I see, Toby thought, nodding. I thought she was picking on Sonia.
“I have to tell you off about this, Toby,” Titus said with a straight face, giving him a displeased look. “Although Tina isn’t officially engaged to you, the news that she’s your fiancée was already announced during the party which was ruined by Sonia. Since she’s already your fiancée, you should at least give her a ring. People will make a joke out of her if she’s got nothing from you.”
“Stop it, Dad. Toby has his own ideas, and we shouldn’t force ours on him,” Tina said hurriedly, tugging at Titus’ sleeve. Then, she cast an apologetic look at Toby as though she was afraid that he would be angry. “I’m sorry, Toby. Don’t take my dad’s words to heart.”
“That’s okay, but Mr. Gray is right. I should give you a ring,” Toby replied composedly.
The reason he hadn’t given her a ring this whole time was because he simply didn’t feel like giving her one. That was why he brushed them off with the excuse that he would give it at the wedding. While even himself couldn’t explain why he didn’t feel like giving her a ring, Titus had a point—if he still didn’t put a ring on Tina even after she was his fiancée, everyone would belittle her.
“Toby, are you for real?” Tina asked, beaming at him.
When he saw how happy she was, his heart softened. “Yes.” She’s the woman I love, and I promised that I would make her happy for the rest of her life. I can’t just deny her a ring simply because of some inexplicable emotions that I have.
“You’re so amazing, Toby!” Tina cried, throwing herself into his arms.
Feigning annoyance, Titus glared at her and said, “You left me for a ring. Husbands are more important to girls than their father!”
“Dad!” Tina exclaimed, spinning her head around at him and pretending to be embarrassed when in fact she had exchanged a look with him. That was a look which only the both of them understood what it meant.
In fact, both of them came to look for Toby with a motive. Before coming upstairs, they already found out that he was the one in the first private suite, and they came up with this plan to make Toby promise that she would give her a ring to cement her title as his fiancée.
Unexpectedly, their plan worked, and Toby didn’t even object.
“Should we pick out a ring tomorrow, Toby? I would like a ring from DR. Even though that brand is considered a lower-end luxury brand and the prices are generally not expensive, I still want it because the brand only allows a man to buy one ring from them in his lifetime.” Lifting her head to look at him, she asked, “Is that okay, Toby?”
When Toby heard the phrase ‘a man could only buy one ring’, he knitted his brows tightly together and his first reaction was to turn down her idea. Despite that, when he saw the anticipation in her eyes, he suppressed his urge to reject her in the end and nodded instead. “Sure.”
“Thank you, Toby!” she said happily and hugged him tightly.
On the other hand, Toby merely gave her a lopsided smirk, and instead of feeling equally happy, he felt frustrated. A few seconds later, he peeled her away from himself gently and said, “Let’s go to the party. Mr. and Mrs. Laughlin are probably waiting for us there.”
“You’re right, let’s hurry there now,” Titus agreed with a nod.
The Laughlins were a more influential family than the Grays, and even though they were not comparable to the Fullers, the Grays still had to show them some respect and not offend them.
While everyone was toasting with drinks and socializing in the brightly-lit banquet hall, Sonia was looking around the room with a glass of juice in her hand as though she was searching for something.
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