Chapter 703 Old Tales
When Toby saw the spam comments, he knew that Tom had managed to suppress the netizen’s responses to calm the situation down. Toby turned the live broadcast off and massaged his brows. He didn’t feel any relief, although the situation was partially under control. After all, just calming the situation down on the Internet didn’t mean that they had actually resolved the issue. The public had seen whatever Jessica wanted them to see, so Toby had to clear Sonia’s name.
He was just thinking of ways to fix this matter when Sonia walked out of the bathroom with the black silk nightgown that he had selected for her. She wasn’t wearing slippers, so she tiptoed quietly on the carpet with her bare feet. Toby didn’t hear her coming over, but he could smell the pleasant scent as she got closer. He quickly lowered his hand from his brows before he looked up to find Sonia walking over in the spaghetti-strapped nightgown. His pupils shrank as he looked at the woman before him.
She had just finished showering, so her damp hair was carelessly hanging from her fair shoulders. A few strands of hair were playfully dangling around her sexy collarbones, and they swayed left and right as she walked over. The sharp contrast between her black nightgown and her fair skin made it hard for one to tear one’s eyes away from her.
Naturally, Sonia could sense the man’s eyes burning into her skin. Her face had been flushed from the warm shower she took, but her cheeks turned redder when she realized that he was looking at her. She took a glance at herself before she shot Toby a glare. “What are you looking at?”
“You look really pretty in this nightgown,” Toby said with a gentle smile. His sudden compliment left Sonia utterly abashed, and she had to turn away to hide her expression. However, she had curled her lips up a little, revealing how she was slightly pleased to hear what the man said. She was a sucker for compliments.
“Come here,” Toby uttered as he patted a spot on the bed. Sonia turned alert when she saw what he was doing. “What is it?” Does he want to… No, no. I don’t think he’s such a pervert. He knows that I’m still on my period.
“I’ll blow-dry your hair for you.” Toby had somehow produced a mini hairdryer in his hands, and he swung it in the air to show it to Sonia. She heaved a sigh of relief. I knew he wasn’t that big of a pervert. She walked over and sat down by the edge of the bed. The moment she sat down, a shadow towered over her as a pair of large hands reached over to wrap a thick, white sleeping robe firmly over her body.
Sonia lowered her head to look at the arms around her waist. “Toby, what are you…”
Toby’s face was pressed against the back of her neck as he spoke in a rather hoarse voice. “I have to cover you up, or else I’m afraid I might lose control if I keep staring at you.” He was just a regular man—it was impossible for him to not feel certain urges when his lover was dressed in such a sexy gown in front of him. Therefore, he could only use his own sleeping robe to cover her up. Otherwise, seeing her gorgeous figure without being able to touch her would only agonize him even more.
Initially, Sonia froze when she heard Toby’s words. Then, she put her hand over her mouth to stifle a giggle. “You were the one who picked this gown for me,” she uttered in a rather playful tone as if she were saying, You brought this upon yourself!
“Yeah.” Toby pressed his forehead against the back of her neck and rubbed it against her. “I regret it now,” he muttered. He shouldn’t have been in a rush to get her to dress in such nightgowns—he should have waited until they got married. Now that she was already in one, he was the only one who’d suffer since he could only see her without being able to lay hands on her.
“You deserve it!” Sonia laughed louder than she did before.
He let out a helpless sigh. “Alright. Put on the sleeping robe properly, and I’ll dry your hair for you.”
“Okay,” Sonia uttered as she stuck both her arms into the holes of the robe and tied a knot around her waist. Then, Toby turned the hairdryer on before he started drying her hair. Sonia simply sat on the edge of her bed while she shut her eyes and enjoyed the experience. Her hair was being dried without her having to lift a finger—wasn’t that the most pleasurable experience ever?
A long time passed before Toby finally turned the hairdryer off. Sonia was close to falling asleep at that point. “It’s done,” he uttered. Sonia opened her eyes and felt her hair to realize that it was completely dry. Her hair was long and thick, so it was hard for it to be completely dried with a hairdryer. Her arms would always get sore before she was done drying her hair. Sometimes, if she lacked the patience, she would leave her hair slightly damp. However, she was glad that Toby had the patience to finish the job.
“Thank you.” Sonia brushed her hair to one side as she turned around to thank the man who was keeping the hairdryer. Right then, Toby frowned as if he had just recalled something. Sonia blinked at him. “What is it? I realized you seemed rather troubled when I walked out of the shower just now. Is something the matter?”
“It’s not about me,” Toby replied as he put the hairdryer away. “It’s about you.”
“Me?” Sonia pointed at herself as she eyed the man confusedly. He nodded. “Jessica exposed your identity on the Internet, and she went on a live broadcast to spit rumors about you.”
“What?” Sonia was too stunned to move. It took her a while before she picked up her phone and checked her browser for the news that Toby had just told her about. Although some of the comments and articles had been restricted at that point, Sonia was still able to search for the relevant posts.
Sonia sneered when she saw a replay of the live broadcast Jessica made earlier. “This is exactly the sort of thing she would do.”
“It seems like you expected her to expose you on the Internet all along.” Toby eyed the woman puzzledly—he was surprised by how calm she was.
Sonia nodded. “Yeah. I know Jessica. She may be an idiot, but she’s great at causing trouble. She instantly contacted me and asked me to give her the shares once she found out that I’m not the Reeds’ biological daughter. She thinks that she deserves all the shares just because she’s biologically related to the Reeds. Unfortunately, Paradigm Co. is no longer a family business. I didn’t even inherit the shares from Dad. Knowing her, she’s definitely resentful toward the fact that she had failed to complete her initial mission. That’s why she’s continuing to cause problems for me by highlighting my actual identity. Using the court of public opinion is the best way to get this done, obviously.”
“Are you saying that Jessica already contacted you during the day to ask for the shares?” Toby asked after he picked up on the details in Sonia’s explanation.
She nodded. “Yeah. She asked me for the company’s shares, and she tried to shame my mother by saying that my mother betrayed my father. I was furious, so I slapped her a few times.”
So… Sonia was really the one who left those marks on Jessica’s face, Toby thought. His lips twitched a little. I thought Jessica got someone to slap her just to frame Sonia. “Slapping her was a good choice,” he finally uttered with a laugh.
“I think so too,” Sonia replied as she raised her chin arrogantly. Her face turned cold as she spoke. “Jessica deserves to be hit since she insulted my mom. I thought she’d learn a lesson after I hit her, and I thought she’d stop shaming my mom. However, she didn’t just ignore my words; she even brought this to the public! It’s fine if she tells the public that I’m not the Reeds’ daughter, and it’s fine if she frames me for bullying her, but how dare she insult my mom in front of everyone? My name will no longer be Sonia if I don’t beat her to a pulp this time. Anyway, it was clearly Sandra who had cheated on my dad,” Sonia hissed grumpily.
“What?” Toby raised an eyebrow. “Are you saying that Jessica is Sandra’s illegitimate daughter?”
“No.” Sonia shook her head. “Jessica is biologically related to my dad, but Sandra has cheated on him previously. My dad had no intentions of remarrying at the start, you know,” Sonia said as she got to her feet. “He has always been in love with my mom, and a part of him died when my mom passed away. How could he find the desire to remarry another woman during such a time?” Sonia said with an icy look on her face.
“Yet, he remarried in the end.” Toby looked at Sonia. “Was he tricked into doing that?”
