Chapter 1063 Trust Me, Alright?
Toby’s expression instantly turned thunderous and he seemed to be a second away from flaring up anytime soon. Everyone present could not help but feel their hearts skip a beat.
Had Charles not mentioned this incident, then Toby would have been blissfully unaware of everything. Of course, Toby had no doubts that Charles was telling the truth. After all, he could just easily investigate the matter to verify if he wanted to.
On the other hand, Charles would be unbothered with Toby investigating it since he was telling the truth anyway.
Toby had assumed that his mentor and Lynette had a drastic change in their conduct over the past few years. In actuality, they had been adopting that poor conduct since eight years ago! No, perhaps they haven’t changed in their ways and it’s likely that they’ve been behaving this way their whole life; they were just yet to show their true colors before me. That was why he had been unaware of all this. In reality, they were just a bunch of ugly beings beneath their facade.
“I’m sorry.” Toby reached out to tug Sonia’s hand. “I knew that Harry was unfair and overprotective, but I didn’t expect him to behave so abominably in such a manner by taking advantage of my identity.”
Sonia lowered her head and remained silent.
Charles pointed at Toby. “Sonny, look at him. He admitted that Mr. Lore’s an overprotective jack, so if Toby insists on pursuing this matter and seeking revenge from that man’s granddaughter, then it would be impossible for that old fogey to agree to that. He would surely bring up his identity as Toby’s mentor to command him to stop pursuing the matter. I reckon Lynette must also know that her grandfather would stand up for her, that’s why she’s so fearless.”
“I do agree with Charles on that.” Sonia touched her cheeks and continued, “It’s because Miss Lore knows that her grandfather dotes on her and he would forsake his identity to do anything for her. That’s why she’s so reckless in her ways. Even for this incident this time, I believe that ultimately, your mentor would stand up for Miss Lore and request personally for you to forgive her. You—”
“I won’t forgive her,” Toby responded at once.
Though she was quite happy to hear that, she felt slightly apprehensive too. “What if Mr. Lore insists that you forgive her? You should remember that he’s your mentor and he has your respect. If he makes a demand as your mentor and requests that you let her granddaughter off the hook, and you reject him, aren’t you worried that he will reveal to the public that you’re a disrespectful and ungrateful student?”
Toby glanced at her and revealed a confident smile. “No, he won’t do that. The current two generations of the Lore Family are pretty much worthless, so none of them can stand on their own feet. That’s why the Lores are reliant on me for support to maintain their current status and lavish lives. If they sever ties with me, then judging by the capabilities of those worthless Lore youngsters, their family would cease to exist in the upper echelons of society in no time at all. Although Harry is quite lax with the upbringing of his younger generations, he’s not in denial of their faults, so he would never threaten me this way.”
“Are you sure about that?” Sonia sat up straighter than before.
“Yes!” Toby quite naturally wrapped his hand around her waist. He found that it was rather easy to hold her on her slender waist. He unclenched his large hands and it was exactly the size of her slender waist, making it a pleasant sensation for him to hold her.
At that moment, Toby’s eyes darkened significantly as he tightened his grip on her waist. He could not help himself and started to caress her waist.
In response, Sonia glared at him exasperatedly.
If Charles was not present, she would definitely have pushed his hand aside. However, with a guest around, she was rather shy to do that because Charles would notice her range of motion.
By then, when Charles realized that she and Toby were publicly displaying their affection for each other, she would be the one feeling awkward.
Unknown to the situation, Charles did not realize that the couple seated across from him had taken advantage of the work desk as a barrier to wrap their arms around each other. Still in discussion, Charles was still doubtful of Toby’s words, so he rebuked, “Even if he doesn’t use that method to threaten you, if you actually do take action against his granddaughter and he retaliates by denouncing you as his student, then you would end up with a tarnished reputation. The whole world would be speculating on your actions. After all, you must have done something quite horrendous to be denounced by your mentor. Are you able to accept the speculations of the public?”
Charles reckoned that someone in a position like Toby would not be able to take that.
Sonia kept her eyes on Toby too. It was not her intention to apply pressure on him, but she could not accept that anyone who had harmed her could just easily get away from punishment by playing with connections.
After all, she did not even know Lynette personally, so why did she have to experience being bullied by the latter just because she was in a relationship with Toby?
Besides, Sonia had sworn an oath to retaliate if she ever was wronged and she would not stand by and show mercy to those who did her dirty.
Understandably, she wanted to know Toby’s attitude and find out who he would side with. She also wanted to find out whether he would choose to avoid the main issue and try to resolve the matter by taking the easy way out due to some specific reasons.
All in all, regardless of his choice, she would not let this matter slide.
From one point, she was happy that Toby sided with her and came to the same decision of making Lynette pay the consequence for her actions.
However, Sonia was not afraid either if it ever came a moment where Toby decided to heed his mentor’s words and let Lynette off the hook; regardless whether the reason stemmed from his utmost respect toward Harry, or because he did not want to be denounced to the world as a heartless person.
The reason being that she had two voice recordings on hand that were sufficient enough to bring Lynette down by making her misdeeds known to the public.
Hence, Sonia was rather relaxed about the situation.
However, she was interested to find out Toby’s decision right now.
Naturally, Toby could tell what Sonia meant from the look that she gave him, so he heaved a faint sigh and silently glanced over her head. “Can’t you just trust me more?”
“If you give us a more definite answer, then we’ll trust you.” Before Sonia could even respond to Toby’s words, Charles—seated across from them—tapped his foot and voiced out before her.
Toby shot a cold look at Charles and without a doubt, it clearly meant, Shut up, you nosy guy!
He rolled his eyes at Toby and snorted quite arrogantly. This is how nosy I am! Whatcha gon do, huh?
He lifted his chin and shot a provoking look at Toby.
Meanwhile, Toby could not even be bothered to reciprocate that childish exchange.
If he wasn’t the son of the Lanes and Little Leaf’s friend, I would not even give this guy the chance to show his arrogance in front of me!
Ignoring Charles, Toby forgot about him as soon as he turned to look at Sonia. “Why wouldn’t I be able to accept the speculations of the public? Even if they did speculate, so what? Would they dare to say it in front of me? Besides, do you think that I care about the public’s opinion?”
Sonia shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
“Of course not.” Toby stroked her hair. “Right now, there are plenty of speculations from the public about me, but I’ve never been bothered about that. I won’t be bothered about this either, be it now or in the future, so I’m not worried about my mentor denouncing me. My position here is how it is, so regardless whether I’m denounced or not, it wouldn’t affect me. Furthermore, my mentor would never denounce me, because doing so would indicate that they’ve cut off ties with me. Thus, the Lore Family would also end up in a rapid decline too.”
Ultimately, it was a close loop. Whatever it was, the Lores would definitely not sever ties with him unless they no longer cared about the great future of their family.
As soon as Charles heard Toby’s words, he shifted his lips slightly and he seemed to be trying to cast doubt on Toby’s words. However, he could not come up with any; that was because he understood Toby’s words and he knew that the Lore Family would never dare to offend Toby.
“So, do you trust that I won’t compromise and give in to my mentor now?” Toby glanced at Sonia and his lips curved into a smile.
She grunted her approval. “Not bad. But even if your mentor won’t denounce you for refusing to let his granddaughter off the hook, he would definitely still blame you and your mentor-mentee relationship would—”
“It doesn’t matter.” Toby toyed with her fingers.
Her fingers were long, slender, soft, and porcelain; her skin was silky-smooth too. Toby could not seem to keep his hands off her as he played with her fingers. “I haven’t met Harry for quite a few years now, so we don’t really have a close relationship anyway. Besides, he has been taking advantage of me and using my name to do a lot of things behind my back, so that’s something I’m quite displeased with. Besides, with this issue here, I don’t mind maintaining our mentor-mentee relationship for the public eye if he’s willing to handle it fair and square. If he refuses to do so, then we might as well be strangers to each other.”
