Chapter 5

THE PARTY

When Emerald heard his words, she paused for a second. 

“It seems I missed my own wedding, You are not offended, right?” she asked sarcastically. 

“You seem offended that you are Mrs. Reeves.” 

Emerald, her composure intact, replied with a hint of defiance, “Yes, I’m Emerald Jackson. But what I don’t understand is why am I also Mrs. Reeves?” 

A subtle smile played on Matthew’s lips as he took a moment before responding, “And why did you not refuse the claims? It seems you’ve been content with the arrangement.” 

The exchange carried a palpable tension, each word a step deeper into the unraveling mystery. To his words, Emerald slightly choked

“I am not the one that started this, why should I be the one that ends it? Besides, you even managed to let someone I want to work with find out. Are you not glad I did not expose you?” she asked. 

Emerald, determined to confront the situation head-on, retorted 

“I never agreed to this. I need to know why you’ve been spreading this false narrative.”

Matthew, his expression cryptic yet composed, replied

“You cannot already guess the reason? You’ve used my name to secure a collaboration with Mark Hartley, haven’t you? My name has been very useful, the same has yours has been,” he approached her slowly till they were standing too close for comfort. 

Emerald, caught off guard, started retreating but when she met his cold eyes. She felt an air of challenge, so she stood firm. 

“Emerald,” he called her name, and she shivered slightly, “You don’t remember me, do you?” he asked and the words at the tip of her tongue crawled back into her throat. 

“I have to go out there soon, so we will have to continue this some other time.” He stepped back and picked up his watch on the table and put it on. 

“Do we know each other?” she finally spoke, feeling relieved by the sudden distance between them. 

“You are my wife, aren’t you? You have already admitted to it. What next? If you refuse it now, the collaboration you have with Mark Hartley is completely over,” he said. 

“I… Still, you started it, so you can at least comply with his wishes so that he might still collaborate with me,” she suggested. 

“Even if I do that, your reputation in the industry is destroyed. You might even have issues at work,” he said and she could immediately picture Lucy Gruiel’s sneer. 

“Even so, why would I comply with his wishes? I would do that for my wife and not anyone else,” he said, walking to the door and pausing to look back at her. Seeing her slightly lost look as she stared at the center table, humor danced in his eyes slightly before disappearing. 

“Or you can just walk out this door as my wife. I see you came dressed,” he said glancing at her black cocktail dress. 

“What?” she asked. 

“It seems we both have something to gain from this arrangement. You do something for me, I do something for you. You can clear your name and lose Mark Hartley, or you can walk out there with me as your husband, greeting guests and securing your collaboration. You can be Mrs. Reeves right now and your life returns to how it used to be,” he said, reaching his hand out to her. 

Outside of the party, Andrew and Nina were finding it hard getting into the event. Because they had caused trouble for ‘Mrs. Reeves’, the security was even more strict with them when checking their invitations. 

“You are not on the list,” the man at the door said and Andrew went blank. He truly was not on the list. He had bought his invitation from someone else and did not think they would actually check the list. 

“I am here on behalf of President Lee,” he said with a slightly red face. This was the name of the person she had been told the invitation belonged to. 

The man at the door checked the list again, while he asked them to stand aside. It did not take long for Nina and Andrew to notice that others were being let in by just checking their invitation and not checking the list. 

Nina had a feeling that it was Emerald, who was the cause of this. 

Is it possible that Emerald is really married? 

“Mr. Lee had already informed us that he would not be able to attend and had sent a gift. Please leave,” the man at the door asked them to leave. 

Nina turned red from the looking eyes and tears filled up her eyes. She turned around and rushed away, with Andrew following after her. 

Inside, Emerald and Mathew made their entrance. 

Mathew took emerald around introducing her to everyone around. For some reason, Emerald felt as though she was being paraded like a new toy. 

She saw Emily at the corner of her eyes giving her a thumbs up and felt like throwing a punch her way. Emerald had imagined these parties going a different way. 

Emily had always told her stories about fights breaking out. But nothing of a sort happened. Not only were many respectful of Mathew, they were afraid of him. 

But it seemed that Emily was not exaggerating as drama waltzed all the way to Emerald’s front yard. 

Amidst the laughter and chatter, a waiter approached them with a tray of drinks, his movements hurried and distracted. 

Before anyone could react, he stumbled, spilling white wine onto Emerald’s dress with a clumsy splash. 

“I am so sorry, Madam. I am so sorry,” the little staff hurriedly apologized while shaking. 

“It’s fine. At least it isn’t red wine.” Emerald said. 

Gasps of surprise rippled through the crowd as the commotion drew attention. Mathew frowned deeply and looked to the security. The waiter was quickly escorted out. 

The waiter was begging profusely. A lot more than someone who was losing their job would. This was quite suspicious to Emerald. 

“Let me take her to go change,” a woman approached out of nowhere to help out, but Emerald threw her a cold look. She had seen the woman trip the waiter.

“Tripping a waiter is not something anyone should be doing anywhere,” she said to the woman who had approached coldly and then turned to Matthew. 

“I am going to clean up,” she said

She first checked to make sure that there was no one else around, hoping to make a dash for the nearest toilet paper, possibly in the next stall. But just as she was about to get up, she had people walk in, which led her to sit back down. She refused to be seen walking around with a mess on her dress. She hoped that they would move fast, do their business, and leave. But the girls had probably come to gossip. 

Their conversation as they came in;

“What are you going to do, Lydia?” 

“What can I do about it?” the girl that seemed to be Lydia answered. 

“I heard he was married, but no one had ever seen his wife. Some even suspected that they were probably separated.” 

“What can be done? I should go home and tell my father to give up, right?” The called Lydia answered, “He has always had plans for me to marry Mathew Reeves, and has invested much in getting me into his family. 

But so what? The wife actually exists.” 

“Then-“ 

“Then nothing. It is not as though we can remove his wife, right? This is Mathew Reeves. Our heads will go flying,” This Lydia said. 

“True. But your father has put so much into this. What if Mathew Reeves blames you?” the other girls seemed to almost scream. 

“I will find a way to remove myself from this. I am already moving away my assets. If my father wants to die, he should do it on his own,” Lydia said. 

“It is better than becoming a missing person,” another said, and their voices trailed away. 

Hearing them leave, Emerald stuck with a mess on her dress and hurriedly peeked outside to make sure there was no one, before she stepped out to wash her hands. 

Their conversation made her uncomfortable. All she had found about Mathew Reeves was that he was a businessman from a well-known family. Could she be wrong?

What was all this about people disappearing and heads flying? And she had just walked around as his wife. She was not sure what she was supposed to do now. 

She walked out of the bathroom and saw Mathew’s assistant by the corner, and stopped him. 

“Please give me your number,” she said. 

“My number?” he asked. 

“So I might contact Mr. Reeves after this. I have an interview to meet up with. I have to go,” she said. 

She was not really lying. She really had an interview to deal with tonight. When she had come over, she had thought that she would be meeting Mathew reeves briefly. Maybe even setting up another meeting. But she had been dragged around. 

“Let me inform Mr. Reeves,” the assistant said. 

“It’s fine. Just give me your number,” she said, and he handed her his card.

“I will be leaving now.” As Emerald left, she texted Emily, who was still inside, that she was leaving for her interview. 

When she received an okay, she was relieved and walked out to her car. 

In the Jackson family mansion, Nina had returned in tears. When she rushed home, the first thing she did was to visit her grandmother and complain about Emerald. 

“It must have been her. See how embarrassed Andrew and I were,” she cried. 

“Stop crying! What is all this crying for? 

You are already getting married,” her grandmother, Martha, scolded her. 

The old woman was a strict and ruthless business woman in her time and did not like too much crying. Even though she had now retired, she was still known for her strict demeanor about everything. 

“But grandma, when she does all this, isn’t it because she is still in love with Andrew?” Nina asked and her grandmother’s eyes darkened. 

When Nina saw her grandmother’s reaction, she could not help but smile inwardly. 

She knew that her marriage to Andrew Leslie was very important to the family. There was no way her grandmother would tolerate Emerald going off rails. She knew this.

“It seems it is time to marry her off,” Martha said. 

Hearing this, Nina was extremely pleased. Did Emerald say she was married? She scoffed inwardly. 

She guessed that she had not married anyone of importance if she did not tell the family. If she had married someone great, she would have come back to step on her head. 

She guessed that she may have married someone in the planning committee of the Reeves party and had used the connection against her. 

She knew her grandmother well. She was not going to let Emerald go. This pleased Nina greatly. 

Somewhere in the city, Emerald had rounded up her interview, not knowing there were those planning for her future. 

The mist hugged the city like a vengeful ghost as Emerald walked back from her interview; nothing Emerald was not used to. 

But this night was different; Something about the air was wrong. Something about the chill was too cold to the touch of her skin. She had never walked this part of the city before. She had chased a potential interview all the way.

“Why did I even bother going?” she muttered as she walked. 

Seeing how she had to return empty-handed, she wondered why she had even bothered. Now she was walking the cold night in an unknown part of Feather city all by herself. 

She could not help sighing.

“Let’s never do this again,” she muttered. 

She hugged her black coat tighter to herself and walked with more caution; her eyes wandering at every lizard that crossed paths with her. 

“Why did I stupidly park my car this far away?” she scolded herself. 

Suddenly her ears caught sounds approaching; growling of some sorts. She could no more stay calm, as her steps quickened till she broke out in a full-blown run.