Growing up as a child, she had never experienced any fatherly love as her father hated and blamed her for being the cause of the death of his beloved, her mother. Her mother had died while birthing her, hence the reason her father didn’t like the sight of her. When her father remarried and became happy once again, Stephanie’s father, Carlos Wordsworth, showed her some affection and Stephanie was glad that she was beginning to get her father’s love which she had been craving for although it didn’t last long.
Clark’s mother Camilla, whom Carlos had gotten married to cheated on him and after finding out, he became aggrieved and developed a hatred for women. The love he had begun to show Stephanie faded away and he hated her the more. He placed Clark over Stephanie and would clean up any mess created by Clark although he always made sure to punish him for the mistakes he committed. Stephanie lived all her entire childhood as her father’s dog just to please him and make him recognize her but no matter what she did, he didn’t seem to take note of her. We can conclude that both Stephanie and Edward suffered the same fate as children.
With no one in her family to love her, Stephanie had always found solace in their gardener’s son, who played with her and made her heavy heart feel at ease. As they both grew up together, their relationship deepened, and they fell in love with each other. To avoid her father’s wrath, Stephanie kept hidden her relationship with Mason, the gardener’s son, but they couldn’t keep it for long as Carlos found out. Carlos was furious as Stephanie had predicted. She got Mason locked up and made sure he was dealt with. After several pleas, Carlos decided to let go of Mason on the condition that he and his father leave the city. They did as instructed but two months after separating the two lovebirds, Carlos found out Stephanie was pregnant. He was angry at the news and made up his mind that Stephanie would have an abortion. Getting to the hospital, he was advised not to go ahead with his decision as Stephanie might lose her life in the process. After giving it some thought, Carlos reluctantly gave in to the doctor’s opinion. To save face, he ordered Stephanie to be locked up in the basement of his house and made it seem like she had travelled out of the country. All through her pregnancy, she was locked up in the basement until she gave birth. The day she put to bed, she had her baby in the basement and as soon as she delivered her son, he was taken away from her. When she had recovered from the labor pains, she tried questioning her father of the whereabouts of her son but the response she got was:
“Which child are you talking about? You never got pregnant, talk less of birthing a child. Is that understood?” Carlos had said with a stern voice and in which Stephanie immediately got the message he was passing across. The message that a word shouldn’t come out to the public that she births a child. Stephanie felt the need to see her child and know his whereabouts, but she couldn’t probe her father as she feared him.
Life went on and in no time, two years passed. Stephanie resumed her normal lifestyle, but she couldn’t stop thinking about Mason and their child. Guilt was eating her heart up as she didn’t inform Mason of either her pregnancy or the birth of their child. When she couldn’t bear the guilt anymore, she decided to go in search of Mason without her father’s knowledge. After some months of looking for him, she finally found out his whereabouts (his new abode). She secretly went in search of him and upon getting there, she found out her son, who was separated from her, was actually with her lover, Mason. Mason had narrated how Carlos brought the infant to him two years earlier and told him to take care of his burden and never get close to Stephanie again.
Stephanie apologized to Mason for what he had gone through and after so many discussions, they decided to rekindle their love as they couldn’t let go of each other. They continued their love in secret and a few months later, Carlos broke the news of Stephanie getting married to Williams. Stephanie for the first time spoke back at her father.
“I can’t” she said to Carlos with a defying tone, as soon as he broke the news of her arranged marriage.
“Do you want to go against me because of them?” Carlos, who was surprised by his daughter’s defiance, asked.
“Them? Who … are you taking about?” Stephanie queried, scared that her father was referring to the people she had in mind.
“Mason and your son I meant” Carlos responded. Stephanie was shocked as she didn’t know how her father had gotten to know she was still seeing Mason.
“You think I do not know you are still seeing that bastard? I fucking do but just pretended not to!!!!! Now listen, it’s either you let go of those lowlifes and I let them live or choose them over Williams and watch them die right in front of you. The choice is yours” Carlos said with ruthlessness in his voice, before walking away. Stephanie, who knew what her father could do what he had said, had to forcefully break ties with Mason and their son, Jack. She got married to Williams as her father had wished but some days before their wedding, she found out she was pregnant again for Mason. She knew her father would kill her if he found out and so, she kept the secret all to herself and bore Sophia as Williams’ child.
When she found out Williams was married to another woman, Annie and they had a child together (Lily), she knew she had to take the mother and daughter out of the way as she had been informed by her father’s secretary that her name wasn’t included in her father’s will. She knew the only way to secure hers and her daughter’s future was to hold onto Williams and his fortune, hence the reason she decided to eliminate Lily (Ellie/Hillary) and her mother to avoid future problems.
She brought Jack close to her after Mason had gotten in touch with her asking for her help as their son had finished school. She didn’t want to do so but she reluctantly agreed as she saw Jack as an instrument to clean up hers and his sister’s mess. She lost all affection for Jack as she was engulfed by greed and saw Jack as unimportant. She saw him as of no value and she diverted all her love and care to Sophia, not minding that she was ignoring her son who was right beside her. When she found out Sophia and Jack were messing around, she had called Jack to order and threatened him. Despite all her efforts to secure a better future for her daughter, there she was looking at her daughter who was sleeping on the hospital bed with all her efforts of more than 15 years going down the drain. She looked at how pitiful her daughter looked even in her sleep and couldn’t help but blame herself for putting her in such a condition.
At that moment, the only person she could think of was Sophia and she cared less as to how Jack was feeling after finding out he had been working for his birth mother all along and had been copulating with his sister. Stephanie burst into tears upon realizing that she and her daughter were at the bottom pit, and they had lost everything. She buried her face in her hands, and she began to sob the more as she realized the bright future she had planned for Sophia wasn’t sure anymore. Just then, she heard a familiar voice which interrupted her sob.
“What are you doing here?!!!” Sophia, who had woken up to see her mother sitting beside her bed, with her face buried in her hands sobbing, yelled. She felt disgusted by her presence.
“My baby, you are awake? Are you fine? Are you hurting anywhere?” Stephanie, who had overlooked the harshness in her daughter’s voice, asked, feeling concerned and trying to touch her to ensure she was fine.
“Get your hands off me!!! Don’t you dare touch me!!!” Sophia yelled angrily, which made Stephanie flinch.
“What? You are pretending you care for me now after putting me through all this and causing me pain? You hid the fact that Jack is my brother from me and made me copulate with him to the extent that I got pregnant with his child. If I hadn’t lost the pregnancy, I would have birthed my brother’s child!!!!!! Do you know the gravity of what you have done?” Sophia, who had gotten out of her bed and was now standing in front of her mother yelled angrily at her, with pain and betrayal evident in her voice. Stephanie didn’t know what to say as she felt guilty for having betrayed the trust her daughter had in her.
“You know what? Get out of here!!!! I do not want to set my eyes on you” Sophia, who was getting angrier, yelled, motioning for her mother to use the door. Stephanie, who knew Sophia was angry at her and didn’t want to provoke her further, obliged and quietly moved out of the room. As soon as her mother left the room, Sophia locked the door from behind and sat in a corner of her ward, crying herself to stupor. She sat there for hours, thinking of how she had lost everything. She made up her mind that there was no way out for her and just then, her phone rang. She at first ignored the caller but when she noticed the caller wouldn’t stop calling until she picked up, she forced herself to get up from where she was curled up and move in the direction of where she had placed her cellphone. Checking the screen of her cellphone, she was shocked as she never expected the caller to put a call through to her.
“Hello” she said, wiping away her tears with uncertainty and sadness evident in her voice.
“Hello, Sophia. Sorry I kept on calling repeatedly but I have an important message I need to pass across to you” Claire, who was the caller had said.
“An important message? What could that be?” Sophia had thought amid her sorrows and sadness.
“Sophia, are you still with me?” Claire asked upon not getting a response from Sophia and which pulled Sophia out of her thoughts.
“Yes, I am with you. Sorry about that” Sophia apologized.
“I have brought forth to you good news. Congratulations, Sophia. The CEO is ready to sign the collaboration with you. She is currently in Los Angeles, and she is planning on signing the collaboration with your company tomorrow” Claire declared over the phone.
“Tomorrow? What does she want in return?” confused Sophia, who was finding it hard to believe what she had been told, asked suspiciously.
“She does not want anything in return from you apart from the terms of agreement between the two companies” Claire responded. Sophia found everything too good to be true and which made her probe Claire further.
“She doesn’t want anything? Why the sudden change of heart?” Sophia further probed, becoming more wary of the news.
“I can’t say but I think it’s because of your determination. Get everything prepared from your end and pass the venue and the time across to us before today runs out, to prepare ourselves from our end too. Bye and stay safe,” Claire replied.
“Thank you and stay safe too” Sophia responded before hanging up with her getting more confused.
“Why do I feel something is off about this? Why are they willing to sign the collaboration with me now that I have lost everything? Am I just reading too much meaning to it?” Sophia had thought after hanging up and after so many deliberations, she decided to go for it although she felt skeptical about it.
“Luck may be on my side, and this is my only grace of saving my face and rising back to the top” she had thought and with that, she put a call through to Daniel, informing him of the good news she had gotten. But what she didn’t know was that she was falling right into the trap that had been purposely set up for her.