Chapter 207
In her panic, Lila blurted out, "Put it on speaker. After you get through, don't say anything. I'll talk myself—otherwise I'll be way too embarrassed."
Alexander's lips curved up as he dropped two crisp words, "Deal."
She stopped trying to grab the phone and just stared at him resentfully, silently fuming.
The phone stayed in Alexander's hand.
With a clear ringtone, the call connected.
Lila watched as he tapped the speaker button and held the phone toward her.
Ethan's mother's voice came through first, "Lila dear, it's been so long! Why are you calling me back specially? You could have just replied to my message."
Hearing that voice, Lila's eyes went wide.
Not Ethan?
It was actually Ethan's mother!
Her expression instantly became ten times more shocked than before. She struggled to organize her thoughts, and after a long while finally found her voice, "Auntie, I actually wanted to tell you that Ethan and I are actually..."
Lila had wanted to explain everything clearly.
But if she explained it like this, wouldn't that be throwing Ethan under the bus?
Ethan hadn't really done anything wrong, and she had agreed to help him.
She really couldn't do something so backstabbing.
Even if someone needed to say it, it should be Ethan telling his own mother.
Not her.
Lila stared at Alexander, then looked at the phone. While his eyes were on her face, she suddenly raised her hand, tapped the phone screen, and hung up the voice call.
Alexander caught her movement from the corner of his eye, and his expression immediately changed.
Before he could speak through gritted teeth to settle the score, Lila grabbed his hand first and rushed to explain, "Boss, I really did sincerely want to explain things, but I didn't expect you to call Ethan's mother! I promised Ethan this favor. If I went behind his back and told his mom I'm not his girlfriend, wouldn't that be betraying Ethan? We all studied together before—doing that would be really inappropriate."
Alexander looked at her coldly, "Is that your excuse for lying to me?"
"I admit I said I'd talk myself just now, but I didn't know it was Ethan's mother on the other end!" Lila explained nervously.
But this explanation didn't appease him.
Alexander laughed in anger, emphasizing each syllable as he called her name, "Lila!"
Seeing he was about to lose his temper, Lila flinched and spoke meekly, "Boss—no, honey! Honey, please don't be angry. I promise I'll definitely clear things up. Just let me handle this myself, okay? Please?"
Alexander listened to her soft, pleading tone, and the anger in his heart inexplicably faded quite a bit.
He glanced at her hand gripping his.
When he looked, he realized this woman was holding his hand pretty tightly—clearly, she was quite anxious.
Alexander asked her with a raised tone, "Are you that afraid of me?"
Lila looked confused, "Huh?"
"When you were explaining, you looked like you were about to cry. What, afraid I'd get angry?"
"I guess I also felt I shouldn't have just hung up like that, and I was a bit scared you'd lose your temper."
Alexander stared at her with an unreadable expression, his lips curving slightly, "I can let you handle this problem yourself."
"Really?"
"But there's a condition."
Lila immediately backed down, asking tentatively, "What condition?"
Alexander grabbed her hand in return, opened her palm, placed her phone in it, and said unhurriedly, "Open your phone's camera, take a photo of you and me together, send it directly to Ethan, and tell him I'm your husband."