From His Fake Wife to Billionaire Heiress Chapter 57: Frustrated Mentoring

Before heading to the hospital, he had made sure to walk Sophia through every follow-up task in detail.

He took a deep breath, forcing his irritation down, then told his assistant, "Send Ms. Myers to my office."

A few minutes later, Sophia walked in wearing sleek heels, a hint of perfume trailing behind her.

Seeing Lucas' tense expression, she asked cautiously, "You wanted to see me, Lucas?"

Lucas pointed to the termination letters on his desk. "Care to explain this? What happened?"

Sophia glanced at the documents and went pale. "I have no idea. I was working on the Harper Group proposal all day yesterday. I had someone else handle it—how was I supposed to know they'd act so unreasonably..."

Same old pattern. Whenever something went wrong, it was always someone else's fault.

Lucas rubbed his temples wearily. He didn't have the energy to play the blame game right now.

What mattered was keeping the rest of the projects on track—especially the proposal due to Harper Group.

Gathering his patience, he motioned Sophia over and pulled up the proposal on his screen, covered in red markups. He tried to guide her through it.

"Look here. This marketing strategy you drafted isn't grounded in reality—Harper would never approve it. And over here, the budget is completely inflated."

He went point by point, even rewriting some of the overly simplistic, almost naïve business concepts she'd included.

But before long, Lucas realized that editing wasn't going to fix this.

The whole foundation of the proposal was flawed.

Sophia had no real marketing experience, so every idea was built on assumptions. The document was full of buzzwords and empty statements.

Her so-called market analysis looked like it was copied from an outdated textbook—all theory, no substance.

It hit him then: in the past, when Riley worked on proposals like this, she'd deliver a polished version in three days—one even he couldn't fault.

Now here he was, wasting a whole morning on Sophia's messy draft, and he hadn't even fixed the core structure.

"No," Lucas finally said, losing his composure. He dropped the mouse loudly. "This isn't working. Scrap it and start over."

Sophia watched him dismiss days of her work. Her eyes reddened instantly, hurt written across her face.

"Why isn't it working?" she argued softly, unwilling to back down. "I thought my ideas were solid... When I was acting, this is exactly how business plots were written in scripts. And viewers loved those shows—they even praised the characters for being savvy."

Lucas stared at her as if seeing her for the first time. He could hardly believe what he was hearing.

He used to think she was just inexperienced.

Now he realized, with a sinking feeling, that it wasn't about experience. She genuinely believed the real, cutthroat business world operated like a TV drama set.

Did she really think those flashy, script-ready "big ideas" would actually work in practice?

Back when Riley was still here, she'd bring thick stacks of data reports for every proposal, citing real sources and laying out clear logic.

She'd debate with her team late into the night over something as specific as a single ad channel's conversion rate.

Back then, he thought she was too intense, too detail-oriented.

But now, Sophia's problem was the opposite—she wasn't nearly detail-oriented enough.

A wave of helplessness washed over Lucas.

It was like trying to explain survival in the real world to someone who lived in a fantasy. They weren't even speaking the same language.

How was he supposed to get through to her? He didn't know where to begin.

Then he remembered: after Sophia took over the project, her first move was to scrap the solid proposal Riley had already finished. She insisted on starting from scratch with her own version.

At the time, he took it as drive—a sign she wanted to prove herself.

"Then don't do it," Lucas said flatly, making a firm decision. "Delete your draft. Pull up the proposal Riley left behind and revise that one instead."

The instruction felt like a public rebuke.

Sophia's expression shifted immediately. Her lips tightened, eyes flashing with frustration. "But Lucas," she protested, voice tinged with defiance, "everyone at Harper Group knows I'm drafting a new proposal. If we go back to the old one now, I'll look completely incompetent."

She reached for his sleeve, giving it a gentle tug, her tone softening to a plea.

"Just trust me one more time, okay? I promise I can deliver something they'll approve."

Normally, that vulnerable act might have worked on him.

But right now, it only grated on his nerves.

The truth was, he couldn't stand it when employees mixed personal appeals with professional decisions.

"There's no time left for you to prove yourself," Lucas replied, his tone turning sharp. "Do you realize how much of the marketing department's work has stalled because of this proposal? Their entire productivity has dropped. If you don't show real progress soon, I guarantee someone at next week's board meeting will question whether you're fit to run the department at all."