Ch. 1061..1070

Chapter 1061 What Your Choice Will Be

“You mean Lynette?” Toby raised his eyebrow. She’s asking about Harry and now his granddaughter? Just what is she up to?

“So, that’s her name.” She smiled lightly. “That’s a cute name, but you haven’t answered my question yet. What do you think of Miss Lore?”

He contemplated and a young face conjured in his mind. It was so blurry that he could barely make the outlines of her face. “Nothing.” “Nothing?” His answer stupefied her for a moment.

Given Toby’s reverence for Harry, she assumed that he would have a deep impression of the Lore Family. His response was beyond her expectations. Furthermore, she could tell that he was telling the truth.

“Why so? Isn’t she the granddaughter of your teacher? You guys should be close. You’ve grown up together, right?” Sonia looked at the man with pursed lips.

His brows furrowed deeply as he tapped her forehead. “I learned from my teacher, not his granddaughter. So, how am I supposed to be close with her? And what? Growing up together? You’re not the one to say that. Both of us are the one that has grown up together. You were ten when we became penpals, right?”

Covering her forehead, she finally let out a genuine smile. “I thought you grew up with Miss Lore and that you’re close with her.”

It was true; never once had he told Sonia who he grew up with. It was merely her assumption upon the discovery of the mastermind’s identity—Lynette. Since Lynette was the granddaughter of Toby’s teacher, it was possible for them to get along. Still, Sonia had over-thought about it.

Since Toby didn’t grow up with Miss Lore and he’s not close with her, I bet he won’t protect her after knowing she’s the mastermind of the whole scandal.

As an afterthought, she thought of giving him a chance by testing him. She stared at him. “Do you have any feelings for Miss Lore?”

Her question almost had him laughing. “What sort of feelings should I have for her?”

They were not close at all. He was Lynette’s uncle at most and they barely met or spoke to each other. Other than that, there was nothing more between them.

“Good.” Sonia nodded. “But are you aware that Miss Lore likes you? Not in a familiar way, but romantically.”

Her words put Toby into a trance. The silent Charles realized something as his mouth gaped. “Sonia, do you think that Lynette is the one behind all this? You’ve said that the mastermind is Toby’s pursuer and now you’re mentioning Lynette’s feelings for Toby instead of anyone else. It’s obvious that you’re telling us it’s Lynette all along.”

“Is it true?” Toby’s face darkened in a split second.

She looked at him and nodded slowly. “Yeah. Charles is right. It is Miss Lore’s doing. I didn’t know about it at first, but I contacted Squirrel and bought off their editor’s secretary. The secretary dug into it from the editor.”

She fished out her phone and clicked the voice note sent by Noah for the men. According to the voice note, Mitch—the editor—clearly stated that the whole incident was Lynette’s plan.

Lynette bribed Mitch to have a paparazzi watch Sonia in her vicinity one week ago. All of this was to capture any titbits about her. Even if the paparazzi failed to do so, an intimate picture of her and a man would work since it only needed a little bit of editing to stir up a controversy on the Internet.

Thus, the pictures of Sonia and Charles heading to a hotel was taken. Lynette even reassured Mitch that she would protect him if Toby took revenge.

After listening to the recording, Toby was shocked to the core. Never in his wildest dream had he expected his teacher’s granddaughter to set that up. He did not remember much about her, but she was a cheerful girl.

Still, the girl, who he thought to be adorable, had feelings for him and was malice enough to set up his woman through such lowly means.

It seemed like the seven years had not only changed Harry but Lynette as well, except hers was a complete one-eighty.

Words failed Toby as his countenance dimmed and the temperature around him dipped. Sonia was aware that it was a huge blow for him. She understood how he felt, for the culprit was none other than his teacher’s granddaughter.

He had never imagined it to be Lynette’s doing before this. Now that he knew of the truth, it was difficult to come to terms with it. Though Harry was a respectable person to him, it was foolproof that his granddaughter was a malicious one. It would still be an unacceptable reality had it been anyone else in Toby’s shoes.

Hence, Sonia kept quiet in order not to disturb him so that he could digest the whole situation. Even so, Charles was not as kind as she was. Knowing that the culprit was Lynette, he jumped to his feet in fury before grabbing Toby by the collar and roaring, “Well, well. No wonder that woman and the squirrels are so daring. You’re backing them up! I can see why. She is your teacher’s granddaughter after all. I bet you listen to everything he says, huh? Otherwise, why is she so confident that she can protect that editor? She must’ve known that you’ll let her off to save your teacher’s face.”

A thought seeped into Charles’ mind as he took a glimpse of Sonia. “Now I understand why Sonia is not clarifying the issue; it is a test for you. Sonia thinks the same—she figured that you’ll let Lynette off the hook for the sake of your teacher.”

Toby’s eyes widened as he stared at Sonia with a serious expression. “Do you really think that I’ll take her side?”

It took her a while to answer. “Charles is right. I am wondering whether you’ll do that. She’s your teacher’s granddaughter after all. I dare not jump to conclusions on what your choice will be. Besides, I know that it’s a difficult one to make since it’s between me and your teacher.”

He could not possibly remain unperturbed upon hearing her statement.

So, she’s not trusting me a hundred percent. She doesn’t believe that I’ll be on her side forever.

He was undeniably hurt by that.

“One question—if I choose to protect my teacher and straighten things out without gravity, what will you do?” Toby tightened his fists while zeroed in on her.

Before the woman could say anything, Charles smirked. “What else can she do? She’ll break up with you for sure. If you choose your teacher and gloss over the issue, Sonia will be putting up against the criticisms for nothing! Moreover, there will always be a second time. If you choose your teacher, you’ll always stick to your choice and wrong Sonia. So, what’s the point of continuing the relationship?”

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Chapter 1062 Maintained the Same Behavior0

Charles’ words were exactly what Sonia meant, so she decided to keep silent and admitted to it wordlessly. Toby clenched his fist once again and he did it so forcefully that there was an audible crack from his knuckles.

“I won’t agree to us breaking up. I won’t even give you the chance to break up with me.” Toby kept his eyes on Sonia as he enunciated each word carefully and firmly.

She was the person he had been in love with for more than ten years; she was someone whom he had once shared his life with before losing her again; she was also someone whom he had rescued in exchange of his near-death experience. Therefore, he would never give her the chance to break up with him. There was no way on earth that it would ever happen.

Sonia could tell from Toby’s eyes with what he intended to express and she was sincerely shocked by that. Finally, she moved her red lips and started to speak up, “So, it is me that you have chosen.”

Toby instantly took her into his arms right in front of Charles and placed a hand behind the back of her head as he spoke genuinely, “Yes, it will always be you.”

Although she had expected this, as soon as she heard Toby express it verbally in person, she could not contain her shocked expression.

She slowly withdrew herself from Toby’s arms and lifted her head to look at the man in front of her. “Are you sure about this? You should be aware that the other person we’re talking about here is your esteemed mentor. Although this matter isn’t initiated by him but his granddaughter, I’m guessing that he wouldn’t want us to kick up a big fuss about this and just let bygones be bygones. Surely, he would want to save his granddaughter. If you refuse, would your mentor accept this graciously and let things be?”

“You must be joking.” Charles rolled his eyes. “I’ve met Mr. Lore twice and he’s just an idiotic old man who sides with the younger generation of his family quite unreasonably. His favorite granddaughter is Lynette. There are too many sons in the Lore Family while Lynette’s the only daughter, so obviously, she’s spoiled rotten in their family. Not only does everyone in the family dote on her, but Mr. Lore also spoils her to her core. He doesn’t even realize that his actions have turned her into a spoiled brat and seems to assume that this is just her childlike nature. Ha. I think he seems to be quite proud of that too.”

As soon as Charles mentioned that, he suddenly revealed a scoffing look. “Sonny, I don’t know whether you’ve heard of this story before, but eight years ago, I attended a dinner party and Mr. Lore and his family were in attendance too. The atmosphere at the dinner party was quite nice and peaceful, and everyone mingled around as they enjoyed some drinks, and chatted with each other. However, soon after that, a group of debutantes suddenly got into a fight. Guess why?”

Sonia shook her head. “I don’t know. I wasn’t in attendance at the dinner party that you just mentioned.” Eight years ago, her dad was still alive and he was the chairman of Paradigm Co. at that time. However, Paradigm Co. was gradually experiencing a downturn back then, so most of the organizers of dinner parties would skip the invitation to the Reed Family. Naturally, she did not get to attend that dinner party, so she wouldn’t have known what went on there.

She turned to glance at Toby and there was a questioning look in her eyes. Do you know about this incident that Charlie just mentioned?

Toby shook his head slightly. “No, I don’t know anything about that. I didn’t attend that dinner party. I usually get invited to a lot of functions and I don’t really have the time to attend every single one of them.”

At that point, Sonia grimaced slightly. She realized that he was not, in fact, trying to show off. After all, it was normal for him to receive countless invitations to dinner parties due to his status, but as she heard his words, she found herself quite envious of him.

Truth be told, most people would resort to anything—even paying exorbitant amounts of money—to obtain an invitation to a dinner party. The reason was so that they could join the dinner party and mingle with those people of higher social status. However, for Toby, he did not even have to ask for the things that others seemed to yearn so badly for and yet were out of reach for them. Furthermore, he generally attended those functions based on his mood. If he turned up, he would always be given a personal and warm welcome by the host of the dinner party. Even if he did not turn up, no one would comment on that. That was just how much different it was for people of different social statuses.

At that moment, she no longer wanted to speak to Toby to avoid being subconsciously flaunted. She quickly shifted her eyes and turned to Charles. “Charles, keep going, then. What was the reason for the row?”

Charles grunted in response and continued his topic, “The reason was that one of the girls bought a dress that Lynette missed out on, and out of anger, Lynette splashed wine on that girl. The girl Lynette splashed wine on was also doted upon by her family members, so she had quite a temper too. Subsequently, the two girls got into a fight and in the end, the other girls in their respective cliques got involved in the fight as well. The dinner party ended up in havoc. The family members of the girls finally heard about the fight and rushed over in a hurry.”

“What happened next?” Sonia’s interest was piqued. “How did the matter get resolved?”

Charles laughed derisively. “In the end, this matter ended after the girl who was splashed with wine apologized to Lynette. Furthermore, the girl also had to provide a lot of gifts to Lynette as compensation.”

“What?!” Sonia felt as if she was listening to the biggest joke ever as she revealed an exasperated smile. “That was too much! How on earth could a victim be expected to apologize and even provide compensation to the perpetrator? This is the first time ever that I’ve heard of such a ridiculous thing!”

Sonia was not the only one who found the situation ludicrous. Even Toby, who was slightly connected to the perpetrator, found it ridiculous too. However, he linked the situation to his mentor’s protective stance toward his family members and at that point, Toby had a basic idea of how the matter got resolved.

“You do find this quite ludicrous too, huh?” Charles looked at Toby, who was lost in thoughts, before frowning. “The person who caused all this was Lynette’s grandfather—Toby’s mentor—and he’s also the idiotic old man who sides with the younger generation of his family unreasonably like I mentioned before. After he was told the entire situation, not only did he not chastise his granddaughter, he even shifted the blame to the other girl. From the words he spoke, he seemed to imply that the girl shouldn’t have worn that dress she had on and this incident would not have occurred if she hadn’t had that dress. Ultimately, his granddaughter was the innocent one and the other girl was to be blamed for all this. The girl and her family members were angered beyond words by that, but there was nothing else they could do about the situation. After all, the Lore Family had the Fullers backing them.”

Charles continued to purse his lips. “There you go, it’s the Fuller Family here. The entire Seafield knows that Mr. Lore is Toby’s mentor and that Toby has always been very respectful toward him. As such, the girl’s family members were worried about offending the backers of the Lore Family—a.k.a. the Fullers—so they had no choice but to suffer the injustice despite their reluctance. They ended up making the first move to apologize to the Lores. Sonny, that’s why you should realize by now that that old Lore is an unreasonable and warped selfish man. He knew that his granddaughter was at fault, yet he purposely chose to overlook that part. Clearly, the Lores are despicable.”

As soon as Charles said that, Toby instantly shot him a stern look.

However, Charles held his head high. “Why are you staring at me, huh? I hold the same stance regardless of how you feel and besides, I’m not slandering them! Your mentor is a despicable person. I can’t believe that someone like him is a professor! He’s just one without moralities. Besides, the entire Seaview knows about the Lores’ bad behaviors anyway!”

At that point, Toby remained silent.

Sonia glanced at him. “Is everything that Charles has mentioned to be true? Is your mentor such an overly protective man?”

Toby gave Charles the side-eye and gradually lifted his head. “My mentor is overly protective of his granddaughter. However, I didn’t know about the incident that Charles just mentioned and I’ve never heard of that either.”

“Though you’ve never heard of that, it doesn’t mean that it never happened.” Charles crossed his arms and scoffed, “Besides, the reason why you’ve never heard of that is because the Lores would never bring that up in front of you. After all, they made use of your reputation to resolve the matter. If they took the initiative to bring it up in front of you, then you would have found out that they were behaving insolently outside by flaunting your name. As for why the others never mentioned it to you, well, it’s simply because they’re afraid that you would go after them unreasonably—as the Lores did—if you found out. That’s why, somehow, everyone seemed to have a mutual understanding to keep it a secret from you.”

Chapter 1063 Trust Me, Alright?

Toby’s expression instantly turned thunderous and he seemed to be a second away from flaring up anytime soon. Everyone present could not help but feel their hearts skip a beat.

Had Charles not mentioned this incident, then Toby would have been blissfully unaware of everything. Of course, Toby had no doubts that Charles was telling the truth. After all, he could just easily investigate the matter to verify if he wanted to.183664

On the other hand, Charles would be unbothered with Toby investigating it since he was telling the truth anyway.

Toby had assumed that his mentor and Lynette had a drastic change in their conduct over the past few years. In actuality, they had been adopting that poor conduct since eight years ago! No, perhaps they haven’t changed in their ways and it’s likely that they’ve been behaving this way their whole life; they were just yet to show their true colors before me. That was why he had been unaware of all this. In reality, they were just a bunch of ugly beings beneath their facade.

“I’m sorry.” Toby reached out to tug Sonia’s hand. “I knew that Harry was unfair and overprotective, but I didn’t expect him to behave so abominably in such a manner by taking advantage of my identity.”

Sonia lowered her head and remained silent.

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Charles pointed at Toby. “Sonny, look at him. He admitted that Mr. Lore’s an overprotective jack, so if Toby insists on pursuing this matter and seeking revenge from that man’s granddaughter, then it would be impossible for that old fogey to agree to that. He would surely bring up his identity as Toby’s mentor to command him to stop pursuing the matter. I reckon Lynette must also know that her grandfather would stand up for her, that’s why she’s so fearless.”0

“I do agree with Charles on that.” Sonia touched her cheeks and continued, “It’s because Miss Lore knows that her grandfather dotes on her and he would forsake his identity to do anything for her. That’s why she’s so reckless in her ways. Even for this incident this time, I believe that ultimately, your mentor would stand up for Miss Lore and request personally for you to forgive her. You—”

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“I won’t forgive her,” Toby responded at once.

Though she was quite happy to hear that, she felt slightly apprehensive too. “What if Mr. Lore insists that you forgive her? You should remember that he’s your mentor and he has your respect. If he makes a demand as your mentor and requests that you let her granddaughter off the hook, and you reject him, aren’t you worried that he will reveal to the public that you’re a disrespectful and ungrateful student?”

Toby glanced at her and revealed a confident smile. “No, he won’t do that. The current two generations of the Lore Family are pretty much worthless, so none of them can stand on their own feet. That’s why the Lores are reliant on me for support to maintain their current status and lavish lives. If they sever ties with me, then judging by the capabilities of those worthless Lore youngsters, their family would cease to exist in the upper echelons of society in no time at all. Although Harry is quite lax with the upbringing of his younger generations, he’s not in denial of their faults, so he would never threaten me this way.”

“Are you sure about that?” Sonia sat up straighter than before.

“Yes!” Toby quite naturally wrapped his hand around her waist. He found that it was rather easy to hold her on her slender waist. He unclenched his large hands and it was exactly the size of her slender waist, making it a pleasant sensation for him to hold her.

At that moment, Toby’s eyes darkened significantly as he tightened his grip on her waist. He could not help himself and started to caress her waist.

In response, Sonia glared at him exasperatedly.

If Charles was not present, she would definitely have pushed his hand aside. However, with a guest around, she was rather shy to do that because Charles would notice her range of motion.

By then, when Charles realized that she and Toby were publicly displaying their affection for each other, she would be the one feeling awkward.

Unknown to the situation, Charles did not realize that the couple seated across from him had taken advantage of the work desk as a barrier to wrap their arms around each other. Still in discussion, Charles was still doubtful of Toby’s words, so he rebuked, “Even if he doesn’t use that method to threaten you, if you actually do take action against his granddaughter and he retaliates by denouncing you as his student, then you would end up with a tarnished reputation. The whole world would be speculating on your actions. After all, you must have done something quite horrendous to be denounced by your mentor. Are you able to accept the speculations of the public?”

Charles reckoned that someone in a position like Toby would not be able to take that.

Sonia kept her eyes on Toby too. It was not her intention to apply pressure on him, but she could not accept that anyone who had harmed her could just easily get away from punishment by playing with connections.

After all, she did not even know Lynette personally, so why did she have to experience being bullied by the latter just because she was in a relationship with Toby?

Besides, Sonia had sworn an oath to retaliate if she ever was wronged and she would not stand by and show mercy to those who did her dirty.

Understandably, she wanted to know Toby’s attitude and find out who he would side with. She also wanted to find out whether he would choose to avoid the main issue and try to resolve the matter by taking the easy way out due to some specific reasons.

All in all, regardless of his choice, she would not let this matter slide.

From one point, she was happy that Toby sided with her and came to the same decision of making Lynette pay the consequence for her actions.

However, Sonia was not afraid either if it ever came a moment where Toby decided to heed his mentor’s words and let Lynette off the hook; regardless whether the reason stemmed from his utmost respect toward Harry, or because he did not want to be denounced to the world as a heartless person.

The reason being that she had two voice recordings on hand that were sufficient enough to bring Lynette down by making her misdeeds known to the public.

Hence, Sonia was rather relaxed about the situation.

However, she was interested to find out Toby’s decision right now.

Naturally, Toby could tell what Sonia meant from the look that she gave him, so he heaved a faint sigh and silently glanced over her head. “Can’t you just trust me more?”

“If you give us a more definite answer, then we’ll trust you.” Before Sonia could even respond to Toby’s words, Charles—seated across from them—tapped his foot and voiced out before her.

Toby shot a cold look at Charles and without a doubt, it clearly meant, Shut up, you nosy guy!

He rolled his eyes at Toby and snorted quite arrogantly. This is how nosy I am! Whatcha gon do, huh?

He lifted his chin and shot a provoking look at Toby.

Meanwhile, Toby could not even be bothered to reciprocate that childish exchange.

If he wasn’t the son of the Lanes and Little Leaf’s friend, I would not even give this guy the chance to show his arrogance in front of me!

Ignoring Charles, Toby forgot about him as soon as he turned to look at Sonia. “Why wouldn’t I be able to accept the speculations of the public? Even if they did speculate, so what? Would they dare to say it in front of me? Besides, do you think that I care about the public’s opinion?”

Sonia shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

“Of course not.” Toby stroked her hair. “Right now, there are plenty of speculations from the public about me, but I’ve never been bothered about that. I won’t be bothered about this either, be it now or in the future, so I’m not worried about my mentor denouncing me. My position here is how it is, so regardless whether I’m denounced or not, it wouldn’t affect me. Furthermore, my mentor would never denounce me, because doing so would indicate that they’ve cut off ties with me. Thus, the Lore Family would also end up in a rapid decline too.”

Ultimately, it was a close loop. Whatever it was, the Lores would definitely not sever ties with him unless they no longer cared about the great future of their family.

As soon as Charles heard Toby’s words, he shifted his lips slightly and he seemed to be trying to cast doubt on Toby’s words. However, he could not come up with any; that was because he understood Toby’s words and he knew that the Lore Family would never dare to offend Toby.

“So, do you trust that I won’t compromise and give in to my mentor now?” Toby glanced at Sonia and his lips curved into a smile.

She grunted her approval. “Not bad. But even if your mentor won’t denounce you for refusing to let his granddaughter off the hook, he would definitely still blame you and your mentor-mentee relationship would—”

“It doesn’t matter.” Toby toyed with her fingers.

Her fingers were long, slender, soft, and porcelain; her skin was silky-smooth too. Toby could not seem to keep his hands off her as he played with her fingers. “I haven’t met Harry for quite a few years now, so we don’t really have a close relationship anyway. Besides, he has been taking advantage of me and using my name to do a lot of things behind my back, so that’s something I’m quite displeased with. Besides, with this issue here, I don’t mind maintaining our mentor-mentee relationship for the public eye if he’s willing to handle it fair and square. If he refuses to do so, then we might as well be strangers to each other.”

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Chapter 1064 A Call From Tom0

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Toby spoke in such a definite tone that Sonia no longer could come up with any words to rebuke that. However, she was quite pleased to know that she remained Toby’s first choice regardless of the situation. As such, she would not have to worry about him brushing off this matter because of Harry’s identity as his teacher.

Still, she was not a heartless person and it was not her intention to force him into cutting ties with his mentor. After all, she was not intent on pursuing this matter relentlessly either and insisted on making Lynette pay the price. However, she realized that if she relented this time and let the other party off the hook through connections, then not only would they not be appreciative, they would most likely find her weak and easily overcome. From then on, they would only behave worse than ever toward her because they assumed she would go easy on them for the sake of Toby.0

At that point, she realized that it was okay to not be unconditionally kind and considerate all the time. Who knew, one might just be digging their own pitfall when they allowed others to take advantage of their kindness. Besides, Toby was the one linked to the Lores, not her.

There was a glint that flashed across Sonia’s eyes that disappeared soon enough.

Charles, who had been standing by the side while continuously doubting Toby’s words and going against everything that he said, was finally at a loss for words at that moment. After all, Toby had spoken and he would definitely seek justice for Sonia. He was also willing to cut off ties with the Lores, so there was nothing else that Charles could come up with to refute that. In fact, Charles was impressed by Toby. Toby was an extremely logical man and he was also showcased as an emotionally stable person as he was not a wishy-washy person who would somehow be led by his emotions. Ultimately, he knew that as long as Toby maintained his sense of logic and level-headedness, then it would be quite unlikely for Sonia to encounter any unhappy situations. As such, Charles no longer shot his snide remarks at him, despite reserving some displeasure toward the man.

Meanwhile, Toby was not interested to know what Charles thought about it. In fact, he did not even bother to cast eyes on that childish man. Toby ruffled Sonia’s hair and stood up as he spoke, “Since you’ve figured out the perpetrator behind this incident, you should just let me deal with the rest.”

Sonia moved her red lips slightly as she attempted to say something, but Toby’s phone suddenly went off and interrupted her words. With no other option, she kept her mouth shut and gestured at him to answer the phone first.

Comprehending her gesture, Toby fished out his phone to glance at the screen. He noticed that it was a call from Tom, so he figured that it must be something urgent. Without any hesitation, he answered the phone and placed it next to his ears. “Yes?”

“President Fuller, I just got back from Squirrel Media and I’ve found out the perpetrator behind this incident after interrogating the fatso, Mitch.” On the other end of the phone, Tom walked out of the front doors of Squirrel Media and stood in front of the car as he turned back to glance at the building where Squirrel Media was located. At that moment, there was a somber look on his face.

Toby heard Tom’s words and a dangerous look flickered in his eyes as he narrowed them slightly. “Go on.”

Tom knew that Toby wanted him to continue recounting what Tom found out, so he took a deep breath and collected himself from his complicated feelings before slowly voicing out, “That fatso mentioned that… that…” Tom repeated himself several times, but he did not get to the main point.

At that moment, Toby’s brows were furrowed tightly and there was an evident look of impatience on his face. “I’ll hang up if you don’t tell me what’s going on.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll explain things.” Tom was quite worried that Toby would hang up on him, so he quickly responded and indicated that he would no longer behave hesitantly and stammer his words.

Indeed, Toby took the phone and placed it next to his ears once again. “Hurry up and tell me.”

Tom responded affirmatively and at the same time, he seemed to have made up his mind too. He shut his eyes for a moment and after he opened them, there was no longer a lost look in his eyes. Instead, it was now a calm look in his eyes and he finally finished off the sentence that he could not continue earlier.

“President Fuller, the fatso from Squirrel Media said that this incident was initiated by Miss Lynette Lore and she instructed him to do so. One week ago, Miss Lore contacted the fatso by phone and told him to arrange for some tabloid reporters to tail Miss Reed in an attempt to take some compromising photos of Miss Reed with someone of the opposite gender. However, one week went by and the tabloid reporters didn’t manage to take any scandalous photos, so Squirrel Media then attempted to come up with some fake photos and target Miss Reed. However, before they proceeded with that, the sight of Miss Reed and Mr. Lane entering a hotel together was caught by a tabloid reporter tailing Miss Reed. So, that was how the scandal broke on the internet.”

Pausing momentarily, Tom continued as he did not get a response or an idea of what Toby was thinking about. “According to him, Miss Lore did that because she is interested in you, President Fuller. That’s why she purposely created a scandal relating to Miss Reed to cause your break up.”

“I know that.” Toby glanced at Sonia before responding in a cold voice.

Meanwhile, Tom was quite stunned as he instantly exclaimed, “You already knew?! President Fuller, did you know it was her all this time, as well as her motive? ”

Toby grunted affirmatively.

At that point, Tom gasped. This is impossible! I’ve just come out of Squirrel Media, so logically speaking, I should be the first to find out. How did President Fuller find out before me?

“Little Leaf told me everything.” Toby could seem to read Tom’s mind, so he recounted how he found out about everything.

The proud woman revealed a slight smile upon hearing his words as she could guess from his words the details of their conversation.

As for Charles, he already had his phone out and he was currently engrossed in a mobile game. After all, Toby was now aware of the matter and he had firmly expressed that he would stand by Sonia no matter what happened. As such, Charles had nothing to worry about and he decided to just leave everything to Toby.

“Gosh, was Miss Reed the one who actually told you this?” Tom exclaimed in surprise and there was an incredulous look on his face. What’s going on? How did Miss Reed find out? I just found out about this not long ago, so how is she a step ahead of me? Since when did Miss Reed become so much more influential than President Fuller? Tom found the situation quite perplexing.

Toby was clearly aware of what was running through Tom’s mind. At that moment, Toby had his eyes on Sonia and there was a proud look on them. “Just because we managed to dig the dirt directly from Squirrel Media doesn’t mean Little Leaf can’t either!”

Meanwhile, Sonia felt slightly awkward under his intent look but at the same time, she found him quite sweet too. She did not think that she was as great as he portrayed her to be, so she was fairly surprised to see him be so proud of her. Nonetheless, she was happy that he felt so proud of her and he showed it by being so smug about the situation. This man… Sonia shook her head with a smile.

On the other end of the phone call, Tom was rendered speechless by Toby’s words. Heh! I can tell that President Fuller’s mocking me for being idiotic and not realizing such a simple thing. Well, in fact, I didn’t think of that, so I guess I am quite idiotic. At that moment, Tom felt quite crushed.

However, Toby paid no heed to Tom’s current feelings and he slowly returned to his normal self as he made up his mind to admire Sonia in private. Subsequently, Toby went back to his cold, indifferent self. “How’s the editor doing?”

As soon as Toby asked that, Sonia’s ears twitched slightly and she leaned closer to him. Evidently, she wanted to listen to their conversation. From Toby’s earlier statement about Sonia’s intelligence earlier, she could tell that Tom must have used similar means to find out about the truth too. The only difference lay in that she had threatened the person working for the editor to betray him and get information. However, Toby must have gone straight to the source and interrogated the chief editor. Otherwise, Toby would not have asked how the editor was currently doing. Furthermore, based on her understanding of Toby’s personality, he must have used some strong-armed tactics during the interrogation process. Therefore, she was keen to find out the consequences of the chief editor too.

Chapter 1065 Public Exploitation

Toby noticed Sonia’s little movements before joy flashed across his eyes. Then, he pulled his phone away from his ears and put it on the loudspeaker.

When she heard that his call was amplified, she knew that the man had found out she was eavesdropping, and she was immediately embarrassed. She felt that she was acting like a thief.

However, it was a good thing that he noticed. Now, she didn’t have to continue eavesdropping, nor did she have to worry about not being able to hear the conversation.

As she thought of this, Sonia straightened her body that was leaning to the side.183666

After all, now that Toby had turned on the loudspeaker for her to listen in, she didn’t have to try so hard to eavesdrop since it was tiring.

On the other end of the phone, Tom had no idea what was happening on Toby’s side. After hearing Toby’s question, Tom smiled and replied, “That idiot is really a coward. When I first went to look for him, I thought that he would put up a fight. Yet, as soon as I took out my wrench, the man dropped to his knees and confessed everything. President Fuller, it seems like the news of how you like to pull people’s teeth is well known in the circle.”

Toby remained expressionless, but this took Sonia by surprise. “What? Pull people’s teeth?”

However, Charles, who was on the side, didn’t have a reaction. When he heard her exclamation, he lowered the volume of her game a little before raising his head to explain, “Do you not know about that, Sonny? Pulling out teeth is one of the punishments this guy does to some people in the circle.”

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He freed one hand and pointed at Toby.0

Toby glanced at him lightly but did not refute. This was seen as a sign that Charles was right.

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She took a gulp of water and looked at him. “What is Charles saying? Can you elaborate?”

Toby raised his chin. “You know very well that in my current position, I will naturally have a lot of enemies. Many people are jealous of me and want to pull the Fuller Group or me down. Therefore, these people will either try to plant moles in the Fuller Group or secretly plot against me. I can’t go too lightly against these people. Instead, I need to be ruthless. So, over time, I began to revert to a few common means to deal with them. Pulling their teeth is one of them. But that is just to deal with those hard-mouthed people. It’s not something I always do.”

“I see.” Sonia nodded suddenly. “You never told me about this.”

Then, he clenched his fist and placed it against his lips before letting out a light cough. “If I told you these, I’m afraid I’ll scare you away, and you’ll think I’m barbarous.”

“I won’t.” Sonia smiled and shook her head. “Being in such a high position, you’d face all sorts of danger. If you don’t use some ruthless means to deal with them, you wouldn’t be able to protect yourself, your family, or the company. So, it is understandable for you to do this. You also don’t have to worry about my thoughts of how barbarous you know. Although I am soft-hearted, I am still reasonable. I know when to be cruel and when to be empathetic.”

Wouldn’t she be considered a saint if she was always empathetic and kind?

A saint was also often more likely to attract enemies and hurt the people around her.

After hearing Sonia’s words, Toby glanced at her and smiled. “I’m glad you can think that way.”

However, she shot him an angry look. “All right now, hurry up and answer Tom.”

On the other end of the phone, Tom heard what she said, waved his hand, and quickly said, “It’s okay, Miss Reed. You and President Fuller can take your time. I can wait. You don’t have to feel like you’re dragging my time.”

Tom was afraid that Toby did not want to talk to him and that Toby wanted to hang up the phone to focus on talking to Sonia.

Yet, she was pushing for him to talk to Tom, and this would definitely rile Toby up.

Wouldn’t this just set Tom up for a scolding?

“How can we keep you waiting? Wouldn’t it be better if you get this over with so you can do something else?” Sonia smiled at Toby’s phone before tugging him, motioning him to go back on the call with Tom.

Toby pursed his thin lips, obviously reluctant. Yet, he didn’t want to oppose her as well, so he turned to his phone. “Even if he has confessed, we can’t let him off the hook so easily.”

When Tom heard the coldness in Toby’s voice, he smiled bitterly. Well, it seems like President Fuller is unhappy. Forget it. He is my boss at the end of the day. If my boss is angry, I’d have to endure it. Otherwise, I’d be too embarrassed to receive such a high salary and the 0.2% share dividend.

“What do you mean, President Fuller?” Tom asked as he nudged his glasses.

Toby did not answer immediately. Instead, he glanced at Sonia.

However, she motioned him to continue. “You can decide for yourself. Don’t ask me. I wouldn’t know what to do if you did.”

This assured him.

As kind as she was, she wasn’t blind. She knew those bad people should be punished.

However, she might be able to ruthlessly punish them.

So, this was where he should step in.

He had no intention of forcing her. So, he looked down at the phone on the desk as coldness flashed across his eyes. “Since she can so easily take the pay and fabricate news like this, I’m sure she has done more things. Collect all the evidence of her crimes, I’m sure there’s more. I’ll make sure she rots in prison!”

A woman who dared to sell him out for her own benefits must be prepared to pay such a price.

This was how he warned others.

It was a warning to those who were plotting against his women; they should know better and stay away.

Otherwise, he would not let a single one go.

“Okay, President Fuller. I know what to do.” Tom nodded.

Then, Toby turned to Sonia. “What do you think?”

She hummed. “I think that’s a good idea. As a victim of cyberbullying, any fake news will harm the parties involved. Throwing these minions in jail will also purify the Internet. In a way, you’re also taking revenge for those who had suffered cyberbullying because of him. At the same time, you’re also preventing others from experiencing it. I think you’ve done a good job.”

Sonia gave the man a thumbs up.

This made his lips curled up. “Is that all?”

“What?” She was stunned, obviously not understanding what the man meant.

He then stretched out his hand and held her thumb in his palm, squeezing it lightly. “Isn’t this praise too simple? It’s just a thumbs up.”

Hearing this, she rolled her eyes. “Then, what do you want?”

Toby bent down and pointed to his cheek.

It was obvious what he wanted—he wanted a kiss.

Suddenly, Sonia’s face was flushed red.

When he noticed that she didn’t make a move, he urged, “Hurry up. This kind of compliment is more convincing, which will make me really believe that you’re praising me. A thumbs up is too perfunctory.”

The corners of Sonia’s mouth twitched. Perfunctory? What is this man talking about?

She did not think that it was perfunctory for her to give a thumbs up at all.

It was obvious that this dirty dog wanted to get more from this.

After all, this was something he would do very often, but back then, he would only do this when they were alone.

Yet now, he had the courage to pull this stunt when there were people around.

Sonia also knew that he did this on purpose. With Charles here, Toby was deliberately trying to provoke him.

What Toby was trying to do was not only obvious to her, but Charles had also seen through it with a glance and sneered in his heart.

Toby Fuller, you b*stard!

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Chapter 1066 Righting the Wrong

Did he think that by doing this, I’d be angry? I-I…

Fine! I am angry! Charles was a little dispirited as he slouched and radiated a self-deprecating aura. He couldn’t do anything about these two people. One of them was the love of his life while the other was his rival.

Now that they were together and publicly showing affection, he couldn’t go up and pull the two apart just because he felt uncomfortable.

After all, they were already a couple, and he was just an outsider.  hinking of this, Charles took a deep breath before turning around to look away. When Toby noticed this, victory instantly flashed across his eyes.

It was true. He did it on purpose. He was deliberately trying to provoke Charles to the point of anger. Who told him to talk so much and tried to go against Toby?

It would be out of character for him not to seek vengeance.

Sonia wasn’t aware of what he was thinking, but when she saw Charles turning away because of them, she was filled with embarrassment.

It was because this meant that all the flirting between her and Toby was seen by Charles.

And the fact that Charles liked her, for her to flirt with another man in front of him, was undoubtedly like a stab in his heart.

Therefore, she needed to put an end to this now.

She patted Toby’s arm while glaring at him with feigned anger. “Okay, enough.”

As she said this, she gestured over at Charles, who was playing his game with his back facing them with a loud volume.

This was her way of telling Toby that Charles was here and that they shouldn’t act like this.

However, Toby did not care if Charles saw them being intimate or not and he even wished that Charles did.

This was to show how good Toby and Sonia’s relationship was.

Toby was even more delighted, especially when he had the chance to prove it in front of Charles.

But seeing that Sonia didn’t want to do it, he could only give in. Instead of teasing her further, he sat back down on his seat. “Okay, I will behave.”

On the other end of the phone, although Tom couldn’t see what was going on nor did he know what the two did, he could easily guess from what he had heard.

There had to be other people around. Toby must have tried to be coquettish with Sonia, but was rejected by her because she was considerate of whoever was present.

That should be the case.

As for who the other person was, Tom had some guesses.

The two protagonists in this incident were Sonia and Charles.

Naturally, he would be the one at her place.

Tsk, tsk, tsk. It’s a battlefield over there.

Tom was placing the puzzle pieces together in his mind when he heard Toby’s next instruction. “After collecting the evidence, find a good lawyer. I don’t want her to just sit in prison. I want her to lose all her wealth.”

Toby had accentuated his words accordingly.

Tom naturally understood what Toby meant as he pushed his glasses up again. “All right, Mr. Fuller. Don’t worry, I will arrange it accordingly. But what about the fatso’s money? What are we going to do about it?”

Then, Toby turned to Sonia.

She lowered her eyes as she pondered before her eyes suddenly lit up, seeming like she had thought of something. “Since you’ve said that this person had taken advantage of others in the past, deliberately fabricated fake news, and destroyed the lives of many, distribute the money to those people that were harmed by him according to the severity of the damage he had done. Treat it as compensation from Mitch. This is something he should pay for.”

Tom heard everything she said on the phone and praised her without hesitation, “Miss Reed, that’s an amazing idea.”

However, Toby snorted. “You don’t have to tell her that.”

When Tom heard this, the corners of his mouth twitched and he was instantly speechless.

He had thrown his flattery without expecting anything.

He just thought that her idea was good and was sincerely admiring her. That was why he subconsciously said those words.

As a result, he didn’t know that he had robbed Toby of the opportunity to flatter Sonia.

Tom sighed; his heart was starting to hurt.

Sonia immediately understood his silence and smiled. “Alright, Toby. Don’t scare Tom.”

He immediately started nodding again.

Exactly! He was so worried that he was very cautious with his words, fearing that he might offend Toby.

Seeing that she was helping Tom speak, Toby pursed his thin lips and lowered his gaze before saying in a lowered voice, “Okay, I won’t scare him anymore.”

Since Sonia had defended Tom, Toby wouldn’t take it out on him in front of her.

However, Tom would need to watch his back after he returned to Fuller Group.

Although Tom wasn’t aware of this, Toby had secretly made a note in his mind. Tom constantly thanked Sonia on the phone, “Thank you, Miss Reed. Thank you so much.”

If it weren’t for her help, who knew how a meticulous man like Toby would deal with Tom?

“You don’t need to thank me. All right now, you two can get back to business.” Sonia was embarrassed by the number of thanks she had received from Tom.

She felt that she did not do much other than say a few words.

Tom really did not have to thank her so much as she didn’t deserve it.

“Okay, Miss Reed,” Tom said before suppressing his emotions and returning to his serious business persona. “President Fuller, since we’re dealing with the fatso this way, what about Squirrel Media?”183668

When Sonia heard this, she immediately looked at Toby. “Oh, by the way, I don’t care what you’re going to do to Squirrel Media, but Noah was the one who helped me get the recording. I promised him I would help him get a job in Fuller Group. I—”

“I got it.” Toby nodded, then spoke into the phone, “Did you hear that?”

“I did. Don’t worry, Miss Reed. I’ll take care of this,” Tom replied with a smile.

Seeing that her request had been agreed upon, she let out a sigh of relief. Then, she smiled with a little embarrassment at Toby. “Sorry, I was dead set on finding out who did this at that time, so I promised such a thing. I hope it will not cause you any trouble.”

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Toby frowned when he heard this. “It’s just a trivial matter, so why would it trouble me? And like I said, I will never object to whatever you want to do. So, you don’t have to think that the things you do might trouble me. On the contrary, it bothers me that you think this way.”0

Sonia understood what he meant as she smiled. “I’m sorry, I won’t think like this in the future anymore.”

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“That’s right.” He stroked her hair before his expression changed and spoke into the phone coldly, “Other than the secretary, those who are innocent will be transferred to another company while those who played a role in this will be fired.”

This implied that he had taken over Squirrel Media.

Tom nodded immediately. “Okay, President Fuller.”

“Have you followed up on the others that had hopped onto the bandwagon and added fuel to the fire?” Toby asked again with narrowed eyes.

Tom pushed his glasses. “I’ve looked into it. There are a total of 12 media companies. These media aren’t a big deal. Seeing that we have not stepped in to deal with it since the morning, it might snowball into something bigger. So, thinking that you are really breaking up with Miss Reed, they all wanted a piece of the pie. However, there are media that are still silently watching and didn’t make a move.”

Hearing this, Toby snorted. “Take care of all these cacophony media. Whoever spreads the article means that they support the enemy. Since they have cast the spotlight on themselves, why not show them what we can do? This will show as a warning to those that are silently lurking in the shadows.”

“Okay,” Tom replied.

Chapter 1067 Counterattack Is In Progress

“Other than that, what about the trolls?” Toby thought about the cyber bullies on the Internet, and the air around him was so cold that it could freeze people.

Even Tom could feel it across the phone and couldn’t help but shiver as he quickly replied, “Those trolls are included. They are all a part of Internet troll organizations. Three of the organizations are backed by companies while the other three are self-funded. Another two troll organizations were founded by the Gray Family and Connor. As for the remaining two… they belonged to Lore Communications.”

“Hmph, Lore Communications!” Toby sneered.

Then, Tom added, “The suppression on our network technology department was also an order from Miss Lore on behalf of the company. They must have thought that you would not do anything to her because of your relationship with Mr. Lore. So, without even a second thought, he approached Miss Lore to do such a thing.”

“She really does not know her place. My relationship with the Lore Family is only limited to her grandfather, not her. Who does she think she is for me to let her go?” Toby’s face was expressionless as his voice turned even colder and even more ruthless.

“Also, did you say that Titus and Connor were a part of it as well?” he asked coldly.

When Sonia heard this, she immediately frowned in surprise.

Charles, who had his back turned to them, also turned around and exclaimed aloud, “What? Titus is actually a part of this?”

When Tom heard this voice, his suspicion was confirmed.

Indeed, Charles was over at Sonia’s place.

However, Tom quickly recollected himself, nodded, and answered the three of them in a serious tone, “Yes, both of them played a part in this. Titus had a feud with Miss Reed while Connor always had grudges against President Fuller. Now that this incident has happened where both Miss Reed and President Fuller are involved, the two immediately took this opportunity to hop onto the bandwagon. However, they did not dare to do anything explicitly, so they could only secretly look for trolls to cause a scene.”

Although Charles couldn’t understand what Connor had against Toby, he was very clear about Titus.

Suddenly, he slammed his hand on the table and stood up. His handsome face was distorted with anger. “That old guy is an annoying fly. He is everywhere. Why does he find the need to get involved in such a thing?”

As for Sonia, she did not expect Connor and Titus to be a part of all these as well.

However, it was not a surprise after she remembered their enmity with herself and Toby.

“Since these two are involved, I’ll leave them to you. You know what to do!” Toby rested his fingers on his abdomen as his face darkened.

Tom nodded. “Don’t worry, President Fuller. I know what to do.”

Then, Toby sighed. “As for those filthy trolls, there is no need to keep them. Kick them all out. As for the head of the trolls, look into them. If they are in the same situation as those in Squirrel Media, throw all of them into prison. Send out a lawsuit to those who were more vicious with their Internet remarks. Don’t let anyone go.”

“Understood.” Tom nodded and asked, “What about Miss Lore and her family’s company?”

Toby’s eyes flickered before answering, “Contact her father and tell him about it. I think he will know what to do. As for the rest of them, I will go to the Lore Family to seek justice myself.”

“All right,” Tom replied. After that, the call was hung up.

Then, Toby put away his phone and looked at Sonia. “You said earlier that the surveillance footage at the hotel is tampered with, right?”

“Mmhmm.” She nodded.

“It’s okay. I’ve asked my department to restore it to its original state. I think I will hear from them soon. You two can clarify things online when that time comes and leave the rest to me.”

Just as she was about to agree, Charles, on the opposite side, suddenly looked at Toby and said, “Once the surveillance is restored, send it to me, and I will publish it. Sonny just has to tell the public that there is no such thing.”

“You?” Toby looked at Charles suspiciously.

This made him disgruntled. “What about me? Why are you looking at me like that? I’m doing this to make sure that Sonny doesn’t have to take the stand by herself.”

“Charles, as I said, there’s no need for you to do this. I can do it myself—”

“I know.” Charles turned to look at Sonia. “You don’t want to drag another person into the whole cyberbullying mess. You want to protect me, but that’s not necessary now. Didn’t Toby say that he would restore the surveillance footage? We can prove our innocence as soon as the original footage comes out. That way, I wouldn’t be taking any cyberbullying. Instead, I would be able to give these internet trolls a slap in the face. I will only be a target if I come forward with no footage to back me up. With the original footage, I will be fine. You don’t have to worry about me.”

Toby raised his eyebrow when he heard this and looked at Charles with a hint of surprise. “I didn’t expect you to think this way!”

“What are you trying to say? Are you saying I’m irresponsible?” Charles retorted.

Hearing this, Toby let out a cold snort; that was obviously what he meant.

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This seemed to be the last straw for Charles as his violent temper was triggered. He began to roll up his sleeves and was going to grab Toby by his collar.

When Sonia noticed that the two were about to fight, she quickly stretched out her hands to stop them. “What are the two of you doing?”

The two men noticed her unhappiness and the arrogance between the two male immediately dissipated.

Toby quickly sat down next to her and took her hand to play with it gently in an attempt to coax her, so that she would ignore what had happened earlier.

Although Charles kept quiet, he smiled at her in the most flattering manner. Obviously, he had the same idea as Toby whereby he hoped that she wouldn’t be angry.0

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Watching the two men carefully and secretly coaxing her like children to prevent her from being angry, she couldn’t help but find the whole situation funny despite her anger.

As long as these two men were in the same room, they would get into a fight, making the people around them helpless and speechless.0

“I really can’t stand the two of you.” Sonia shook her head in disbelief.

When they noticed that she was not angry, both Toby and Charles breathed a sigh of relief simultaneously.

However, Toby was more restrained with his sigh as his face was still stoic.

As for Charles, he didn’t care about how he looked in front of his rival and let out a long sigh. “Sonny, what do you think about what I just said?”

“It’s true that if you come forward with the surveillance footage, you wouldn’t be scolded. But I still think it’s unnecessary. It’s the same thing if I use the footage to clarify things,” Sonia said.

“Of course there’s a difference,” Toby suddenly spoke up.

Both Sonia and Charles turned their heads to look at him together.

In the face of the two of them, Toby had an indifferent look. “Since the very beginning, there is no mention of who the man was. This kept the Internet guessing. If you clarify things yourself and the man didn’t come forward, it wouldn’t be a good look. It will only make people think that you really had something with him and you’re trying to protect him.

Saying this, he turned to Charles and added, “Since that’s the case, it’s better for Charles to come forward as well. Him doing so will further prove your innocence, and that will be why he dares to stand up for himself. In addition to that, the Internet knows the two of you are friends, and once they find out that the man in the video is Charles, they will also begin to speculate that the matter is not that simple and that someone is setting you up.”

“That’s right.” Charles hurriedly nodded. “Toby is right, Sonny. Everyone knows that we are friends and we have a good relationship with each other. It’s only when I come forward and clarify our innocence will everyone believe it. Also, the media that posted the scandal deliberately blocked my face to make the man look suspicious. Once the netizens realize that the man in the photo is me, they will definitely know that they were tricked by someone. The people behind this will be slandered by the netizens. That will be a good thing for us.”

Chapter 1068 Clarification

This was known as leveraging. Lynette had bought the media and a large number of trolls. She even landed her own company in hot water just to publicize this, making all the netizens believe that Charles and Sonia had something going on.

However, the netizens knew that the two of them were friends and had a good relationship. It was impossible for such a thing to happen at all.

Therefore, as soon as he came forward, the netizens would immediately feel that they had been tricked by the aristocrats.

The aristocrats were trying to brainwash them into achieving their goals. Otherwise, why would they blur his face to prevent him from being recognized?

Once the netizens realized that they had been used and fooled by the aristocrats, they would naturally be furious and would double back.

By then, Lore Communications and Lynette would definitely suffer.

Charles and Toby had clearly explained themselves, so Sonia would be a fool if she still didn’t understand.

So, she nodded without hesitation and agreed with the two of them.

“Toby, then we’d do as Charles said. Give him the surveillance footage,” she said as she turned to look at Toby.

Toby nodded slightly. “Okay.” After agreeing, he turned to look at Charles coldly. “Don’t screw this up.”

This made Charles snort coldly. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I won’t screw this up.”

“I hope so.” After saying that, Toby turned away and went back to ignoring Charles.

Just then, Toby’s phone rang again.

It wasn’t a phone call this time, though. The network technology department had sent something over; it was the surveillance footage they were talking about.

Once he saw the document on his phone, his thin lips twitched. “The footage has been restored, and they just sent it over.”

Then, he handed the phone over to Sonia, asking her to forward it to Charles.

She took it with a smile. “That’s great.”

“Not only that; the news on the Internet is dying down as well,” Toby added.

This was what the network technology department told him.183670

The department had tried to drop the heat twice, but Lynette had managed to get Lore Communications to trend it back up.

Now that he discovered it was done by Lore Communications, he sent Tom over as a warning. Because of this, they did not dare to take any more action.

Therefore, it was easy for Toby’s team to clear the Internet trends.

“Let me see.” Once Charles heard this, he immediately turned off the game on his phone and checked the situation on the Internet.

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As soon as he went on the web, just as Toby said, the initial filthy site was now clean.0

Sonia did not take a look as she was occupied with forwarding the footage to Charles.

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She didn’t need to see it, nor did she want to as she knew that Toby wouldn’t lie to her. If he said that everything had been removed, it had to be true.

There was no need for her to double check.

However, at this time, Charles looked at his phone and let out a scoff. “These people are really interesting. Once they discovered that the trend was taken down, they knew we’d taken action. So, they went to say something on your account, Sonny, saying things like if you’re capable of doing such a thing, admit it. Don’t hire someone to take the trend down. I’m angry just by reading it!”

These people were the reason why the world could never be at peace.

But Sonia and Toby did not react to Charles’ anger.

After giving back Toby’s phone to him, she looked at Charles and said lightly, “I knew it would be like this when Toby tried to take the trend down. After all, these people had been causing a scene on the Internet for so long. Now that the page is suddenly taken down, they lost their form of entertainment. Of course, they would be unhappy and naturally turn to anger. It’s normal for them to turn to my profile and attack me. What’s more, this isn’t the first time this happened. It has been like this the past few times when I was caught in a public opinion turmoil.”

She shrugged after saying that, letting him know that she was used to it.

However, he still had a look of disgust on his face. “These netizens really don’t learn their lessons. How many people have we sued in the past? Yet, after a while, they would show up again, yelling and cursing. They’re really unbeatable.”

At the same time, Toby picked up Sonia’s glass and turned it around slightly. When his gaze landed on the lipstick mark left on the cup, his eyes darkened. Then, he planted his thin lips on the same faint mark and took a sip. “For these people, a fine wouldn’t make them learn their lesson. The next time something similar happens, they would still hop onto it. This is a vicious cycle that cannot be broken.”

After saying that, he lowered the glass.

Sonia glared at the man angrily as the tip of her ears turned red.

This guy had a glass of water before him yet he insisted on drinking from her cup. He even took a sip from the lipstick mark that she had left behind.

Wasn’t this a deliberate action to show that he wanted to kiss her?

However, Toby did not notice her gaze as he smiled at her tenderly. “Have you sent the surveillance footage?”

“I did.” At the same time, she replied, she snatched the cup from the man’s hand and pushed his own cup toward him. “Drink from your own cup.”

He was speechless to see this. Huh, so we can’t share a cup now?

Toby looked at the cup in her hand dejectedly.

This was all caught by Charles, who was watching from the opposite side. “You deserved it,” he rejoiced.

This made Toby’s face sink. “Go and publish your post.”

Charles snorted and did not reply.

At this moment, Sonia picked up her phone as well. “I should upload one too.”

“Me too,” Toby said, picking up his phone.

Although he wasn’t directly involved in the scandal, he was still somehow a part of it.

After all, he was Sonia’s man, her official boyfriend.

Since they were clarifying this, as the boyfriend, if he were to keep quiet and just rely on Toby and Charles, it might still not be convincing enough to the outside world.

If he didn’t come forward and clarify things, outsiders might think that the scandal was true.

Therefore, it was natural for him to clear things up as well.

For a while, the three people in the office were all on their phones, editing and clarifying the scandal that had been put up on their respective profiles.

The first post was made by Sonia, and the content was straightforward, with just a few words. “The scandal that was posted online about me finding a gigolo is fake. Don’t believe the fake news. I did not betray Toby Fuller. The man involved in the video is Charles Lane, and we were in the hotel together to discuss the loans with the head of Bank of Caruna of the Seafield branch. I was purely framed by Lore Communications and Squirrel Media. In regard to these two mastermind companies, I will take legal measures to protect my own interest and will not accept any form of reconciliation. In addition to that, other media companies that helped spread the rumors and netizens that added fire to the fuel will be sued one by one. I won’t let this go. I hope I made it clear.”

As soon as her clarification post was up, it immediately made it on the trending list.

This was an arrangement made by Toby.

He had sent a message to the network technology department to boost the post into the trending list as soon as they saw a clarification post.

This was to make sure that everyone would see it.

This was how Brian found out about the news.

He had always been clueless about the Internet. Toby’s transfer last night kept him in his place, and his butt was starting to hurt. He had a lot of things to handle and did not have time to pay attention to the things on the Internet.

It was his assistant that kept him in the loop of what was going on on the Internet. After all, Sonia had mentioned that he shouldn’t come forward and say something.

What’s more, he had just gotten the benefits of being under Toby, so he couldn’t pretend to ignore it. Thus, he immediately logged into his account and forwarded Sonia’s post.

Chapter 1069 An Immediate Lawsuit

Brian, who was the head of Bank of Caruna, also issued a statement. ‘Miss Reed is right. I was in the hotel yesterday afternoon. The so-called news on the Internet is utter nonsense. I also ask for you all not to believe it. It is time to acknowledge your mistakes and apologize, lest you bring trouble to yourself.’

When Sonia saw that her post was reposted by Brian, she was quite surprised. This microexpression of hers was caught by Toby and Charles as they both looked up at her together.

“What’s wrong?” Toby was the first to ask. She handed the phone to him and gestured for him to look at it. “Mr. Smith helped to clarify things as well.”

He raised his chin slightly and said, “As he should. After all, he has received so many benefits from me.”

Hearing this, she raised her eyebrow. “Right, I forgot to ask; since you’ve helped me get the parts back, you should know how the boss of Dwells breached the contract without authorization and gave the parts to Connor. Based on your identity, you’re not going to let him go easily, aren’t you?”

In response, Toby curled up his lips noncommittally. “Of course.” Sonia looked at him and continued, “Then, what are you going to do about him?”

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“A blatant breach of contract is no longer just a matter of compensation because he has violated business law. I’ve already sent him to prison,” he replied lightly.

However, she knew that things weren’t that simple.

“Did you do anything to him before you sent him to prison?” She squinted at the man and asked.

Toby smiled and did not answer, but the meaning was clear.

Paul obviously had suffered a lot before getting thrown into prison.0

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She nodded and asked again, “So, what will happen to Dwells now?”

“As of now, Dwells is about to undergo a change of power, and I believe that the fight will be fierce. If you’re interested in Dwells, you can secretly buy their stocks when the contest is the strongest. At that time, the price of their stocks would be at its lowest. Although Dwells isn’t too big of a company, it still has its own strength. Acquiring its shares wouldn’t be a loss.” Toby drummed his fingers on the table as he explained to Sonia.0

She thought about it for a moment before her eyes lit up. “All right, I just happen to have some money in hand right now. I’ll give it a try when the time comes.”

“I’ll let you know when’s the best time to buy,” he added after seeing that she had agreed to do it.

“Okay,” she hummed.

Charles, who was listening from across from them, finally couldn’t hold himself back and asked, “Wait, Sonny, did you just say that he took the stolen parts back?”

He pointed at Toby.

This made Sonia smile. “Yeah, not long after we returned from the loan discussion with Mr. Smith yesterday, I received the news that Toby had taken the parts back.”

“Oh, I see.” Charles nodded. Then, he looked at Toby and said unhappily, “Then, why didn’t you take it back earlier? If you did, we wouldn’t have to meet Mr. Smith and wouldn’t have been photographed like this. None of these would happen.”

Immediately, Toby frowned.

The smile on Sonia’s face was immediately withdrawn as she turned to speak to Charles unhappily, “Charles, that’s not the case. Did you forget that I didn’t want to tell Toby that the parts were taken from me in the first place? And when he helped to get the parts back later, it wasn’t me who told him about it. He just noticed it on his own, so we can’t blame him for this.”

After she was done speaking, Toby raised his gaze and looked at Charles contemptuously. The meaning in his eyes was apparent. Did you hear her? You can’t put the blame on me.

Charles was furious, but there was nothing he could do about it.

Indeed, if Toby didn’t know about it, what Charles just accused him of was a little unreasonable.

Thus, he stopped talking and turned to the side angrily.

Seeing this, Sonia shook her head helplessly before lowering her head to look at her phone again.

It had been a few minutes since she issued the post to clarify the situation, and with the help of Toby’s people to boost the popularity, her comment area was active. In a blink of an eye, the number of comments that she had was up to five digits.

In just a few minutes, she had so many comments that some stars in the entertainment industry were envious of her.

After all, these were comments from real people unlike theirs, where half of them were robots.

Sonia had no idea how these stars felt. She swiped her thumb across the screen to roughly scroll through the comments.

About 80% of these comments were apologetic.

They had so much fun berating her before this, yet they were now filled with shame as they apologized.

After all, back when they were leaving comments about the scandal, the parties involved were silent. Thus, they were naturally not afraid of anything.

Now that the people involved had come forward to bluntly mention about the big media companies, the groups, and other active netizens, how could they just blow their trumpets? The only thing they could do after criticizing someone was to apologize.

All of them were afraid of being sued.

Although they had portrayed a loud persona online, they were all just ordinary people behind the screen.

They were afraid of the effects brought by the lawsuit; they might be fired from the company and not be able to find a new job, receive strange stares from others, and get scoldings and disdainful looks from their family and friends.

Perhaps, if this was recorded in the system, it might also affect their future generations.

In short, thinking of these, how could anyone not be scared? How could they not give in?

They did not doubt Sonia’s words at all. Even if they weren’t convinced, they had to accept the fact that they were just ordinary people who couldn’t fight with the aristocrats.

For the aristocrats to bring up lawsuits, it was definitely not a game and they were bound to die.

Most importantly, Sonia’s appearance reminded them that this wasn’t the first time she had sued netizens.

Those who had been sued were detained, fined, lost their jobs, or ridiculed by others…

In conclusion, it was a miserable ending for them.

It hadn’t even been that long, yet, they had forgotten what she could do and how tragic the ends were for those people.

So, the more these trolls thought about it, the more afraid they became. They quickly deleted their comments and apologized, hoping that Sonia would take pity on them and let them go.

As for whether it was working or not, they had no idea. For a while, they regretted it and wanted to give themselves a few slaps on the face.

Of course, as there were netizens that left crude comments, there were naturally people who were just watching by the sidelines in the silence. There were also netizens who believed that Sonia would never have done such a thing.

This group of netizens was starting to come alive.

‘Hahaha, I knew that this wouldn’t happen to my one true pairing. I’ve said it before, the person involved didn’t even speak up. You shouldn’t be so quick to judge, lest you bite your own tongue. As a result, the content couldn’t be released as it’s against the regulations, or if it manages to be posted, it will soon disappear. I’m not the only one that felt grievance.’

When Sonia saw this comment, she instantly knew what was going on. Then, she clicked to reply, ‘Thank you so much for your support and your trust in me. I am thrilled and moved. As for why the page that posted about me can’t keep posting or their posts are missing thereafter, I’d have to ask Lore Communications.’

As soon as she replied that, there was an instant uproar.

The commenter was even more excited when this happened. ‘Ah! I’m going to pass out! She noticed me!’

Sonia could only imagine the other party blushing excitedly and couldn’t help but shake her head as she chuckled.

Chapter 1070 Sonia’s Reply

At the same time, warmth filled her heart. It turned out that getting loved by fans was such a wonderful feeling. It was a new experience, and definitely a great one.

Sonia’s lips curved into a slight smile as she replied to the fan again, “Thanks for liking me. And don’t worry, I’ll never let you down.” Will I cheat on Toby?

That’s impossible! We will only end our relationship peacefully when the love we once had for each other no longer exists instead of betraying each other in such a way.

The fan who received her promise on the other end held her phone to her chest, her face turning red from excitement. The other netizens and fans were envious when they saw Sonia’s reply to that fan.

They wanted to get a reply from her too. All of them were shippers of Sonia and Toby, but they did not start shipping the two because they had any spectacular talents.

After all, they were not celebrities. The fans started to ship Sonia and Toby together because of their looks, identities, as well as their love history.

That was because their identities, and the fact that the two reconciled after their divorce, reminded the fans of the angst that was present in many fictional romance novels.183672

Now that the stories in the books had turned into reality, the fans were excited and shipped them at first instance, but that was all to why they shipped Sonia and Toby together.

However, when she replied to them personally, they suddenly realized that their idol was different from the main character of a book—fictional and unapproachable.

Their idol was someone living in the same world as them and she was an amazing girl.

In the beginning, the fans had only shipped Sonia and Toby like they were the main characters of a book, but now, the fans shipped them as a couple in real life.

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As compared to fictional characters, the fans actually loved shipping couples in real life more because they could only get closer to their idols this way.0

For instance, the fan got closer to her idol earlier when Sonia replied to her, didn’t she?

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Hence, the other fans followed suit and started to comment as they wanted to receive a reply from Sonia.

After she saw what was happening, she found that hilarious.

Yet, it was impossible for her to reply to everyone because that would be too exhausting for her. She still had time to reply to a few confused fans, though.

For instance, a fan exclaimed, ‘Oh my god! She clarified the situation, but isn’t it too late? Why didn’t she do it earlier? Plus, how can she prove that the news is fake with just a few words?’

Sonia replied quickly, ‘We did not clarify things in the beginning because we were collecting evidence. And now that we have all the evidence, we can prove our innocence. As for why I did not upload the evidence, that’s because it will be published by the other person involved in the rumors. Let me ask all of you a question. Aren’t you guys curious about why my face is the only one visible, and the man’s one is not, in the picture when that rumor involves the two of us? Also, have you guys ever wondered why there was no information about the man in Squirrel Media’s post?’

All the netizens were stunned upon reading her reply. That’s right. We were too shocked about how Sonia ‘had an affair’, and were reading more updates about the rumor online. It seems that we did not realize that the man’s identity was not mentioned in the article and that the man’s face was unclear in the pictures. From the start, our attention was on Sonia and that she had an affair.

Before this, none of them realized that the article was strange.

Now that Sonia mentioned it, they finally noticed that there was a huge problem here.

The rumor arose because of the supposed mistake made by two people, but they ignored the man and just blamed it all on the woman instead. There must be a reason why this situation happened.

As for why…

The netizens started to return to the news article and the few pictures posted by Squirrel Media.

In the pictures, the man’s face was deliberately blurred while the article only criticized the woman and had no information about the man’s identity at all.

With all that, anyone would neglect the man at first glance and blame it all on the woman as only her face could be seen.

The netizens realized they had been brainwashed at this moment!

This was the power of the media.

Suddenly, all the netizens were angry.

‘What the hell? This is too scary. I can’t believe I got brainwashed by a news article.’

‘Exactly. This article was capable of leading me to think about certain things. I wouldn’t have believed this in the past and would only think that other people were just babbling nonsense, but now I do. Now that I think about it, I was probably influenced by the media into believing something was real in the past, but I just never realized it. Thank goodness that Miss Reed reminded us about this; otherwise, we wouldn’t have noticed anything.’

‘You’re right. When I think about it, I understand certain things that I did not earlier. I know why Squirrel Media deliberately blurred the man’s face out as well as said nothing about his identity. That must be because we know the man, and we know that it’s impossible for Miss Reed to have an affair with him. Squirrel Media did this so that we won’t recognize the man and so we would believe that Miss Reed had an affair. This media company is nasty.’

‘I agree. Now, I think I kind of know who the man is. It must be Lane Corporation’s president.’

‘I have the same thoughts. If it’s him, then it’s nonsense that Miss Reed had an affair. From what I understand, the Reed and Lane Families have been family friends for a long time. Miss Reed and President Lane grew up together. They would’ve gotten together long ago if there was anything between them, but they did not in the last thirty years. This meant that they were too close to each other and only treat each other as families now. No matter what, I have no romantic feelings for the boy that I grew up with and only look at him as an older brother while he treats me like his younger sister.’

‘Judging from that, this time, the man in the rumor is probably President Lane. Otherwise, why would Squirrel Media blur his face and not want us to identify him? That’s because they know it’s impossible for Miss Reed to have an affair with President Lane, so they blurred his face so we would believe whatever they posted. How shameless.’

Sonia liked this comment as soon as it was posted, and it made the netizens go wild once again.

‘Holy sh*t! I got a like! Does that mean we’re right and that the man is really President Lane?’

‘Yes, it’s Charles. He’ll post the evidence from his own account later. Stay tuned,’ Sonia replied once again.

‘I will!’ On the other end of the screen, the netizen whom Sonia replied to nodded her head excitedly.

When the netizens saw that Sonia had confirmed the man’s identity and said that he would share the evidence later, half of them went to visit his profile, waiting for the evidence to drop.

As for those who stayed, they still had questions for Sonia.

For instance, one of them went straight to the point and asked something everyone wanted to know, ‘Miss Reed, there’s something I don’t understand. Why did Squirrel Media make up a rumor about you? As we all know, you’re with President Fuller, and everyone in the country knows how influential he is in Seafield. Since you’re with him, no one should be daring enough to offend you. Why did Squirrel Media do this without a care about the consequences they would face? Is there any bad blood between you and the higher management of Squirrel Media?’

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