Chapter 1029 Just What He Wanted
Sonia looked calmly into his eyes. “Because I was weak. Because I don’t come from a good family. Because I’m an orphan. Because my husband didn’t care about me. Because I had no one to help me. Because they only bully the weak.
I realized that, and I swore I’d get stronger. Not just myself either. I’d create a whole team of strong people to back me up. Nobody’s gonna push me around if I have power. And I don’t want to rely on anyone else for that. I can’t trust anyone but myself.”
She can’t trust anyone but herself. Toby felt a little hurt. He clenched his fists and asked hoarsely, “You can’t trust me either?”
Sonia averted her gaze, refusing to look into his eyes. She knew he was a little hurt. “Yes. Everyone’s prone to betrayal. Some can even betray their own family. That can happen to us too. And besides, I told you one of the reasons is that I don’t want to turn to you every time I run into something. If I do that every time, I’ll eventually lose my independence. I’d be left for dead if you dump me again.”
“I won’t dump you!” His face fell, and he held her chin. Toby turned her head to him, forcing her to look into his eyes. “You just don’t trust our relationship. You don’t think we can see this through.”
Toby hit the bullseye, and Sonia heaved a sigh. She stopped averting her gaze and stared at him. “Yes. I don’t think we can see this through. Life isn’t as short as you think. We might be in love now, but love has an expiry date. We have no idea how long our love can last. Three years? Ten? I don’t think anyone can stay in love forever.”
“I won’t be so sure about that,” Toby retorted.
Sonia froze for a moment, staring at him dumbly.
He rubbed her forehead and said gently, “My grandpa died when I was a kid, so you didn’t get to see him. You don’t know this, but he was in love with my grandma his whole life. So you see, there is someone who can stay in love with the same person their whole life. Just because you haven’t seen it doesn’t mean you can deny its existence.”
Sonia’s jaw dropped a little. “I-Is that so?”
“Of course. If you don’t believe me, you can ask my grandma about it the next time you see her. Ask her about their love story. You’ll see that I’m not lying.” He looked into her eyes.
Sonia bit her lip and stayed quiet.
Toby poked her lip. “Stop biting it. Doesn’t it hurt?”
Sonia shook her head. It didn’t hurt.
He patted her head and whispered, “Put a little faith in it, will you?”
“In what?” Sonia looked at him again.
He gazed into her eyes. “Put your faith in the fact that we can see this through. My grandpa and grandma were in love their whole lives, and they never got into any arguments. They saw their marriage vows through, so why can’t we do the same?”
Sonia looked down in silence. Yeah. Why can’t we? She wanted to feel confident, but she couldn’t. They had long lives ahead of them. Sure, they could make promises like it was nothing at the moment, but nobody knew what the future had in store.
Sonia was still silent. Toby knew she still couldn’t believe they could see their relationship through. He sighed in silence, but he could understand why. Nobody could see the future. She had no reason to believe his promise. “It’s alright.” He held her head and pulled her closer to him.
He said softly, “You’ll see that you can trust me. I’ll show you. You won’t lose this war of love, but that’s for the future. Let’s not talk about that for now. We should go back to what we were talking about. I know you don’t want to rely on me because you want to grow. I had no idea you care about what the public thinks about you, and it’s my fault. I’m your boyfriend, but I have no idea what you’re worried about. I’m sorry.”
Sonia shook her head. “It’s not your fault. I didn’t tell you. Of course you don’t know what’s happening.”
“I’ll keep a closer eye on you. I won’t let this happen again.” He bent over and kissed her head. “And just ignore what the public says. Don’t let them get to you. So what if you’re not from a good family?
That’s not why I’m dating you. And I don’t think you’re not worthy of me. I don’t care about what you can or cannot do. You’re the best girl for me, and nobody’s better than you are.”
Sonia was amused. “What are you talking about? Of course there’s somebody better than me. A lot of people are better than me.”
“But you’re still the best to me.” He cupped her cheeks and looked into her eyes seriously.
Sonia felt her face burn from how serious he was. She couldn’t help it. He was praising her so much. It was embarrassing, but she felt a little happy too. I must be going mad.
“I mean, you’re the best girl for me. You don’t have to care about what the public thinks. I know they won’t stop judging you, and I can’t stop them. I mean, I can, but I can’t do it for life. They won’t stop judging you, but that only stems from their envy. Why should you care about the opinions of the people who envy you? The more you care about what they say, the more you’ll feel insecure. You’ll start to feel insecure about our relationship, and that’s what they’re waiting for.”
Sonia looked up at him. Yeah. Why haven’t I thought of that? All I thought about was how the public’s opinion made me uneasy. I started thinking that maybe a regular girl like myself isn’t worthy of Toby. I thought we can’t be happy, since there’s a big gap between us. I keep wondering if I’m a good match for him, but I never thought that they were only judging me out of envy.
They’re just trying to bring my self-esteem down, and if I continued down that route, I’d leave Toby by myself without them even doing anything. They’re gonna call me stupid. They couldn’t get Toby no matter what they did, but I got him without doing anything, and I threw him away. Of course that’s stupid. Yeah. I’m stupid! Sonia smacked the back of her head.
Toby was about to see if she had hurt her head, but Sonia pulled his hand down and looked at him. She finally relented. “Sorry. I’ve never thought of that. I—”
“I know,” he interrupted her. “And that’s why you care so much about what they think. You never stopped to think why they judge you. Everyone on our level is bound to be attacked. It’s inevitable. Even someone like me gets judged a lot. The public kept telling me that I’d be worse than any regular guy if I hadn’t been born to the Fullers and inherited the company. They said I’d be worse than they are.”
Sonia’s jaw dropped. “Someone actually said that about you?”
“Yep.” He nodded. “And all out of envy. Only guys who are on the bottom of society’s ladder don’t get envied, so I never tried to stop them. I don’t care what they say either.
They’ll just think they’re right if I gave a damn. You don’t have to care either. Don’t push yourself just to prove them wrong. They won’t stop. They’ll just think they hit you where it hurts most. They’ll think they have a chance at me.”
