"Well, I forgive you this time. You can invite me to have wontons after I'm back," Erica said on the phone, pouting her lips.
Rhea giggled and said, "No problem. But I gotta go to the class now. I'll see you in a few days, my honorable Mrs. Huo!"
"Bye, my dear Rhea."
When Matthew left her on their wedding night, Erica didn't think that he would be gone for the next two days.
However, the circumstances couldn't have been any better for her because his absence meant that she wouldn't have to deal with him.
According to their wedding custom, the bride and groom were to return to her parents' home on the third day after the wedding. However, before the day that Erica would go back to A Country, she began to feel depressed.
'Matthew hasn't come back yet. What if he doesn't show up tomorrow? Do I have to go back alone? It will be so humiliating!' she thought to herself.
She wanted to call Matthew to ask when he would be back, but she decided otherwise.
'What should I do? Maybe I can go back by myself.
Yes, that's it!'
After making up her mind, Erica walked out of the villa with a backpack on her shoulders and drove to a nearby mall to buy some gifts for her family.
Coincidentally, when she just arrived at the underground parking lot of the mall, she saw a familiar figure.
The person was none other than Matthew, her husband who had disappeared for two days.
There was a woman standing next to him, dressed in a black suit.
As the woman's back was facing Erica, she could only judge that it was a woman by her coiled long hair and high heels.
When a bodyguard opened the back door of the brand-new black minivan, Matthew drew his hand from his pocket and gently helped the woman get into the car.
After the woman was seated, he took a wet tissue from the bodyguard and began to wipe his hand before getting into the car as well.
Just as the car was about to drive away, Erica got out of her car and quickly ran to stop the minivan. "Wait!"
She stood in front of the minivan boldly and stretched out her arms to block its way.
Fortunately, the driver slammed the brakes on at the right time, mumbling curses in anger. When he realized who it was, he turned around and said to Matthew, "Mr. Huo, it's Mrs. Huo!"
Perhaps the fact that he was a married man hadn't sunk in yet as he kept his eyes closed and said, "What's her family name?"
The driver paused momentarily, not knowing how to answer the question. He couldn't help but think to himself, 'Don't you know your wife's family name? Do you really love her?' "Mr. Huo, her family name is Li," he answered respectfully.
'Erica?' Matthew then opened his eyes and said, "Open the door."
"Yes, Mr. Huo." The bodyguard in the passenger seat immediately got out of the car and opened the door for him.
Seeing Matthew get out of the car, Erica ran to him with a smile and greeted him, "Hey! Brother Matthew, do you remember me? I'm your wife. Erica Li!" She meant that he should not forget the girl used to call him "Brother Matthew" had become his wife.
'Do I seem to forget such an important thing?' Matthew thought to himself. A dash of helplessness flashed through his eyes. "What's up?"
"I just want to remind you that you can keep your woman company at any time you want. But you have to go and visit my parents with me tomorrow. Don't embarrass me, okay?"
In truth, if he didn't accompany her to visit her parents tomorrow, he would be embarrassing not only her but her parents. Ever since she had Feb and consequently let her parents down, she swore that she would never discredit her parents again.
If she showed up at her parent's house without her husband, everyone who knew them would laugh at the Li family.
Matthew looked at her indifferently and said, "Is that all?"
"Yes..." Erica sighed inwardly. 'I guess he doesn't give a damn about anything I just said. It also proves that he doesn't love me at all. Maybe to him, visiting my parents is not as important as keeping his woman company.
But that's understandable, especially since we have no feelings for each other, ' she thought. Taken by curiosity, she couldn't help but look into the car behind Matthew, hoping to see the woman's face, but she couldn't see anything clearly through the tinted windshield.
The woman's identity was a mystery to her.
Shifting her gaze from the car to Matthew, she asked in a low voice, "Is that the goddess who shines like the purest moonlight in your heart? Uncle Carlos isn't very fond of her, is he?" 'That is why he had to marry me, ' she thought.
Matthew's face soured at her words. "Hmm," he simply answered.
Not knowing what question he was answering, Erica assumed that he had answered both questions at the same time.
"By the way, how is your friend?" she asked. Erica thought it necessary to ask about his friend's condition even though he was a stranger to her. After all, a car accident was no simple matter.
The fleeting sadness in the man's eyes was briefly captured by Erica. "He passed away yesterday," he answered.
"What?" Even Erica, who was a stranger to his friend, felt sad, and as such, she couldn't even begin to imagine how Matthew was feeling. "I'm sorry to hear that," she said.
"How did you know?" he asked in confusion.
"Mom told me what happened."
'Mom? She seems to have gotten used to calling my mother "Mom." That's good.'
Matthew turned around and told the bodyguard, "Go with my wife and sign all the bills."
"Yes, Mr. Huo."
Erica quickly refused, "No, no, thank you, but I don't need a bodyguard and I have money. I'm just going to check out some of the shops. You go ahead with your work. I'm leaving now. Don't forget about tomorrow."
This time, he remained silent. As he watched Erica walk away, the bodyguard looked at his boss and hesitantly asked, "Mr. Huo, shall I...?"
Withdrawing his gaze, Matthew turned around and walked towards his car. "Get in the car!"
"Yes, Mr. Huo."
Erica spent the rest of the day hanging out in the mall and buying gifts before returning home.
She had been staying in the Huo family's manor during daytime for the last two days, and hadn't looked around Matthew's four-story villa she was now living in. Erica assumed that Matthew wouldn't come back this evening either, so she wanted to take this chance to look around his villa.
The Pearl Villa District was a private residence that was built only a few years ago. It was not far from the Huo family's manor. Sheffield and Matthew each bought a villa there, and before long, the Pearl Villa District became a famous rich community in Y City.
Matthew never lived in this villa before, even though he had bought it a few years ago. However, since he and Erica got married, they had taken it as their wedding house.
The villa had four floors and was equipped with elevators. Each room was decorated thoughtfully, in a simple yet luxurious way.
On the first floor was the living room; the kitchen; the main storage room and so on. Another thing worth mentioning was also something that Erica was interested in—Matthew had an extravagant wine cellar in the basement.
The wine cellar covered dozens of square meters. It had an automatic thermostat to preserve a large variety of limited-edition and expensive wines from around the world. There were at least thousands of bottles of red wine in total, all kept nicely.
Erica was shocked when she saw the wine cellar for the first time. Her grandmother also had a wine cellar, but there were only hundreds of bottles of wine at most. Compared with Matthew's cellar, her grandmother's collection was nothing.
The second floor mostly had several bedrooms, all of which were decorated similarly. The bedroom on the third floor, however, was the master bedroom where Matthew and Erica were staying. The master bedroom occupied almost half of the third floor, opposite to which was the study and two empty rooms.
On the fourth floor was the gym, the billiard's room, the entertainment room, the meditation room and the open-air swimming pool. The swimming pool was certainly worth mentioning because the bottom of the pool was made of glass, which meant that people on the third floor could see the swimming pool clearly.
Sitting next to the swimming pool, Erica cupped her chin with her hands and looked at the crystal clear water, deep in thought. 'If someone was swimming here, wouldn't people on the third floor see everything?
I wonder why Matthew would have someone design the swimming pool in such a way. Is he some kind of pervert?'