Chapter 95: The Banquet
Edrick
“There’s my favorite girls,” I said with a smile.
I didn’t even think about it before I said it, but I knew as soon as it came out of my mouth that I’d made
a mistake. Ella didn’t seem to notice, but Moana sure did. Her green eyes, which looked even more
beautiful with the small amount of gold eyeshadow around them, widened.
“Ha,” I said, feigning surprise at myself in the feeble hope that I could get away without Moana dwelling
on this too much, “slip of the tongue. Are you two ready?”
…
When we arrived at the banquet, the party had already begun. The end of summer banquet was a long-
standing Morgan family tradition. The banquet that I had taken Moana and Ella to earlier that summer
was solely for more immediate family and close friends, but this banquet was different. Each summer,
practically every single member of the entire Morgan clan, from immediate family to cousins several
times removed and all of their own friends and extended families through marriage would come from all
over the globe to visit my parents’ mansion. Needless to say, these parties were huge, and often went
on for two or three days. That was why I paid my old friend Tyrus to come and do Moana’s hair and
makeup; sure, it was necessary for the nanny, but I wanted to make a good impression. Besides, I had
to admit that I wanted to do a little something nice for Moana to make her feel better, although I would
never tell her that.
The driver pulled up to the front driveway and we got out. Moana held Ella’s hand as we walked up the
wide stone pathway, lined with fountains and sculptures, but as soon as Ella saw her other little cousins
she instantly took off running.
“Oh— Ella!” Moana called, taken by surprise by Ella’s sudden mad dash.
“It’s alright,” I said with a chuckle. “She only gets to see these kids once a year. She’ll be fine —
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtalthough that dress will probably wind up in the trash by the time she’s done rolling around with them
like an animal.”
Moana managed a wry laugh and followed me up the steps to the front door, where servants were
waiting to take our jackets. Glasses of champagne were handed to us almost as soon as we walked
into the large banquet hall, but Moana refused.
“Darling!” my mother’s familiar voice called as I entered. She waved at us from across the crowd, and
Moana and I made our way over to her. Of course, with so many people here, she only extended
Moana the basic pleasantries, although I knew that my mother secretly wanted to dote on the mother of
my second child all night. When I was with Olivia, it was the same thing. I didn’t have to hide my
relationship with Olivia quite as much as with Moana, so my mother would spend hours at these events
gushing over her despite my father’s sullenness that I wasn’t married to her. Although, Olivia quickly
stopped even coming to the events as soon as she got pregnant; I didn’t realize it at the time, thinking
that she was just dealing with morning sickness throughout the pregnancy, but she was really sneaking
around with other men and only used the pregnancy to keep me faithful.
“How are you, mom?” I asked, planting a kiss on her cheek while Moana stood nearby, looking a little
out of place despite her luxurious outfit.
“I’m splendid,” my mother said, then turned to Moana. “And you look absolutely stunning, dear. You’re
glowing.”
Moana blushed. “Thank you.”
Then, my mother turned back to face me and lowered her voice. “I’d advise steering clear of your
father, at least until he’s had a couple of drinks in him,” she said, patting my hand. “He’s not happy
about the tabloid.”
My eyes widened; so my father did see the tabloid after all. When he didn’t call to scold me about it, I
thought that he never saw it.
“Does he know…?” I asked, indicating Moana’s pregnancy.
“I think he might have an idea,” my mother replied. “But I told him that we were just having a nice lunch,
and that you never mentioned anything about a pregnancy. That might have allayed his suspicions for
the time being.”
“Good.” I felt a lump rise in my throat as I scanned the crowd for my father, but when I finally spotted
him, he was far on the other side of the banquet hall and appeared to be deep in conversation with one
of my uncles.
Suddenly, I felt someone tap my shoulder. I turned around to see none other than Kelly grinning up at
me. She really seemed to go all out for this banquet with her hair and makeup, but what most struck
me was that she was wearing an eerily similar dress to the one that Moana was wearing. In fact, the
longer I looked at it, the more I realized that it was in fact the exact same dress; just tighter, as though
she had it altered to sit snugly around her waist and show off her flat stomach. I couldn’t help but
wonder if it was intentional, as if she was trying to one-up Moana, who had to hide her belly somewhat.
I personally found Kelly to pale in comparison to how beautiful Moana looked.
“Hello, dear Edrick,” Kelly said, planting a wet kiss on my cheek. “It’s been a little while, hasn’t it?”
“Since the gala, yes,” I said. “Thank you again for that generous donation.”
“Hm.” Kelly pursed her lips and glanced over at Moana, who had still hardly said a word this entire time.
Kelly’s eyes slid up and down Moana judgingly before coming back to me. “Well, it was the least I could
do to help you get a head start,” Kelly finally said. “Of course, if it were a werewolf orphanage, I could
have donated more… But, you know, I didn’t want to be making too much of a political statement.”
I stifled a scoff. Of course Kelly would say that; she had always been anti-humans, at least since we
were teenagers. I always found it funny because of the fact that we often played with the human
servant children when we were little, and she didn’t seem to have a problem then. But, then again, I
supposed that it was bound to happen eventually being raised by a wealthy werewolf family. Even I still
had my hang ups about humans, although I had to admit that Moana was slowly breaking those walls
down.
“Anyway,” Kelly said, “I’m glad I found you. Can we talk? I only need a minute of your time.”
“Sure,” I replied, only to be polite. I followed Kelly across the banquet hall, taking one last glance over
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmmy shoulder at Moana. She stared after us with a combination of abandonment and jealousy on her
face, and it admittedly made me feel a little bad.
Kelly eventually pushed through one of the doors that led to a small garden outside. Once we were
outside and alone, she stopped on the steps and turned to face me.
“I have a proposition,” she said, a coy smile spreading across her face.
I frowned. “What is it?”
“Well… Everyone saw that tabloid, you know. Now, I’m not saying that what was on the cover of that
tabloid is necessarily true — although I think the nanny’s added weight says it all anyway — but you
know that people are bound to start asking questions. And, well, say that the tabloid was right, and you
did have something to hide… I could help you hide it.”
“Oh?” I asked, raising an eyebrow as I folded my arms across my chest.
Kelly grinned. “Yes. I think you need a public ‘wife’, so to speak. Preferably an Alpha from a good
family.”
I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. “And I suppose you expect that to be you,” I replied. Kelly didn’t seem
fazed.
“I mean, it could be anyone,” she said. “It’s not like it would be real. Only real to the public. This ‘wife’
could also claim Ella as her daughter, so not only could you be free of speculation, but you also
wouldn’t have to hide Ella as much anymore. I think it’s a win for everybody.”
I didn’t know what to say. I was completely taken aback by this preposterous idea of Kelly’s, and it
made me wonder deep down if she somehow orchestrated this; she was so infatuated with me that I
wouldn’t put it past her to be the anonymous donor who tried to pay the tabloid to keep the picture up,
just to cause an uproar and give me no choice but to go through with this ‘fake’ relationship.
Before I could say anything, however, Kelly spoke again. She moved closer to me as she did, and her
eyes narrowed seductively.
“Think of it this way,” she said. “If I came out as your Alpha wife and Ella’s Alpha mother, then no one
would bother you about the nanny anymore; because no one would ever accuse the CEO of WereCorp
of being unfaithful to his wife with a lowly human servant… Right?”