Evelyn smiled at Godwin and reminded him, "Don't forget to ask Aunt Erica to call Uncle Matthew, okay? Tell him to come as well so we can all have lunch together."
Hearing this, Godwin immediately passed his mom's words on to Erica. "Aunt Erica, Mom said you should call my uncle Matthew and ask him to come with you."
"Okay."
As soon as she hung up the phone, Erica instantly regretted making that promise so soon. In truth, she was afraid Matthew might turn down her request.
Unfortunately, she had already promised Evelyn to go back to the manor to have lunch. So, she was left with no other choice but to give Matthew a call.
This time, the phone kept ringing for a long time before he picked it up. "Hello?"
"Well, I was just on the phone with Evelyn, and she asked me to come with you to the manor for lunch this noon," she said.
"I already have an appointment for lunch."
"Is that so? All right then! Sorry for bothering you. Go back to whatever you were doing. I'll just tell Evelyn about it."
"Tell her what?"
Hearing this, Erica was a bit confused. "Of course I'm going to tell her that you've already made plans so you can't come with me."
"Then you're planning to go back to the manor by yourself?"
"Yes!" 'Is there anything wrong with that? Why was he asking these questions?' she wondered.
There was only static on the other side of the line. "Pick me up in half an hour," Matthew said.
"You want me to pick you up?
But… Didn't you just say that you have an appointment?"
"I can't come to the appointment knowing that you're going back to the manor by yourself," he helplessly said.
"But why?" she asked, clearly still at such a loss.
There was a hint of disdain in his tone as he replied, "You attending the family gathering without me? There's no way Carlos is going to allow such a thing to happen! Do you get it now? Stupid!"
'Oh, so he's afraid of his dad as well!' she thought, laughing deep inside. Hearing this, she flew off the handle and said, "It's your fault! You didn't make it clear to me in the first place. Why are you calling me stupid? For as long as you explain it a little more, I'll be able to understand."
"My fault?"
"Of course. Are you seriously blaming me? You're a man. Aren't you the least bit ashamed of being so petty?"
"In half an hour, I need to see you in my office! If you are even one second late, I won't arrange a dorm for you to have noon breaks in the college anymore."
His threat instantly made Erica so infuriated. "You've gone too far, Matthew Huo!" Was she being too easy on him recently? Was that the reason why he was being so rude, overbearing and unreasonable?!
At that moment, she couldn't comprehend how his woman could possibly put up with his odd behavior.
However, Matthew still didn't apologize to her and even continued to provoke her. "So what? You want to come here and hit me?"
"You seriously think I won't dare?" If she got angry, she wouldn't mind beating anyone, even herself!
"Half an hour. I'm going to start the countdown this instant. Remember, one second late, and your request about arranging a dorm will be dismissed."
This left her fuming with anger. 'Well! You really believe that I won't do that, don't you?'
After hanging up the phone in anger, she grabbed her bag and left the villa in such a hurry. Then, she asked the driver to take the shortcut and take her to the company as soon as possible.
In just twenty minutes, Erica showed up at the lobby of the ZL Group's building.
She still knew to be mindful of her image in front of the staff, so she didn't come rushing in and simply walked in a fast pace.
A lot of the employees in the company greeted her upon seeing her. "Good morning, Mrs. Huo."
"Hello, Mrs. Huo."
Although she was having some difficulty, she still managed to smile back and say, "Hello!"
As soon as she turned a corner, she heard those who had just greeted her whispering among themselves. "It seems like she loves Mr. Huo very much. She came to the company several times in a day just to see him. This is already the second time I have seen her in the company!"
"What a sly fox! Even though she's well aware that Mr. Huo is in love with someone else, she still went ahead and married him!"
Erica let out a lengthy sigh. 'It's not like I wanted to come. Matthew asked me to. And I don't love him at all!'
At the CEO's office
As she stood in front of the closed office door, Erica began to reflect on her behavior and felt that something was quite amiss.
'Why do I have to come to meet him? Why do I have to listen to him? Since when did I turn into such an obedient girl?'
Matthew's assistant happened to see her standing still, so he went ahead and opened the door for her and said, "Mrs. Huo, Mr. Huo is in the office."
"Thank you!" Erica was actually planning to turn around and leave, but now, she had no choice but to enter the office.
Matthew was standing by the window, seemingly absorbed in his thoughts. When he heard the sound of the door opening, he didn't turn around.
Standing at the door, Erica didn't walk inside. Instead, she curled her lips and said, "Matthew, I'm not late. In fact, I got here earlier than you expected. Aren't you going to give me a reward?"
Without moving, Matthew stood there and ordered, "Come here!"
"I'm not going there!" She realized that she couldn't be so obedient anymore. Otherwise, he would think that she could easily be pushed around, just like what he had done just now.
It was only then that Matthew turned around, looking into her eyes, with deep and mysterious emotions in his eyes. "Weren't you asking for a reward?" he asked.
"Well, I changed my mind. I don't want it anymore." Her guts were telling her that this was a trap!
Hearing this, he began to walk toward her in an elegant manner. As he got closer inch by inch, Erica suddenly had a bad feeling.
Because of this, she quickly turned around and was just about to rush out of the building.
Sadly for her, it was too late. Matthew was much faster than she was. Before she could leave, he sped up his pace and approached her. Then, he grabbed her by the wrist and forced her to face him. A menacing look flashed across his eyes, and he asked, "Where do you think you're going?"
With that, he swiftly pinned her against the door behind her.
With his warm breath brushing against her face, Erica tried to pull herself together and stumbled over her words. "You'd better be nice to me, or I'll tell on you!"
'Dammit! Doesn't he realize how charming he is? Why did he have to get his face so close to me?' As far as she was concerned, he probably just wanted to seduce her.
Completely ignoring her threat, Matthew stared at the girl who was red in the face and asked, "Weren't you looking for a reward? Didn't you say you wanted to hit me?"
"I've already changed my mind. I don't want any reward nor do I want to beat you. All I want is to get out of here."
"Don't worry, I will let you leave." Freeing one hand to hold the back of her head, he pulled her closer and asked with a straight face, "Are you sure you don't want to hit me anymore?"
"Well, before I answer that, can you, at least, let go of me first?" He was obviously flirting with her. At that point, she was afraid that she might not be able to control herself and end up hugging him and kissing him.
"In that case…" Grabbing her delicate chin, he raised it slightly and said, "Then, I'm going to give you your reward first."
Seeing that he was about to kiss her again, she quickly tried to warn him, "If you kiss me again, I'll… Mmmph…" The rest of the words she was trying to say vanished completely between their lips.
How dare he do such a thing?! No other person had ever annoyed her as much as he did! For that reason, Erica vowed to teach this playboy a lesson!
A few minutes later, when Erica was already running out of breath, Matthew decided to let go of her, albeit reluctantly.
As she gasped for air, she cast him an intense glare and said, "Matthew Huo, you jerk…Mmmph…" Damn! He leaned in and kissed her one more time!
