The sound of Toby’s footsteps sounded as if he was stepping on Tina’s contracting heart, filling it with fear and panicking her. At the same time, she subconsciously stepped back, her lips trembling in silence.
Seeing her reaction, Toby couldn’t help but feel disgusted with it. “What’s wrong? The cat got your tongue? Let me answer the question for you. That’s because you never lived in Marina City; you never kept a pet dog, and neither did you ever have a stepmother and sister. So, tell me now. Do you still insist that you are Maple?”
At that moment, a loud thump was heard when Tina collapsed onto the ground with a blank gaze on her face. In the meantime, Toby only fixed his eyes on her, immediately knowing what her gesture meant because she could no longer cover up her wrongdoings.
“Tina!” Julia quickly came closer to her daughter and hugged her, placing her hands on her shoulders. “Are you alright, Tina?”
Nevertheless, Tina only puckered her lips, wanting to say something, only to swallow her own words eventually. Feeling helpless and panicked, Julia turned to Toby and asked, “What was it that you were telling Tina, Toby? What’s all that about posing as Sonia and Maple? I don’t understand a single thing about that matter at all.”
Without looking at the woman, Toby kept his eyes on Tina and replied to Julia, saying, “Your beloved daughter posed as the person whom I had always thought to be the woman of my life and enjoyed what was not rightfully hers for six years.”
“What?! So, you’re saying you don’t love Tina now?” Julia raised her voice.
However, Toby responded with a cold grunt and said, “I never loved her, in fact. Sonia has always been the one I’ve loved because she is the one who’s truly my pen pal, and the only reason Tina got to be with me was that she posed as her. Why else do you think I’d confess my love to someone like her, whom I never met six years ago?”
“Well…” Julia was tongue-tied as she began to recall what had happened. While she knew the two of them had never seen each other due to the inequality between their statuses, she quickly realized it was actually Toby who wasn’t aware at all about her existence. On the other hand, Tina had truly seen Toby before, judging by how he was an outstanding man any woman would dream of marrying.
One day, Toby unexpectedly showed up at the Gray Residence and confessed his love for Tina, which Julia found to be strange because he had never seen her before, especially with his sentimental gaze. Nonetheless, she quickly dismissed it as a reason that he fell in love with Tina at first sight. Furthermore, their young age served to convince Julia even more that both of them were just a young couple who desperately sought some unforgettable romance. However, now that the truth had been uncovered, she was shocked to discover that it was her daughter who had been scheming to take Toby away from Sonia all along.
At the thought of that, Julia cast a strange gaze on Tina, who guiltily looked away before the latter stood up and seized Toby’s arm in a tearful manner. “I’m sorry, Toby. This is all my fault. I’m so sorry! I shouldn’t have posed as Sonia, but I just couldn’t help it because—I love you!” Knowing she could never get away with the fact that her scheme was exposed, Tina decisively apologized to Toby and begged for forgiveness. After all, she reckoned she still stood a chance to win his favor if she could have his forgiveness.
“You love me?” Toby chuckled in irony while pinching Tina’s chin hard. “You posed as Sonia and took what was hers away from her because you loved me. Well, if everyone just takes anything they want from others just because they love them, what kind of world would we be living in?!” Toby pinched Tina’s chin harder this time.
As Tina was overwhelmed by the painful twinge, tears began to roll down her cheek. Meanwhile, Toby felt a stab of pain in his heart when he saw her tears, but it wasn’t because he felt sympathetic toward her, but because the same thing that happened at the restaurant the last time was now happening again. Therefore, Toby made up his mind to bear with the pain he was going through on the inside because he was never going to tolerate Tina ever again. After that, he shook off her chin and took a handkerchief from his breast pocket to wipe his fingers with a disgusted look on his face. Upon wiping them, he even threw the handkerchief away as a gesture of revulsion.
“I’ll cancel our engagement as soon as possible, Tina, but be warned that I will not go easy on you for the lie you fed us in the past six years, so you’d better pray hard from now on.” Toby finished his words while fixing his cold gaze on Tina like a sharp blade that pierced through her soul. It was only a few moments later that he took his eyes off her and left the mansion.
The moment Toby disappeared from sight, Tina went weak in her limbs and collapsed onto the ground like she was exhausted from days of starvation. While her face was covered in a cold sweat, she couldn’t stop thinking about Toby’s intimidating gaze because he seemed as if he was going to make her suffer in a living hell. At the thought of that, she curled up and hugged herself.
“What’s going on?” Julia sympathetically let out a sigh and asked.
“Mom.” Tina held her mother’s hands and agitatedly asked, “What should I do now, Mom? What should I do?”
As Julia started to feel Tina’s fingers tightening around her palm, she began to see red marks, whereupon she tried to free herself from her daughter’s grip. Nevertheless, Tina simply wouldn’t let go, as if she was waiting for her mother to suggest something. In the end, Julia helplessly endured the pain and said, “I didn’t know about this at all. After all, you did pose as Sonia, and you can’t really blame Toby for being mad about it. Anyway, why didn’t you tell your dad and me about this back then? We both had always thought that Toby was truly in love with you.” In fact, Julia and her husband had always thought it was Sonia who tried to take Tina’s place.
“What’s the point of saying those things now?!” Tina shook off her mother’s hand and screeched, “Toby is going to cancel our engagement now, and I can’t let that happen! I went through a lot before I got this far, so I’m never going to let this opportunity slip away. I’d rather die if that happened!” She then frantically stretched her arms to reach for her own face, leaving red scratch marks on the skin.
Fearing that Tina could disfigure her face, Julia immediately restrained her hands and consoled her. “Okay. Okay, we won’t let that happen. I’ll call your dad and talk to him about this.” As soon as she finished her words, she instantly gave Titus a call.
In the meantime, Tom approached Toby with an umbrella when he saw him coming out of the house. “Have you told her everything, President Fuller?”
“Take me to Bayside Residence now.” Toby didn’t answer Tom’s question, only closing his eyes tiredly after getting into the car. Seeing his tired look, Tom was left with his mouth wide open as he went ahead to start the engine and leave his question behind him.
An hour later, they arrived at Bayside Residence, whereupon Toby knocked on the door at Sonia’s apartment. At that moment, she happened to be writing when she heard the knock on the door. Thus, she put down her pen and went to find out who it was. “Who is it?”
On the other hand, Toby was able to hear her voice but didn’t respond to it. After all, he knew she wouldn’t open the door for him if he did. At the same time, Sonia yawned and went ahead to answer the door without even looking through the peephole. When she saw Toby, she was stunned for a split second before she knitted her eyebrows and closed the door. However, Toby was quick enough to stop it by placing his hand on the door, pitifully begging her not to turn him away. “Please don’t close the door. I have something to tell you.”
“What is it?” Sonia knitted her eyebrows.
Knowing she wouldn’t close the door, Toby put his hand down and set his eyes on Sonia in an emotional manner before he wrapped his arms around her. Shocked by the man’s sudden behavior, Sonia took a few seconds to process what was going on, whereupon she tried to shove him away with a pair of widened, angry eyes. “What’re you doing, Toby? Let me go!”
However, Toby showed no signs of letting up at all but instead hugged her even tighter. I’ll never let you go, Sonia! You’re the woman I love!
Meanwhile, Sonia grew angrier and angrier when Toby’s drenched shirt was beginning to dampen her clothes because of his refusal to let go.
In the end, she bit her lip and stomped on the man’s toe, hurting him as he moaned in pain with a pair of furrowed brows. Nonetheless, he still didn’t let go of Sonia, which angered her even more and prompted her to raise her hand in the air before she gave him a slap.
