Promise to Give It a Try
The size of the pair of slippers fit just right, and the woolen material inside was silky and soft,
comfortable when it came in contact with the skin. With happiness written all over her face, Sonia
smiled and could not help but swing her feet happily. “Thanks, Toby.”
After being in her high heels for several hours, she could only endure the soreness and numbness in
her feet. Now that she had put on this pair of slippers, it was as though her feet had a taste of freedom
from its wretched cage, not to mention how comfortable this pair of slippers was.
No doubt, Toby is really attentive. Perhaps, I could try to trust him and accept him again. After all, he
was hypnotized back then, so he wasn’t himself. I’m so glad to have him now, seeing how he has
saved me several times. Even the little things he does for me matter a lot.
Thinking of this, Sonia took a breath, shook her palms, and looked as if she had made a decision. At
this moment, Toby took Sonia’s high heels, put them in the box, and patted her hair lightly. “What’s on
your mind? You look so serious.”
Sonia raised her eyes and looked at him. Her rosy lips parted, and after contemplating for a while, she
said, “Toby, there’s something I want to ask you. Are you certain that you’ll love me forever and that
you would not change your mind?”
Toby did not know why Sonia suddenly asked him this, but he simply nodded and answered without
hesitation, “I am certain.”
Upon hearing his words of affirmation, Sonia calmed down and, at last, shook her head again. “Funnily
enough, I cannot bring myself to believe those words. To believe a person’s love for another in one’s
lifetime seems infinite, but for several decades is more than enough. At this very moment, you might
declare your love to me and claim to love me for a lifetime and beyond from the very bottom of your
heart, but who is to say that your love will not fade in the future? Can you truly pledge your undying
love to me without any deceit or turn for the rest of our lives?”
More often than not, when lovers were head over heels with each other, the world around them
wouldn’t seem to matter. They would let themselves be engulfed by the flames of love and pledge to
each other their vows of unity. Momentarily, their earnest love often seemed to last for an eternity.
But only time could tell whether one’s love was strong enough, and as time passed by, love would fade
away, reducing them to nothing but strangers. By then, those vows that they poured their blood and
souls into would be reduced into no more than just a joke.
For now, Toby loved her so much he could even take a bullet for her, but she knew better than to trust
that his love would never change in the future.
After all, the nature of humankind was truly unpredictable. Who was to say in the hereafter, he would
not encounter a different woman who could possibly satisfy him in ways she couldn’t?
Sensing and witnessing the anxiety and void looks in Sonia’s eyes, Toby suddenly spread his right arm
and embraced her. At once, Sonia’s body froze, and she was about to put up a fight to escape his
embrace.
Suddenly, Toby whispered into her ear and said softly, “Don’t move.” Sensing the comfort and security
from him, Sonia stopped moving.
Toby tightened up his arms a little bit and then answered, “I am aware of your concerns, so Sonia, I
won’t lie to you. I cannot promise you whether I am certain I can love you forever. Promising and
pledging to love you all my life now does seem more like an empty promise. After all, now is not the
future. Even if I were to claim so now, you would not likely believe me; thus, I can only claim that only
time will tell. What I can be sure of is that I want to keep you by my side forever, just like my grandma
and grandpa did.”
Toby stared at her with dead seriousness. “My grandparents were deeply in love in their youth, and
they managed to keep that fire burning until their old age. When my grandpa passed, Grandma could
not bear to be apart from him and tried to reunite with him. In my late grandpa’s will, he requested that
my grandma continue to live well without him by her side and remain strong for her family to combat
the pain and sorrow she felt. Only I know that though my grandfather is not physically beside her, he is
always on her mind. Thus, Sonia, the chivalric love is still there, proven by my grandparents, so why
don’t we give it a try? Who knows, we might just end up like them?”
That was the exact answer Toby gave to Sonia to convince her. Instead of paying lip service that he
would love her for the rest of his life, he was more willing to use a real love story to prove his sincerity.
Seeing the promise of hope in the man’s eyes, Sonia was touched. His words made sense. Rather
than settling for his confession of love that he would love her for the rest of his life, she felt that it was
far better to walk the journey personally and fight to keep the love alive.
Perhaps, in the end, it could really work.
But…
Sonia bit her lower lip. “Alright then, let’s give it a shot. But Toby, can you promise that after we are
together, you will not be so easily hypnotized again?”
As she looked at him, she was on the verge of tears. Their tragedy began from the moment he was
hypnotized.
Post hypnotized, he forgot that he had discovered that Tina was not Sonia. Deep seeded in his
consciousness, he believed adamantly that Tina was Maple. Thus, during the span of their six years of
marriage, not even once did he recognize her.
Hence, if this tragedy were to happen once more, she would not be able to bear the pain all over again.
She would rather have him cast her away naturally now than be made to believe his love for her.
“I’ll be able to resist it this time!” Toby nodded with full affirmation. “The concept of resisting hypnosis is
that one must not be weak mentally. Tim’s senior is the world’s leading hypnotist. Now that I have him,
surely I can’t be hypnotized that easily.”
Due to his experience of being under the influence of hypnotization for six years, when he finally woke
up from his hypnotized state, he was no longer easily hypnotized like he was before.
Regarding this matter, Miles had said so himself. When Sonia saw that Toby showed no signs of lying,
she felt at ease.
As long as he was no longer being hypnotized, his intention and love toward her were completely
controlled by him without the accounts of others.
That way, there should not be a reason for her to worry about going through the whole nightmare that
had happened six years ago.
“That’s good to hear.” Sonia nodded.
Toby stared at her brightly, his eyes filled with hope. “Sonia, you just proposed that we give it a try. Are
you willing to get back together with me again?”
Sonia blushed deeply and turned her face to one side. “I said I was only willing to give it a try. I never
said we would be in a union.”
“H-Huh?” Toby frowned slightly at her words. “Then… What do you mean?”
Sonia shut her eyes slightly, and after calming down, she opened her eyes again and turned to face
him. “Toby, I am not going to lie. I do think of getting back together with you at times.”
Toby’s eyes lit up with excitement.
Sonia added, “However, I have yet to make up my mind on that matter. I want to be allowed time and
space for myself to decide on this rationally and not impulsively. When I have made up my mind, I
promise to give you the answer then. How is that?”
“Alright. I respect that but do not leave me hanging for more than a year, Sonia,” Toby declared as he
held her face in his hands.
“Certainly not that long. Give me half a month, alright?” Sonia chuckled and shook her head.
With a heart full of excitement and a rare glimpse of glee on his usually stoic face, Toby said, “Alright
then, half a month it is.”
Good gracious! For a second, I thought that she’d say at least a year and a half. Who would have
thought she only said half a month? Half a month later, she would surely be with me again.
Toby excitedly hugged Sonia so tight that she felt as though all her air was pushed out of her lungs.
Still, she was in a happy state. After a moment of thought, she decided against reminding him to let go.
They were interrupted by a knock on the pavilion door. It was only then that Toby snapped out of his
happy daze and let go of Sonia before turning to the door. He was clearly unhappy with the intruder.
“Who is it?”
To disturb him in his happy state was like asking for a punch in the face.
“Young Master Toby, it is me.” An old-sounding voice came from behind the door.
Toby’s irritated brows loosened when he heard the voice. “Oh, it’s Mr. Franklin. Do come in.”
Mr. Franklin, unaware of the state inside the pavilion, pushed open the door and was stunned by the
scene before him. There in the pavilion, Toby and Sonia were in each other’s embrace.
Good lord! They’re actually hugging one another. Am I disturbing their private time? I must have come
at a bad time!
Now, Mr. Franklin felt extremely guilty, as he must have thought of himself as the party pooper for
disturbing the private time between Toby and Sonia.
He was one of those few who knew about Toby trying his hardest to win back Sonia’s love.
Now, onto the real question, did he actually cause any delay in their progress upon his intrusion to their
intimate moment together?
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