Chapter 95: The Banquet
Edrick
“There’s my favorite girls,” I said with a smile.
I didn’t even think about it before I said it, but I knew as soon as it came out of my mouth that I’d made a mistake. Ella didn’t seem to notice, but Moana sure did. Her green eyes, which looked even more beautiful with the small amount of gold eyeshadow around them, widened.
“Ha,” I said, feigning surprise at myself in the feeble hope that I could get away without Moana dwelling on this too much, “slip of the tongue. Are you two ready?”
…
When we arrived at the banquet, the party had already begun. The end of summer banquet was a long-standing Morgan family tradition. The banquet that I had taken Moana and Ella to earlier that summer was solely for more immediate family and close friends, but this banquet was different. Each summer, practically every single member of the entire Morgan clan, from immediate family to cousins several times removed and all of their own friends and extended families through marriage would come from all over the globe to visit my parents’ mansion. Needless to say, these parties were huge, and often went on for two or three days. That was why I paid my old friend Tyrus to come and do Moana’s hair and makeup; sure, it was necessary for the nanny, but I wanted to make a good impression. Besides, I had to admit that I wanted to do a little something nice for Moana to make her feel better, although I would never tell her that.
The driver pulled up to the front driveway and we got out. Moana held Ella’s hand as we walked up the wide stone pathway, lined with fountains and sculptures, but as soon as Ella saw her other little cousins she instantly took off running.
“Oh— Ella!” Moana called, taken by surprise by Ella’s sudden mad dash.
“It’s alright,” I said with a chuckle. “She only gets to see these kids once a year. She’ll be fine — although that dress will probably wind up in the trash by the time she’s done rolling around with them like an animal.”
Moana managed a wry laugh and followed me up the steps to the front door, where servants were waiting to take our jackets. Glasses of champagne were handed to us almost as soon as we walked into the large banquet hall, but Moana refused.
“Darling!” my mother’s familiar voice called as I entered. She waved at us from across the crowd, and Moana and I made our way over to her. Of course, with so many people here, she only extended Moana the basic pleasantries, although I knew that my mother secretly wanted to dote on the mother of my second child all night. When I was with Olivia, it was the same thing. I didn’t have to hide my relationship with Olivia quite as much as with Moana, so my mother would spend hours at these events gushing over her despite my father’s sullenness that I wasn’t married to her. Although, Olivia quickly stopped even coming to the events as soon as she got pregnant; I didn’t realize it at the time, thinking that she was just dealing with morning sickness throughout the pregnancy, but she was really sneaking around with other men and only used the pregnancy to keep me faithful.
“How are you, mom?” I asked, planting a kiss on her cheek while Moana stood nearby, looking a little out of place despite her luxurious outfit.
“I’m splendid,” my mother said, then turned to Moana. “And you look absolutely stunning, dear. You’re glowing.”
Moana blushed. “Thank you.”
Then, my mother turned back to face me and lowered her voice. “I’d advise steering clear of your father, at least until he’s had a couple of drinks in him,” she said, patting my hand. “He’s not happy about the tabloid.”
My eyes widened; so my father did see the tabloid after all. When he didn’t call to scold me about it, I thought that he never saw it.
“Does he know…?” I asked, indicating Moana’s pregnancy.
“I think he might have an idea,” my mother replied. “But I told him that we were just having a nice lunch, and that you never mentioned anything about a pregnancy. That might have allayed his suspicions for the time being.”
“Good.” I felt a lump rise in my throat as I scanned the crowd for my father, but when I finally spotted him, he was far on the other side of the banquet hall and appeared to be deep in conversation with one of my uncles.
Suddenly, I felt someone tap my shoulder. I turned around to see none other than Kelly grinning up at me. She really seemed to go all out for this banquet with her hair and makeup, but what most struck me was that she was wearing an eerily similar dress to the one that Moana was wearing. In fact, the longer I looked at it, the more I realized that it was in fact the exact same dress; just tighter, as though she had it altered to sit snugly around her waist and show off her flat stomach. I couldn’t help but wonder if it was intentional, as if she was trying to one-up Moana, who had to hide her belly somewhat. I personally found Kelly to pale in comparison to how beautiful Moana looked.
“Hello, dear Edrick,” Kelly said, planting a wet kiss on my cheek. “It’s been a little while, hasn’t it?”
“Since the gala, yes,” I said. “Thank you again for that generous donation.”
“Hm.” Kelly pursed her lips and glanced over at Moana, who had still hardly said a word this entire time. Kelly’s eyes slid up and down Moana judgingly before coming back to me. “Well, it was the least I could do to help you get a head start,” Kelly finally said. “Of course, if it were a werewolf orphanage, I could have donated more… But, you know, I didn’t want to be making too much of a political statement.”
I stifled a scoff. Of course Kelly would say that; she had always been anti-humans, at least since we were teenagers. I always found it funny because of the fact that we often played with the human servant children when we were little, and she didn’t seem to have a problem then. But, then again, I supposed that it was bound to happen eventually being raised by a wealthy werewolf family. Even I still had my hang ups about humans, although I had to admit that Moana was slowly breaking those walls down.
“Anyway,” Kelly said, “I’m glad I found you. Can we talk? I only need a minute of your time.”
“Sure,” I replied, only to be polite. I followed Kelly across the banquet hall, taking one last glance over my shoulder at Moana. She stared after us with a combination of abandonment and jealousy on her face, and it admittedly made me feel a little bad.
Kelly eventually pushed through one of the doors that led to a small garden outside. Once we were outside and alone, she stopped on the steps and turned to face me.
“I have a proposition,” she said, a coy smile spreading across her face.
I frowned. “What is it?”
“Well… Everyone saw that tabloid, you know. Now, I’m not saying that what was on the cover of that tabloid is necessarily true — although I think the nanny’s added weight says it all anyway — but you know that people are bound to start asking questions. And, well, say that the tabloid was right, and you did have something to hide… I could help you hide it.”
“Oh?” I asked, raising an eyebrow as I folded my arms across my chest.
Kelly grinned. “Yes. I think you need a public ‘wife’, so to speak. Preferably an Alpha from a good family.”
I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. “And I suppose you expect that to be you,” I replied. Kelly didn’t seem fazed.
“I mean, it could be anyone,” she said. “It’s not like it would be real. Only real to the public. This ‘wife’ could also claim Ella as her daughter, so not only could you be free of speculation, but you also wouldn’t have to hide Ella as much anymore. I think it’s a win for everybody.”
I didn’t know what to say. I was completely taken aback by this preposterous idea of Kelly’s, and it made me wonder deep down if she somehow orchestrated this; she was so infatuated with me that I wouldn’t put it past her to be the anonymous donor who tried to pay the tabloid to keep the picture up, just to cause an uproar and give me no choice but to go through with this ‘fake’ relationship.
Before I could say anything, however, Kelly spoke again. She moved closer to me as she did, and her eyes narrowed seductively.
“Think of it this way,” she said. “If I came out as your Alpha wife and Ella’s Alpha mother, then no one would bother you about the nanny anymore; because no one would ever accuse the CEO of WereCorp of being unfaithful to his wife with a lowly human servant… Right?”
