Chapter 122: Someday
Edrick
I came home that night after a long, exhausting day of work. The news of my fake relationship with Moana quickly spread, and I found myself having to dodge all sorts of questions about it from intrigued coworkers. Thankfully, my father didn’t appear yet to berate me for it, although I knew that it was only a matter of time until that happened.
When I arrived at home, I just wanted to sleep. The apartment was quiet and dark, so I took off my shoes and my jacket before heading into the living room to have a drink before bed.
However, when I walked into the doorway, I finally saw Moana peering at me over the back of the couch.
I knew instantly from the look on her face that she had seen the news. And I also knew that I would have to explain things to her, as she was clearly upset. Admittedly, I knew that I shouldn’t have said what I said earlier that morning; it just slipped out in the heat of the moment, and I found myself regretting it afterwards. But what was done was done, and now we had to make the best of it.
“I’m sure you’d like to talk,” I said, sticking my hands in my pockets as I watched Moana stand from the couch. “Let’s talk in my office.”
Moana, who was dressed in her robe and nightgown, followed me to my study. I closed the door behind us in case anyone would overhear our conversation, then gestured for her to sit in one of the soft armchairs by the fireplace. But she continued to stand, her eyes burning with a combination of confusion and anger.
“Let me explain—” I began, but Moana quickly cut me off and shook her head vigorously. Her hands were balled up into fists at her sides, and as she shook her head, bits of curly red hair fell into her face.
“Just tell me whether I’m just a human plaything or not,” she said, her voice low and intentional.
I furrowed my brow. “What?” I asked. “What are you talking about?”
Moana let out an exasperated sigh and pulled her phone out of her robe pocket. I watched silently as she furiously tapped on her phone screen, then held the phone out for me to see.
Of course, it was just as I suspected; it seemed that many of my “fans” were angry about this “relationship”, which I did expect. However, to make matters worse, they were saying horrible things about Moana and calling her a human plaything. They didn’t know yet that Moana was a werewolf, and that she was actually my fated mate. Of course it wouldn’t matter even if the public did know that Moana was a werewolf, though, because these women would have found any reason to be angry about it. I was used to this sort of thing and that was why I had removed myself entirely from social media, but it was all extremely new to Moana.
Seeing the look on her face and the way that her hand shook when she held the phone out to me made me feel even worse for jumping into this so soon. I should have spoken to her about it first and given her time to prepare. I didn’t even ask if this was what she wanted, and I did feel bad about it.
“Look,” I said, watching as she shut off her phone and slipped it back into her pocket, “I’m sorry that I didn’t consult you before I said what I said this morning. But now that you’re in the public eye, there are some changes you’ll need to make; to start, you’ll be better off if you make all of your social media accounts private. Not only that, but you’ll have to delete anything that’s unnecessary or that could hurt our image. That includes any distasteful photos or posts. My manager can help you with that.”
Moana’s eyes widened. She seemed taken aback.
“Why should I have to change my habits over something like this?” she growled. “You’re the one who suddenly decided you were going to make this announcement. I had no idea.”
I sighed. “If it makes you feel any better, I had no idea either,” I replied. “It just sort of slipped out this morning. I’ll admit I got a bit overwhelmed with all of the paparazzi.”
Moana fell silent. I couldn’t tell if she was understanding where I was coming from or if she was still royally pissed at me — maybe both of those things at once. She stared at me with a certain amount of intensity for a few moments, chewing the inside of her cheek deliberately, before she spoke again.
“I still don’t understand why you did this,” she said quietly. “I thought you didn’t want to get married to anybody. Not only that, but you’ve made it abundantly clear in the past that you have no interest in having a relationship with me because of our differences in social status, and I’m positive that that hasn’t changed at all despite the fact that you know I’m a werewolf now. What changed?”
I didn’t know how to respond. All I could do was stare at the floor unblinkingly as I digested her words. She was right; even as a werewolf, there were still glaring differences in our social status, and a marriage was off the table. Aside from that, even though I knew now that she was my fated mate, it didn’t necessarily mean that I was comfortable with creating a mate bond with her or that I would want to commit to her. If I learned one thing about marriage from my parents’ horrible history, it was that marriage was a complete sham and a waste of time. Even people who had a mate bond with each other, like my parents, still abused and cheated on each other. No matter how I felt about Moana, I couldn’t picture myself committing to anyone like that. Sure, I was okay for now just having a fake relationship with her, even if it meant never being with anyone else. I had been completely alone for years before I met Moana, so being without intimacy was not really a problem for me.
“I may have made it clear that I have no interest in marriage between the two of us,” I said finally, “but you also made it clear that you don’t want me to get married to anyone — real or fake — because you clearly don’t want Ella or our child to have another mother. So you had just as much of a hand in this as I did, and now I expect you to play the role as my fake fiance. Isn’t this what you wanted?”
Moana’s eyes widened. I could see anger bubbling up inside of her, mixed with a bit of confusion.
“So it is only fake?” she asked.
I nodded.
Moana was silent for a moment, staring up at me incredulously with her big green eyes before she finally responded and took me completely by surprise by what she said next. Apparently, unlike myself, it was in fact an issue for her to live without intimacy.
“What if I fall in love with someone someday?” she asked. “What then?”
Moana’s words made me freeze. All I could do was stare at her intensely, completely taken aback by this statement.
