Eight

EVE'S POV

I was taking in the spectacle unfolding before me, when Morgan took my hand and led me towards the front door.

 Of all the ways I had expected Morgan's visit to go, this was definitely not one of them. I could still hear my mother and sister's grumbling as the door closed behind us.

Morgan kept his hold on my hand all the way to the front of the house. When he let go, he came to a stop and regarded me. 

"Why didn't you tell me you were coming to your parents' house?"

I looked towards the door, half-expecting my mother to appear with more flattering words for Morgan. While I did, I jogged my brain for an excuse to give Morgan. It wasn't as if I could tell him that I came to collect the money that my parents had promised me, on the account that I married him…

"Eve?" Morgan's voice urged.

Looking away from the door, I faced him.

"I'm sorry about that. When I left the house, I got a call from my father asking me to come by immediately. I didn't have time to tell you."

I remembered that when I left the house this morning, he had asked where I was heading to, and I had refused to tell him. Hopefully if he thought my trip to my family's home came up after I left, he wouldn't question me any more.

"You should have told me".

"It looks like with me around, they wouldn't have dared to treat you like that."

I met his gaze for a few seconds and then looked away. I wished I could read him.

Exactly how much of the argument had he heard? If he heard the part about me taking Cindy's place to marry him, everything would crumble.

I couldn't afford that, especially now that my parents' were already bringing up excuses to not fulfil their part of the deal.

"It wasn't all that serious" I said. 

Rubbing my arms, I asked.

"How much did you hear, anyway?”, I said as I let out an awkward smile.

“It's so embarrassing that you had to witness my family's fight”,.

Perhaps If I pretended that my major worry was saving my face, he wouldn't suspect that I was hiding something, right?

"Just your mother asking you to leave and your sister pushing you out of the door" he replied.

I released the breath I was holding. Good. And it didn't sound like he was lying. If he had heard more, how could he remain so calm? Besides, when he went into the house, the only issue he brought up was how Cindy and Morgana treated me.

If he heard anything about how we switched brides, he surely wouldn't have ignored that.

"They didn't hit you or anything, right?" he asked, placing his hands on my shoulders and taking a step back to inspect me. 

He looked me over, from head to my shoes, as if looking for any sign of physical harm. As if he was ready to storm back into the house and raise more hell if anyone did hit me.

I shook my head, his gesture catching me by surprise. Was this all part of acting like a couple in public?

"No, they didn't." 

When he finally released me, I saw it fit to ask my question.

“Why did you defend me? You didn't hear the entire argument. Maybe I was the one in the wrong”,

"You are my wife"' he replied.

 "I must take your side. It doesn't matter to me who was right"

"But we are just a pretend couple."

"You are still my wife. Besides, we are in public. I said I would treat you like my wife when we are in company, didn't I?"

So that was how he would treat his real wife? I hadn't expected a pretend husband to really step up to the role. And if this was how he would treat his real wife, that shows he was a much better man than the rumours had portrayed. 

To think that he was doing the same for me when we were just pretending...he must be a true gentleman.

Also, remembering the way he had put Morgana and Cindy in their place filled me with a feeling of happiness. All along, when the two bullied me, no one defended me. My adoptive father was usually quickly silenced by my mother, in the same way she had done just this morning. It was a nice break to have someone stand up for me.

Not only did he defend me, he effectively silenced mom and Cindy. It was as if he really cared for me

"Why are you smiling?"

Morgan's Voice brought me back down to earth and I immediately wiped off the smile I hadn't even noticed had formed.

"Nothing"' I said quickly. 

"Nothing?"

 It wasn't as if I could admit my rosy thoughts to him. 

My eyes wandered to the other guy, who was standing to the side with the shopping bags. 

"About the gifts…they are not genuine, right?".

Morgan followed my gaze and shoved his hands in his pants' pockets.

 "They are, but I actually borrowed them." 

He looked back at me.

 "I know that's not very manly of me, but I didn't want your family to ridicule you if I brought cheap gifts”.

I shook my head instantly. 

"Oh no. You don't have to do that for me. Forget them, I don't really care what they think. If they have a problem with your status, that's on them. It's not an issue to me."

It warmed my heart even more that he borrowed the gifts not even to save his own face, but instead it was to protect me from my family. 

He must have figured they would do something like that after the way Cindy behaved at the wedding. 

Oh heavens, if he kept taking care of me like this, I might just forget all this was just for show.

MORGAN'S POV 

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. But I figured that after everything I had witnessed so far, I really should stop getting surprised at how kind Eve appeared to be. 

At this rate, I could stop waiting for what I thought was her true personality to appear. I have a feeling I am already witnessing the real deal.

"Just make sure you keep them safe because if any of them gets damaged, we will not be able to compensate the owner" she said.

"Of course" I told her.

It occurred to me that if Eve was anything like I had been told, keeping the gifts safe for return would be the last thing on her mind.

No, she would be more like her mother and sister, salivating over them and demanding to keep them so she could dress glamorously. She wouldn't spare a thought about how I would be able to afford to pay them back when I was apparently jobless.

She would hate the fact that her husband was too poor that he had to borrow gifts to impress her family. And she definitely wouldn't assure me that she didn't care about my status.

At this point, it seemed that nothing I had heard about her checked out. It was clear that if I wanted to know the kind of woman I was married to, I would have to forget what I had heard and start paying attention to her instead.