Chapter 1028 A Past Concealed
“If it’s so important, then why didn’t you tell me? Why did you ask someone else for help when you could’ve come to me? Am I that unreliable to you?” Toby had no idea what Sonia was thinking. All he wanted was to make things clear with her.
Sonia didn’t want Toby to think that he was unimportant to her. She shook her head. “No. I never thought of you that way. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to rely on you for everything. I told you about it, and you agreed.
I made it very clear why I didn’t want to rely on you too much. I don’t want to turn to you every time I run into something. If I do that, I’ll lose my independence eventually. I’ll turn into a woman who needs you to solve everything for her. I don’t want that. And…”
“And what?” Toby pursed his lips. She did tell him her reason before and he supported her, but this was a bit too much. She didn’t even tell him anything because she didn’t even ask for his help, and it made him feel like an outsider. No, he was less than that. She’d rather ask an outsider for help, but not him.
“And…” She massaged her forehead. “I don’t want everyone to think of me as a hapless girl who needs you for everything. I don’t want them to think that my company only got this far thanks to you. I don’t want them to see me as some sort of sidekick, like I’m just a side dish to the main course.
I want them to see me as an independent woman. I don’t want them to think I got this far because of sheer luck instead of my own hard work. I don’t want them to think Paradigm Co. got big because you helped me out instead of my own hard work.”
She had a bitter look on her face, and her voice broke. “I never told you that, but it weighs down on me like a mountain. It’s suffocating. Getting back together with you puts a lot of strain on me.
You have no idea how worried I am about the public’s opinion. They’d say I’m not worthy of you because my family and company are in decline. They called me a common wench who got lucky. They also said that I’m an orphan and that nobody will help me when you argue with me and dump me.”
A loud bang interrupted her.
Toby had slammed the table with his fist and shot up, the air around him turning ever colder. The look on his face was dark as a storm brewed in his eyes. “You’re my girlfriend. I’ll never let anyone call you an orphan.”
Sonia smiled bitterly. “Yes. They won’t do that in your face. I’ve never heard those comments ever since we reconciled, but you can’t guarantee they won’t say the same thing behind our backs.”
Toby fell silent. He had no answer for that. He couldn’t guarantee everyone would keep quiet. He couldn’t control what they said in private. He might be powerful, but not powerful enough to find out what they were saying in private.
Sonia took his silence as an agreement, and she inhaled deeply. “See? Not even you can guarantee that. The comments have stopped now, but it wasn’t always like this. Things were different six years ago. Much different.”
“What?” Toby’s face fell, his heart skipping a beat. “You mean they said that to your face six years ago?”
“Yeah. You haven’t cared about me for the past six years. On top of that, my dad died, and my company fell into someone else’s hands. I don’t have anyone to back me up. I was alone and helpless.
Your stepmom, Tyler, business partners, and all the girls who love you laugh at me behind your back. They humiliated me all they wanted, all because you didn’t care about me. Just because you didn’t care about me, they insulted me all they wanted. It was a dark time. Perhaps the darkest in my life.”
She brushed that past off as nothing, but he could feel something squeezing his heart. It felt like his heart was stopping, and his face paled. His lips trembled, and he croaked, “I’m sorry… I didn’t know…” He had no idea about that.
He knew Jean and Tyler were borderline abusive to her in the past, but he had no idea everyone else was too.
Sonia shook her head. “I don’t blame you. Nobody’s gonna be stupid enough to bring it up with you. I was your wife after all. They weren’t sure if you’d destroy them if you found out what they did, so they agreed to keep it a secret from you.”
Toby pulled his chair back and went around the table. He approached Sonia and bent down to hold her, then buried his head in her shoulder and apologized profusely, “Sorry. I’m really, really sorry.” He didn’t stupidly ask her why she didn’t tell him about it since he knew the answer himself. He was under hypnosis, and Tina was all he could think about. He probably wouldn’t even help her out if she told him.
How Jean and Tyler treated her alone was enough to tell him that. He knew what they did to her, but he never did anything to stop it. He feigned ignorance about it. If he didn’t even stop his family from pushing her around, there was no way he’d stop anyone else from doing the same thing. “I’m sorry, Little Leaf. I-I was a b*stard. A useless b*stard!”
Toby held her tightly. Sonia couldn’t see it, but his face was contorted with hatred and fury. He would tear Tina apart if he could. If it weren’t for her, he wouldn’t have been hypnotized. If it weren’t for her, he wouldn’t have hurt the woman he loved. Yes, he didn’t mean it, but it didn’t change the fact that he did it.
He allowed his own family to hurt the woman he loved. That f*cking b*tch! When I find her, I’ll make her wish she was never born, or I’m not Toby Fuller! He looked up, glaring into the distance behind Sonia, as if he could see Tina through it.
Sonia didn’t know what Toby was thinking as she patted his back and looked down in silence. Sonia didn’t tell him it wasn’t his fault, or that he was not to blame. She might have forgiven him, but she still had some resentment.
Yes, she knew he didn’t mean what he did. He was just hypnotized, making him a victim as well, but that did not mean he could be absolved from what he did. She still couldn’t get over it. They hugged for a moment, and she pushed him away.
He stared into her eyes, and she smiled. “I wondered why they did that to me at first, but I figured that out after we got divorced.”
