Chapter 573
“And?”
“Then...” Sonia trembled a little as her expression implied that she was ming herself. “Then, I
asked him how he was, but he said he was fine, so I thought he was just bothered by the situation
that Paradigm Co. was in. Had I insisted on taking him to a doctor, I would’ve known that he was
drugged and he wouldn’t have taken his own life as a result. It’s all my fault; I could have saved him,
but I missed my chance to do so because I was negligent. Am I a terrible daughter, Toby?”
“No, you aren’t.” Toby held her hand and looked at her in a serious manner. “After all, no one in the
world can predict what will happen the next minute, and neither did it ur to anyone that your
father was mentally ill because he was drugged. So, all of this isn’t your fault and you need to stop
ming yourself for that. Furthermore, I believe your dad wouldn’t want you to beat yourself up
either. In fact, what you need to do now is to stop dwelling on what you think was your mistake and
gather the evidence that can prove your father was drugged.”
Sonia’s eyes widened in response as he seemingly managed to talk some sense into her. She then
pulled herself together and acted like a tough cookie. “You’re right. I need to pull myself together
and avenge my father!”
“Now, that’s the spirit.” Toby gently caressed her hair and asked, “Are you hungry? You haven’t
eaten anything since this morning, so I bet you’re probably starving, aren’t you?”
Sonia was about to say that she wasn’t hungry because she had lost her appetite after learning the
shocking revtion. However, before she could speak her mind, her stomach started to growl,
prompting her to cover it with her hands with an embarrassed look.
Toby chuckled and stood up before he held her hand and led her to the dining area. “Come on, let’s
grab something to eat first. You need to keep your strength up so that you have the energy to go on
with your day, and that includes avenging your father.”
She puckered her lips in silence and obediently followed the man. After breakfast, he went out to
take care of his work, although he had a wedding ceremony to attend. Therefore, he didn’t stick
around to apany Sonia.
Meanwhile, Sonia stayed behind in the estate to wait for Nancy’s news. When the clock struck
3:00PM, Nancy’s call came through where she informed Sonia about Jessica’s location. Sonia
learned that Jessica had been deported from Kosovo to the Republic of Mesania where she held
citizenship rights. Therefore, she was currently on a ne back to the Republic of Mesania.
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Upon learning about Jessica’s whereabouts, Sonia furrowed her eyebrows because she was
already one step behind. After all, she had nned to make her way to Jessica’s current location
and interrogate her, but was surprised that the Lazuli Family had beat her to it and sent her on a
flight to the Republic of Mesania. Ugh! Great! How am I supposed to capture her now?
Sonia rubbed her temples in frustration, wondering how she could get to Jessica. Well, it appears
that the only way for me to capture Jessica is to pay a visit to the Republic of Mesania by myself
At the thought of that, Sonia quickly reached out for her phone and browsed through the calendar to
find an empty slot in her schedule for a visit to the Republic of Mesania. Shortly after that, she
decided to set it at the end of the month because that was when Paradigm Co. would hold their
stock taking. Therefore, she reckoned she would be less busy by then and would have more time to
locate Jessica. Thinking that Jessica could lead her to more discoveries about Titus’ wicked n
back then, Sonia believed she should start her investigation with her half-sister. Meanwhile, Sonia
was absorbed in her train of thoughts as she stared nkly at the window in an absent-minded
manner.
The next day, Sonia and Toby took a flight and flew back to their country. On their way home, she
appeared to be spaced out most of the time, even nearly running into a few other people who were
“Does that matter still bother you? Toby had a magazine in his hand while he gazed at the unhappy
lady beside him in the first ss cabin.
Sonia responded by rubbing her cheek. “How can I just let it go? It’ll probably take days at the very
least.” Back then, when she first thought that her fathermitted suicide, she struggled to ept
the truth; now that she realized her father’s death had been orchestrated, there was no way she
could easily calm herself.
“Stop overthinking.” He gently lifted his arm over her head to ce it on her shoulders.
“What are you doing?” Her body tensed up.
“You should get some sleep. Look at your dark circles and swollen eyes. I guess you had a rough
night, didn’t you?” Toby told Sonia about her swollen eyes.
She felt her swollen eyes and was tongue-tied at that moment. After all, she had a sleepless night
as she couldn’t stop picturing her fathermitting suicide the moment she closed her eyes. In
fact, she had been haunted by nightmares for a long time after her father’s suicide, which took her a
lot of time before she overcame it, only to fall apart once more now.
“Alright, it’s time for you to take a nap. Come on, use my shoulder as your pillow,” Toby repeated.
Sonia met his caring eyes and turned her attention to his shoulder while puckering her lips. “Thank
you.” The moment she finished speaking, she closed her eyes and leaned on the man’s shoulder.
Strangely enough, her exhaustion and insecurities simply dissipated when her head rested on his
shoulder. I don''t feel sleepy anymore. Is this all because he is by my side?
“Toby.” She cast a serious look on the man’s nk.
“Yeah?” The man shifted his gaze away from the magazine to her face, only to meet her wide gaze
with a chuckle. “You’re still awake, aren’t you?”
Sonia blinked and asked, “Can I ask you something?” “What is it?” She responded, “Can I trust
you?” “Why would it even ur to you to ask such a question? What kind of trust are you referring
to?” Toby raised his eyebrows.
Then, Sonia lowered her head before she continued, “You said you love me, but can I trust you that
you will continue to love me? We both used to correspond with each other through letters, but you
fell in love with me even before you met me. Yet, why weren’t you able to tell that Tina wasn’t me?
Were you ever in love with me?”
A pang of guilt greeted him after hearing Sonia’s words as he gently caressed her head and replied
remorsefully, “I’m so sorry, Sonia. I didn’t fail to recognize you, but instead, something happened
whereby I ended up with no memory of you.”
“What do you mean?” A confused Sonia looked up. “Did you have amnesia back then?”
“No, it wasn’t amnesia.” Toby shook his head.
Back then, he had already noticed Tina’s disguise when she posed as Sonia to meet him. At the
same time, he also instructed Tom to investigate who Maple was and why Tina had posed as her,
but before Tom could even reveal the results, Miles had hypnotized both men and those around him
into thinking that Tina was indeed Maple. Because of that, Toby’s brain omitted the fact that he was
already aware that Tina was an imposter and firmly believed her to be Maple.
“It wasn’t amnesia?” Sonia asked in puzzlement, “This is confusing. If you didn’t suffer from
amnesia, why is it that you had no memory of me?” She couldn’t understand what he said because
she found it hardly logical.
Toby blinked, seemingly having trouble expressing his thoughts. A few secondster, he looked at
her and rified, “Would you believe me if I said I had been hypnotized?”
“Hypnotized?” Sonia bolted into a straight posture. “You were hypnotized?”
He nodded and proceeded to share about the evil n that Tina made with Miles.
After Sonia heard Toby’s story, there was silence from her for the longest time whereas Toby looked
her in the eye, aware that she had yet to calm herself from the shock that he had been hypnotized.
Thus, he kept quiet and patiently waited for her to respond. A few momentster, she snapped out
of her trance and gulped. “Wow, this is surprising! I can’t believe something like this would actually
happen in reality.”