Chapter 63 Winner Takes All
By the time Lilac woke up, she Eric was not in the room which made her sigh in relief. When she recalled their conversation the night before, she felt herself grow tired. She had come here to rest but now she was even more tired. Just then, she heard a knock on the door. She immediately pretended to be asleep before the door opened. When Eric walked into the room, he had the sense that she was awake. But he still approached her bed and leaned in to place a kiss on her face.
“Wake up, baby,” he said and Lilac sat up sharply and threw him a suspicious glare. Eric could tell she was irritated.
"That's what you get for pretending to be asleep," he said.
"You can go ahead, I will find my way back," Lilac answered, but Eric continued speaking.
“Come let us return to the hotel. You need to pack. We are returning in the afternoon,” he said.
Seeing that he was ignoring her words, Lilac slowly got up and went to clean up. By the time she was ready, she was wearing her jean and shirt from the previous day. She had put it in the washing machine and dryer before putting it on again, so that she would not smell on the way back. By the time she walked out into the living room, she saw Eric seated with the other two looking tired. Between them was a phone placed on the center table.
“It seems your aunt has decided to make sure your ex uncle in law sleeps on the streets,” a voice on the other end of the phone that was on speakers sounded into the living room. Lilac recognized this voice. It was her father in law, Mr Black.
“It seems he had paid given some benefits to some low level staff, Lucy something… Lucy Gruiel to move some of his tax information without your aunt’s knowledge. Anyway, this will be a long divorce battle.” Mr Black on the other end,continued to update. Eric noticed the moment she entered the room and kept his eyes fixed on her every move.
Seeing as Eric was not responding, Ethan and Mark followed his eyes to see Lilac entering the kitchen. She took out a bottle of cold water, when Eric frowned.
“It’s too cold, I will buy you milk tea when we are leaving,” Eric said to her when he saw her actions and Lilac paused and weighed between the drink before her and the image of warm milk and the milk tea won, but she still ignored him and took her cold drink.
Eric frowned at her defiance.
“Sister-in-law,” Ethan and Mark greeted.
“Good morning, But please just call me Lilac,” Lilac answered and a small frown peeked out of the corner of Eric’s lips.
He would have preferred if she had just accepted the greeting without protest.
Lilac walked over to where they were seated just in time for the call to end.
“It seems you are busy, we will talk later,” Mr Black on the other end said and Eric ended the call. He put away his phone, picked Lilac’s bag in one hand and took one of her hands in the other and walked out. Ethan saw his action and glanced at Mark, “They really reconciled fast?” he asked in confusion.
“Can you guess where Eric slept last night?” Mark asked and Ethan paused before his brain cell kept up to the conversation.
“That quickly? I thought it would take him forever to gain any attention from her. I should tell Neil, He lost the bet, right?” he asked and they picked up several black boxes to leave.
By the time they got to the front yard, they saw Eric's car leaving with Lilac. Ethan paused and shook his head.
“He really disregards his good brothers the moment he reconciled with his wife,” Ethan commented in shock.
“Would you really dare to sit in the same car? They obviously want to be alone,” Mark scoffed and took out his phone to call his driver.
In the car that had just left, Lilac turned to Eric to ask the time.
“It’s fine you still have time, I will send you to the hotel first. You go ahead and pack up. I will come get you later,” he said to her.
“You don’t need to come pick me up,” she muttered and he leaned closer even though he had heard her.
“What did you say?” he asked and when she saw the teasing look in his eye and she resisted the urge to roll her eyes before looking away.
“What will you have with your milk tea?” he asked, ignoring that she had already taken a cold drink in defiance.
“Anything sweet,” she said tiredly and he smiled.
Eric guessed that either he had worn her down or she had a sweet tooth. He had been observing her the whole trip, she enjoyed to snack on something sweet, no matter what, so, it might be both.
By the time they got to the hotel, the hallways were empty. They knew a lot of people had left to buy some things before they had to get on the bus returning to the city to take a plane back home.
Eric escorted Lilac to her room before handing to her bag full of painting supplies she had bought the day before. Before Lilac could turn away, he gave Lilac a sneaky peck on her lips.
“You…” she was at a loss for what to say. He was getting bolder every minute. She wanted to scream. Everything. He did, made her hair stand on it's ends. She had a bad feeling about this.
“I will be back in a bit,” he said and she hurried into the room.
When Lilac entered the room, she was met with her room mates already done packing. The moment they saw here, Cindy and Ethel folded their arms and approached her.
“Who is this? Do you recognize her?” Cindy asked Ethel.
“I don’t recognize her, though something is familiar,” Ethel answered with a look of confusion before clapping in realization, “Could it be Lilac? The unruly child that did not tell us she was married?” Ethel asked.
“It looks like her,” Cindy answered.
“Stop messing around, I thought I said I would explain when I came back?” Lilac grabbed cindy’s arm and pat like a parent would calming her child.
“Okay, there is an explanation. Our bestie is still our bestie.” Ethel relented and sat.
“Okay, tell me about it,” Cindy joined her to sit.
“You remember when you both started talking about him using that nickname? I did not know it was him, okay?” she asked and they both nodded.
“And later I heard you say there were rumors that girl was going to embarrass Eric. I had only heard of it then. Only when you had said his name, did I know. But but then, I thought it would be fun to watch, so I just wanted to let it happen so he can embarrass himself a bit.. Then when I was out yesterday shopping, I met that girl and her friends and they were talking about the location. At first, I only wanted to go over to tell Eric out of guilt, but by the time I got there, they had already started accusing him so, I couldn’t help myself. You know I can’t control my big mouth,” Lilac explained.
“I see, so you were being a good samaritan and was dragged into your husband's drama?” Ethel asked and Lilac nodded.
“Lilac, you are many things, but not a good samaritan. Especially when drama is involved. You expect me to believe that you went all the way there just out of the goodness of your heart? Not because you were angry your husband was being accused?” Cindy said.
Lilac considered her words. She refused to believe it was because she was still possessive about Eric, but why did she really go?
“How am I not a good samaritan?” Lilac said, brushing the matter away, "Besides, if he got embarrassed, it would only shame me," Lilac said.
“When drama is circulating, you are disappearing. That is who you are. But there is nothing wrong with being annoyed when someone is close to your man, it is natural for a wife to be territorial.” Ethel said and Lilac went silent. How could she explain that her relationship with Eric was too complicated for feelings to be involved?
“Then what about the rumor that he came out of your tent one morning? He slept there?” Cindy asked. They had a feeling Lilac resisted the idea of Eric and probed slightly.
“Did you not hear that some people played a game of ghosts at night? The high executives gambled on a lot of money and even some businesses while drunk. He was one of them. When I went to pee that night, I was dragged in. I was scared. He offered to take me back as long as I let him hide in my tent,” she explained.
“All this comes down to you being a good person to him all the time. I know you well. If someone else had said they want to sit in your tent all night, you would have risked ghosts to return.” Ethel said.
“But when it comes to him, you are not scared of him sleeping in your tent?” Cindy asked.
“Lilac, he is your husband, right?” Ethel asked, “Why do you want to draw a line between you? You don't need to explain anything you and your husband do, right?"
Their words made Lilac go silent. She searched for words, but could not find it. Soon she opened her mouth again.
"It was a forced marriage. There is a lot of bad blood. It is best not to forget my place," Lilac finally said. This was the actual truth.
It was not as though her heart did not flutter when Eric teased her. His new behavior really messed with her, as she really had a deep enough crush on him to be complicit in their marriage.
Yes, as much as she wanted to deny it, she could not lie to herself. She knew Eric was basically coerced into marrying her. She did not know what her parents had done, but she did not want to know.bit was a chance to be his wife and she took it. When she woke up in his bed, she could have left, afterall, who married because of a one night stand? Besides, nothing happened that night because they were too drugged.
But despite all these, she closed her eyes and jumped on the opportunity. She thought she could melt his heart. She tried till her dignity was squashed into nothing. When's he recalled her past life, what happened to her was so bad, she could not even recall how she had actually died. Lilac shivered internally when she recalled his cold eyes as he threatened to kill her.
She looked up at both women.
"Our kind of relationship, who ever forgets their place loses. In my marriage, it is winner takes all. The looser could loose it all, even their life," Lilac said and the mood in the room fell into an ice pit.
Outside, Eric's eyes darkened as he heard her words.