Chapter 498 What’s Up with the Pictures?
Toby’s face darkened upon hearing his brother’s words. How could I ever lose feelings for Sonia? That’s impossible! I’ve loved her for more than ten years, and my feelings have never changed. In fact, my feelings for her have only grown stronger over the years. I’ve never imagined myself losing feelings for her. Toby lowered his head to send a text. ‘There’s no such thing. It was all a misunderstanding.’
Soon enough, Tyler replied with another voice note. “A misunderstanding? What’s going on here, Toby?”
Toby pressed his lips together tightly as he continued typing. ‘Stop asking so many questions. This has nothing to do with you. Just focus on your competitions, okay? You need to return to the country once you’re done with your basketball tournament. I have some stuff to tell you.’
“What is it, Toby?” Tyler didn’t understand what was going on. This time, Toby no longer replied to his text. Instead, he exited his Messenger application and gave Tom a call.
“President Fuller.” Tom picked the call up almost immediately.
With his thin lips pursed, Toby spoke in an icy tone. “You know all about the news online, right?”
“I do. I wanted to call you earlier, but you were on another call,” Tom explained.
“I want you to get the public relations department to cool things down for now. Also, I want you to use Fuller Group’s official social media account to clarify this matter. After that, I need you to hunt down the paparazzi who took the photos,” Toby ordered.
“I got it, President Fuller.” Tom nodded. Toby then ended the call and put his phone aside.
It only took about 30 minutes for the hype on the Internet to die down. Many of the news articles about the Fuller and McRae Families were taken down and replaced by other articles. Meanwhile, Fuller Group also made an official statement on their official Facebook page.
‘This is an official statement regarding the various articles published on ‘Entertainment First’, ‘Scream for Entertainment’ and other news websites. The articles claim that our president, Mr. Toby Fuller, is getting engaged soon, but the company hereby announces that such articles are completely false. President Toby Fuller currently has no plans of getting engaged to anyone, so all the articles are nothing but rumors and speculations. We hope that you, as responsible netizens, can stop the spread of these rumors. On top of that, the false articles published by ‘Entertainment First’ and other websites have caused huge damage to President Toby Fuller’s reputation, so our company has already taken legal action against the companies that were involved in this matter. We hope that you guys take note of this announcement.’ The post was made along with two photos attached to it—one was a lawyer’s letter while the other was a court summon.
Many of the netizens were shocked to see these images online. They immediately understood how severe the matter was—Fuller Group was actually going to court with those media sites. Since the court had already issued the relevant summons, the media sites would have no choice but to deal with things in court.
It only took a short while for this entire incident to spread across the Internet. Soon, everyone found out that legal action was taken against the media sites that had started false rumors about Fuller Group. The media sites that had posted reports about Toby’s engagement but had yet to receive a lawyer’s letter immediately started deleting all their previous articles. Even some of the netizens who had made comments were deleting their likes and comments on the false posts as they were afraid that they would somehow get involved in this matter.
Just like that, most of the news about Toby’s engagement was removed from the net—it was almost as if a huge broom had swept the entire Internet clean of these rumors. Instead, the various media sites began to fill Fuller Group’s official account with their lengthy messages to express their apology. Most of these posts were written in a heartfelt and emotional tone. The media sites had no choice—they didn’t enjoy making apologies, but they would rather do that than start a fight with the undefeated Fuller Group.
…
It was lunchtime at Paradigm Co. when Sonia stepped out from a meeting. Daphne closed her folder and tagged along with Sonia as she spoke. “What would you like for lunch, President Reed? I’ll order you some food.”
Sonia massaged her sore neck. “I want something bland. I don’t feel like eating much.”
“Sure. You can rest in your office, and I’ll send your meal over in a while.” Daphne pulled her phone out to search for deliveries as she spoke.
“Okay,” Sonia said with a nod. The delivery arrived 30 minutes later, and Daphne brought the meal over to Sonia’s office. Sonia picked the cutleries up and began to eat while scrolling through her phone. Right then, a news article popped up on her screen. She glanced at it for a brief moment before her eyes widened. Toby’s engagement was a lie? How is that possible?
In an instant, Sonia sat up straight and placed her cutleries down before she used both her hands to tap on the article headline that she saw. Once she went through the article, she read to understand that the previous engagement articles had been nothing but rumors posted by unreliable media websites. All the posts about the Fullers and McRaes arranging a marriage were nothing but lies, and Toby didn’t have plans of getting engaged at all.
The article that Sonia was reading also included a screenshot of Fuller Group’s official social media account, which showed their official statement made to clarify the rumors about Toby’s engagement. Does that mean that Toby has no intentions of ever getting engaged to Lily? When Sonia realized this, a surge of joy filled her heart. Her heart raced as she quickly left the webpage to visit Fuller Group’s official Facebook page. She had to make sure that this was true.
Sonia finally trusted her own eyes when she saw the actual statement on Fuller Group’s Facebook page. It was even pinned on the top of their page. It’s true. Toby and Lily’s engagement was just a false rumor. But the pictures… What’s up with those pictures? Sonia bit her lip as she sank into her thoughts for a while. Before she knew what she was doing, she opened her conversation with Toby and sent her question over to him.
However, she only realized what she had done after sending the text. What did I just do? Why did I ask Toby about his picture with Lily? He can take pictures with anyone, and he can pose however he wishes to—does that have anything to do with me? Why do I care so much about all of this? At that thought, Sonia felt herself shuddering. Her fingers flew across her screen as she deleted the text she had just sent to Toby.
However, she didn’t feel any less anxious after deleting the message. She wasn’t sure if Toby had already seen the message when she first sent it over. How am I supposed to explain myself if he has already seen the message? I can only hope that he didn’t check his notifications.
Sonia’s heart made loud thumping sounds against her chest, and she couldn’t seem to slow her pulse down no matter how much she tried. She continued to stare at her phone screen as she wondered if Toby would text her any time soon. If he replied and responded to her question about the photo, then it would mean that he had read all of her texts. If that happened, Sonia would have to come up with an explanation for the reason she had posed such a question.
However, if his response was one that asked her about the deleted text that she had sent, then it would mean that he hadn’t read her messages. In that case, she could just say that she had sent a text to the wrong number.
It often felt like time was stretched whenever one was waiting for something to happen. The uncertainty of the matter only left Sonia uneasier than ever. For five long minutes, Sonia’s gaze was fixed on her phone, but she still didn’t receive any response from Toby. Her pulse started to slow down as she calmed herself down a little. If he’s taking so long to reply, it could mean that his phone isn’t with him, right? It would be great if that were the case. It would mean that he hasn’t seen my message at all. Even if he sees that I’ve deleted a message when he checks his phone later, I don’t have to worry about it. I can just say that I texted the wrong person by accident.
…
On the other side of town, Toby was in his condominium, seated with his long legs crossed on the couch. His mobile phone was in his right hand, which was resting on his knee, and he spun his phone around. His gaze was deep and thoughtful. What did Sonia’s text mean? he wondered. He had been looking at all the apologies made online and was about to leave the study when his phone lit up with a new notification. He had immediately opened it when he saw that it was a notification from Sonia.
She had asked him about the photos of him and Lily, which made Toby freeze. He couldn’t figure out the reason Sonia would care about those pictures or why she would send him a text just to ask about it. However, adrenaline was pumped into his bloodstream as happiness spread across his chest. My bold assumption is that she’s unhappy to see me taking intimate photos with other women. Perhaps she’s jealous after seeing those photos, he thought.
