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.

 

nodded solemnly. “That’s right. I went to Marina City and tracked down Maple’s old postal address,

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

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

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

shame. “I’m starting to wonder

he seethed, “No, you aren’t an idiot. Someone’s been playing dirty tricks to stop us from

Family knew about Toby’s history with Maple, so it was strange that no one had ever noticed how similar Sonia was

had been under the influence

as he asked hesitantly, “President Fuller, are you saying that somebody doesn’t want us to know

then shook 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

you believe that there might be some mysterious force in this world

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

he slightly opened his mouth as he pressed, “Is this the reason why you asked to see a therapist the

earlier, he was

thought, and when he remained silent, Tom took it

that the doctor had not been able

his cheek and muttered, “How did

“From now onward, go and contact the world’s most renowned hypnotists—the more,

sir!” Tom promised immediately, his

mind-control that they were in. Just as Tom was about to leave to carry out his new orders, he thought of something and

dipped his head

up with Maple before

he knew the person behind Maple’s pen name, the idea of reconciling with Sonia terrified him,

though sensing how conflicted Toby was, Tom sighed and pointed out bluntly, “Look, President Fuller, I know you said you loved Tina, but that

Toby heard this, his lips twitched. “When did you realize I was never in love

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

silent

gathered as much six years ago, while he only became

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