“Don’t you have a home to return to?” Sonia scanned his face and noticed that his right cheek was swollen. He must have gotten into a fight again. “Are you seeking solace here after getting into a fight?”
“You’re my sister-in-law.”
“Former sister-in-law.”
“Well, even if you’re divorced, you’re still my sister-in-law!” Tyler stubbornly insisted, “Hurry up and open the door. Then, make me something to eat. I’m hungry!”
“Gosh, why don’t you keep your mouth shut?” She opened the door and dragged him into the house by keeping a tight grip on his collar. Then, she took out the first aid box and applied antiseptic on his reddened and swollen cheek. After she’d dressed his wound, she took some ingredients from the fridge to cook dinner on the stove for the two of them. In the end, she had whipped up two main dishes and a soup.
While Tyler ate his dinner, Sonia asked, “Did you get hurt by saving a damsel in distress?”
“No.” He took a bite of his food before he replied in a muffled voice, “My mom slapped me.”
Sonia was stunned by his answer. Throughout her six years with the Fuller Family, she evidently saw how Jean had doted on Tyler and accommodated each one of his whims. All this while, Jean had always referred to him as her baby and never spoke to him with a harsh tone. Besides, Sonia had never seen Jean lay a finger on him at all.
After Sonia ate a slice of apple, she asked again, “I thought your mom dotes on you. Why did she slap you?”
Tyler frowned in response. “She told me not to go out and have fun all the time. She wanted me to learn from Toby and to work at the Fuller Group soon, but I’m not interested in running the company. I like playing basketball! What’s wrong with that anyway?! I ended up having a row with her and she slapped me in anger.”
As Sonia could imagine the scene where Jean slapped him in a fit of anger, she couldn’t suppress her laughter.
He glared. “What’s so funny?!”
“When I was reprimanded by your mom in the past, didn’t you used to gloat by the side?” she asked. “I can’t believe that there would be a day where your mom would actually slap you! Am I not allowed to show my sympathy?!”
Meanwhile, Tyler was quite speechless.
After dinner, he willingly cleared the table and did the dishes. Then, he took a set of skincare products from his backpack and handed it to her. Although he looked like he wanted to appease her, his tone remained quite brash. “I used three months’ worth of pocket money to get this for you. Accept this gift and come to my school this Saturday!”
Sonia picked up one of the bottles and checked out the brand. It was a well-known product and the cost of a moisturizer was close to five thousand, which meant that this entire set was worth approximately one hundred thousand.
At first, she had assumed that Toby had popped by because he had nowhere else to go, but it finally dawned upon her that he had an ulterior motive for his visit today. “Go and find Toby if you need help settling any mischief.”
“I did not get into any mischief!” Tyler shot her a look before he continued in a lowered voice, “The coach for the national team will be here this Saturday to select players to join the team for training at their base camp. If I pass the tryouts, then I’ll be able to join the national team. However, they need to discuss this with my guardian…”
Sonia finally realized what he was after and she immediately rejected, “No! I no longer have any relationship with your family, so I can’t get involved in this. Besides, your mom wants you to join Fuller Group and assist with the running of the family business in the future. She’s definitely going to slaughter me if I help you enter the national team.”
“I’ll take full responsibility if anything goes wrong. I definitely won’t implicate you!” He raised his right hand and swore an oath. “Sonia, you’re the only one who can help me.”
“I know I used to behave in a rude manner toward you in the past and was disrespectful, but that was because I thought that you bullied Tina and was trying to take her spot in Tony’s heart. Besides, Mom kept on complaining about you, so I naturally didn’t have a good impression of you…”
“Well, it seems that you’re quite happy to have Tina as your sister-in-law. You even shared the story about my tattoo with her.” She was quite annoyed upon recalling that. “Why don’t you go and look for Tina then? I’m sure she would be more than happy to help you.”
“Huh?” Tyler was stunned for a moment. “I never told her that you had a tattoo!”
Sonia fixed her eyes on him. “Are you sure that you didn’t say anything to her?”
“I didn’t say a word at all!”
She replied, “If you didn’t say anything, how would she have known about it?”
“I think she might have eavesdropped while I was talking on the phone,” Tyler replied with guilt. “I spoke on the phone and asked my classmate whether it hurt to get a tattoo done. I complained about you by saying that you were overly obsessed with Toby to the point of getting a tattoo of his name on your body. That’s all I said.”
“You’re such a brat!” Sonia stared at him with a dry smile. “Well, I’m quite sure that you’re Madam White’s biological son. There are no doubts about that.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“You’re exactly like her. Both of you have the same mean disposition and you can’t control yourself from bad-mouthing others.” The look of scorn in her eyes was quite evident. “You’ve somehow inherited all of her faults that Toby managed to avoid.”
Tyler’s face flushed bright red as he was angered beyond speechlessness. He was about to rebuke her and share his positive traits when the cell phone on the coffee table rang. The moment Tyler noticed on the caller ID that it was Toby, Tyler felt his heart sinking.
Sonia had noticed it as well and she immediately tapped to answer the phone call before she placed it on loudspeaker before Tyler could respond. “President Fuller, did you make this call because you realized that your little brother’s missing?”
There was a short pause on the other end before a low male voice rang out, “Tyler, meet me at the South Entrance in three minutes.”
“Toby, I can’t make it there in three minutes!” Tyler exclaimed but he didn’t dare to oppose Toby, “She lives near the North Entrance.”
“Two minutes.” Toby’s voice sounded colder than before.
