I see, Toby thought, nodding. I thought she was picking on Sonia.
“I have to tell you off about this, Toby,” Titus said with a straight face, giving him a displeased look. “Although Tina isn’t officially engaged to you, the news that she’s your fiancée was already announced during the party which was ruined by Sonia. Since she’s already your fiancée, you should at least give her a ring. People will make a joke out of her if she’s got nothing from you.”
“Stop it, Dad. Toby has his own ideas, and we shouldn’t force ours on him,” Tina said hurriedly, tugging at Titus’ sleeve. Then, she cast an apologetic look at Toby as though she was afraid that he would be angry. “I’m sorry, Toby. Don’t take my dad’s words to heart.”
“That’s okay, but Mr. Gray is right. I should give you a ring,” Toby replied composedly.
The reason he hadn’t given her a ring this whole time was because he simply didn’t feel like giving her one. That was why he brushed them off with the excuse that he would give it at the wedding. While even himself couldn’t explain why he didn’t feel like giving her a ring, Titus had a point—if he still didn’t put a ring on Tina even after she was his fiancée, everyone would belittle her.
“Toby, are you for real?” Tina asked, beaming at him.
When he saw how happy she was, his heart softened. “Yes.” She’s the woman I love, and I promised that I would make her happy for the rest of her life. I can’t just deny her a ring simply because of some inexplicable emotions that I have.
“You’re so amazing, Toby!” Tina cried, throwing herself into his arms.
Feigning annoyance, Titus glared at her and said, “You left me for a ring. Husbands are more important to girls than their father!”
“Dad!” Tina exclaimed, spinning her head around at him and pretending to be embarrassed when in fact she had exchanged a look with him. That was a look which only the both of them understood what it meant.
In fact, both of them came to look for Toby with a motive. Before coming upstairs, they already found out that he was the one in the first private suite, and they came up with this plan to make Toby promise that she would give her a ring to cement her title as his fiancée.
Unexpectedly, their plan worked, and Toby didn’t even object.
“Should we pick out a ring tomorrow, Toby? I would like a ring from DR. Even though that brand is considered a lower-end luxury brand and the prices are generally not expensive, I still want it because the brand only allows a man to buy one ring from them in his lifetime.” Lifting her head to look at him, she asked, “Is that okay, Toby?”
When Toby heard the phrase ‘a man could only buy one ring’, he knitted his brows tightly together and his first reaction was to turn down her idea. Despite that, when he saw the anticipation in her eyes, he suppressed his urge to reject her in the end and nodded instead. “Sure.”
“Thank you, Toby!” she said happily and hugged him tightly.
On the other hand, Toby merely gave her a lopsided smirk, and instead of feeling equally happy, he felt frustrated. A few seconds later, he peeled her away from himself gently and said, “Let’s go to the party. Mr. and Mrs. Laughlin are probably waiting for us there.”
“You’re right, let’s hurry there now,” Titus agreed with a nod.
The Laughlins were a more influential family than the Grays, and even though they were not comparable to the Fullers, the Grays still had to show them some respect and not offend them.
While everyone was toasting with drinks and socializing in the brightly-lit banquet hall, Sonia was looking around the room with a glass of juice in her hand as though she was searching for something.
With a plate of snacks in his hand, Charles came over and passed it to her. “I finally managed to shake off that pesky Zane. I wonder what’s wrong with him recently. He’s Toby’s friend to begin with, but he kept swarming around us instead of hanging out with him. What’s worse, we couldn’t even chase him away! It’s really annoying.”
“It’s okay, he’s not mean and has a nice, friendly personality. It’s kind of easy to get along with him,” Sonia said with a smile as she took the snacks from him.
Even though she didn’t know why he kept coming to them, she knew for sure that he was not their enemy.
“Let’s just forget about him. What were you looking for earlier, darling?” Charles asked and took a sip of his wine.
“I’m looking for Carl. Since the auction began, I’ve not seen him and only heard his voice,” she answered, rubbing the middle of her forehead.
“I’m really happy to hear that you miss me so much, Sonia.” A man’s gentle voice rang from behind her.
Immediately, a smile spread across her face and she spun around to see the young man who was less than six feet away from her. Taking a step closer to him, she exclaimed, “It’s really you, Carl!”
“It’s me alright,” he said with a smile and nodded. Opening his arms, he took her into a warm and tight hug. Carl then rested his head on her shoulder and snuggled her gently. “I missed you so much, Sonia,” he whispered softly, sounding a little choked up.
Delighted, Sonia stroked his head and said, “Yeah, I missed you, too. Let go of me now. Everyone’s watching.”
“No, let me hug you a little longer,” Carl said and held her tighter instead of releasing her.
Shaking her head helplessly and thinking that he was still a child, Sonia simply let him be.
Next to them, Charles rolled his eyes, thinking, This brat is always pretending to be a little pup to fool her and get intimate with her. Despicable! Despite his despise for Carl, he had to admit that he was rather envious of him because he could hug Sonia in such a way. If he was the one who tried this with her, she would have pushed him away at once. Snorting bitterly, he threw his head back and finished his wine in a gulp.
At the same time, Toby, Tina and Titus were already in the room, and they saw Carl hugging Sonia tightly through the crowd. Toby’s eyes squinted, and his grip on his crutch tightened as his expression turned glum and a storm began to brew in his eyes.
Carl actually came back, he thought. And the first thing Sonia does is hug him so tightly. She really enjoys having all these men around her, doesn’t she?
Feeling the cold air radiating from the man next to her, Tina stole a look at Toby and saw the jealousy in his eyes. A dark cloud appeared in her eyes and she said, “Toby, the one hugging Miss Reed is Carl Lee, the same person who destroyed my banquet together with her, isn’t he? I thought he already left Seafield, but he showed up again and is even hugging Miss Reed now. As Miss Reed’s boyfriend, Mr. Lane is simply watching from the side without stopping them. What do you think is going on between the three of them?” A malicious smirk appeared on her face, but she rubbed it off very quickly.
With a stony look on his face, Toby found the scene of them hugging each other to be so glaring that he had the urge to march up to them and separate them. In addition, he wanted to warn Sonia that she was not allowed to be so intimate with another man. However, he knew clearly that he had no right to do so.
“That’s their business, and whatever is going on between them has nothing to do with us,” he uttered coldly and looked away as he continued to walk forward with Tina trailing after him hurriedly.
In the meantime, Charles placed down his empty glass and pulled Carl away. “That’s it, you’ve hugged her long enough.” After Carl cast him an annoyed look, Charles met his gaze and added, “Don’t forget that everyone knows me as Sonia’s boyfriend. What will they think if you hug her for so long?”
Surprised, Carl looked around and sure enough, he saw many people criticizing them and making assumptions about the relationship between the three of them. When they saw him looking their way, they quickly acted as though nothing happened and looked away nonchalantly.
But the moment he retracted his gaze, the people continued criticizing them, and there were many mean comments about what a wanton woman Sonia was and how she was hooking up with different men.
