Chapter 61 I Am Your Husband
Eric looked down at the hand Lilac had let go of, feeling slightly empty.
A few words? Mark and Ethan thought, glancing at each other. Mark and Ethan wanted to ask if what she said could be considered a few words, but held their tongue.
“We are going to sleep, then.” Mark pulled Ethan away, leaving Eric and Lilac alone in the living room.
After talking so much, Lilac felt hungry, so she walked over to the kitchen. She saw the bag she had brought with her by the chair and recalled that she had bought some barbeque on the way and hurried over to take it out. She put it in the microwave and started going through the kitchen cabinets. She noticed that there was some noodles and she looked to Eric who had taken a seat at the counter, silently watching her.
“Will you eat some noodles?” she asked and he nodded.
“Ask Mark and Ethan if they would like to eat.” she instructed and he took out his phone and texted them. They soon replied that they would without stepping out of the room.
“They also want some,” he answered and she nodded.
“How is your family planning to deal with the cheater and his mistress?” she asked and he noticed she was just making conversation. Eric did not like how she referred to the Black family as his family alone.
“My father will handle my uncle-in-law. The bastard has a prenuptial agreement with my aunt. She is soft hearted, so my father will probably separate them so that he does not get to meet her,” he answered.
“You think she would forgive him?” she asked.
“My aunt is a hard to figure out. She is so soft and easy with everyone, it makes people think they can walk all over her,” he said.
“But has anyone actually walked over her?” she asked and he paused.
“Soft people are dangerous when pushed too far,” she said and he nodded in agreement, thinking that Lilac could also be judged in that manner.
Their conversation fizzled out and Lilac concentrated on making a large batch of noodles, but there was hardly anything to do. Eric was obsessed her every move. He watched her for so long, she became uncomfortable.
Soon the noodles were ready. She took a portion for herself and then divided for the three of them. Eric texted his friends to come get their bowls of noodles and Mark emerged to get for both of them. Lilac gave them some barbeque and Mark placed them all on a tray and left with some drinks. When Mark got to the door of his room, he paused and looked back at Lilac and Eric
“Sister-in-law, you are trending on the company forum. You should check it out,” he said before entering the room. Lilac suddenly recalled that Ethel and Cindy had said that they had seen something on some forum. She scrambled for her phone and logged onto the forum and almost cussed. She who had avoided drama all her life was a trending topic next to Eric Black.
“I thought it was just gossip, but someone took a video?” She bit her lip as she started pacing. Lilac did not want to be too known as Eric's wife. She had plans to leave and her greatest advantage was that very few people had met or even seen Eric's wife. She felt this would be an asset in the future. Besides, Eric had enemies. So far, all through her marriage, she had not gotten in a by danger because no one knew who she was and Eric liked it that way.
Eric walked over to where she was and took the phone from her. He saw the video and the comments and raised a brow. The comments were not negative as he had thought, except that everyone knew about Lilac now. And so far, it was only circulating in the company alone and had not made it's way to the actual Internet.
He also recalled his sister in law had an account on the forum she had bought off someone to enjoy gossip from his company. Greta was the one who had helped his grandmother make an advert looking for a wife for him that trended a few years back. But it made it's way to Eric's university where he had graduated from even after he wiped all posts.
The ad had only a blurry photo but slowly gathered fans for him till he gathered a cult following and some fanfiction written about him that his own staff began to read. It was a whole mess when he had been announced married.
Eric had thought that people would attack Lilac, but it seems they were oddly refreshed by her attack power. What bothered him was Lilac's reaction.
“Your noodles will get cold,” he said and slid the bowl noddle closer to Lilac.
“How can I have the time to be eating? Everyone is saying I am your wife, does it not bother you?” she asked and his eyes darkened slightly as he grabbed her arm and pulled her back to the counter and helped her to her seat. He placed her bowl of noodle before her before taking a seat next to her.
“No, it doesn;t bother me,” he said, “Does it bother you that you are being called my wife?” His question caused her to pause with a fork on the way to her mouth. Something about what he said did not feel right, but she could not put her finger on it.
“What do you mean? Didn't you say to me to live as though I am dead when we married? Don't blame me for this mess!” she corrected him.
“It sounds to me as though you don’t want to be associated with me,” he said and she frowned.
“When did I say that? Wasn't this what was agreed?” she asked.
“What is wrong with being assumed to be you husband? I am your husband, right?” he asked and she paused and stared into his intense eyes.
Lilac became uncomfortable and immediately made to leave. She took her bowl of noodles and got up, but suddenly panic filled Eric at her reaction. He grabbed her hand and dragged her back to his side.
“Let us talk,” he said and immediately felt her resist so he continued, “We are already the talk of the town no matter what you feel. Isn’t it time we talk?” he asked.
Of course she knew they were going to have to talk at some point. They needed to decide what they were going do about their marriage, but she had a feeling he wanted to talk about more than that and this worried her. Lilac was not sure what she was afraid of.
“Eat first,” he pulled her back to her seat to finish her noodles. From then on, they ate in silence. Lilac fixed her eyes on her bowl, not daring to look up at him, but all through, she could fee Eric's eyes on her. When she was done, he took both their plates and walked over to the sink to clean it.
When Eric was done, he cleaned his hand and walked over to Lilac, took her hand and dragged her into one of the rooms.