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.

 

I went to Marina City and tracked down Maple’s old postal address, and it turned out to be the

and Maple are the same person!” Toby finished Tom’s sentence. His eyes widened at the revelation, and he quivered slightly as his fists

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 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

in shame. “I’m starting to

the back of his hand were throbbing as he seethed, “No, you aren’t an idiot. Someone’s been playing dirty tricks to stop

the rest of the Fuller Family knew about Toby’s history with Maple, so it was

had been under the

what Toby was thinking, Tom widened his eyes in shock as he asked hesitantly, “President Fuller, are you saying that somebody doesn’t want

his head as he reconsidered. “It’s only natural for Tina to keep that a secret from us, 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

intently and asked, “Do you believe that there might be

chuckled dismissively as he quipped, “Well, of course, though I’m quite sure the

he was done speaking, a sudden realization dawned upon him, and he slightly opened his mouth as he pressed, “Is this the reason why you asked to see a therapist the last time, President Fuller? I thought you were trying to find an emotional outlet or something but were you suspecting

President Fuller said earlier, he was implying

thought, and when he remained silent, Tom took it as a

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 as such. Perhaps the

cheek and muttered, “How did this even

now onward, go and

Tom promised immediately,

of mind-control that they were in. Just as Tom was about to leave

no reply as he dipped his head and pondered on the

always wanted to meet up with Maple before he found

name, the idea of reconciling with

Toby was, Tom sighed and pointed out bluntly, “Look, President Fuller, I know you said you loved Tina, but that was because you thought she was Maple. However, all this

“When did you realize I was never in love

the very beginning,” Tom answered easily. “I believe it was six years ago when you first met Tina. You might have said you loved her, 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

fell silent at

indeed had never loved Tina. Tom had gathered as much six years ago, while he

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