The Way He Said It
“We’ll just have to look into this and weed out her accomplices, whoever they are,” Toby said darkly,
narrowing his eyes ominously.
Sonia nodded in agreement with him. There was little point in guessing who might have helped Tina
escape when a thorough investigation could give them all the answers.
“Get the bodyguards to come back for now,” Toby instructed, pinching the space between his brows
wearily as he glanced at Tom. Now that Tina had managed to get away, sending bodyguards after her
would be redundant.
Adjusting his glasses, Tom answered, “Yes, President Fuller.” With that, he returned to the phone
conversation and ordered the bodyguards to come back.
Meanwhile, the doctor was done tending to the abrasions on Sonia’s arm. He slipped off his disposable
gloves with a flourish and announced, “You’re all done, miss. I’ve disinfected and put ointment on the
wounds. Now, you may be tempted to scratch the wounds while they’re healing, but let the itching
subside on its own, or the wounds might leave the scar.”
“Got it, doctor. Thank you,” Sonia said with a polite smile.
“You’re welcome.” The doctor grabbed the medical kit from the coffee table and slipped the strap over
his shoulder. “I’ll be taking my leave now, President Fuller.”
Upon hearing this, Toby jerked his chin at Tom and said, “Tom, see the doctor out and drop by the
security office along the way. We need to find out the precise time when Tina showed up around the
area.”
“Yes, sir!” Tom nodded respectfully, then politely indicated for the doctor to leave through the door. The
doctor took the lead, and Tom fell in step behind him.
When the door clicked shut, Sonia and Toby were the only ones left in the large office.
Presently, her gaze flickered over to his bandaged ankle as she asked, “Do you need to use the
restroom or go back to your work desk?”
Toby shook his head. “No. Why do you ask?”
Sonia replied, “What I meant was, if you need to go to the restroom or back to your desk to sort through
documents, then all you have to do is tell me. Think of me as a human crutch, if you will, since you
can’t exactly walk on your own at the moment.”
“Oh,” he said, then nodded slowly as he considered this option. “Got it. I’ll let you know if I need your
help.”
“Right, so you will,” she said with a smile. “And if you don’t because you want to save me the trouble or
whatever, just know that it’ll add to my guilty conscience. Regardless of how things culminated, the fact
remains that you busted your ankle because you wanted to save me.”
In all fairness, Tina had wanted to run the both of them down, but if Toby had dodged away without
pulling Sonia along with him, he would have been completely unhurt. At the end of the day, Sonia was
the reason he would be limping for the next few days.
At the sight of her guilty expression, Toby sighed. “Come on, don’t be too hard on yourself. I brought
this onto myself when I rushed to keep you from getting run down.”
“You could say that, but—” She was cut off abruptly by the sound of her phone ringing. Frowning, she
fished the phone out of her purse and saw Charles’ name flashing on the screen. She turned to Toby
and muttered, “Sorry, I have to get this.”
Toby hummed in response. “Go ahead.”
She slid her thumb across the screen to pick up the call and pressed the phone to her ear. “Hey,
Charles.”
“Hey, baby. I thought you’d have dropped the jewelry off at Toby’s by now,” Charles said on the other
line.
Sonia gave Toby a brief look and replied, “I have.”
“Then why aren’t you back yet? It’s been ages, and we said we’d go over to sign off on the factory later,
remember?” Charles pointed out.
She checked the time. “Sorry, but I’ll be running late. Something came up.”
“Something came up? What is it, baby?” Charles grew concerned. “Do you need my help?”
“No,” she said, smiling as she shook her head. “It’s fine. Everything has been handled for now.”
Relieved, Charles prompted, “Oh, well, in that case, hurry back. Any later and the construction team
will be getting off their shift.”
Sonia nodded and gave a small hum. “Okay, I’ll get back as soon as possible.”
“Alright. See you later, then.” Having said this, Charles ended the call.
Sonia set the phone aside, and Toby handed her a glass of water as he asked, “So, what did Charles
want?”
“Thanks,” she mumbled as she took the glass. Then, in response to Toby’s question, she explained,
“You know how you gave me a piece of land a couple of months ago because of Tina? I built a factory
on it, and now the construction is nearly done. They want me to go over and run a final check before
signing off on it.”
“Congratulations,” Toby said cheerily. “Now that you have a factory, you won’t have to outsource
manufacturers for your inventory.”
He raised his own glass of water and made a toast to her new achievement.
Seeing this, Sonia broke into a smile and clinked her glass against his. “You’re right. I won’t have to
stoop down to beg for others’ favors or put my pride on the line now that I have the factory set up.”
She still remembered how she had gone to Autumn Crest Hill for a meeting with Director Sandberg and
his team. She had only just taken over Paradigm Co. then, and she was supposed to negotiate for
manufacturing contracts with Director Sandberg, but all she got out of the deal was a round of
harassment from the old director and his team of leering men. If Toby had not shown up to intervene
back then, Director Sandberg and his employees might have had their way with her.
She shuddered at this, disgusted by how vile the experience had been and how she would hate to
relive it.
“With the factory close to completion, have you looked into equipment suppliers?” Toby asked after
sipping his water, drawing Sonia out of her thoughts.
She frowned. “I haven’t actually decided on that, but I’m considering international suppliers, since their
engineering technology is much more advanced than what I could find in the local market. That being
said, I’m going to need a buying channel if I set my mind on overseas equipment, and I am without one
at the moment.”
“I could make arrangements for you,” Toby offered, eyeing her steadily.
She shook her head vehemently when she heard this and flapped her hand to turn him down. “Oh, no,
don’t trouble yourself. I intend to take a look at the equipment myself when I go overseas.”
He cocked a brow at this. “I didn’t know you were planning a trip abroad.”
Clasping her glass of water, Sonia hummed thoughtfully and said, “A friend from my alma mater is
throwing an engagement party next month on the tenth. She called me up two days ago and invited me
to the party, and apparently, her fiancé comes from a family that owns a mining company. They’re
supposedly collaborating with a lot of engineering companies, so when I go over next month for her
party, I’ll try my luck and see if I can set up a buying channel.”
Next month on the tenth… Engagement party… The fiancé comes from a family that owns a mining
company…
These strung together in Toby’s mind, and he wondered idly if they were part of a coincidence as he
glanced in the direction of his work desk, the drawer of which contained the invitation to an
engagement party.
Much like Sonia’s friend, the soon-to-be groom who had sent Toby the invitation was having the
engagement party on the tenth of next month, and his family happened to also be in the mining
business.
Connecting the dots, Toby deduced that he and Sonia would be attending the same engagement party
in the following month.
Amused by the thought of this, he began to smile, and soon a low chuckle escaped him.
Next to him, Sonia shot him a baffled look and asked, “What’s so funny?”
“Nothing,” he sputtered softly, lowering his gaze to hide the lingering amusement in his eyes. He had
no plans of telling her that they would be attending the same engagement party, because he would
very much like to see how she would react when she saw him on the day of. Would she be surprised or
overjoyed? Or both?
He could almost see her staring at him, wide-eyed with astonishment. The picture alone was enough to
entertain him, and he resisted the urge to laugh once more.
Sonia, on the other hand, was a little flustered by Toby’s sudden mysterious front, but she didn’t want to
press further if he had no intention of telling her in the first place. Everyone had their own secrets, after
all.
She put her phone into her bag, and she had only just tugged on the zipper when she heard Toby ask,
“By the way, is Charles still calling you baby?”
At that moment, Sonia wasn’t sure if she was imagining it, but she thought Toby had added emphasis
to the word ‘baby’. He had also said it in a hoarse voice, which only added a suggestive edge to the
word that gave her stomach butterflies and made blood rush to her face.
Worst of all, he made a point to look deep into her eyes when he said the word ‘baby’, and she was
having a hard time deciding if he had done so on purpose.
For a moment, she thought her face was heating up too much and too quickly for her own good. She
instinctively reached up and patted her cheeks with both hands. Sure enough, her skin felt hot to the
touch. It didn’t help that her heart was suddenly thumping wildly in her chest, threatening to fly out of
her chest even though she was trying to stay calm.
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