The sound of Toby’s footsteps sounded as if he was stepping on Tina’s contracting heart, filling it with fear and panicking her. At the same time, she subconsciously stepped back, her lips trembling in silence.
Seeing her reaction, Toby couldn’t help but feel disgusted with it. “What’s wrong? The cat got your tongue? Let me answer the question for you. That’s because you never lived in Marina City; you never kept a pet dog, and neither did you ever have a stepmother and sister. So, tell me now. Do you still insist that you are Maple?”
At that moment, a loud thump was heard when Tina collapsed onto the ground with a blank gaze on her face. In the meantime, Toby only fixed his eyes on her, immediately knowing what her gesture meant because she could no longer cover up her wrongdoings.
“Tina!” Julia quickly came closer to her daughter and hugged her, placing her hands on her shoulders. “Are you alright, Tina?”
Nevertheless, Tina only puckered her lips, wanting to say something, only to swallow her own words eventually. Feeling helpless and panicked, Julia turned to Toby and asked, “What was it that you were telling Tina, Toby? What’s all that about posing as Sonia and Maple? I don’t understand a single thing about that matter at all.”
Without looking at the woman, Toby kept his eyes on Tina and replied to Julia, saying, “Your beloved daughter posed as the person whom I had always thought to be the woman of my life and enjoyed what was not rightfully hers for six years.”
“What?! So, you’re saying you don’t love Tina now?” Julia raised her voice.
However, Toby responded with a cold grunt and said, “I never loved her, in fact. Sonia has always been the one I’ve loved because she is the one who’s truly my pen pal, and the only reason Tina got to be with me was that she posed as her. Why else do you think I’d confess my love to someone like her, whom I never met six years ago?”
“Well…” Julia was tongue-tied as she began to recall what had happened. While she knew the two of them had never seen each other due to the inequality between their statuses, she quickly realized it was actually Toby who wasn’t aware at all about her existence. On the other hand, Tina had truly seen Toby before, judging by how he was an outstanding man any woman would dream of marrying.
One day, Toby unexpectedly showed up at the Gray Residence and confessed his love for Tina, which Julia found to be strange because he had never seen her before, especially with his sentimental gaze. Nonetheless, she quickly dismissed it as a reason that he fell in love with Tina at first sight. Furthermore, their young age served to convince Julia even more that both of them were just a young couple who desperately sought some unforgettable romance. However, now that the truth had been uncovered, she was shocked to discover that it was her daughter who had been scheming to take Toby away from Sonia all along.
At the thought of that, Julia cast a strange gaze on Tina, who guiltily looked away before the latter stood up and seized Toby’s arm in a tearful manner. “I’m sorry, Toby. This is all my fault. I’m so sorry! I shouldn’t have posed as Sonia, but I just couldn’t help it because—I love you!” Knowing she could never get away with the fact that her scheme was exposed, Tina decisively apologized to Toby and begged for forgiveness. After all, she reckoned she still stood a chance to win his favor if she could have his forgiveness.
“You love me?” Toby chuckled in irony while pinching Tina’s chin hard. “You posed as Sonia and took what was hers away from her because you loved me. Well, if everyone just takes anything they want from others just because they love them, what kind of world would we be living in?!” Toby pinched Tina’s chin harder this time.
As Tina was overwhelmed by the painful twinge, tears began to roll down her cheek. Meanwhile, Toby felt a stab of pain in his heart when he saw her tears, but it wasn’t because he felt sympathetic toward her, but because the same thing that happened at the restaurant the last time was now happening again. Therefore, Toby made up his mind to bear with the pain he was going through on the inside because he was never going to tolerate Tina ever again. After that, he shook off her chin and took a handkerchief from his breast pocket to wipe his fingers with a disgusted look on his face. Upon wiping them, he even threw the handkerchief away as a gesture of revulsion.
“I’ll cancel our engagement as soon as possible, Tina, but be warned that I will not go easy on you for the lie you fed us in the past six years, so you’d better pray hard from now on.” Toby finished his words while fixing his cold gaze on Tina like a sharp blade that pierced through her soul. It was only a few moments later that he took his eyes off her and left the mansion.
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