Hearing what Erica said, Matthew got angry. He wondered what kind of person he was in her eyes. He stared at her. 'Can't you see my love for you? Do you even know how much I love you? Or you just don't want to face that truth?' "Do you mean that I've ruined your relationship with Watkins?" he asked. After all, he had also beaten Watkins up.
Erica sighed and explained calmly, "Nothing happened between me and Watkins. There wasn't even any physical contact. Shouldn't you be apologizing for beating him up like that? And as for you and Camille, I slapped her because she held your hand and had physical contact with you. Do you get it?"
The point was that Matthew was too cruel. She wouldn't have come here to argue with him if he hadn't beaten Watkins up to such a state. Matthew had almost crippled him.
"Erica, we both know what red roses mean. He was expressing his love for you by sending you those flowers. You should know, I'm a man, and your husband, nonetheless. Now that he dared to provoke me like this, he should have prepared himself to bear my anger. He had it coming." His breaths were deep. He regretted giving Watkins just a beating.
In his anger, Matthew thought he should have buried him alive, leaving Erica no chance to see him. Erica pounded his shoulder heavily. Seeing that his eyes were so fierce as if he were going to kill her, she continued to vent her anger out on him. "Go away! I don't want to see you."
Matthew grabbed her wrist and held her tightly in his arms. He asked her coldly, "Then who do you want to see if you don't want to see me? Watkins?"
Erica couldn't move in his arms. She was so angry that she simply raised her head and bit his chin. She didn't let go of him until she was sure that her teeth had left marks. "I will make sure that you get my teeth marks on your chin every day so you won't get to see other people!"
"Sure, go ahead. I don't care. I don't mind staying with you all day long and see no one else." Matthew planted his face on her neck and gave Erica a hot kiss.
Erica shivered. She tried to refuse and her voice came out trembling. "Let go of me! Damn it. I don't want you to kiss me… Mmmph…" Her chattering was silenced as Matthew locked his lips with hers.
For a while, they had been quarreling from the office to the lounge. This time, Matthew made sure he punished Erica in bed.
When he was done, he picked his clothes up from the floor and put them on. Even after an eventful fight, he still looked like a noble and domineering CEO. Erica stayed still in the bed naked. She had traces of marks all over her body, like a greatly wronged little wife.
After he had been intimate with her, his anger subsided. Sitting on the edge of the bed, Matthew coaxed his tearful wife, "What would you like for lunch?"
His big palm made its way to her swollen belly and lovingly caressed it back and forth.
Even if his anger had faded, Erica was still angry. She kicked him and shouted without thinking, "I don't want to eat. Go away. I hate you! I hate you!" Her face looked blank.
She hated that she could never have the upper hand when they were having sex, and she felt annoyed that he didn't take no for an answer.
Hearing her say "I hate you" reminded Matthew of what Watkins had said to him. "She said she doesn't love you. She was forced to sleep with you."
Matthew then asked her indifferently, "You really hate me that much?"
"Yeah. I hate you so much!" She hated his tyranny. She hated that he was cruel and barbaric. She hated everything about him.
All of a sudden, the temperature at the lounge immensely dropped. Erica shuddered in the quilt, only revealing her pair of angry eyes.
Matthew stared at her eyes and raised his hand.
Erica hurriedly pulled the quilt over her head to hide from him for fear that he might hit her.
He pulled the quilt down and held her head with his hand, forcing her to look at him. His eyes looked sharp. After making sure Erica was listening, he said, "Don't be so ungrateful."
Her mouth almost fell open, and stubbornness was written on her face. "Why am I so ungrateful?"
"Erica Li, I hope you remember this. You can do whatever you please, that's fine—because I spoil you. But if I don't, you'd mean nothing to me." It seemed that he had spoiled her so much that she could dare to throw so many hurtful words at him.
Erica was taken aback. Hearing what her husband had said left her quite stunned. She straightened her neck and stubbornly retorted, "Whatever. I still have my parents. Even if I didn't marry you, I would still be their favorite child. If no man loves me, then I just won't marry any man all my life and will remain my parents' princess!"
"Huh." Matthew snorted. "Then, tell me. Why did you marry me in the first place?"
What he said poured cold water on her. Erica got so mad that her face turned red. "Are you seriously asking me that? You forced me to marry you! If not for you, I wouldn't even be lying here with a big belly. You wouldn't be able to bully me!" If she hadn't married, she would still be in A Country, living her carefree, single life.
She wouldn't have met the Su sisters in Y City, and perhaps Ethan would still be living with the Li family.
"Hmm. So…" His big palm slowly moved down to her neck. "You mean you regret marrying me?"
Erica tried to avoid his gaze. She really wanted to say yes. However, she realized that she didn't have the heart to say the word.
Instead, she asked herself, 'Do I regret marrying him? No, not really. I don't regret it.' Even so, she was so mad at him at the moment. "Why are you trying to strangle me? I didn't even say anything…"
Since she was hesitating and didn't give him an answer right away, Matthew tightened his grip on her neck. Erica got scared that she hurriedly grabbed his hand and tried to loosen his grip.
In Matthew's eyes, her hesitation meant that she regretted marrying him. His face looked fierce and he warned her word by word, "Listen to me. I'd rather destroy what I can't have!" He didn't want to see her with another man.
This was the first time that Erica had seen Matthew like this. The grim expression all over his face made her shiver once again. "Get away from me! I don't want to see you!" She wanted to drive him away and be left alone. Erica had been wondering how and why everything between them turned upside down, and she wanted some time to herself so she could think.
This was the first time they had such a big fight since they got married.
While she was quiet, Matthew had been deep in thought. He remembered how she had driven him out over and over again whenever she got mad at him. This time, despite his anger, he had no other way to punish her since she was carrying his babies. Matthew then withdrew his hand, turned around, and walked away.
Bang! He slammed the door deliberately and heavily that even the walls trembled.
Erica waited for a while before she got up. She slowly took a deep breath to calm her nerves and started dressing herself up. When she left the lounge, Matthew was no longer in the office. She looked for Paige and asked her to send her back to the Huo family manor.
After having lunch at home, she took a nap for a while before she went to school.
While she was walking down the hallway to go to her next class, a girl stopped her. "Erica!"
She turned around and saw that it was Kaitlyn.
Preoccupied, she glanced at Kaitlyn and quickly shifted back her gaze to her camera. She was deleting useless photos. "What's up?"
Kaitlyn came over and took her arm. "Hey. Uhm, I just wanted to thank you for saving me that night."
Erica pulled her arm from her grip and replied indifferently, "You don't need to. I didn't take it seriously." She was too distracted with what happened between her and Matthew, so she really wasn't in the mood to think about Kaitlyn.
Still, Kaitlyn didn't give it up and added, "I'm sorry for what happened before, but I have my own struggles. Since you saved me, I'll tell you the truth. To be honest, it was Phoebe who asked me to steal your work."
Although Erica was lost in thought, what she heard drew her attention.
'Did she say Phoebe?'
Erica looked at her with doubt written on her face. "You know Phoebe? How do you know her? Why did she ask you to steal my work?"
Kaitlyn sighed and told her the truth. "Okay, here goes. Phoebe's mom is my aunt. In all honesty, I didn't want to steal your work, but my mother had a favor to ask of them, and so I was told to listen to them and do whatever they asked me to do. Phoebe wanted to embarrass you, so she asked me to steal your work. She even found a hacker to hack into your computer and delete your original photos. I had no choice but to cooperate. I'm really sorry for what I did to you, Erica."
