Take Responsibility
Tom’s eyes widened. “President Fuller!”
“What’s going on here?” Just then, a few officers who had been on duty nearby came over to assess
the situation after hearing the blaring car alarm.
Tom grabbed hold of the officer and said frantically, “Quick, get a car and send my boss to the hospital
right now.”
“What? Is there a casualty?” Startled by this, the police officer hurried over to the car and saw Toby, who
was unconscious and had his head bowed. Growing anxious, the officer said, “Wait here. I’ll go get my
car right away!” With that, he rushed over to the patrol stand to retrieve his cruiser.
Now that Tom was sure Toby would get the help he needed, he let out a sigh of relief and promptly
heaved the unconscious man out of the car. As he did so, he muttered under his breath furtively, “Just
hold on, President Fuller. We’ll be at the hospital soon. Please be okay; it’ll break Old Mrs. Fuller and
Miss Reed’s hearts if they know something has happened to you. Please hold on.”
Toby’s fingers twitched slightly, as if he could hear all this.
Tom was so overwhelmed by this that he nearly cried. “Oh, thank goodness! President Fuller must still be
conscious. He hasn’t completely blacked out!” As long as Toby could respond, then the worst had not
happened.
“I…” Suddenly, a trembling female voice sounded from behind Tom.
While holding Toby up, Tom turned to look at the owner of the voice and saw, to his great dismay and
anger, the woman in the wheelchair who had crossed the road at the wrong time and caused this whole
accident.
As if realizing that she was in big trouble, the girl clutched the hem of her shirt and glanced worriedly at
the unconscious Toby, her face drained of color as she asked, “I’m sorry. Did he get hurt?”
A look of rage unfurled across Tom’s otherwise-placid features as he growled, “Your apology means
nothing! If my boss had not tried to avoid knocking you down earlier and asked that I run into the hedge
instead, he would still be fine right now!”
The girl shrunk into her wheelchair after receiving such hostility, and she looked even paler as hot tears
glistened in her eyes. “I’m sorry, I really am. I didn’t mean to. I was in a rush, and I—”
“That’s enough from you. I don’t want to hear your explanation for this. Don’t think that the matter ends
here, and you’d better hope my boss is fine if you don’t want to spend the rest of your life in prison!” Tom
bit out harshly, cutting her off mid-apology.
She gaped at him with wide eyes, and she truly was mortified, judging by the large teardrops streaming
past her cheeks.
Tom, however, didn’t bother with her as he took out his phone to call Sonia and tell her about this.
However, before he could make the call, the police officer from earlier returned in his cruiser. Left without
a choice, Tom kept his phone for the time being and helped Toby into the car, thinking that he could give
Sonia a call on the way to the hospital. What matters most now is to get President Fuller to the hospital
in time.
“Wait.” He was just about to close the door after getting into the car when he felt resistance, and he saw
that the woman in the wheelchair was holding onto the door handle forcefully.
Furious, Tom stared at her with bloodshot eyes. “What the hell are you doing?” He was desperate to get
Toby to the hospital, and he couldn’t believe that this woman was stalling them. “I’m warning you: if you
don’t let go of the door and we miss out on the best time to save my boss, I’ll make sure you regret this
for life,” he threatened darkly, his voice taking on a somber edge.
If it weren’t for the fact that the woman had a disability, he would have kicked her far away from the car.
When the woman saw the murderous gleam in Tom’s eyes, she drew back slightly, but she held onto the
car door firmly nonetheless. “I… I should go with you, too. I was the one who caused the accident, and I
want to take responsibility.”
Tom was about to protest when the police officer sitting behind the wheel turned and interjected, “Mister,
if what you told me just now was true, then this woman will have to take responsibility for being the one
to cause the accident. It’s ideal that she comes with us to the hospital.”
Now that the police officer had put his foot in, Tom’s hands were tied, and as much as he disagreed, he
found himself relenting.
Upon seeing that Tom implicitly allowed her to go with them, she smiled with what appeared to be a great
relief, and the police officer gently helped her into the passenger side of the car.
Along the way, the woman kept turning around in her seat to look at Toby. There were no lights in the car,
and with the darkening sky, it was far too dim for Tom to notice the maniacal and sadistic gleam in the
woman’s eyes when she gazed at Toby.
Presently, Tom fished out his phone once more and called Sonia’s number with a bitter frown on his face.
He would never have thought that he and Toby could be so unlucky as to meet with an accident right
after seeing Jessica.
While Tom had cracked his head on the window and suffered some light bleeding, the airbags and
seatbelt kept him from grievous injuries, and he came out of the accident with only a concussion.
But the same could not be said for Toby, who was already dealing with a failing heart that made him
susceptible to shock and stress. If he fainted so abruptly, there was a chance that the collision had put
his heart into overdrive, and he blacked out from the shock of it all.
Tom could only hope that Toby pulled through this just fine. Otherwise, he couldn’t even bring himself to
think of how drastic the consequences might be.
He pinched the space between his brows and hoped that Sonia would not faint when she heard about
what had happened to Toby.
“Hello?” Just as his thoughts were fraying and unraveling, Sonia’s gentle voice filled the other line. “Mr.
Brown, is everything alright?”
Sonia was currently sitting on the couch, having not moved since her phone call with Toby, but she now
paused the television show as she grew concerned as to why Tom was calling her out of the blue.
He was Toby’s personal assistant. Could it be that something had happened to Toby? But that doesn’t
make sense. Toby would have called me personally if there were any sudden changes in his plan; he
wouldn’t go through Mr. Brown.
Besides, she knew it was unlikely that Toby had his hands full at the moment, given that they had only
just texted each other not ten minutes ago.
“Miss Reed,” Tom began hoarsely, then gulped.
Sonia felt her heart drop to her stomach when she heard his grim tone. Clutching her phone tightly, she
asked nervously, “Mr. Brown, where’s Toby?” Her instincts were sharp, and it took her only a second to
realize that maybe something had happened to Toby.
Tom wouldn’t have called her otherwise and spoken in such somber tones. Please let Toby be okay, she
prayed silently.
However, Tom sounded even more strangled as he said guiltily, “Miss Reed, President Fuller has met
with a car accident.”
“What?” Stunned, she rose to her feet so abruptly that the soreness from a particular area decided to
assault her once more. Ignoring the pain, she gripped her phone tightly as she asked in a raised voice,
“Did you just say Toby got into a car accident?”
“Yes…” Tom nodded.
At that moment, Sonia thought her mind had imploded, and the world began to spin around her. She
swayed dizzily, nearly collapsing as black dots flooded her vision. She would have fainted on the spot
had she not grabbed hold of the couch armrest in time and resumed her seat.
However, the sound of her sitting down on the couch was picked up by Tom through the phone, and his
heart constricted for a second as he pressed urgently, “Miss Reed, are you alright?”
It was bad enough that he had not protected Toby well enough to keep him from harm, but he didn’t think
he could live it down if news of the accident had caused Sonia to faint. But it’s not like I can keep Toby’s
accident a secret from her…
“I’m fine,” she replied slowly, but even as she said this, her face was pale and full of worry and
anxiousness. She dug her nails into the armrest and heaved several breaths to calm herself down,
forcing herself to not cave into the darkness that threatened to wash over her. Inhaling deeply, she tried
to stay calm as she asked, “How’s Toby doing now?”
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