The Call Boy I Met in Paris – Episode 5

📖 The Story Continues

The Call Boy I Met in Paris – Episode 5

Sophie stood at the Maple Plaza construction site with rolled blueprints beneath one arm and a hard hat secured over her hair. The unfinished building rose around her in concrete, steel, and open air, far removed from the polished hotel where her morning had begun. Here, at least, problems could be measured and corrected.

Workers in Phillips Company uniforms moved equipment across the site while the manager reviewed preparations for the next inspection. Sophie had come from the architecture firm to discuss changes to the plans, determined to keep her mother’s work moving even while the rest of her life threatened to collapse.

Nearby, Justin walked the site with the quiet authority of an owner. “The first round of the state inspection is next week,” he told the crew. “We need to make sure everything is good to go.”

“It’s all under control, boss. We’ve got it,” one of the supervisors assured him. Justin listened, but his attention remained on the details. A successful project depended less on promises than on hundreds of small standards being met when no one thought the owner was looking.

He spotted a piece of debris on the ground and pointed toward it. “See? That needs to go in the trash. It can’t be lying around here, right?” His correction was calm, though firm enough that the surrounding workers immediately checked their own areas.

“My mistake, boss. I’ll take care of it right away,” the supervisor said, hurrying to remove it. Justin nodded. “Spick-and-span,” he reminded the team before continuing his inspection.

Across the site, Sophie’s phone rang again. Her father’s name glowed on the screen, and she considered rejecting the call. She was already late for her meeting, but Tony’s persistence warned her that ignoring him would only bring the confrontation to her workplace.

She answered with no attempt to hide her irritation. Tony’s voice hit her at once. “Where the hell are you? You need to come home right now.”

“What do you want, Dad?” Sophie asked, stepping away from the noise. “I’m meeting with the construction site manager to go over changes to the blueprint.” She wanted him to understand that she was working for the very company he claimed she was endangering.

“Your sister told me everything. Have you no shame?” Tony demanded. He did not pause for her explanation. “Derek wants to break off the engagement.”

Sophie gripped the phone tighter. Stella had apparently shared her photographs without sharing the truth about Derek, and Tony had accepted the version most convenient to him. His outrage felt almost rehearsed, as if her supposed disgrace mattered only because it interrupted a contract.

“You need to come home and beg him to take you back if you want to save the company,” Tony continued. The words struck the deepest wound he could reach. He knew Sophie’s devotion to her mother’s firm and used it as a leash whenever she resisted him.

“I don’t want to marry him either,” Sophie snapped. The declaration carried more relief than fear. Whatever the will required, binding herself to a man who had slept with her sister would destroy everything her mother had wanted her to become.

Another voice moved in the background, and Sophie’s disgust sharpened. “He’s there with you, isn’t he?” she asked. Tony’s brief silence confirmed it. “Put me on speaker.”

Derek came onto the line with the confidence of a man expecting an apology. Sophie gave him no chance to speak. “Hey, Derek,” she said with lethal sweetness. “Fuck you.”

Tony erupted. “You turn twenty-five in three days! How do you expect to inherit your mother’s company if you don’t get married? It’s clearly stated in the will.” Beneath his anger lay certainty that the deadline would force Sophie back into obedience.

For a moment, fear pressed the air from her lungs. Three days was almost nothing, and losing the firm would mean losing the legacy her mother had trusted her to protect. Yet returning to Derek was no longer an option, no matter what it cost.

“You know what?” Sophie said as an idea born from rage began to take shape. “I will marry anybody else but him. Goodbye.” She ended the call before Tony could answer.

The silence afterward left her staring at the phone and confronting the impossible promise she had just made. She needed a husband in three days—someone with no connection to her family, no claim on her heart, and enough incentive to cooperate without asking questions.

Sophie turned back toward the construction site and nearly collided with a familiar man approaching through the dust. His face belonged to the stranger from her hotel bed, the man she believed she had paid to disappear. Her impossible promise was still ringing in her ears when she stared at him and whispered, “Oh. It’s you.”