“I can’t. I made a promise to him.” The man kept himself together and calmed himself down, defying Toby while shaking his head.
Toby felt his anger surging through him once again as he clenched his fist and growled, “You can’t? This has always been a matter between you and Tina, which has absolutely nothing to do with me at all. Since the person who matters the most to you loves Tina so much, why don’t you hypnotize her and make them love each other? Why must I be the one who gets sacrificed?”
A sad look flashed across the man’s emotionless eyes. “It’s too late…”
“What do you mean?”
The man didn’t answer Toby’s question. Instead, he stepped forward and raised his hand in the air, snapping his fingers in front of Toby and Tom as they warily watched. As soon as they both heard the snap, Toby’s mind went blank, his eyes turning soulless and lifeless. At the same time, Tom, who was sitting in the car behind him, was also put in a mindless trance at the sight of that.
By the time they came back to their senses, the man was long gone, and they had no idea when he left. “President Fuller!” Tom grabbed an umbrella and ran toward Toby. “What happened? Who’s that man?”
Nevertheless, Toby didn’t answer his assistant’s question, only walking back to the car with an ambiguous look on his face. Meanwhile, Tom grabbed a towel from his storage box and gave it to Toby. “Please wipe yourself, President Fuller.”
Toby received the towel and put it on his head, replying with a hoarse voice, “That man was the one who hypnotized us.”
“What?!” Tom bumped his head into the ceiling of the car, whereupon he moaned in pain. Nevertheless, he couldn’t care less about that while holding the steering tightly. “Did you just say we got hypnotized, President Fuller?”
“Yes.” Toby placed the towel on his face, covering his dissatisfied look.
In the meantime, Tom only felt a strong cold chill running down his spine. “B-But when did we get hypnotized?”
Toby’s eyes squinted underneath the towel as he wanted to find out the answer to that question as well. After all, he was hypnotized by a stranger whom he had never seen before, which he found to be rather scary.
“But why did he want to hypnotize us, President Fuller?” Tom desperately asked while nervously trying to regulate his breath.
Toby took the towel away from his face and said, “Enough with the question. I want to know everything about this man and everyone who is associated with him.” I need to know who that man is, and that guy who is in love with Tina!
“Sure.” Tom nodded in a stern manner. In fact, he would initiate an investigation on that mysterious hypnotizer himself even if Toby didn’t give him the order to do so. This man hypnotized me and President Fuller! That’s unacceptable!
“Take me to the Gray Residence.” Toby gave an instruction to his assistant, who responded with an affirmative hum and drove toward the destination.
Soon, both men arrived at the Gray Residence, whereupon Toby stood outside the door and pressed the doorbell. When the maid came to answer the door, she was greeted by the sight of Toby, who was drenched from head to toe. Stunned, she exclaimed, “Mr. Fuller! What just happened to you?”
Nevertheless, Toby ignored her words and circled around before entering the house, leaving trails of water behind him. As he made his way to the living room, Julia, who was absorbed in arranging flowers, heard footsteps coming and looked up in surprise. “Toby, what brings you here? And what…”
“Where is Tina?” Toby cut her speech short and asked.
Sensing his unusual attitude, Julia knew he was angry. So, she probingly asked, “Tina is in her room. Did you both quarrel again?”
“Tell her to see me!” Toby coldly commanded.
Julia knitted her eyebrows in response, but when Toby realized she didn’t do as she said, he placed one foot on the table and made his intention known once again with an intimidating voice. “I said, tell her to see me!”
Frightened, Julia immediately stood up from the couch with a pale face and nodded. “Okay. Okay, I’ll send for her right now. Rosie, please tell Miss Gray to come down.”
“Right away.” Rosie, who was the maid that answered the door, quickly headed upstairs to send for Tina.
Then, Julia timidly looked at Toby and asked, “What’s wrong with you, Toby? Why are you so worked up? Did Tina do something wrong that pissed you off? Anyway, please talk to her nicely, or you’ll scare her.”
“Oh, come on. Do you really think she’ll get scared?” Toby fixed his piercing gaze on Julia. “She is a gutsy one, so what makes you think she’ll get scared so easily?” She didn’t just pose as Sonia but even tried to kill her as well. I wonder what other terrible things she is capable of.
“What do you mean by that, Toby? What’s wrong with Tina? You didn’t have to mock her, did you?” Julia sounded unhappy, pulling a long face, but deep down, she knew Tina must have done something wrong that pissed him off. After all, she was certain that he wouldn’t have said those mean things about Tina otherwise. Nonetheless, Toby didn’t respond to Julia because Tina was already on her way down the stairs.
“Here you are, Toby.” Tina showed up, greeting Toby with a smiling face, but when she saw his drenched look, her eyes widened out of shock. “Oh my gosh, Toby! How did you get so wet? Madam Rosie, please get me some new clothes…”
“No need for that!” Toby didn’t see the need for him to get changed when there was a more pressing matter at hand.
Tina then felt a chill running all over her skin and noticed something was wrong when she met her eyes and spotted Toby’s cold facial expression changes. Upon meeting his eyes, she felt as if he was going to tear her apart, so she subconsciously backed away to distance herself from Toby.
After that, she curled her lips upward and forced a brittle smile. “Why are you looking at me like that, Toby? What have I done wrong this time?” She soon started to run through the mind about the things she had done in the past to see which one of them was discovered.
It’s impossible for him to discover anything. I’ve not left any trails so far…
Nevertheless, Toby’s words shattered her hope into pieces the next second.
“Tina, why did you pose as Sonia?” Toby asked with a menacing voice.
Tina was thunderstruck by the man’s question, her body stiffening as her limbs turned cold. It was only a few moments later that she said, “What are you talking about, Toby? Me? Posing as Sonia?! I don’t understand what you’re trying to say here.”
He’s already found that out. He really has!
“That’s right, Toby. What’re you talking about?” Julia was confused as well.
However, Toby didn’t bother to reply to Julia, only staring at Tina with his glacial eyes, as if his gaze had just become a sharp blade.
“I’m surprised that you still won’t admit it. You should know that I won’t be standing here if I don’t have any evidence. Six years ago, you posed as Sonia to see me and told me you were my pen pal. After that, I’ve been in love with you ever since, and it was exactly because of you that I gave Sonia the cold shoulder. I put her through so much pain and suffering all because of you, Tina! You must have been really happy when you saw me do that to Sonia, right?”
Toby spoke with a calm voice, perfectly masking his rage and anger with his indifference. There was no way she wasn’t happy. After all, she managed to take Sonia’s place and witness her humiliation as if she was the real one. So, there was no way she wasn’t happy at the sight of that.
In the meantime, Tina’s eyes dilated in horror while her face turned pale. A few seconds later, she began to cry and shake her head wildly. “No, Toby. It’s not like what you think it is. I didn’t pose as Sonia. I’m indeed Maple.”
Nevertheless, Toby only watched her fake acting in cold silence, his eyes filled with irony. I told her I had evidence to prove that she had been posing as Maple, yet she’s still trying to talk her way out. It looks like she is tougher than I thought, but it does make me wonder whether she’ll suffer from schizophrenia sooner or later.
“Well, since you insist that you’re Maple, have you ever lived in Marina City? Have you ever kept a pet dog? Do you have a stepmother and sister?” Toby approached Tina closer and closer, pressing on with his question with each step he took.
