Matthew took a quick look at the wedding dress Erica was randomly pointing at and then fixed his eyes on her. "You sure that's the one you want?"
"Yeah, I think so. You don't like it?" She could try on wedding dresses for a whole day as long as he didn't take her to the hospital for the pregnancy checkup!
He shot a glance at the shop manager and then fixed his eyes on the wedding dress in the shop window. "Bring her that one," he ordered.
"Yes, Mr. Huo."
Robot-like, Erica followed the saleswoman into the fitting room. The first dress she tried on was the one she randomly selected a few moments ago.
With the saleswoman's help, Erica donned the dress. There was no mirror in the fitting room, but she wasn't really concerned with how it fit anyway. She was focused on how she could get Matthew to cancel the wedding.
So, she did whatever the saleswoman told her to do. She didn't realize what the cut of wedding dress was until she stood in front of the mirror outside the fitting room and saw herself in it.
She turned in front of the full-length mirror and found it was a backless, deep V-neck dress. The neckline was so low that even her belly was exposed.
For a moment, she didn't know where to put her hands to cover her body. When she met the man's eyes in the mirror by accident, Erica suddenly turned red.
She pretended to be calm and told the two workers who were helping her with the hemlines, "I don't like this one. Can we try another?"
One of the shop managers came to her and asked with a smile, "Did I hear right? You don't like it, Mrs. Huo? I think it looks great on you!"
Matthew stared at them. To save herself from embarrassment, Erica whispered to the manager, "I'm not a fan of V-neck and backless outfits. Please find me another."
True, the dress was too revealing for her. But there was another reason. Matthew was staring at her like she was a piece of meat. That made her feel uncomfortable.
The shop manager, who had no idea what Erica was getting at, still tried to mollify her. "Mrs. Huo, your back is so beautiful. And if you're worrying about not being able to fill out the front, we can add some padding. No one will ever have to know!"
Erica's lips twitched. Did the shop manager mean that? That her breasts were too small? And that crack about her back…Ugh! Erica would have snapped back if it were just her. But today, she couldn't. Because Matthew was right there.
She contented herself with simply glaring at him. Yes, he was still undressing her with his eyes. So she lifted the hemline of her dress and made her way to the fitting room, ignoring the manager.
But her dress was so long she accidentally stepped on the hemline and tripped. "Ah!" Erica screamed in horror.
A figure rushed over, stepped around the wedding dress and stood in front of her. With her eyes closed, Erica fell into his arms and instinctively grabbed his suit jacket and held on tight. Finally, she managed to bring herself to her feet by wrapping her arms around his waist.
But the man had his hands in his pockets and didn't do much to help.
It looked as if Erica had thrown herself at him.
Well, he didn't slap her or push her away, so that was a good thing.
However, she still had her eyes squeezed shut. She thought, 'Who am I holding now? He smells so good! It feels soft here, and hard here… Where am I grabbing?'
"Had enough?" a cold voice said. Hearing that, Erica suddenly opened her eyes and looked up. It was then she realized she was grabbing Matthew.
When she was about to let go of him, she noticed his gaze was fixed on somewhere on her body. She followed his eyes to figure out where he was looking. "Ah! Matthew Huo, you jerk!"
Erica withdrew her arms and covered her exposed chest with one arm. On impulse, she raised the other hand, ready to slap him.
Her shout snapped the man back to reality. Hiding the complicated look in his eyes, he reacted quickly and grabbed hold of her hand. "No wonder you need the chest pads. Remember to layer."
She really couldn't handle this dress.
He let go of her hand, straightened up his clothes, and left the area as if nothing had happened.
'What?' Looking at his back, Erica was stunned. So, he also thought her breasts were too…small?
Erica was fuming with rage. She wanted to catch up with him and beat him senseless. Maybe she wouldn't have to marry him if he knew how violent she could be.
But as she took her first step, she suddenly remembered something Wesley told her. "Matthew's no pushover. He has medals, trophies, and plaques that he won winning taekwondo tournaments. Not to mention surviving street fights. I'd think twice if you want to get violent with him!"
Wesley had taught Erica kung fu for self-defense many years ago, but she used it to get into lots of scraps. She didn't care if they were bigger than her or not.
When Wesley noticed his daughter wasn't using her martial skills the right way, he dropped the idea of teaching her anything more.
Even though Erica learned some skills from her frequent fights at school, she thought she needed to learn more. She couldn't fight every day to improve her skill. So, in order to become stronger, she secretly signed up for classes at a taekwondo Dojang.
The Dojang instructor was strict. And he left bruises if she failed to block one of his blows. As a result, she ran away in tears after only a single session.
The taekwondo instructor reached out to her many times, but she just blocked his number. In the end, the instructor had no choice but call the Li family's phone number.
Unfortunately for Erica, Wesley picked up the phone. That was how the old man figured out that Erica had signed up for a very expensive taekwondo course with a professional instructor, and it was a one-on-one lesson. Besides, there was a seven-day trip in Greece as an additional bonus.
It would be fine if Erica had attended the classes regularly. It wasn't a bad idea for her to learn more self-defense techniques. Wesley didn't care about the money, either.
What really made him angry was that she didn't attend the classes at all. So, when she finished school that day, Wesley tried to catch her after class. He planned to drive her to the taekwondo gym and supervise her practice in person.
Erica was not good at fighting, especially in front of her dad. But she had another advantage—she knew how to run! Wesley chased her for a long time before he could catch up with her.
Now, still looking at the man's back, the girl wondered if she should sucker punch him and then run away. She was confident Matthew couldn't catch up to her easily.
However… She looked down in dismay at her wedding dress. She couldn't even get out of the door in this outfit! 'Forget it!' she sighed inwardly and discarded the idea.
The pre-wedding photo shoot had been on for three days. Most of them were shot in the studio, and only two sets were shot outdoors.
Matthew was quite busy, and they only needed a few pre-wedding photos for the wedding ceremony. So the photo shoot ended in three days.
On the day she was to return home, Matthew arranged his private plane to get her there. A couple of bodyguards took her to Wesley safely and then returned.
The wedding venue, wedding dresses, gifts and invitation cards were all set up by the Huo family. Erica had nothing to worry about. She just needed to be the bride on July 7th of the lunar calendar.
On the early morning of the lunar July 6th, Gifford rushed downstairs with Feb in his arms. When she saw that he ran so fast with the baby in his arms, Blair was so scared that her heart almost jumped out. "Can you slow down? You're not holding a bomb. It's a baby!"
Gifford took a deep breath and tried his best to hold the baby securely in his arms. "Mom! Rika, she…"
