Misery
Toby was like a vengeful demon who suddenly overcame his resentment and in that instant, he
became an angel that radiated warmth and love.
The rest of the people in the meeting room began to exchange gazes and let out breaths of relief after
witnessing Toby being so different from how he used to be.
It was hard for them to not let their relief show.
Apparently, someone had misplaced a decimal point in an important project proposal earlier during the
meeting. When Toby had noticed the hundred-million-dollar mistake, he immediately exploded and
started biting everyone’s heads off. Even the innocent bystanders were given a taste of his wrath. The
atmosphere in the meeting room had become so tense that there wasn’t one person in the meeting
room, minus Toby, that wasn’t on edge.
Just as they thought they wouldn’t be let off easily, his phone started ringing. As soon as Toby held the
phone in his hand, the scary Oni mask on his face had been replaced with a gentle, warm expression.
Everyone knew that only one person had the ability to make Toby transform like that. It was definitely
Toby’s ex-wife and also his current girlfriend—Sonia Reed.
They were extremely grateful for the sudden life-saving text she had sent him.
Otherwise, they would have to suffer more if it wasn’t her message that came at the exact right time.
Even though no one spoke, everyone was thinking the same thing in their hearts. Sonia is my savior,
and I’m thankful to her.
Despite his employees’ evident change in mood, Toby was not interested to look at their faces. He only
leaned against the backrest of his chair while his fingers swiftly typed out a message: ‘I’m glad you like
it. I was worried you wouldn’t.’
Sonia smiled when she read the reply, and quickly wrote another message: ‘How could I not? I quite
like it! And you? You left pretty early today. Had your breakfast?’
Toby slightly nodded. ‘I did.’
Sonia took a bite into her food. ‘That’s good. Are you busy?’
Toby’s cold gaze averted from the phone screen and on the faces of his employees after he read that
message by her.
Everyone instantly was on high alert again. Is he going to go off on us again? Did Miss Reed fail at
calming President Fuller down?
Just as everyone was preparing themselves for what seemed to be a death sentence, Toby’s eyes
lowered to his phone once again. He then typed, ‘I’m in a meeting. These high level executives are so
bad that they’re annoying.’
People like them who lived life rather comfortably were especially lax when it came to work. They even
overlooked such an obvious mistake that they would’ve noticed if they paid more attention.
The company would have lost no less than a hundred million if he hadn’t asked, and the proposal
would have been executed!
It was only normal for him to feel annoyed by their incompetence.
Even though Sonia couldn’t see him, she could feel through the texts that he wasn’t in the best of
moods.
She sent him a sticker of a head rub and wrote: ‘Don’t be mad. There’s always someone like that in
every company, but a small punishment would suffice if that employee hadn’t done it on purpose or
with the intention to betray the company. Don’t fuss too much over them. All that anger isn’t good for
your health. So, don’t be so angry, okay?’
Seeing the cute sticker and her words of consolation, his heart further softened again. That rare
gentleness was almost flowing out of him for everyone to see.
Toby’s thin lips curled into a smile. ‘Okay. I’ll listen to you. I’m not angry anymore.’
Sonia put down her glass of milk and wrote back. ‘Attaboy. Alright, go ahead with your meeting. Don’t
let me disturb you. I’m almost done with breakfast too. I’ll be heading to court after this.’
Toby slightly nodded. ‘Okay. Be careful on the road. Let’s have dinner together.’
Dinner together?
Her brows wiggled at that. ‘Will you be done with work early?’
Toby pressed his lips together when he suddenly recalled how she said that he, a 30-year-old man,
wasn’t as energetic as a 20-year-old was. A glint of unknown emotion quickly flashed across his eyes
before it disappeared. Then, he wrote, ‘I’ll be done and come home to you as soon as possible.’
Sonia didn’t think too much into his words and only typed that she would be waiting for him before she
placed the spoon in her hand back to the table.
She was secretly hoping for him to head home earlier as well, but of course, it wasn’t because she
wanted him to accompany her at home.
It was because she hoped for Toby to stop working so late into the night since it wasn’t a healthy habit
to have.
The smile on his face deepened when read her message, after which he wrote back. ‘Okay. I won’t
disappoint you.’
Tonight, he would let her know that him being a 30-year-old man didn’t matter. I’m definitely not worse
than some 20 something stud, he grumbled. I might even outperform a younger man!
However, despite his gusto, Sonia didn’t actually understand his last text.
Even though she couldn’t quite connect his reply to her message, she simply sent him a smiley emoji
before putting her phone down.
Toby knew from her smiley emoji that she was ending the conversation to let him focus on work, so he
only let out a low chuckle before saving all the stickers she had sent him. The moment he kept his
phone, the smile on his face had also disappeared. He coldly looked at the people before him and
announced, “The person who is responsible for his mistake will have his employee bonuses,
performance bonuses and executive benefits deducted. Add a 5000-word reflection essay on top of
that. Any objections?”
His eyes fell on one of the department managers’ faces as he spoke.
The manager was on his feet the next second, and with a forced smile, he quickly nodded and gushed,
“None! I’ll gladly take the punishment!”
How else am I supposed to continue staying with this company if I don’t? He kept that last part to
himself.
He was just a high-level executive. Unlike a shareholder, he still had the risk of being fired from the
company.
For him to be at the managerial position he was in today, he had spent over ten years of hard work just
to climb up the ladder. With a salary that could easily be more than ten million yearly, of course he
wanted to stay!
It was an undeniable fact that the fault in the proposal was his mistake, which was why he had been
concerned about being sacked. He had even mentally prepared himself to be fired, as there was a
high-level executive who committed a mistake more minor than his and ended up getting laid off by the
company. Toby was the kind of man who didn’t tolerate the tiniest of mistakes, after all.
Unexpectedly, right as the manager was getting ready to look for his next workplace, there was a 180
degree change in the crisis as Toby had only wanted to deduct his pay and asked him to write a
reflection. Writing a reflection essay at his age was embarrassing, yes, but it couldn’t be compared to
losing those yearly tens of millions salary. He was just glad that he wasn’t fired!
Of course the manager knew that Toby hadn’t kept him because Toby became soft-hearted. It was all
because of Sonia who managed to ease Toby’s foul mood that he was given another chance to prove
himself.
If it wasn’t for Sonia, he knew that he wouldn’t have stayed a day longer at the company from the cold
and emotionless look in Toby’s eyes.
The manager sat on his chair and wiped the perspiration off his forehead. He thought with resolve, I
must get Miss Reed a gift as thanks. I can’t owe her my gratitude!
Toby had already turned his gaze away from the manager at that moment. This time, his cold gaze
swept across the faces of all the other employees in the meeting room. “As for the rest of you, do a
proper check on the documents or projects you have at hand. Amend it if it needs to be fixed. And if I
still find a mistake in them, I’m going to fry your *ss.”
The crowd quickly nodded like chicks pecking on grains on the ground while chirping, “Yes, yes, yes!”
They were relieved that they had gotten away with a mere warning.
They had known their president too well to be used to his unexpected kindness. He wouldn’t have let
them go just like that if he had been his old self.
Everyone who was familiar with Toby’s style of punishment knew that it wasn’t only limited to one
person. He would always make sure to punish the whole team because he would expect the higher-ups
to keep an eye on one another. If one person did something wrong, the other was supposed to notice it
so that the entire project wouldn’t go off track.
Yes, it was tough working under Toby, but they couldn’t deny how much their work productivity had
increased under Toby’s ruling.
It must have been a while since anyone had made a mistake that they became more relaxed when
checking their own and others’ works.
However, who would have thought that a problem would arise the second that they slacked off?
As the thought slammed on all the high-level executives, they abruptly turned to look at the manager.
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