Daphne’s Crush
“The car behind us?” Charles was alerted upon hearing Sonia’s words, looking at the rear mirror on his
left. As soon as his eyes fell upon the mirror, he saw a black car of a Japanese brand tailing them.
Despite its ordinary-looking appearance, it was tailgating them so closely that it was hard not to think it
was following them.
“You’re right.” Charles knitted his eyebrows.
Sonia sternly said, “This car seems to have been following us ever since we left Bayside Residence.”
“Really?” Charles was seen with a preoccupied look on his face.
Sonia nodded. “Yes, I noticed it when I looked in the rear mirror. After all, how can I forget a peculiar-
looking license plate like that so easily?”
“A peculiar-looking license plate?” Charles raised his eyebrows and looked in the rear mirror once
more. When he saw the two digits that read ‘13’, he couldn’t help but snigger. “Damn! That’s peculiar
indeed!”
“Exactly! That’s why that car stays in my mind the moment I see it, but I didn’t pay much attention to it
because I thought it was just some random car behind us until I realized this car was still tailing us now.
Therefore, judging from how closely it is following us, I’m worried that someone could be onto us,”
Sonia pursed her lips and said in a serious voice.
“Call the cops!” Charles held the steering tightly. “Call the cops and tell them about our situation. Then,
sit tight and grab the handle above your head because I’m about to drive like Mario Andretti and lose
that stalker.”
Unaware of the mysterious driver’s intention, both Charles and Sonia decided to take extra precautions
and assumed they were in the worst-case scenario. After all, they were afraid that the driver could do
something unexpectedly crazy like ramming their car, so the best way to avoid that was to lose their
stalker first.
Needless to say, Sonia felt the same way as Charles did, so she nodded and said, “Alright, drive safe.”
She then grabbed the handle above her head and reached for her phone with her other hand to contact
the police. Nonetheless, just when she just found Teddy’s number, she suddenly saw the car behind
them gaining on them in the rear mirror. Seconds later, it appeared just right in front of them as Sonia
tried to stop Charles from overtaking it. “Wait, Charles!”
“What’s wrong?” Charles gazed at the lady.
Sonia squinted, fixing her eyes on the car that was slowly disappearing from her sight. “That car just
overtook us.”
“What?” Charles raised his voice. “The car overtook us?”
“Yup.”
“Wasn’t it following us?”
Sonia responded with silence. A few moments later, their “stalker” seemingly drove down a different
path as it disappeared from sight. Then, she rubbed her forehead in relief and said, “That car might just
be going the same way as we did. I guess we overreacted.”
“Phew! We were just scaring ourselves all this time.” Charles heaved a sigh of relief after hearing the
lady’s words.
Nonetheless, Sonia only knitted her eyebrows in silence because she somehow had a bad feeling
about what they just went through, but she couldn’t explain why she felt that way. In the meantime,
Charles noticed her silence and asked, “What’s wrong? What’s on your mind?”
Sonia rubbed her temples and replied, “I was just thinking about the car that was following us. It may
be gone now, but I somehow have a bad feeling about it.”
“Why do you say so?” Charles glanced at Sonia from the corner of his eye.
Sonia bit her lip and answered, “It just seemed strange to me how that car suddenly overtook us. The
driver could have done that way earlier but decided to continue tailing us until we realized we were
being followed. Thus, it seemed to me that the driver must have discovered that we were aware of their
existence before deciding to overtake us to deflect our suspicion.”
“Well, you have a point, but I think it’s probably nothing more than a coincidence.” Charles turned his
steering wheel and added, “After all, the driver behind us couldn’t see what we were doing, so it
wouldn’t make sense to say that he or she knew we were alerted.”
While Sonia agreed with him, he suggested, “Well, if that still doesn’t ease your mind, you could get
someone to investigate the car.”
Sonia nodded. “You’re right. I’ll get someone to look into it once we arrive at Paradigm Co.” Deep
down, she couldn’t rest assured until she found out who that driver was.
Soon, both of them arrived at Paradigm Co. Since Charles had some work to do at the Planning
Department, he parted ways with Sonia in the lobby and made his way to the elevator that would take
him to the relevant department. On the other hand, Sonia walked toward the elevator and proceeded to
her office, where Daphne was standing in front of the door. When her secretary saw her, she politely
greeted her. “Good morning, President Reed.”
“Good morning.” Sonia smiled and reached for her access card to open the door as Daphne followed
behind her and read her schedule of the day to her.
When Sonia heard that she had to do a trivial inspection around her company at one in the afternoon,
she put down her purse and said, “Cancel the inspection. I will be away at one in the afternoon later.”
“Alright.” Daphne didn’t ask her where she would be going and went ahead to strike through that part of
her schedule. After that, she looked at Sonia and asked, “Is there any amendment that should be made
to your schedule, President Reed?”
“No. That’s all for now.” Sonia shook her head. “But I do have something I’d like you to help me with.”
“I’m listening, President Reed.”
Sonia then sat down and grabbed a pen and a piece of paper before writing something on it. Then, she
handed it over to Daphne, who took a look at it and saw a car license plate number. Confused with that,
she asked, “What’s this supposed to mean, President Reed?”
“Nothing. I just want you to find out more about this car owner because I want to know everything about
whoever this is,” Sonia replied, flipping her laptop open.
“Sure, President Reed.” Daphne closed her file after placing Sonia’s schedule list between the papers.
“Alright, go do your thing. By the way, Charles is now in the Planning Department, so please kindly
drop by to see what you can do for him.” Sonia waved her hand.
“President Lane is here at Paradigm Co.?” Daphne’s eyes lit up behind her glasses when she heard
Charles was in their company.
At the same time, Sonia noticed her reaction and blinked in surprise, “Daphne, don’t tell me you… Well,
fine. Just do your thing.”
“Sure.” Daphne didn’t notice the strange look on Sonia’s face as she nodded and walked away.
Sonia fixed her eyes on Daphne, clearly noticing how active her secretary had become in her footsteps.
After all, she knew Daphne wasn’t an outgoing person, and her old-fashioned appearance only served
to make her seem like a boring person. Therefore, everyone else in the company secretly called her
the bore.
Nevertheless, Daphne was young but hardly ever lively, yet she seemed to act more like her age after
the mention of Charles’ presence. Thus, Sonia couldn’t help but wonder whether her secretary had a
crush on him.
At the thought of that, Sonia chuckled in amusement. Well, if that turns out to be true, I suppose I could
act as a matchmaker who brings both of them together. While she reckoned Daphne was a mature and
reliable woman, Charles seemed like a child who was about to reach his teenage years, although he
was already in his thirties.
Thus, Sonia believed Daphne and Charles would make a perfect couple, and they would live a happy
life together. However, she had no idea what Charles would think about it, so she reckoned she must
sound him out first before making her next move.
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