Gifford grew more fearful when Erica's crying intensified. Concern laced his voice as he asked, "What's wrong? Tell me what has happened. Don't cry!"
"I never want to see Phoebe again. I want her to disappear from Y City. Gifford, can you do that for me?" she asked between sobs. She couldn't count on Matthew anymore.
"Yes, I can. I can do whatever you need me to do," Gifford answered decisively and without hesitation. He would do anything if it calmed his dear sister.
Matthew placed a hand over her phone, and with the other, he gently cupped her chin and turned her face toward him. "Look at me," he murmured, but Erica closed her eyes tightly and shook her head. Tears streamed down her face, and he wiped them with a gentle swipe of this thumb. When she finally met his gaze, he said, "Let me do it!"
"I don't need you anymore, Matthew Huo!" came her hoarse reply. "I know that you still love Phoebe. You don't love me. You never loved me! You had no choice but to marry me! Even though we have been together for so long and are going to have babies, you still don't love me!" Erica was so heartbroken that she shouted at Matthew. She didn't even care that Gifford could hear every word she said.
'He used to be gentle with me. But it was all fake. He just wanted me to get pregnant!' she thought as anger surged within her.
Her crying and questioning made Matthew's heart ache. "Honey, it's not what you think. Let me explain…" He did really love her very much.
"Don't lie to me anymore! Matthew Huo, I have two babies in my belly. After they are born, one is yours and the other is mine. Let's go our separate ways!" Erica yelled as fresh tears stained her cheeks.
Gifford's furious voice came through the phone. "Matthew Huo, what did you do to hurt my sister? Believe it or not, I'll bring people to Y City to teach you a lesson!"
Gifford had never heard his sister speak this way before. Matthew must have done something to truly hurt her. He felt so sorry for her that he wished he could beat his brother-in-law.
Matthew took the phone from the weeping Erica and told Gifford, "I did nothing wrong. Rika misunderstood me. I'm trying to explain myself to her, and you are not helping. Don't add fuel to the fire!"
"You broke my sister's heart, and you dare to retort? Matthew Huo, you think I would not dare do anything to you?" Gifford threatened.
Matthew responded coldly, "Try it!"
"As you wish!" Gifford cursed. "Wait for me. I'm coming to Y City right now."
No one could bully his sister, not even Matthew.
After the call ended, Matthew threw the phone aside, grabbed Erica by the shoulders, and implored, "Rika, I have never loved Phoebe. You are the reason why I didn't send her to the slum. I wanted to use her to make you jealous. So that…" '…you would treat me better.' He didn't finish.
"Just shut up! I won't listen to your nonsense anymore. You're nothing but a liar!" Erica was so agitated that she covered her ears and shook her head. She didn't want to listen to his explanations.
After everything she had seen, how could she believe anything that Matthew said?
"I admit that I have lied to you on occasions, but they were white lies. You should know that I would never hurt you!" Matthew had never been so desperate to explain himself to others. Not like this. Erica was special, and she had to know how he felt about her.
Tears poured down Erica's face. She was so confused and anguished that she couldn't think straight. She wouldn't accept any justification that Matthew gave, no matter what he said.
She knew that she shouldn't have trusted Phoebe, but she was just so sad.
Matthew asked the driver to pull over. A sensible man, the driver stopped and then excused himself on the pretext that he wanted a cigarette. Now, only the couple were in the car.
The man wiped her tears and said, "Honey, let's talk, okay?"
Erica shook her head. She didn't want to talk about anything now. She felt as though her heart had shattered. All she wanted to do was calm down, but Matthew's explanations were just making her more distraught.
He knew that she didn't want to hear it, but he still had to say something. "Just as I was returning tonight, I received a call from Phoebe…"
To arrange for the ten million, Phoebe decided to sell the house that Nathan had left to her. When she was packing their belongings, she found a box that he had hidden. Inside it was his background information, his childhood toys, and other important things.
She called Matthew and told him about the box, and so, he went over to fetch Nathan's things.
As he was sifting through the box, Phoebe went to pour a glass of water for him. That was when she found that the bedroom was flooded. She went into the bathroom to investigate and saw that the bathroom pipe had burst.
Matthew couldn't just sit there and do nothing. While Phoebe called the property management, he went to the bathroom to see if he could stop the leak.
Phoebe accidentally bumped into the shower-head, thus spraying water everywhere, including on Matthew.
Eventually, the property management personnel brought a new pipe to replace the broken one. At that time, Phoebe began cleaning the bathroom while Matthew took the new shirt given by her and changed in the bedroom next door.
As soon as he put on the new shirt, he heard the doorbell. He came out to see who it was, only to find Erica.
Then, things spun out of control.
Erica listened to him with a blank expression. She didn't know whether she should believe him or not.
"Phoebe will wire the ten million tomorrow. I've already looked into it. Now that Camille has transferred four million to her account, she has enough money to pay the compensation she owes us."
He knew that Erica had sued Phoebe to punish her, not for the money.
Exhausted, both mentally and physically, Erica rested her head on his shoulder. She remained silent, except for the occasional sobs.
"Are you still angry with me for how I treated Watkins? Do you know that he loves Camille? He doesn't like you."
Erica felt like a thunderbolt from the clear sky had struck her. Of course, she didn't care whether Watkins liked her or not.
She was upset because Watkins had lied to her. Now, it turned out that he was infatuated with Camille.
"I saw it with my own eyes. They got in the same car and entered the same neighborhood." A man and a woman took a car at night and entered the same community. To Matthew, it didn't look like they were talking about work or that they were just platonic friends.
But he didn't have any evidence to prove that Watkins liked Camille. So he just reminded Erica to be careful of Watkins.
"I feel what happened this evening was another trap. Tell me, how did you know that I'm here with Phoebe?" he asked.
Erica remained silent for a while. Eventually, she answered truthfully, "Kaitlyn told me."
Matthew knew who Kaitlyn was. After all, he had called the headmaster and asked him to expel Kaitlyn and Luther from school.
"This woman is Fanya's niece. She told you that I was in Phoebe's apartment. Then you came and saw Phoebe and me. She was trying to sow dissension between us, wasn't she?"
he rationalized. At this moment, Erica began to doubt everything in her life.
Tessie, Watkins, Kaitlyn… What kind of friends did she have?
Matthew's heart ached for Erica. His simple, sweet Rika had been hurt by so many people. He wrapped her in his arms and said. "Rika, don't overthink. I'll deal with those people, okay?"
A moment later, Erica shook her head. She looked into his eyes and said firmly, "Let me deal with them myself."
After what had happened tonight, she finally understood what Matthew had said before—the weaker branch would break first.
If she hadn't asked Phoebe to pay the ten million in compensation but had sent her to the slum, instead, tonight's incident would never have happened. Erica now realized that sometimes her soft-heartedness set her up for much grief.
"Okay! You handle this however you like. I won't interfere." He would do whatever she said as long as she was not sad.
When she saw the tenderness in his eyes, Erica couldn't help but ask, "Matthew, you like me, don't you?"
"What do you think?" He felt it was evident that he loved her deeply, but she still asked. Couldn't she see it?
'What do I think?
Can't he just answer my question?' She rolled her eyes and didn't bother to ask again.
Erica was silly, and Matthew never expressed his feelings for her straightforwardly. So, she still didn't know that he loved her deeply.
