Chapter 57: Soren sabotaged Theron’s project?

Soren Vale

The name echoed inside Elowen’s head. For a moment, she couldn’t react.

Confusion clouded her mind. She couldn’t understand what to believe.

Soren had asked her to resign from Aurelia. He had repeatedly told her that he didn’t like her working for Theron. He had even warned her to stay away from him.

Elowen had assumed it was because of his personal grudge against Theron. But she had never imagined he would go so far as to interfere with the funding of the entire project.

"Are you sure?" she asked quietly, uncertainty evident in her voice.

The doubt in her eyes struck Theron hard. His chest tightened with a suffocating mixture of helpless anger and resentment.

"I am not lying. Alex had already agreed to invest in our project. Then, all of a sudden, Soren offers him a bigger project with a much higher profit share and makes him promise not to invest in anything else."

His gaze was fixed on Elowen sharply. "Does that sound like a coincidence to you?"

Elowen fidgeted with her fingers under the table. She remembered Soren’s increasingly possessive behavior, the way he had hit Theron, and the anger in his eyes when he had warned her to stay away from her boss.

But this?

This was business. People’s hard work, careers, and livelihoods depended on it.

’Has Soren really used his influence to sabotage the Eden District project just because he hates Theron?’

Although that question crept into her mind, she still struggled to believe it.

Theron watched the conflicting emotions cross her face. "He is doing this to ruin my business. He doesn’t want me to establish myself here."

Elowen’s face paled. She wanted to deny it. She wanted to believe Soren wouldn’t deliberately ruin someone else’s business for personal reasons.

But she couldn’t dismiss the possibility. She had noticed the hatred in his eyes whenever he looked at Theron.

"Why? Why would he do that?" she asked with a trembling voice. "Why does he hate you so much? What happened between you two?"

Theron watched her quietly, his mind racing.

Of course, Soren couldn’t tell her the real reason behind their animosity. The realization gave Theron the upper hand. He wanted to use it.

He let his expression fall into a look of sadness.

"It started with a minor incident at school. I used to keep my personal belongings in my locker. I was very secretive about them and didn’t like sharing my secrets with others."

He let out a small laugh. "My friends used to mock me. They were always trying to find out what I was hiding in my locker. But I guarded it fiercely and never let them discover what was inside."

Elowen listened attentively. Nothing about that felt strange to her.

It was a private matter.

Some people preferred to keep their secrets to themselves. At the same time, she could understand why a group of curious boys might have wanted to know what their friend was hiding.

"But Soren sneaked into the locker room one day and opened my locker."

Elowen’s eyes flew wide.

Theron wanted to tell her that he had kept her photograph inside his locker. But he held back.

"He wanted to find out what I was hiding."

Elowen could hardly believe it.

The Soren she knew was a serious, reserved man. Imagining him as a mischievous, playful boy who sneaked into his friend’s locker almost made her laugh.

She pressed her lips tightly, suppressing the urge to smile.

"I was furious," Theron added. "I punched him."

A heavy silence descended inside the room.

Elowen gaped at him, stunned.

"I only wanted to protect my secret. He had no right to go through my belongings. He should have respected my privacy."

He let out a sigh, pretending to be regretful. "I didn’t mean to hit him. But I lost my temper."

He looked at her helplessly.

"After that, he stopped talking to me. He treated me like a complete stranger. I tried to talk to him and apologized. But he refused to listen. He told me he no longer wanted to be friends with me. He said I was his enemy."

"What?" Elowen narrowed her eyes.

She couldn’t believe Soren would end a friendship over a small fight.

If anything, she thought, Theron had merely been trying to protect his privacy. At the heat of the moment, he had hit Soren. But he had regretted it and apologized afterward.

Shouldn’t Soren have accepted the apology and let the matter go? Instead, he had turned his former friend into an enemy.

"Soren didn’t stop there," Theron said grimly. "He wouldn’t stop targeting me. He started competing with me in everything—academic, sports, and practically every aspect of my life. At last, I decided to change schools. I thought it would put an end to his obsession with targeting me. But I was wrong."

"What else did he do?" Elowen asked.

The suspicion growing in her eyes only added to his confidence.

"He started targeting my family business," Theron said. "We were not as powerful and wealthy as the Vale family. Offending them was something we couldn’t afford. His grandfather forced me to leave the country. I had no choice but to obey."

His gaze was full of sorrow and helplessness. "To protect my family and the business, I had to leave everything behind."

Elowen’s surprise deepened. She knew how much influence the Vale family wielded in the country. But she had never thought they would use that power to suppress someone over a personal dispute.

Theron continued with a resigned sigh, "I studied abroad and started my own business from scratch. When I returned, I hoped to expand my business here and establish myself on my own terms. But Soren doesn’t want that. He is doing the same thing all over again. He is using his wealth and influence to drive me away."

Elowen grew increasingly restless. She knew Soren could be ruthless in business, but she didn’t want to believe he would go to such lengths to sabotage Theron’s business venture over a petty schoolboy fight.

There was certainly more to their hatred than Theron was telling her.

She opened her mouth to defend Soren, but a knock on the door interrupted her.

"Come in."

Elowen turned her head to look behind her at the door.

Daphne appeared, carrying a cup of coffee. Her steps faltered slightly as she approached him. When she met his cold gaze, her heartbeat stumbled.

"Your coffee, sir." Her hands started shaking as she held the cup out toward him.

Theron looked at her shaky hand. Something dark flickered in his eyes.

He remembered how Daphne had deliberately burned Elowen with a hot coffee.

’Everyone who hurt Elowen would pay.’

He reached out to take the cup. But just as Daphne was about to release it, he knocked it aside.

The hot coffee splashed over Daphne’s hand.