Chapter 161. MARRIED SECRETLY
After Amber finally got home, she was immediately interrogated by both of her parents. “Something really did come up! Ever since Trysta became pregnant, she hasn’t been doing well. She’s been unable to eat or sleep, so her parents called me over. I really had no choice but to go.”
And then Amber said that she had been accompanying Trysta this whole time, and was unable to answer her phone because Trysta’s emotions were too unstable. She even offered to call Trysta’s mother’s as a witness, telling them, “You can call them to confirm it. I’m serious.”
Her expression was sincere.
Her parents begrudgingly believed her because they couldn’t really call Trysta’s parents, could they? But they still didn’t let her off the hook, and they instead shifted topics to Ian.
“If he didn’t do anything with you during the New Year’s, then he clearly doesn’t think of you seriously. Thus, I think you might as well drop this matter.”
The key thing was that Ruby had told them about Ian’s background. Although the Axton family wasn’t as well-known in the suburbs, Amber’s parents still knew of his family. Even though they did feel better about Ian as a potential son-in-law, they also felt that there was no need for Amber to try to jump so high up on the pecking order. After all, they prioritized their daughter’s future happiness.
In fact, the main reason why they had rushed over so hurriedly tonight was to emphasize this matter.
Amber naturally agreed with whatever they said. Her relationship with Ian was too complicated to explain, and given the current stage of their relationship, it was also unnecessary to explain it.
By the time they were done talking, it had gotten very late in the night, and Amber had to work out the sleeping situation for everyone. Her place only had two bedrooms and a single living room. Her parents would take the guest room, so Ruby had no other option but to sleep in the living room.
Luckily for him, the living room had a heater, and this spring was quite warm. So, Ruby wouldn’t freeze even if he was a bit uncomfortable.
After their parents retired to their room for the night, the two siblings had their own conversation. Ruby and Amber were more or less acquaintances, and the two even had some business connections, so he started off by asking about her condition.
Amber couldn’t really reveal much about Frank, so she vaguely replied, “It’s somewhat awkward for her to receive visitors right now, so it’s fine even if you don’t go visit her.”
Ruby nodded before suddenly asking, “Did you go to the Axton Hotel tonight?”
No matter how skilled Amber was at psychiatry, she still couldn’t fully conceal her own emotions. Caught off guard, she could only eventually truthfully reply, “Yes. How did you know?”
“My friend was eating there and he saw you.” Ruby looked at his sister, his tone severe. “Is there really nothing going on between you and Ian?”
Amber fell silent. Before tonight, she could have firmly claimed that there was nothing going on between them, and that she was only treating him as a special patient. But after the night’s events, she clearly knew that their relationship wasn’t that simply described.
After thinking it over briefly, she cautiously said, “If there’s something, then I might not reject it.”
Ruby’s expression became somewhat complicated, as he probably wanted to congratulate her but did not know where to start.
After quite a while, he finally said, “The Axton family isn’t a regular family, and Ian isn’t a regular person.” He was silent for another stretch of time before asking, “Have you met his family?”
Amber nodded.
“He… has a brother. Have you met him too?”
Amber raised her head, surprised.
“You’ve investigated him?” This “him” was referring to Ian. It wasn’t strange for Amber to think this, because Daren Axton was still in school. As a businessman, it wouldn’t be strange for Ruby to know of Ian, but him knowing Daren was a bit strange.
Ruby paused for a moment before quickly inflating with confidence and vigorously declaring, “Of course! I only have one sister! Don’t I have to be more careful?”
Amber harrumphed in annoyance. “Lying again!”
Ruby desperately thought to himself, ‘What can I do?!’ He was used to making these moves all the time in his business dealings, but he had to be very careful with his words at home.
When he was faced with Amber’s pellucid gaze that refused to let him get away with even the smallest thing, he could only touch his nose in shame and admit, “I wanted to do business with the Axton family in the past, so I thought of some ways to form connections with them.
Ian is particularly hard to get close to, so I asked someone to investigate the people around him to see if there were any easier targets.”
“And what did you find?” But as soon as Amber said this, she suddenly remembered the answer to her own question. “Not only did you find something, but you even found the target that you were looking for, didn’t you? I remember that your engineering project in Hainan was from the Axton family.”
This engineering project in Hainan was the project that Ruby had been working on right before the start of the new year. He had never mentioned it before, but Amber had suddenly recalled that the backdrop of one of his work photos on his social media feed was the banner of the Axton corporation.
Ruby begrudgingly admitted to it. “You do have quite the good memory.” He then sighed before explaining, “I did do that project, but I wasn’t the one who obtained the contract. I bought it off of someone else, and even had to fork over a large intermediary fee to him.”
Afraid that Amber was going to keep pressing him for information, he hurriedly said, “So since you’re on really good terms with Ian now, please don’t forget about me.” He grabbed her hand and rubbed it greedily. “Don’t forget about your dear brother when you make it rich.”
Amber pulled her hand back as if she were about to slap him in the face.
Ruby chuckled. As the two siblings messed with each other, Amber suddenly heard her mother calling for her.Material © of NôvelDrama.Org.
Amber went into the guest room and immediately saw that the guest room’s cupboard was wide open. Her parents were both stock-still in their pajamas, as if they had just seen a frightening creature come out of the cupboard.
Amber peeked in. Ah, oh dear. The big red blanket that Ian had used to wrap up his nude body s a present was still there! Amber’s mother walked over, pointed at the blanket, and asked, “When did you buy this?”
Actually, the blanket wasn’t the problem, its color was the real issue. Amber’s taste had never included such bright colors. She might have one or two red pieces of clothing to match with the rest of her outfit.
But with regards to a blanket, and especially to this sort of big, red blanket that was normally only bought for a marriage or a particularly joyous occasion, Amber wouldn’t buy something like that even if she weren’t thinking straight!
But what she said was, “I… I bought it when I wasn’t thinking straight.”
And then her infuriated mother yelled, “You wouldn’t buy something like this even if you weren’t thinking straight! Is this something that you think can be explained away by that silly excuse?
This damn thing is something that you only use when you get married! Tell us, did you already secretly get married with that dolt?!”