Chapter 131: Under Pressure
Moana
Even though I was enjoying spending time at the mountain estate, it seemed that maybe it wasn’t very safe here right now. Edrick didn’t say much about it, but he seemed to be worried ever since that wolf came after Ella and myself, and I couldn’t help but wonder if he knew something that I didn’t. I trusted Edrick to make the right decisions, so when he told me that it was best for us to return to the penthouse for now, I agreed. My only regret was that I didn’t have any time to paint while we were there, and I hoped that I would have another chance to paint soon.
When we finally arrived back at the penthouse, it was already late that night. Selina and the maids prepared a quick meal, but I was too tired and uneasy after what happened to have much of an appetite, and only wanted to go to sleep. Ella was hardly keeping her eyes open, too, so I put her to bed before heading over to Edrick’s room to get some sleep myself.
I couldn’t stop myself from feeling worried, though. Edrick had been extremely quiet ever since what happened in the forest; in fact, he had been quiet ever since his father called him that morning. I couldn’t help but wonder if it was because of me, and if this would mean that he would distance himself from me again.
“Don’t worry,” Mina said, noticing my anxiety. “He’ll come around. He just needs a little time. But I know that he cares about you deeply, so you shouldn’t worry about it too much.”
Even though I wasn’t entirely sure if I believed Mina, I supposed that she had never been wrong about this sort of thing before. Maybe she was right; maybe Edrick just needed a little time to come around and sort some things out. He had already shown me so many times just how much he cared about me. The way he treated me at the mountain estate, even after the horrible things I said to him when he announced our “relationship” and after I put Ella and my baby in danger by being exposed to the paparazzi, he had still treated me lovingly, almost like his real wife. Even as I laid there now, waiting for him to come to bed, I could still feel his warm arms around me from that morning and I could still see the softness in his eyes.
However, as I laid there waiting for Edrick, he never came to bed. I found that it was becoming more and more difficult to sleep without him ever since the incident in the Rogue district, and so I stayed awake in bed, waiting for him with my eyes fixed on the canopy above the bed. It was well after midnight now, and I still hadn’t seen or heard him, so I began to get worried. I thought that maybe he fell asleep at his desk or got too absorbed in work to notice what time it was, so I quietly got out of bed and threw my robe on before walking out into the living room.
Just as I suspected, Edrick was still in his study. I could see a little bit of light pouring out from underneath the door, and I walked over to knock and see why he wasn’t coming to bed, but before I could I froze when I heard him talking to someone.
His voice was raised, and it sounded strained and frustrated.
“I know you sent that thing,” Edrick growled, sounding exasperated. “Just admit it. Were you just trying to scare them, or are you actually such a horrible person that you would try to hurt a pregnant woman and a child?”
Edrick paused, as though he was listening. Was he talking to his father? It sounded as though he was referring to the incident with the wolf earlier that day. I had thought that it was just a random wolf that happened to stumble upon us in the woods, but judging from the way that Edrick was talking about it, I realized that maybe it wasn’t so simple as that. I froze as I heard what he said next.
“I knew it. You’re not going to get your way. Not with me here to protect them. If you want to hurt them, you’ll have to hurt me, first, dad.”
My eyes widened. So he was talking to his father. Had his father really sent a wolf — a Rogue, possibly — to attack us?
I supposed that I should have expected that he wanted to hurt me. I was, after all, a threat to his family’s image. But to put his granddaughter, as well as an unborn child, in harm’s way… It made me sick. I instinctively put my hand over my belly protectively as though that would be any help if Michael were to try to harm us again, and wondered if he would only continue to be a threat even after my baby was born. As long as Michael was alive, would we ever feel completely safe if he was really so cruel as to put a child and a pregnant woman in harm’s way?
Suddenly, I heard the unmistakable sound of Edrick slamming the phone down. I bit my lip as I stood there in the darkness outside his study door, wondering if I should go in there and talk to him. I knew that he needed someone to be there for him, and I understood his frustrations. If I could only show him that he could be open with me, then I knew he would feel better. He was putting too much pressure on himself by not talking about these things, and I needed him to understand that he didn’t need to take his father on alone when he had me.
I decided then that I would go in there and talk to him.
But just as I was about to put my hand out to knock on the door, I heard him speak again.
“Olivia?” he said, sounding even more exasperated than before. “What do you want now? It’s almost one o’clock in the morning.”
I froze once more. This Olivia person… Again? Who was she, and why was she always calling Edrick in the middle of the night? I thought back to the night that we kissed in the kitchen, when he mentioned that someone from his past always called relentlessly around this time of year, and I knew that it was “Olivia”, but I still didn’t understand why. Was she an ex-girlfriend? A family member? An estranged friend?
“Not this again,” he growled. “I’ve given you enough. Stop calling me.”
Edrick suddenly hung up then. I felt my heart leap into my throat, and out of instinct I quickly ran out of the room and jumped back into Edrick’s bed before he could realize that I was eavesdropping.
But as I laid there, pretending to be asleep while Edrick quietly entered the room finally and got ready for bed, I couldn’t stop thinking about everything I had heard. Why was Edrick’s father so hell-bent on harming me, even going so far as to put his granddaughter and his second unborn grandchild in harm’s way? Would any of us be safe so long as he was in the picture?
And, secondly… Who was Olivia, and why was she calling Edrick so much?
