Madam Escaped Again Sir novel Chapter 664

It was when Toby saw the serious and steely look in Sonia’s eyes that he realized he had no choice but to take the water.

He brought his hand up to rub his temple tiredly, and after exerting quite a bit of strength, he managed to prop himself up on the couch. He took the glass, and under Sonia’s watchful gaze, he gulped the water down without complaint.

Satisfied, she retracted her gaze, and no longer stared at him like he was a criminal.

When he finished the water, he set the glass aside and shook his head slowly, feeling as if it had been stuffed full of cotton.

At the sight of this, Sonia pressed, “Headache?”

He hummed wearily in response.

She pursed her lips into a thin line of displeasure. “Well, serve you right for downing all that alcohol with such little concern for your own life.”

Knowing that he was in the wrong this time, Toby lowered his head guiltily and stayed mute.

Sonia couldn’t bring herself to stay mad at him when she saw how worn-out and upset he looked. Her expression softened as she muttered, “Forget it. What matters is that you don’t try to reenact this incident. You nearly scared me to death, and I don’t think my heart can take another shock like this; I certainly don’t want to have all my senses on alert this time each year.”

Toby stared at her with despair in his eyes. “I’m sorry...”

“You don’t have to apologize; no one could blame you for what happened,” she said gently. “I understand why you would resort to such coping mechanisms in light of the situation, but I do hope you’d sort through these feelings before you spiral even further. Don’t forget what I said earlier about you not being the cause of your mom’s suicide. There’s no need for you to invalidate yourself, because if you do, then who else could give you the affirmation you need?”

Toby’s eyes glistened like he was pondering her words.

She brought her hand up to his forehead and explained when she saw the confusion in his eyes, “Don’t worry, I’m just checking to see if you’re running a fever. You barely slept a wink last night, and coupled with the inordinate amount of wine you drank in this unheated space, I’m worried that you might have caught a cold or something. But judging by the look of things, you don’t seem to be having a cold at all.”

She put her hand down, then asked, “Maybe you’d like to get a bit of shut-eye?”

He was exhausted and completely drained of energy, not to mention his head felt like lead. He didn’t think he could even put his feet on the ground.

He wanted to sleep, but he was worried that if he did, she would leave. The thought of that made him shake his head and tell a harmless lie. “No, I’m not tired.”

“As if,” Sonia pointed out sardonically, rolling her eyes at his obvious fatigue.

Toby parted his lips to argue, but before he could say anything, his stomach beat him to it by giving a loud grumble.

He looked down at his own stomach and blinked, seemingly bewildered, as he asked, “It just made a noise.”

She nearly laughed at this. “Yeah, and that noise indicates that you’re hungry.” It was nearly noon, and aside from his hardcore drinking last night, he didn’t have much else to eat. Even Sonia was beginning to feel hungry, so she could only imagine the hollowness he felt in his stomach.

“Hungry?” he repeated slowly, like he had never heard of the word, and his confusion showed in his eyes.

Sonia felt her eye twitch as she assessed him and his rather stupid state. Maybe all that drink he had last night is finally getting to his head and meddling with his mind, which explains why he’s in such a daze, as opposed to his usual sharp-witted self. Then again, she had to admit that there was something endearing about him when he behaved like this, which was a rare sight indeed.

She never once thought that Toby, on the edge of being completely hungover but still riding out the effects of his alcohol consumption, would be quite so interesting before sobriety caught up with him.

With an exasperated shake of her head, she put out her hands and pressed his shoulders so that she could ease him into a reclining position on the couch. “Okay, just be good and lie down here while I go into the kitchen to rustle up some food for you, that is if you even have ingredients in the fridge.”

He had only had alcohol to drink last night with no other sustenance; it was a wonder that his stomach could still grumble at all.

Toby obediently lay back down on the couch, blinking at Sonia wearily and mutely, still in some kind of a stupor.

She took her hands off his shoulders and rearranged the scarf around his neck, then tucked him under the blanket before getting up to go into the kitchen.