Chapter 789 Guilt
If it weren’t because of Tina, who had been pulling strings in the shadows, Tyler wouldn’t have mistaken Sonia as the homewrecker who had come between Toby and Tina. This naturally wouldn’t have led to his resentment toward Sonia.
Although he used to have an awful temper, he was well-aware of the fact that Sonia had treated him extremely well during the six long years.
However, due to the resentment Tyler held against homewreckers, he had been ignoring how well Sonia had treated him and even treated her with his worst attitude.
It was only through this way could he constantly remind himself to never be moved by Sonia. He had always told himself that she was the other woman, the one who came between Toby and Tina. Hence, he would never treat her nicely and go soft on her.
The reason behind Tyler’s intense hatred toward women who came between other people’s marriage was because the people in his circle had always bad mouthed his mother, who was the third person between his father and Valerie Johann, Toby’s biological mother. They had derided him because Tyler was an illegitimate child.
He was enraged, yet there was nothing he could do as his mother was indeed the mistress in spite of her not being an ordinary ‘mistress’.
Nonetheless, he still had faced plenty of mockeries because of his mother’s identity, and even his parents had faced public condemnation. His mother was derided as a country bumpkin who had miraculously captured the heart of the head of the Fuller Family. On the other hand, the public criticized his father for not loving a lady from a wealthy family and instead falling in love with a country bumpkin; Homer was even said to be testing out if the trash outside smelled better after being used to luxurious food.
Those words resembled sharp knives that stabbed into Tyler’s young, fragile heart, prompting him to become more rebellious during his teenage years. He also had an incredibly low self-esteem.
Hence, in those six years, he kept targeting Sonia because he had resented her for destroying the relationship between Toby and Tina. Tyler even thought that Sonia would cause Toby to be ridiculed by outsiders, just like what his father had experienced all these years for marrying the mistress.
As such, Tyler had been bullying Sonia and put on his most awful attitude in hopes of destroying her marriage with Toby, so that she would back down and leave the Fuller Residence.
However, who could have expected that after Sonia had left, only did Tyler finally know that Sonia was not the homewrecker. Instead, she had been the woman that Toby had loved all along. The third person between their relationship was actually Tina, who had pretended to be Sonia.
Tyler, on the other hand, had helped the real homewrecker drive away Toby’s original partner. At that instant, he felt as though he had been devoured by a heavy sense of guilt.
He had wanted to apologize to Sonia, but he felt so embarrassed and at the same time, he had been afraid that she wouldn’t forgive him. Therefore, Tyler hadn’t been able to muster the courage to even show his face in front of Sonia, let alone apologize to her. He had even felt relieved when the U17 Cross-Country Championships was just around the corner. At that time, he had eagerly packed up his luggage and fled Seafield.
He had thought that he wouldn’t need to face the guilt in his heart after he had fled the city—at least, he wouldn’t need to apologize to her for the moment. However, the guilt in his heart kept weighing him down when he had been abroad, and the feeling that he had been a despicable man grew by the day. I’m not worthy to be a man; I couldn’t even say sorry.
As months passed by, many contestants had been disqualified from the competition. After having been through multiple defeats, Tyler had grown a lot and become more mature mentally. Finally, he was able to pluck the courage to make this call.
This time, he had to confess to her the apology that he had been keeping inside him.
With such thoughts in mind, Tyler clenched his fists to cheer on himself.
Sonia had no idea what the young man on the other end of the line was thinking. However, she curled up her red lips and coldly snorted. “Even though you have been deceived, you can’t deny all your past doings.”
Tyler was at a loss for words, as he was unable to refute what she said.
That’s true. Although I had been deceived, it was still me who had been blinded to the truth. I was the one who did all those terrible deeds, and none of them were forced by Tina.
Therefore, he had indeed committed a grave sin.
Upon noticing that the young man on the other end of the line had fallen silent and his breathing became heavier, Sonia snapped her fingers and impassively asked, “What’s wrong? Did I give you a huge blow?”
“Yes,” Tyler muttered with a nod.
As a 17-year-old teenager who hadn’t even reached adulthood, he was incredibly tall as he was a basketball player. Standing at six feet two, he was even taller than Toby by two inches.
Tyler’s large figure made him look like a mountain as currently he sat on the bench.
At that moment, a large man like him behaved like a meek boy, and it made him seem a little ridiculous. “I’m aware of that, but I deserved it.”
A hint of surprise flashed across Sonia’s eyes and she laughed. “You actually know that you deserved that? Not bad, Tyler. You are currently more charming than you were in the past.”
Although she didn’t meet him in person, their brief conversation that night allowed her to feel the boy’s transformation.
In the past, Tyler had been gloomy and he had a nasty personality. He had a strong ego that forbade him from hearing any harsh words or criticisms, and he would blow up whenever that happened. On top of that, the way he looked at people and the way he spoke was sharp and unfriendly.
However, at present, all of that had vanished. Sonia couldn’t see how his gaze was, but she could tell from the way he spoke that he had dropped the sharp tone and become much calmer. Besides, Tyler wasn’t mad when she mocked him that night, which was why she was surprised that he had changed so much.
She wondered what he had experienced in the past few months.
When he heard Sonia complimenting that he was currently much more charming than he used to be, Tyler could feel happiness blooming in his heart and a silly grin appeared on his face. “My dear sister-in-law, does this mean that you like me now?”
However, Sonia chuckled coldly in response. “Says who? Don’t overthink it. I still remember what you did in the past. You still have to wait for a long time before you can get me to like you.”
The mild changes that he had portrayed was still insufficient to make her change her mind about him.
And so, Tyler sighed in disappointment. “The way you expressed it made me think that you have started to take a liking to the current me.”
“Dream on!” Sonia cold-heartedly uttered, to which Tyler pouted in displeasure.
“Sonia, why are you so cold toward me? You have gotten back together with Toby, which suggests that you forgive everything that he has done, but how about me?”
“Stop it right there!” Sonia frowned and quickly interrupted him coldly. “You want to compare yourself with your brother? You should first see what he has done in these past couple of months. I was willing to forgive him and agreed to get back together with him not because of what he said, but because of what he did. How about you? You didn’t do anything, yet you are asking for my forgiveness? Are you living in your own dreamland?”
“I—” Tyler’s spirit drooped. “Okay, I admit that I was being shameless. I was wrong.”
Just now, he had indeed thought to ask for Sonia’s forgiveness seeing that she had forgiven Toby.
After all, since Toby had been forgiven, Tyler thought that it wouldn’t be difficult for him to be forgiven as well.
Therefore, it never occurred to him that Toby had actually taken physical actions to obtain Sonia’s forgiveness.
Although she didn’t state it clearly, judging from how serious her tone had been, Tyler understood that Toby must have done many important things in exchange for her forgiveness and for her to agree to be with him again.
In comparison to Toby, Tyler, who had owed Sonia an apology for so long, had been shameless when he asked for her forgiveness.
On the other end of the line, Sonia rubbed her temple. “Alright, cut the crap. What’s your purpose for calling me tonight?”
Tyler rubbed the tip of his nose. “Nothing much. I’ve been undergoing competition and training that are closed to the public, whereby I have restricted access to electronic devices. Hence, I didn’t know that you have gotten back together with Toby. I only learnt about this today after the competition ended. I was excited, so I thought to give you a call to talk to you.”
