'If you all want to believe in Erica's nonsense, don't come to me when you realize you've been fooled. I'm not going to punish my wife for these stupid women!' Matthew thought to himself.
The group of women celebrated excitedly for some time. Only when their state of awe began to fade, they came to notice the man standing behind them.
Having got what they wanted, the women surrounding Erica dispersed and freed the way for Matthew.
Erica looked at the man walking towards her and grabbed a cherry, waving it in front of him. "Come on, eat it!"
Matthew shook his head and stated, "We're leaving."
"Oh, okay!" She was actually glad to go home. Regardless of where she was, Erica stretched her body.
Then she turned to Chantel and asked, "What about you? Come to our place with us."
Chantel showed her the phone in her hand. A notification from a recent missed call from her assistant displayed on the screen. "No, thanks. My assistant is waiting for me at the hotel. I'm going abroad tomorrow morning. You can go home first!"
"Okay, we are leaving now." Erica intertwined her fingers with her husband's.
His big palm was still as warm as she remembered. It felt so good to get back together with him.
"Okay, bye!" Chantel watched the couple go before she answered the phone, which was already ringing in her hand again.
"Hello, it's me."
"Chantel, there are several bodyguards at the hotel now. They said Mr. Li sent them. Do you know what happened?"
"What? Mr. Li?" 'Did Gifford send them?' she wondered.
"Yes. How is everything with you there? Can you come back now?" asked the assistant.
Chantel glanced at the lively cabin full of people before she answered, "Well, I'll talk to Mr. Li first. If I can leave earlier, I'll go back to the hotel immediately."
"Okay."
Outside, Matthew and Erica had barely left the cabin when she began to stir uncomfortably beside him. Holding his arm, she stood still and didn't let go of him.
"My feet hurt!" she said in a soft voice. The man glanced at her but didn't move.
Ignoring his silence, Erica tightened her grip on his arm and added, "You should carry me to the car. It's the first time in years that I had to wear high heels for so many hours. I can't walk when my feet hurt so badly." No one could blame her for being in pain.
'Huh! We hadn't seen each other for over three years, but she got more and more sensitive, didn't she?'
The man pretended to be impatient. "No one ever dared to ask me to do such a thing." Despite his harsh words, he immediately scooped Erica in his arms.
She didn't hesitate to put her arms around his neck as she smiled sweetly at him. "Well, I asked you because you're my dear husband!" And she could ask him whatever she wanted.
Yet she would never realize how much the words "my dear husband" had filled his heart with joy.
After getting off the cruise ship, Matthew put her in the back seat of his car and sat beside her.
The first thing Erica did once she was inside the vehicle was to free her feet from the grasp of those painful high heels.
Next, she put her feet up on Matthew's slender legs and swayed them in search of some relief.
Matthew's eyes hovered over the pair of feet resting on him, and then he clenched his jaw. "Erica Li!" he warned.
"Hey, don't be so mean! My feet hurt. I rarely put on high heels, please be considerate!"
'Hmm… So, her spoiled brat behavior seems to have increased a lot over these past few years. And she still manages to manipulate me with it, ' he thought to himself.
A few moments later, Erica removed her feet, adjusted herself, and finally rested her head on his lap. Looking up at the scowl on Matthew's face, she asked, "Honey, are our sons at Dad and Mom's place? Let's go there. I really miss them."
"No!" Matthew refused. He didn't want to go there that evening. Since his wife had finally come back to him, he'd been looking forward to spending the whole night with her, and he didn't want anyone to disturb them.
"What? Why? Then bring the boys back to our villa." She really missed her children.
"There is something I want to talk to you about this evening. We can discuss our sons in the morning!"
"Fine!" Erica agreed. She happened to have something she wanted to talk about with him as well.
When they arrived at the villa's gate, Erica sat up and released Matthew's legs so he could get out of the car. After he got out, he waited for her beside the vehicle. But instead of coming out, Erica curled up her legs above the seat without making any mention to stand.
Matthew knew what she wanted. Only this time, he didn't lift a finger to carry her into the villa.
'He was so gentle on the cruise ship! I knew it was all an act!' she thought wistfully.
A couple of minutes passed, and Erica heaved a heavy sigh. Holding her high heels in one hand, she moved towards the car's door and whined, "Oh, I shouldn't have come back. No one cares about me in Y City anyway. I'll go back to Tow Village tomorrow… Ahhh!" Matthew hauled her up from her seat before she could even conclude that stupid sentence.
Despite her first shock reaction, the woman soon smiled in triumph while she kissed Matthew on the cheek. Not even the dark look on his face could intimidate her now. "I take back everything I just said. My husband is very good to me!"
Matthew rolled his eyes at her and remained silent.
Once they got inside the villa, Erica wanted to get off him and leave the shoes at the entrance.
But Matthew didn't give her a chance. He told her to simply drop them on the floor and carried her upstairs.
As soon as they came into the bedroom, he threw her over the king-sized bed. Erica tried to escape, but Matthew quickly grabbed her by the ankle and pulled her to the middle of the mattress. When he had her where he wanted, he pressed his body on top of hers.
Close enough to feel each other's heart beating inside their chests, he pinched the woman's chin and stared at her red lips before he asked word by word, "Erica, have you had enough fun?"
Putting her arms around his neck, Erica was confused. "I don't get it. What do you mean?"
"You've been away for over three years. Were you happy during this time?"
"No, I was not!" She had learned fast that a life without Matthew was a mess.
"Really?" He didn't believe her at all. "Because I think that now that you had your fun, you finally decided to come home."
Erica smiled awkwardly before she kissed his thin lips. "Honey, I won't leave you anymore."
Nevertheless, now that she was back, he was going to punish her in bed. Matthew leaned over and kissed her sultry red lips as he pulled the hem of her dress up her thighs.
When he was about to take off her dress, Erica grasped his hand and said out of breath, "Wait a minute, honey. There's something I want to talk to you about!"
Kissing her on the neck, he whispered, "Just say it."
"I can't say it with you acting like this. Matthew, you don't want to listen to me, do you?"
"No, I don't." He just wanted to make love to her as much as possible. After all, he had been deprived of having sex for the past few years.
Depressed, Erica complained, "You will listen to me whether you want to or not.
Would you always hang out with other women while I was away? If I hadn't come back tonight, would it have been Noreen in this bed with you now? Ouch! Why did you bite me there? I'm not kidding." She brought a hand to where he had just bitten her and rubbed it. He did it on purpose!
Matthew's eyes flicked over the woman rubbing herself, and his pupils dilated. He found Erica so attractive.
Pushing the man who had been watching her, she ordered, "Say something!"
Matthew held her hands over her head and asked, "What do you want me to say?"
To begin with, he had never brought another woman back home. And even if he had, he wouldn't have been so stupid to do it when he knew that his wife was about to return. Did she really think that he was so clueless?
Her flight number, her boarding time, her time of arrival, the time she went to ZL Group… He knew everything.
There weren't so many coincidences in this world. But there was a man who orchestrated it all behind the curtains, and that man was Matthew.
