“I don’t know either. But he’s rather tall, and he drives a luxury car. He’s also wearing a Hawaiian shirt…”
A Hawaiian shirt? Zane replayed the words in his head as the edge of his lips twitched, and an image slowly appeared in his mind. “I know who’s that. Where is he now?” he asked.
“He’s right outside,” the butler replied.
“Invite him into the house. I’m coming down right away,” Zane instructed, and the butler left after answering.
Holding up his cell phone again, he then said a few more things to the person on the other end of the line before hanging up and leaving the room. He wondered about the reason for Charles’s visit as he closed the door behind himself. “Hey, Charles.” He greeted his visitor when he saw him seated on the couch downstairs. Scratching his head, he asked, “Why are you looking for me? You even came to my house.”
After placing down the cup of coffee in his hands, Charles sprang up, crossed over the coffee table and strode up to Zane angrily. When he was right in front of him, he grabbed him by his collar and questioned loudly, “Where’s that guy?”
Confused, Zane asked, “Who?”
“That jerk who took advantage of Sonia that night!” Charles bellowed, his eyes flaming red.
The expression on Zane’s face changed when he heard him. “What are you talking about? Someone took advantage of Sonia?”
“Yes! On the night of my birthday, she had some drinks and your friend took advantage of her. Now, she’s even…”
“Even what?” Zane asked, shoving Charles’ hands away and grabbing his collar instead. “Tell me, what happened to her?” he asked anxiously.
The anxious look on Zane struck Charles as rather odd. Isn’t he a little too concerned about what happened to Sonia? However, he didn’t think too much about it and merely pushed him away. “Sonia is now pregnant!” he yelled. His palms had tightened into fists now.
“What?!” Zane’s eyes widened in bewilderment. Sonia is… pregnant?
“Aren’t you going to tell me who’s that guy now?” Charles bellowed.
Zane opened his mouth, but no words came out. How could he tell him that the person was Toby?
Seeing that Zane didn’t say a thing and was lowering his head, deep in his own thoughts, Charles became even more furious and his fists trembled. “Zane, are you trying to hide this for that guy?”
“No…” he uttered.
“Then tell me who he is. Never mind the fact that he didn’t show his face after he took advantage of Sonia, but now that she’s already pregnant, does he still plan to hide in the dark?” Charles hissed through gritted teeth.
With an odd expression on his face, Zane answered, “It’s not like that. It’s just that he’s abroad.”
“He’s actually abroad?” Charles was so angry that he punched his fists together. “Hmph! Does he think that he can escape all responsibility by staying abroad? He’s not even thinking about it! Call that guy now and get him to come back here!”
A look of guilt flashed across Zane’s eyes. “I’m afraid that’s not possible. Even though I’m his friend, we’re not especially close, and he’s rather mysterious. I can’t even be sure that I can contact him.”
“What?” Charles frowned.
Clearing his throat, Zane then said, “Well, go home first and I’ll try to contact him later. If I can get in contact with him, I’ll let you know, alright?”
“No, I’m not going back. Give me his contact number and I’ll call him myself,” Charles said, extending his hand.
Zane felt his head pounding, for he hadn’t expected that Charles would be such a nuisance. How can I give him Toby’s number? Who knows what will happen if he and Sonia find out that the guy that night was Toby.
In addition to that, he selfishly didn’t want Sonia to find out that the child she was pregnant with now belonged to Toby. After giving it a thought, he narrowed his eyes and said, “Alright, alright. I’ll give it to you, but leave quickly after that.”
Then, he paced to the coffee table and took out a notepad and pen from the drawer underneath. After scribbling a string of numbers on the paper, he passed it to Charles, who took a glance at it and asked, “What about the name?”
“Whenever he’s in the country, he always goes around with a made-up, fake name. So, it doesn’t matter whether I write it down or not,” Zane explained while rolling his eyes.
Charles clutched the piece of paper in his hand tightly. “D*mn it, he’s even a foreigner. Aren’t they always calling themselves gentlemen? How could he drag a drunk woman into a room? Shameless jerk. Once I contact him, I’ll make a trip abroad personally and wallop him to a pulp!” he said angrily before storming out.
After wiping the beads of sweat off his forehead, Zane sighed in relief. Great, I finally drove this nuisance away. After he returned upstairs, he made a call to Toby.
As though expecting that he would make this call, the first thing Toby asked was, “Charles went to look for you?”
“How did you know?” Zane asked, surprised.
Lowering his gaze, he answered, “Sonia told me.”
Realization hit Zane, and he pursed his lips. “Yes, yes, yes. I forgot that you got her contact by hiding your identity, so she would definitely give you a heads-up when Charles wants to create trouble for you through me.”
The sarcasm in his voice was obvious to Toby, and that made him frown as he thought, Why is he being so sarcastic?
“Since you already know that Charles came to look for me, I suppose you also know that Sonia is pregnant?” Zane asked.
Almost two months ago, the morning after Charles’s birthday, Toby had called him and asked him to delete the surveillance tapes in the club. Back then, as he was curious about why it had to be deleted, he watched them once before it was deleted, and was stunned when he saw Toby carrying Sonia into a room.
Therefore, Sonia most probably got pregnant that night.
“I know about it,” Toby answered while nodding.
That answer made Zane narrow his eyes. “You sound rather calm. I suppose you’re so unfazed because you knew about it a long time ago.”
“Yeah,” Toby muttered.
I actually guessed it right! Zane thought. “How long have you known about it?”
Toby pursed his lips and replied, “For a few days now.”
All of a sudden, Zane recalled that day at the stables and he smirked. “It makes sense now why you stopped Sonia when she wanted to ride a horse that day. Looks like you already knew at that time.”
“That’s right,” Toby answered calmly. Then, he went on to ask in a low voice, “Did you tell Charles that I was the man that night?”
“No. You asked me to delete the surveillance videos because you don’t want Sonia to find out who the man was that night, so why would I tell him?” Zane replied, a dark cloud shrouding over his eyes.
“Thank you so much.”
“You don’t have to thank me. Now, I just want to know how you plan to take care of this matter. Are you going to remarry Sonia?” Zane asked while tightening his grip on the cell phone.
The mention of the word ‘remarry’ swayed Toby’s heart for just a bit, but he quickly regained his composure when a thought came into his mind. “No, I won’t,” he said. He then pinched the bridge of his nose in exhaustion. “I’ve let Tina down once. I can’t do it to her again.”
“Let her down?” Zane repeated, rolling his eyes in incredulity. “Fine, just as long as you’ve come to a decision.”
If this happened before, he would definitely advise his good friend to remarry Sonia. After all, she was already pregnant and Tina was really not good enough for him. However, he knew that he himself might have fallen for Sonia, so he wouldn’t offer him any advice.
“If you’re not going to remarry her, what about the child in her? You have to take responsibility for it, right?” Zane asked after recollecting his thoughts.
With downcast eyes, Toby answered, “Of course I’ll take responsibility. If she wants to keep the child, I’ll raise it together with her without her knowing it, but if she doesn’t want to keep it, I’ll do my best as well to make it up to her.”
“That’s not a bad idea, but don’t you have to tell her what’s on your mind?”
“I know that. When she has made up her mind about the child, I’ll tell her my plans,” he said solemnly.
After thinking about it for a few seconds, Zane added, “I think you shouldn’t wait until that time. You should just let her know about it earlier if you want to tell her. She might not accept it if you wait until then to tell her.”
Toby fell silent, and Zane sighed. “Okay, that’s all I have to say. Think it over carefully.”
