Chapter 150: An Unexpected & Unwelcome Visitor
Moana
When I woke up and found that Edrick was gone, I was confused. It was still early, and he usually didn’t leave for work until a little later. I figured that he just got up early and was having breakfast in the dining room, so I got up and made my way out there to see where he was.
However, when I headed out to the dining room, Edrick wasn’t there. His study door was also open and he wasn’t in there, either. Furrowing my brow, I headed into the kitchen next, where Selina was already awake and preparing some coffee.
“Good morning,” she said. “Coffee?”
“Yes, please,” I replied as I walked up to the counter island. I then looked around, my brow still furrowed. “Have you seen Edrick?”
Selina shrugged. “I haven’t seen him yet this morning. Was he not in bed?”
I shook my head. It was still a bit awkward to hear others, especially Selina, mention the fact that Edrick and I slept in the same bed so casually. But I was getting used to it. “He wasn’t there,” I replied. “I guess he left for work early.”
Selina and I shared some coffee in the kitchen. As much as I loved Ella, it was nice to have a little bit of quiet time in the mornings before she woke up, and lately I had been spending more time getting to know Selina. I felt as though she was opening up to me more and more the longer I lived here, and I even felt as though I could begin to call her a friend.
However, Selina and I weren’t sitting there for long before we heard the elevator doors open.
“That must be him,” she said, standing. “Maybe he just went out for a run early this morning or something.”
I stood along with Selina and peered out of the kitchen doorway, hoping to see Edrick.
But it wasn’t Edrick. It was his father, Michael.
My eyes widened. Michael’s eyes stared coldly back at me from the foyer, his gaze traveling down to my nightgown. I had my robe open casually in the front, and I quickly darted out of view and tied it shut, feeling my face get hot.
“What is it?” Selina asked quietly.
“It’s Michael.”
Even the housekeeper’s eyes widened when I mentioned that Edrick’s father had suddenly shown up. She quickly brushed past me and came out into the dining room. “Good morning, Mr. Morgan,” she said politely with a small curtsy. “I’m afraid you caught us so early we’re still in our dressing gowns. Are you looking for Edrick?”
“I am, actually,” Michael said, his voice cold and gruff. “Where is he?”
“Edrick stepped out early this morning,” Selina replied. “We think he might be at work or running some errands.”
I stood behind Selina in the hallway, my heart pounding. Michael stared calmly and coldly at me over Selina’s shoulder. His steely gray eyes shot daggers at me, and I felt like a deer in headlights.
Michael cleared his throat, then abruptly pulled out a chair. As he did, he pulled it out so roughly that it scraped on the wooden floor and made a horrible screeching sound that made both Selina and I flinch, but he didn’t even seem to notice or care about making such noise so early in the morning.
“I’ll wait, then,” he said, sitting and crossing his legs over each other. He leaned back in the chair and folded his hands in his lap, then stared down his nose at both of us. “I’ll have some tea.”
“Right away, Mr. Morgan,” Selina said. She turned on her heel and scurried into the kitchen. My eyes, however, stayed glued on Michael, and I instinctively placed my hand over my belly in a protective manner. As I did so, Michael’s eyes flickered down to my stomach. He almost looked disgusted.
“U-Um… It’s nice to see you,” I said, not wanting to be impolite despite the fact that Edrick’s father scared the living hell out of me.
He didn’t answer. I swallowed, hard, as he just continued to stare intensely at me.
Selina returned to the dining room a few moments later with a tray that contained a pot of tea and a teacup. She set it down in front of Michael and picked up the teapot to pour it, but Michael’s hand suddenly shot out and he stopped her from pouring the tea, his eyes still locked on mine.
“I’d like my future daughter-in-law to serve the tea,” he said gruffly.
“Oh.” Selina set the teapot down, then looked over at me. Her eyes were just as wide as mine; both of us knew the sort of subservient position that Michael was trying to put me in. But nonetheless, I nodded and walked up to the table. Selina walked away, returning to the kitchen, although I knew that she was still keeping one eye on me at all times in case Michael tried to do anything.
The air was silent and thick with tension as I walked over to Michael. He watched me like a hawk as I poured the tea. I tried to hide the fact that my hands were shaking, but I knew that he noticed anyway.
Finally, I poured the tea and went to set the teapot back down. However, before I could, his hand shot out again; not to block me this time like he had with Selina, but instead to grab my wrist. Hard.
His grip was so hard, in fact, that it made me wince.
“Don’t think that you’ll be getting anything more out of this fake relationship with my son, you little human w***e,” he snarled, his voice low enough so that Selina couldn’t hear.
I could feel my eyes instantly well up with tears, and my face got even more red. My hands started to shake violently, causing the lid on the teapot to vibrate. When Michael finally released his iron grip on me, my wrist burned like someone had scalded it with boiling water. All I could do was calmly set the teapot back down and stiffly walk back to the kitchen, where Selina stared cautiously at me from where Michael couldn’t see her.
Finally, the elevator doors opened a few minutes later. Edrick came walking in, and although I was now practically cowering in the corner of the kitchen and sobbing quietly while I held my wrist where I was out of both Michael’s and Edrick’s line of sight, with Selina rubbing my back gently, I could hear the two of them talking.
“Let’s talk in your office,” Michael said, standing. “And this tea is disgusting, by the way. Can’t you afford proper tea leaves instead of these silly tea bags? Or maybe you should consider hiring more competent servants.”
Edrick didn’t respond to that comment. I heard them retreat into the study, followed by the study door closing.
“Come,” Selina said, guiding me over to the kitchen sink now that we were alone. “Let’s put your wrist under some cool water. That bastard…”
Selina ran my wrist under the cold water from the tap, which soothed the burning on my wrist where Michael had grabbed me. Thankfully, there was nothing more than a faint red mark; I was more scared than actually hurt. I was just glad that he hadn’t hurt my baby in any way.
However, Selina and I both heard raised voices coming from Edrick’s study not even five minutes later. The yelling only lasted for a couple of minutes, and the two of us could only stand in the kitchen in shock as we heard the study door swing open. Michael stormed past the kitchen, then disappeared into the foyer, followed by the sound of the elevator opening and closing.
Once he was gone, Selina and I finally emerged from the kitchen to see Edrick standing in the doorway of his study.
I opened my mouth to ask if something was wrong, but before I could, Edrick simply gave me a strange look before suddenly slamming the door shut.
