”Are you sure? Even if you’re ill, it's my duty as your fiance to be very concerned.” Brendan narrowed his eyes. “Or are you sulking because I’ve been neglecting you?”As he spoke, he quietly drew his distance closer and closer to Charlene until his face was only several inches away from her. “I mulled about it for a moment and decided that, yes, I’ve been unfair to you. We are to be married, after all. I’ll be staying here for the night.”That offer would have sent Charlene straight to rapture if it had happened at literally any other time. At that moment, though? It just made her so panicked she was on the verge of breaking down.“No!”She rejected him so immediately and urgently that Brendan stared at her.“I-I mean, what about Miss McKinnon? She’s still here in the mansion! I thought about this and, you know, it’s inappropriate to do this to her when she’s pregnant with your kid. We still have a lot of time together, but hers is running out. We should, you know, be the bigger
“What do you think Charlene is thinking, Deirdre?” Deirdre’s heart sank. There was no way around it—Charlene had been screwing another man. She raised her head and met his gaze with pity. “Oh-kay. Why are you looking at me like that?” Deirdre churned her thoughts a while longer before deciding to tell it as it was. “This is going to come off as painful to you, but I think you deserve to know at least something. I think… Charlene has another man.”“What gave you that idea?” Brendan replied. The emotion in his tone was unreadable. “I called you this afternoon, right? A few minutes before that, I smelled… well, a man’s sweat. And then Mrs. Engel told me the way Charlene walked was off. When you square all of those together, the conclusion, well, wrote itself… you know?”It took her a lot of courage just to hesitantly express her suspicion. She even mentally steeled herself to watch Brendan break down in shock. And yet, to her surprise, the man simply chuckled.“I see, I see!”
Charlene was overjoyed. She called Brendan post-haste, her voice taking a coquettish tone, “Can you come home earlier today, Bren? I’ve got some really important announcements to make.”There was a brief beat of silence from the other side. “I’ll be home as soon as the meeting’s over.”“Terrific!”She straightened her back and began ordering Mrs. Engel to buy a list of cooking ingredients before personally preparing dinner. Relieved from kitchen duty, Mrs. Engel mused in the living room. “What’s with that Charlene? She’s as happy as a chimp with a banana. Is it her birthday today?”Deirdre shook her head. “It’s not this month.”“What else could possibly make her this happy, then?”“Good news upon her, I bet.”Before Mrs. Engel could understand what it meant, Brendan strode in from outside before hanging his suit on the rack.Charlene practically sprung out of the kitchen excitedly to greet him. “You’re home already, Bren?”“You called me about some important announcement, didn
The timescale matched. Brendan’s handsome features remained apathetic throughout the process. As they entered the car, Charlene asked sheepishly, “You… don’t want this kid, do you?”Her eyes turned misty. “If you don’t want them, just say it. I’m not going to force you into taking care of a child you don’t want. The last thing I want is to bring a fatherless kid to the world.” Brendan snapped out of his trance. “What are you saying? I said I was going to marry you, didn’t I?”As he turned the car engine on, Charlene laughed self-deprecatingly. “Yes, you did, but only because you needed news about Ophelia McKinnon’s whereabouts. It wasn’t out of real love. If it wasn’t for Ophelia, you wouldn’t even spare me a glance, would you?”Mentioning Ophelia brought a mocking sneer to Brendan’s face. “You really think I’d marry a woman I don’t love for Ophelia’s sake?”Charlene froze. Then, her eyes gleamed in anticipation. “What did you say, Bren?”Brendan was reluctant to repeat himsel
Brendan and Charlene’s marriage soon became a viral search term.Sam showed the comments to a silent, unreactive Brendan. Instead, he simply answered Charlene’s call as soon as it rang. The young woman made a production of being innocently confused, “Bren, what’s going on? Why were our pictures taken at the OB-GYN? What are we gonna do now?” Brendan thumbed through his documents. “You really didn’t know about it?”Charlene froze for a moment before chuckling dryly. “About what? This looks like a picture some bystander took in secret instead of traditional media journalists! We can’t control random people taking pictures of us. Or… do you want me to tweet out an explanation to throw them off?”“Everyone already knows you’re pregnant. No one’s going to believe otherwise.”Charlene sighed. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have brought you with me to the hospital… Now you’ve got another problem to handle.”“It’s okay.” Brendan rested his fingertip on his document. “The news is bound to
Charlene immediately feigned her fall and sat on the ground. Meanwhile, her eyes welled up with tears. Brendan showed up from the left corner and found Charlene getting up from the ground, sobbing. She put on such a good act that her expression was extremely pitiful. Brendan furrowed his eyebrows in disgust. He took a glance at the surroundings and asked, “What happened?”Charlene made her way to Brendan and said in a grieving tone, “Forget it…Brendan. It’s fine. I think that Miss McKinnon might not be in a good mood, so she is using me to vent her anger. She was angered after finding out about our marriage, and I can understand that.”Deirdre wanted to laugh at Charlene’s fabricated, provocative remark. “Were you not trying to slap me in the face because you were angered and embarrassed? I can’t see clearly, but I can still see that your action is much more honest than your mouth.”Charlene assumed an innocent expression. “Miss McKinnon, you can blame me for taking Brendan
Brendan’s gaze pooled around Charlene, like a spotlight, as she continued to sob. “If it weren’t for those journalists putting my feet on the fire, I wouldn’t have forced Miss McKinnon to attend my wedding, okay?“Do you really think her attendance is going to be, in any way, shape, or form, beneficial to me? She’s pregnant with your child, Bren! Every time I see it, it hurts me so much!”She was acting so hard, yet Brendan’s eyes exuded impassivity and nonchalance. He waited until she was done venting and passed her a piece of tissue. “So, you had nothing to do with it?”“Of course!” Charlene wiped away her tears. “I see. I believe you.” Brendan’s tone softened.Charlene broke out a watery smile and began redressing her ruined makeup as Brendan focused on driving. “Bren, should… Should we tell Miss McKinnon? I told the reporter that she was joining, after all…”Brendan nodded impatiently. “Now that you told the media it’s going to happen, she has to be there, or it’d seem like
Deirdre immediately recognized the crux of his announcement. “What happened?”“She told the journalists you’ll be attending her wedding, so now, if you don’t go, that will make things really tough to explain.”“She said I was going to attend. Right on the journalists’ faces.” Deirdre’s expression darkened. She had mistaken the certainty in Charlene’s words earlier today as a bluff—she did not know it was planned.Still, something puzzled her. Why would Charlene go to all these lengths to force her into attending her wedding reception? Unless… Charlene had something else planned for her?Deirdre raised her head at that thought. She needed to warn him. “Brendan?”She needed to remind him that Charlene never did something without an ulterior motive. But before she could say anything at all, someone knocked on their door. The voice from the devil herself came from the other side. “Bren? Bren! Are you in there?”Deirdre’s heart stopped for a millisecond. How did she know he was in the