Chapter 18: An Artificial Encounter
“It’s my responsibility to take in the only child left behind by a good friend who has passed away,” Emma looked at her stepsister earnestly.
“I’m stopping you from divorcing Easton for your own good! You’ve grown accustomed to a life of luxury; can you actually handle a life of hardship? Changing your situation for no reason is just asking for trouble!”
With that said, Ellis felt there was no need to continue the conversation with her stepmother. Though Emma seemed to have her best interests at heart, she continually emphasized the importance of money, making it clear that she didn’t care about Ellis’s happiness in her marriage.
Seeing her stepdaughter fall silent again, Emma wasn’t angry this time. She assumed Ellis was absorbing her words and seized the opportunity. “Men are easy to appease. Go to the kitchen and prepare a feast of Easton’s favorite dishes.”
Ellis pretended not to hear her mother and turned away instead. “I have something to do. I’m leaving now!”
Emma’s expression darkened instantly. “If you dare to leave, just try it!”
Ellis reluctantly withdrew her foot and turned to face her stepmother. Emma’s furious demeanor suggested that if Ellis dared to leave, she would no longer acknowledge her as her daughter.
As the third generation of the Hudson family, Easton was neither familiar nor close to his aunt. His aunt’s claim of missing him felt strange, so he didn’t return to the family home at the agreed time and was over an hour late. Little did he know, during that hour, Ellis was required to sit at the dining table and could not leave.
Having just been humiliated by Easton yesterday, she now had to face him again. Looking at the delicious food on the table, memories flooded her mind, enveloping her in pain and suffering. Cooking for the one you love is supposed to be a joyful and fulfilling experience. Though she was not skilled in the kitchen, she had once naively believed that “to capture a man’s heart, you must first capture his stomach.” She had tried to learn to cook, but it never earned her Easton’s attention, only disdain and ridicule.
“You make food that’s worse than pig slop. What a waste of ingredients!”
“Why can’t I hire a chef? Why do you need to cook for me every day?”
“Stop thinking about cooking; it’s unnecessary and it annoys me!”
The echoes of Easton’s past words made her want to smack herself for believing such nonsense. If capturing a man’s stomach means capturing his heart, then wouldn’t countless chefs in the world be loved by many? This long-held belief simply doesn’t hold true. For those who are loved, a person’s cooking skills matter little.
For instance, when Victoria was still Easton’s fiancée, Ellis had witnessed her make pastries to share with everyone. They tasted awful, yet Easton ate them without batting an eye and praised her cooking. Meanwhile, Ellis had repeatedly practiced making Easton’s favorite dishes and had made significant progress, but he only took a few bites of the first few attempts before refusing to eat any more, instructing the servants to throw the rest away.
Now, she was unwilling to step into the kitchen. Emma had the chef prepare meals disguised as if they were made by her, merely to provide her with an excuse to appease Easton and apologize for suggesting divorce, which she found absurd.
As the clock struck eight, Ellis stood up. “Aunt, it’s been over an hour since six-thirty. I should head back.”
It wasn’t that she wanted to disregard her stepmother’s kindness or provoke her into a rage. She had spent most of the day building up her mental strength, desperately controlling her negative emotions, and reassuring herself that meeting Easton was nothing, that it was just a way to temporarily appease her stepmother. She still intended to divorce him anyway.
However, after waiting for over an hour, she felt like her former self again, caught in an endless cycle of waiting, desperately hoping that Easton might glance her way despite being ever so busy all the time. She truly couldn’t endure her own demeaning situation any longer.
As Easton didn’t return and the food had already been heated multiple times, Emma, considering that Ellis and Easton were husband and wife who lived in the same house and shared the same bed, finally said, “Fine, you can go back. Don’t forget what I told you today, and remember to follow my advice…”
Before she could finish, a tall figure appeared in front of them.
“Easton, you’ve kept your aunt waiting! You finally made it!” Emma immediately switched her tone, smiling as she approached him. “What a coincidence, Ellis came to see me today too.”
Ellis was not emotionally strong enough to remain indifferent; she felt Easton intensely examining her, and her facade of normalcy almost cracked. Her limbs felt somewhat numb, and she stood frozen in place. The disdain in Easton’s eyes was all too obvious. At that moment, she felt like a clown.
Easton’s peripheral gaze swept past his aunt before landing on her false, enthusiastic smile. He said, with coolness, “A fake coincidence?” His words were directed at Emma, not her, but Ellis could still hear the thick layer of sarcasm in his tone, mocking the fact that Emma had called him back to the family home as part of her scheme.
She didn’t feel the need to defend herself. After all, it was true that Emma’s plan had created this artificial encounter. With that thought, Ellis picked up her chopsticks and began to serve herself food.