Suddenly, the door to the office flew open, and Tom came barging in without even knocking. “President Fuller!” Toby frowned and demanded irritably, “What is it?” Tom did not answer him immediately but looked around the office like he was searching for something. At the sight of this, Toby pursed his lips into a grim line and asked coldly, “Just what are you looking at?” “President Fuller, where is Miss Reed?” Tom asked hastily. Toby recalled what he had done earlier with Sonia’s cup of leftover tea and subconsciously grazed his thumb over his lips, then said plainly, “She left.”

 

Taken aback by this, Tom raised his voice by an octave as he repeated, “Left?” Massaging his temples tiredly, Toby sauntered over to his desk. “Why are you looking for her?” “Have you forgotten, President Fuller? I just got back from Marina City,” Tom replied urgently as he followed the other man from behind. Upon hearing this, Toby stopped in his tracks and turned to shoot his assistant a dark look. “What are you implying? Are you trying to say that whatever you found out about Maple has something to do with Sonia?” He felt his heartbeat speed up at the possibility of this. Tom nodded solemnly. “That’s right.

I went to Marina City and tracked down Maple’s old postal address, and it turned out to be the Reeds’ residence! That means—” “Sonia and Maple are the same person!” Toby finished Tom’s sentence. His eyes widened at the revelation, and he quivered slightly as his fists clenched at his sides. Tom continued quickly, “Yes. Miss Reed is definitely Maple; there’s no doubt about it. Maple said that she had a stepmother and a sister, not to mention a pet dog named Bucky. Now that her address has turned out to be the Reeds’ residence, Miss Reed is the only one who could possibly be Maple.” The words came rushing out in a flurry, and at the end of his elaboration, Tom found himself slightly out of breath. He inhaled deeply and calmed himself, then went on to say, “More importantly, Maple and Miss Reed have similar handwriting.

While the former’s lacks the refinement of the latter’s, one could still tell that the penmanship is the same. And yet, neither of us have ever recognized this, even when Miss Reed shares the same backstory as Maple. A single thought is all it would have taken for us to connect the dots, but we never did! How could we not have figured out that Miss Reed is Maple all along?” He paused and lowered his head in shame. “I’m starting to wonder if I’m an idiot.” Toby slammed his fist against the desk, and the veins on the back of his hand were throbbing as he seethed, “No, you aren’t an idiot. Someone’s been playing dirty tricks to stop us from ever connecting the dots.”

noticed how similar Sonia was to Maple. This could only mean that everyone had been under the influence of that strange mysterious force as well. Clueless as to what Toby was

but there’s no way she could stop us from putting the pieces together. So how could we have overlooked all the clues that pointed to the fact that Miss Reed and Maple are the same person? It’s all so confusing, isn’t it?” Just then, Toby looked at Tom intently and asked, “Do you believe that there might be some mysterious force in this world that could control one’s thoughts and emotions?” Tom froze at first, but he chuckled dismissively as he

to find an emotional outlet or something but were you suspecting that you have been hypnotized?” And from what President Fuller said earlier, he was implying that I have been hypnotized as well! Toby’s eyes were dark with thought, and when he remained silent, Tom took it as a confirmation. While Dr. Anderson had reassured Toby that he was not hypnotized, he was still certain that the opposite was true, only that the doctor had not been able to diagnose him

and contact the world’s most renowned hypnotists—the more, the better!” “Yes, sir!” Tom promised immediately, his expression stiffening. It was only sensible that only the most renowned hypnotists could break them out of this state of mind-control that they were in. Just as Tom was about to leave to carry out his new orders, he thought of something and asked, “By the way, President Fuller,

Sonia. But now that he knew the person behind Maple’s pen name, the idea of reconciling with Sonia terrified him, for there was far too much that had happened between them. As though sensing how conflicted Toby was, Tom sighed and pointed out bluntly, “Look, President Fuller, I know you said you loved Tina,

but I could tell from your eyes that you did not. You were only kind to her because you thought she was Maple, and it was only when Maple was brought up that love would gleam in your eyes. In other words, you have always treated Tina and Maple as two separate entities.” Toby fell silent at this. Having heard what Tom said, he concluded that he indeed had never loved Tina. Tom had gathered as much six years ago, while he only became aware of this

in love with Sonia?” “Yes, and you’ve been in love with her for quite some time now, though

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