The Source of the Shares
The moment she thought about her exchange with Carl the day before, Sonia lowered her gaze before
she dismissed, “No, nothing happened at all.”
Clearly seeing through her lie, Charles raised a brow and drawled, “Really? Because from how I look at
it, something definitely happened. I ran into Carl after I managed to borrow the wheelchair and boy,
was I shocked by how gloomy he looked. I asked if he was okay, but he ignored me; when I returned to
the ward, you looked sullen as well. I figured something must have happened between you two, but I
only kept quiet about it because you looked so upset at that time.”
She chewed on her lip in reticence.
He pulled up a chair next to her bed. “Come on, let it all out and maybe I’ll guide you like a moral
compass.”
“It’s nothing, really,” she muttered before she sat down on the chair propped up to one side of the room.
“I just noticed that Carl has a psychological issue and I…”
Sonia trailed off, not wanting to talk about how Carl had been involved in the poisoning, at least not to
Charles. She didn’t want him to worry and she certainly would hate it if the two men started holding
grudges against each other.
While Charles hadn’t known Carl for as long as she had, the two men were still friends and she didn’t
want to jeopardize their friendship by telling the truth.
Moreover, she had already decided to forgive Carl and look past this incident. Withholding the truth
seemed the best way to move forward.
Charles, on the other hand, exclaimed in surprise, “Y-You noticed Carl’s psychological issue?”
Sonia briefly appraised him with narrowed eyes as she accused, “What, did you already know about
it?”
He swallowed convulsively at the realization that he had let this secret out of the bag.
“Out with it, Charles! Have you known about his psychological issue all this while?” she asked
incredulously as she stared at him with wide eyes.
He struggled to find the words before he finally sighed and confessed, “Okay, fine. I’ve known about
this for quite some time now.”
“You—” In a fit of frustration and disbelief, she kicked him. “If you knew about it, then why didn’t you
say anything?” If he had done so, she would have tried to persuade Carl to seek professional help; he
would be better at coping with his psychological issue instead of going to lengths to poison her.
“Carl was the one who asked me to keep my mouth shut about it,” Charles admitted as he resentfully
rubbed the area where Sonia’s kick had landed moments ago.
She glowered at him mutinously. “I can’t believe you would call yourself my childhood friend when you
are hiding things from me! When did you find out about Carl’s psychological issue? Tell me the truth!”
“Well…” He averted his gaze and looked to a remote corner of the room, appearing as if he was trying
to come up with yet another lie.
Sonia frowned in annoyance and made to kick him again, but he foresaw this and quickly brought his
legs up, effectively dodging her approaching foot. With a rueful chuckle, he responded, “Okay, okay, I’ll
tell you everything! There’s no need to get riled up.”
“Well, then, stop dawdling!” she urged.
He shrugged before he solemnly explained, “I’ve known about it for a year now. Carl and I got in touch
with one another two years ago, courtesy of your grandfather. When your dad passed, your stepmother
and sister sold off all his shares in Paradigm Co., but your grandfather had been secretly buying up
these shares alongside Carl. I don’t know how long they both have been working together, but I’m
guessing it’s been more than three years, given how I’ve only joined them two years ago.”
“So, both of you and Grandpa have been buying up shares in Paradigm Co.?” She gaped in disbelief.
Three months ago, which was right after her divorce from Toby, Carl had brought her to see her
grandfather, Leonard. Leonard was an archeologist who spent the better part of his years studying and
wandering through historical sites, so he hardly ever kept in touch with Sonia. In fact, she never saw
him in the six years that she was married to Toby; it was always radio silence on Leonard’s end, so she
was shocked that Carl had even managed to locate him at all.
What was even more surprising was the sum of shares in Paradigm Co. that Leonard had presented
Sonia with. She was well aware that her stepmother and sister had sold off these shares, and casting
her own astonishment aside, Sonia’s curiosity was provoked after seeing the large number of shares
he had in hand. She wanted to know how he managed to acquire these shares, the amount of which
far surpassed what her father had held during his lifetime.
Naturally, the presumption that Leonard was the one who purchased these shares had stood valid for a
while, but she quickly dismissed it. He was merely an archeologist and it wasn’t a well-paid career, at
least not well enough to provide him with the means of purchasing shares worth twenty percent of the
entire Paradigm Co.
Following this, Sonia had suppressed her curiosity and decided that she would save her questions for
the next meeting with her grandfather. However, when the meeting came around and she had asked for
answers, Leonard kept mum about the truth. Nevertheless, she would rather have a clear explanation
on this, just in case he had made some kind of deal with someone else.
Little did she know that Leonard, Carl and Charles were collaborating with each other all these years to
acquire the fifty-one percent share in Paradigm Co. that she now held.
As it turned out, she had unknowingly received an overwhelming amount of generosity and kindness
from those around her. She should have returned their favors by maintaining her pride and dignity, but
she had instead spent the last six years compromising with the Fuller Family. Not to mention, she was
pathetically obsessing over the idea of turning Toby into the man he had once been. She chased after
him like a desperate puppy in the hopes that they could have the happily-ever-after that she dreamed
of. In retrospect, she had been a fool and even disappointed her grandfather, Charles and Carl. The
guilt and shame stirred in her like a sour, bitter cocktail.
Almost at once, she felt as if she did not deserve the shares she now held in Paradigm Co. It hurt to
think that she owned them and they weighed on her conscience.
Besides, how could she have been so thick-skinned as to own them at all? She had never once done
anything to deserve them.
Upon seeing how upset Sonia was, Charles leapt up from the hospital bed and asked worriedly, “Baby,
what’s wrong?”
Sonia gazed up at him with watery eyes and drew in a deep breath to suppress her tears. “Nothing, I
just feel really guilty about something I thought about.”
“And what might that be?’ he asked in curiosity.
She shook her head. “It’s nothing.”
Even as she said this, she made a solemn vow to return his and Carl’s favor to her. She suddenly
realized that she owed so much to a long list of people in this lifetime.
Charles could tell that there was something on Sonia’s mind. He gazed at her intently and when she
still didn’t say anything, he frustratedly threw his hands in the air in a show of resignation. Then, he
picked up from where the initial conversation had left off. “So, where was I?”
“You were telling me about how Carl and my grandfather worked together for at least three years or
more,” she pointed out.
“Right. So, I took a guess at the timeline when your grandfather found me two years ago and had me
join his efforts in recouping those shares. It was after I agreed to help him that I met Carl, and ever
since then, we’ve been buying up those shares listed on the market,” he explained.
Sonia pursed her lips and demanded angrily, “I met Carl two years ago, so why didn’t you say anything
then? Why didn’t you tell me that the both of you were working together with Grandpa in buying up the
shares?” She wondered whether she would have snapped out of her lovesick daze with Toby if they
came clean with her from the beginning.
“I wanted to, but your grandfather told me to keep it from you, and so did Carl. My hands were tied,”
Charles answered with a pout. Then, he added, “I spent a lot of time with Carl in the past two years and
I noticed that there was something off about him from the start, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. It
wasn’t until a year ago that I realized he had a psychological issue. When he found out, he warned me
not to breathe a word of it, especially to you. So, I’ve kept it a secret from you until now.”
That’s how it is then! Sonia dug her nails into her palms. “Do you know what caused his psychological
issue?”
“No, but I know it’s pretty serious, so I guess he’s had it for a while.”
For a while… She narrowed her eyes in thought. If that’s the case, then something must have
happened to Carl in the last ten years that created this psychological issue of his. He couldn’t have
been born with it because he was gentle and always ready to laugh ten years ago.
“By the way, baby, what are you going to do now that you know about Carl’s condition?” Charles piped
up, sounding somber.
Sonia pinched the space between her brows. “What else is there for me to do other than to convince
him to seek treatment? It’s the only way he could take a turn for the better.”
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