Chapter 83
When the group arrived at the restaurant, it was already past five in the afternoon - just in time for dinner.
Worried that the kids might be too noisy, Emily had specifically reserved a private room.
"You seem to be in a really good mood today," William said, half-teasing, half-serious. "Usually you always seem worried about something, but you look much better now."
"Of course!" Emily's eyes sparkled and her lips curved into a smile. "Thanks to you today, we bought such a great apartment. And for so little money - of course I'm happy!"
"Eat all you want, it's on me."
The kids ran around excitedly.
Emily was truly happy today.
Soon, the table was filled with dishes.
She didn't eat out very often - most of the time she cooked at home.
Since they were out for once, she didn't want to be stingy with ordering and ruin everyone's mood. Besides, today really was a good day.
"By the way, are you done with your stuff?" Emily suddenly asked halfway through the meal. "You've been hanging around the kids and me all this time, but I remember you said before that you were pretty busy and needed to go back to the Brown family. Have you figured out when you're going back?"
Emily hadn't wanted to bring this up, but with just the two of them sitting there in silence while only the kids chattered away, it felt a bit awkward.
William paused mid-bite with his steak. "After your situation is sorted out, I'll go back," he said casually.
"My situation?" Emily frowned. "I don't have any situation. The reality show is over, and next I just need to find a job. But jobs aren't easy to find, and I don't even know what I can do. As for reality shows, I'm not thinking about that right now."
Talking about this made Emily feel lost.
Going back to the funeral home was definitely out of the question - she had no plans to return. What she needed to do now was stay as far away from Rodolfo as possible, ideally never crossing paths with him again.
Only that way would Sophia leave her alone. She didn't want to be responsible for Rodolfo ending up in the hospital again.
Though Emily felt reluctant, circumstances forced her hand.
"Mommy, I'm full," Oscar said, jumping down from his chair.
Nina quickly followed. "Mommy, I want to go play with Oscar."
"Okay," Emily agreed. "Don't go too far - just play in the hallway, and be careful not to bump into anyone."
The two kids ran out, and Aiden couldn't sit still either. After telling William, he left too.
In the blink of an eye, only Emily and William remained in the private room.
"I still don't know what you've been busy with outside."
Emily asked, "Can you tell me now? I remember you said that once you came back, you'd explain everything to me."
"About your family's secrets - if you don't want to talk about them, that's fine. But what you were doing when you left before - can you tell me that?"
Emily didn't know about the organization. If she had, she definitely wouldn't have said something like that.
William completely lost his appetite.
He hadn't wanted to hide too much from Emily - that would make them feel distant from each other. He wanted to get closer to Emily, so of course he didn't want things to be too stiff between them.
But now that Emily had asked these questions, he didn't know how to answer.
If he told her these things, would it really be good for her? Would it bring disaster upon her?
Though the organization matter had been dealt with for now, Henry wasn't someone to mess with. Last time he'd shown his face on the reality show, it was hard to say whether Henry had tracked him down.
If he'd already taken action, didn't that mean he was being watched right now? And by extension, Emily was being watched too. How could that be okay?
"What's wrong?" Emily waved her hand in front of William when he didn't speak for a long time, looking somewhat disappointed.
"Still can't say? I feel like you're so mysterious. You're hiding so many things from me. No matter how I ask, you won't tell me."
"But you insist on saying you'll tell me later, which gets me curious. So are you willing to tell me or not?"
Actually, Emily hadn't planned to dig to the bottom of things at first. These were William's family matters - as an outsider, she had no reason to pry too much.
If William really didn't want to talk about it, that would be that. Her curiosity wasn't that strong.
But William himself had said he would tell her everything, and now he was suddenly backing out - that wasn't quite right, was it?
Seeing he couldn't hide it anymore, William nodded. "I will tell you, but don't rush me. Let me prepare a bit more, okay?"
"Prepare what?" Emily didn't understand.
William put down his knife and fork. "I told you today that before long I'll be going back to the Brown family. Now I can tell you some things about the Brown family."
Emily was about to stop him, not wanting to get involved in wealthy family conflicts, but William had already started speaking. "In other people's eyes, I'm a dead man."
"What?" William's words were so abrupt that Emily was startled, her knife and fork clattering onto the table. "You... slow down."
She raised her hand to stop him. "How did you become a dead man?"
William looked helpless. After thinking for a moment, he said softly, "Simply put, there's internal conflict in the Brown family. Someone tried to kill me, but I barely survived. For these past few months, no one's known I was still alive."
"Before, I didn't remember anything - I hadn't recalled these things. But now I know what happened. This time when I go back to the Brown family, I'm going to settle the score with that person."
He didn't mention Henry's name, afraid of affecting Emily. He also knew that if he still didn't say anything, Emily would definitely be disappointed, and it might even create a rift between them.
Emily looked at William in surprise, seeming to understand.
Though she'd never been involved in conflicts between wealthy families, wasn't this how it was portrayed on TV? Fighting over family assets and company control, everyone scheming against each other.
So that's what it was.
Emily nodded in understanding. "So you've had it pretty rough too. No wonder you were in that state when we first met."
But soon, she became worried again. "Since someone's trying to get you, why are you going back? Isn't that walking into a trap? What if that person tries to harm you again?"
William didn't want to say who that person was, so Emily tactfully didn't ask.
William smiled disdainfully, a cold glint flashing in his eyes. "He might want my life, but we'll see if he has what it takes."
"Since I dare to go back to the Brown family, naturally, I've made preparations. You don't need to worry about me."
"Okay, I understand."