When Matthew was about to change his clothes in the walk-in closet, he could hear his wife muttering, "Why the hell would I even bring this sketch back?"
He didn't know what to say. 'Is she irritated because the sketch was from Phoebe or is it because of the person she had sketched?'
However, there was absolutely no difference as to whether it was about the sketcher or the sketch itself. Either way, she was disgusted and annoyed by the picture.
Thinking of this, he turned around and held Erica in his arms. Judging from her furrowed eyebrows and pursed lips, she seemed to be thinking deeply about something. "How annoyed are you?" he whispered.
"Very annoyed," she snapped.
Caressing her face, Matthew warned, "Watch your words."
'Watch my words?' Erica shook off his hold, and her face turned bright red from the warning. She had been holding back her anger this entire time, and her husband had the audacity to tell her off. "Watch my words? Back then, you wouldn't even allow me to take a picture of you! And yet Phoebe made a sketch of you! You're being unfair!" she yelled.
"I didn't allow her to sketch me," he tried to explain, but it seemed that the misunderstanding created a wider gap between them.
"Don't you lie to me! Who would dare sketch you without your permission?" Hell, she didn't dare take a photo of him without his permission.
The more she thought about it, the more irritated she felt. 'I know that I probably couldn't measure up to Phoebe, but this is just too much!'
Matthew stretched out his arms to wrap around her waist. He pulled her into his arms. "Don't move. If you do, you'll face the consequences."
'Damn him! He even dared to threaten me? What an ass!'
"I really didn't know when she sketched me," he protested. Debbie was right. Erica was like a can of coke. If shaken, she would explode in whirling rage.
The sincerity in his eyes made her pause. She stopped struggling under his hold. "Really?" she asked doubtfully.
"Really!" He nodded.
'That's more like it!' she thought triumphantly. Erica didn't bother to tell him her plans to sue the other woman. She was afraid that it would only belt him back to Phoebe's side, so she decided to probe, "If one day I hurt Phoebe and make her lose everything she could ever dream of, would you feel sorry for her?"
He shook his head. "Of course not!"
'He probably doesn't like her anymore, ' she thought. A smile slipped onto her face as she played with the buttons on his shirt. "How about me? Do you like me?"
Without even waiting for his answer, she immediately raised her head and added, "If you do, then I'll protect you from now on. I'll even defend you against the Huo family. In fact, I'll forget the fact that you've hurt me before."
'Hurt her? When did I hurt her?' Since she looked pretty convinced of his sins, he nodded. "I'll like you from now on."
Matthew didn't bother to tell her that he had actually already fallen in love with her a long time ago. He had no interest in liking any other woman.
"That's good." Her eyes glinted. "Then I'll like you too."
Matthew tightened his grip around her waist and pressed his forehead against hers. His breath fanned against her nose. "Have you already made up your mind?"
"I would, if you pinky swear to it." She pulled out her pinky finger and wiggled it in front of him.
Staring at the way her eyes flashed so innocently, he found himself stunned by the declaration. A part of him even wondered if he would partake in such a childish thing.
Afraid that he might go back on his word, she raised an eyebrow. "Do you plan on going back on your word so soon?"
Reluctantly, Matthew hooked his pinky to hers.
He honestly didn't want to partake in such a childish thing, but he had to. Or else, Erica might think he was reluctant to commit to such a promise.
As soon as their fingers were hooked on each other, she said, "From now on, Matthew Huo will only like Erica Li for the next hundred years." 'Wait! What if he lives for more than that?' She immediately corrected herself and added, "I mean, for one thousand years! If you change your mind, then you're a jerk!"
'A jerk?' Resisting the urge to snort, he rolled his eyes. "Now that I promised you this, shouldn't you also promise me something?"
"Fine! What do you want me to promise?" she asked.
"From now on, you will only like me. If you change your mind, then you'll be prisoned by me all your life. If I change my mind, all my properties will belong to you, and I'll be at your disposal. All in all, no matter what happens, we will be together all our lives."
Hearing him state that "all of my properties will belong to you," she was more than ecstatic to agree to his request. She nodded vigorously. "Deal!"
'Now that we have a deal, he'd finally like me!'
Matthew, who had always been a cautious man, thought that a pinky swear wasn't enough to bind the both of them. This was why he took Erica to his desk and handed her a pen. "Write a letter of commitment," he ordered.
'A letter of commitment?' She furrowed her eyebrows. "Stating what?"
Of course, it was a contract regarding their relationship! "Write what I say!" he stated.
"Don't you believe that I could keep my promise?"
'Of course not!' he thought, but he didn't say that aloud. Instead, he leaned back against his seat. "Since you can do it, why don't you just write it down?"
"Whatever." She rolled her eyes. "Just tell me already."
His eyes glinted. "I, Erica Li, will only love Matthew Huo all my life. If I betray him, whether physically or mentally, I'll be imprisoned by him for a lifetime. From now on, this promise holds legal effect. Signed by Erica Li."
Erica wrote it down just as he had said and read it carefully to see if she had spelled anything wrong.
Seeing as there wasn't any, she pushed the piece of paper towards him. "It's your turn."
He took the paper from her hands and shrugged. "I always keep my words," he stated. "Since I've already said it, I'll do it." Unlike her, he wasn't going back on his word anytime soon.
"Isn't that unfair?" she demanded. Erica held his hand and forced him to write his own letter of commitment.
'If he does something wrong one day, at least he'll know the consequences.'
Seeing that he was being held against his will, Matthew had no other choice but to write down the promises that he had just told her.
At last, the two of them signed their names in both letters. Feeling that something was missing, she grabbed her lipstick from her bag and rubbed it all over his thumb. Raising her chin, she said, "Press your fingerprint."
He was rendered speechless. This was the first time he had ever seen such a thing happening! In fact, he had never met anyone who had doubted his words.
Erica handed her signed letter of commitment to him. "Let's exchange. You'll keep mine, and I'll keep yours." It was an awesome feeling. Matthew Huo, one of the richest men in the world, was already wrapped around her fingertips.