament.
When they came out of the Civil Affairs Bureau, Sophia looked at the handsome and elegant Robert and said, "I have already signed this contract. Master Miller, please sign it." She handed him the contract and pen with both hands.
Robert didn't even look at the document. He just gazed deeply at Sophia with joy in his eyes,as if marrying her was the happiest thing for her today.
For some reason, a strange emotion surged in his heart.
"No need, the wedding is already over," he said, stepping into his car with his long, straight legs.
"Master Miller, you..." Sophia opened her mouth to speak, but Robert's car sped away from her.
She looked at the contract document in her hand with a complicated expression. He just left like that, without giving her any contact information. The marriage certificate was still in his hands. If he didn't give it to her, how could she face Joseph?
At that moment, her phone rang. It was her mother, Abigail, calling. Sophia answered the call with a cold expression.
Abigail's angry voice came from the other end of the phone, "Sophia, the Garcia Family's young master kicked our entire family out of the villa today. My jewelry, my money, and my precious clothes are all gone. You have to come back and explain this to us!"
Sophia immediately understood that Joseph had taken action against her family to prevent her from marrying someone else.
Joseph was truly despicable!
Family had always been her weakness.
However, Joseph didn't know that his scheming that night made Sophia realize that she was just a tool in her family's eyes. His plan was doomed to fail!
"I'm busy," Sophia replied.
Abigail retorted, "I don't care if you're busy or if you're paralyzed, you better crawl back home to me!"
Sophia's eyes held a hint of bitterness. This was what family was supposed to be like.
They never asked her if she was doing well, never asked what happened between her and Joseph. They only wanted to know how they suddenly lost their wealth.
Money, jewelry, expensive clothes - were they more important than Sophia?
In Abigail's eyes, Sophia was less important than those designer clothes.
But Sophia couldn't avoid them because they were family, and she knew that running away wouldn't solve anything.
"I'm coming back now," she responded.
Sophia's home was a three-story old house with a yard in the suburbs of River City.
She opened the rusty iron gate and saw a pile of unorganized luggage in the yard.
"You still know how to come back!" Abigail exclaimed angrily.
Sophia stood at the doorway of the living room, where her entire family was sitting in chairs.
Her mother, Abigail, had a delicate makeup on her face, and her eyes looked at Sophia with a poisonous glare.
Sophia scanned the room with her eyes, and her father Henry dared not speak, sitting on the side with his neck shrunk.
Her brother Thomas and his girlfriend Elizabeth stared at her with cold faces.
The youngest brother Gu Ping sat there looking bewildered.
Ava, the eldest sister, spoke up: "Dad, you go upstairs and rest first. Sophia is back, and Mom and I will stay and talk to her."
"Hmph, talk about what?" Elizabeth sneered, glancing at Sophia, "Now quickly let Sophia go and kneel down to beg for mercy from Master Garcia. If it's too late, we'll have nothing left in our family."
Sophia was very indifferent. The whole family was here, obviously to deal with her.
"Elizabeth, shut up! You haven't even entered the Martinez Family yet. You have no right to interfere in our family affairs," Sophia said calmly.
Elizabeth's face stiffened, and there was a hint of surprise in her eyes. She didn't expect the usually gentle and weak Sophia to be so strong-willed today.
Ava gave her father a signal with her eyes, and Henry, who was trembling, didn't say anything and went upstairs with his two sons.
Abigail glared at Sophia with hatred, seething, "You white-eyed wolf! If I had known you would cause me to lose my fortune, I would have strangled you when you were a child!"
Sophia's heart twisted painfully at her mother's words. It was ironic that this was her own mother.
"If you had strangled me when I was a child, you wouldn't be in this mess now," she retorted sarcastically.
"How dare you talk back to me?" Abigail's face contorted with anger. "You're just a lowly assistant, making only a few thousand dollars a month. You can't even compare to the money you can make by going out and doing something else!"
"What did you say?" Sophia was furious. Her own mother was humiliating her like this...
"I said what I said. Are you deaf?" Abigail's face twisted with a fierce expression. "The Garcia Family doesn't care about your background and has allowed you to become a wealthy lady. What right do you have to make Master Garcia unhappy?"
"Who do you think you are? Do you know that when you married into the Mu family, your brother and sister both got jobs with a million-dollar salary, and your younger brother was directly admitted to university? Your father and I can live in a villa with a group of servants, and everything is handed to us on a silver platter!"
Sophia's pent-up pain and grievances erupted in anger.
"You, as a mother, only want to sell your daughter to gain the wealth and status you desire. But have you ever thought about why I should be sold by you?" Sophia's anger burned within her. "What have you given me since I was young? After nine years of free compulsory education, I paid for all my tuition through hard work."
"After I started working, you tried to take away all my money. Have you ever asked if my job was tiring or if I was happy? In your eyes, money is everything, as if I can't live without it."
She was both furious and sad for herself.
But she stood tall, with her only remaining pride, staring angrily at Abigail.
Abigail slammed her fist on the table. "Yes, I can't live without money! I don't care how you work! I only care about how much money you can make for me!"
Sophia laughed in anger. "Sell me alone, and let all of you enjoy wealth and status while I suffer humiliation alone. Why do you think I would be willing to be a mute and serve you all my life?"