Erica was stunned for a moment and her voice trembled anxiously. "I was just trying to scare her! There's no need to send her there. She's already beaten up so badly. She won't survive out there!"
Although Lenora deserved punishment, she didn't deserve to die.
What happened this time also served as a lesson for Erica who understood the importance of speaking more carefully in front of Matthew. She realized that if she didn't choose her words more carefully, it could bear some irreparable consequences.
"I know what I'm doing!" Matthew said coldly. He wouldn't kill anyone, obviously, but he would definitely torture Lenora for a while.
"Matthew, I'm not joking! She is going to die! You are going to send her to a primeval forest in a deserted area. Just think about what you're doing! She won't even have any food there. If Lenora ends up dying, I will have to live with the guilt of it for the rest of my life!" Erica was clearly very anxious, but Matthew still acted as if he didn't care if that wretched woman died of hunger or some miserable disease.
He remained silent as he drove her back to the villa.
When they arrived, Matthew asked her to get out of the car and said, "I need to go back to the company first. You should get ready for class."
The girl walked to the driver's seat and put her hands on the half-down window. "I'll go to school, but don't send Lenora there, okay?"
Matthew looked at her small face and answered, "Erica, what kind of person do you really think I am?" 'What do I have to do to make her feel like I am the only man she will ever need?' he wondered gloomily.
Erica said readily, "You're handsome—" '—and hot.'
"I want to hear the truth."
'The truth?' Erica looked at him with puzzlement. She couldn't have been lying to him about his good-looks, after all, the man was, indeed, very handsome. "You're a nice guy!"
Anyway, he was always nice to her. But that wasn't it, he was, in fact, a great guy who treated her very well.
He looked at her hand holding the window and said, "Move your hands away!"
"But you haven't answered me yet. Can you..."
"If you have more questions, you can come to me again after we become a real married couple!"
Erica was speechless. Why did his mood change all of a sudden? He wasn't acting like this at the Su family residence just a while ago. Was it because she tried to show Lenora some compassion?
Confused as she was, she moved her hands away when she saw the cold expression on his face.
Matthew stepped on the gas with immediacy and drove away quickly.
While Erica stood there alone in the yard, staring at the back of Matthew's car as it drove off out of her vision.
With a look of disappointment on her face, Erica went back to the villa to get something from the third floor before heading back to school.
She quickly dashed to the bedroom and grabbed what she needed. When she was about to leave, she noticed a big difference in her dressing table.
Somehow, there were a lot of new things, which she had no recollection of ever buying. She randomly picked up each item and looked at it with great curiosity. There were various shades of lipstick, blusher, highlighter, bronzer and a lot of other makeup cosmetics.
Erica stood there guessing, baffled and confused. Who bought all these?
She took out her phone to send Matthew a message, but when she remembered that he was angry, Erica decided to ask him about the new cosmetics later on.
Thanks to Matthew's help, the matter concerning Tessie was handled very quickly and efficiently.
That afternoon, the truth concerning Erica's childbirth out of wedlock was spread all over the Internet. Tam and Tessie publicly apologized to Erica in front of the camera. In the end, the news article was also accompanied by a paternity test of Ethan. The result showed that Tam and Tessie were, indeed, the biological parents of the baby.
More and more people found out that Erica was actually taking care of her best friend's child, but her best friend betrayed her instead. The netizens were shocked, and many people changed their opinions on Erica because of this.
At the school
Erica walked around campus with her camera, randomly taking photos of anyone and anything that caught her eye, while Hyatt followed her silently.
When she sat down to rest for a while, Hyatt said, "I called your brother the other day, but why did Mr. Huo come to save you instead?"
"Oh, my brother told me that he couldn't make it to Y City in time, so he called Matthew. Thank you, Hyatt. I don't know what I would have done without your help." Erica had been looking for the chance to thank Hyatt, but she had forgotten all about it until he mentioned the incident from the other day.
With a guilty look on his face, Hyatt said, "Don't thank me. I didn't beat them for you."
Erica put her hand on his shoulder in a friendly way and said, "That's okay. You helped me anyway. I only have you and Rhea as my best friends now. Don't betray me like Julianna and Tessie did!"
"How could I ever... I..." Hyatt was so embarrassed by Erica's remark that his face turned red. "I'm not that kind of a person!"
Erica burst into laughter and said, "I believe you. By the way, has your mother scolded you lately?"
"Yes, she came to see me the day before yesterday."
"Has she been nagging you again?" In her thoughts, Erica could clearly picture Lilith nagging Hyatt.
Hyatt looked down in shame and said, "You have the right guess." It wasn't hard to imagine what Lilith would say; after all, she was always repeating the same old things—"How many times have I told you not to follow Erica Li. You just won't listen to me! You're such a disobedient son. You even came to Y City with her. I had to travel a long way to Y City just to see you..."
Erica nodded and said, "Yes. If I were your mother, I would have nagged you too! You ran away with a married woman. In your mother's eyes, what you did was probably the same as eloping with a married woman. How could she not be mad at you?"
"I don't care. Erica, you don't have to feel guilty. I don't have any friends in A Country and you're the only one who ever treated me like a true friend. I will follow you wherever you go. If you are busy, you don't have to worry about me. I can read novels in the dormitory by myself." Hyatt was obsessed with martial arts and fantasy novels. Caught in his own element, he would often read books and even forget to eat or sleep.
His hobby was nothing but a waste of time in his mother's eyes, and that was another thing she would always nag about.
"Then call me if you need anything!" Erica said.
"Okay."
That night, when Matthew came back home, Erica followed him like a shadow. When he went to the study, she did so as well. When he went to the closet to change his clothes, she'd tag along too.
However, when he took his clothes off, Erica was too shy to look, so she lowered her head and pretended to look through his tie collection in the drawer.
Since the man changing clothes next to her had the perfect figure, it would be a pity to allow such a sight to go to waste for nothing. So, Erica glanced sideways to sneak a peek, only to be discovered almost immediately. When she laid her eyes on Matthew's naked body, she turned her back to him at once, riddled with guilt. She kept rummaging through the drawers full of his ties and watches.
However, her attention was quickly drawn to his drawer full of watches. 'What a spendthrift man! How many watches does Matthew have?' She began to count out of curiosity.
'Oh my God! 75 watches here!
How much did they cost?'
Then the next drawer had all kinds of tie clips, made of gold, mounted with diamonds or gemstones... Her heart stopped when she saw Matthew's collection of rare, vintage watches and tie clips.
Suddenly, Matthew walked out, closing the door of the closet loudly.
The sound brought Erica back to her senses. It was only then when she found that the man behind her had already gone out.
She quickly closed the drawers and trotted outside. When she opened the door, Matthew was stood straight at the doorway.
When their eyes met, the girl smiled and asked casually, "Oh, you're back?"
"Just say what you want to say," he asked indifferently.
"I just wanted to know where you were sending Tessie and Lenora." There was something wrong with Matthew tonight. He didn't even spare so much as a glance at her, while she racked her brains trying to figure out how she had offended him.
Despite that, Erica had to know what had happened to Tessie and Lenora.
"Have you forgotten what I've said today?"