Chapter 2 Engagement Partner

“Mr., Mr., Mr. Marsh?” Fern’s heart had jumped into her throat, and her mind was a blank now. Her hands were unable to find a place to rest upon hence they were frozen in mid-air awkwardly. She was most afraid of being caught red-handed by Khalid, but seeing that they were no further developments after this, she realized that he was not awaken like what she had thought. He was probably throwing a drunken fit. Fern was very forgiving, she didn’t want to find fault with a drunkard, so she carefully tried to push away Khalid’s shoulders in order to slip out from underneath him. She was almost crushed by him! But when she accidentally touched Khalid’s body, she suddenly felt very guilty. It was as if his whole body was burning, she immediately withdraw her hands. She was like an overturned turtle now, her limbs were flailing around for some time but Khalid was immovable on top of her. “Mr. Marsh… you, you should lose some weight!” Fern had struggled for some time but she was now almost running out of energy while panting heavily. Khalid thought that he had enough fun, so he secretly let his body be at ease, and went along with Fern’s struggling movements in order to create the illusion that she had escaped him using her own efforts. In order to flip herself around, Fern was sweating all over due to fatigue. She wanted to push Khalid clean off her but his hands were grabbing her waist, so she could only flip herself to be on top of her to gain the upper ground here. Then it would be easier to break free. She initially thought that wrenching his hands off her waist was going to take a lot of her efforts, but to her surprise, she was able to pull them off easily. Just as she was about to get up, she heard a sound indicating something was being torn. She felt that her chest was strangely unrestrained, and when she looked down, she saw that her T-shirt was torn in the middle to where her stomach was. Her whole chest was exposed now! The torn off part of her shirt was stuck on the flower decoration in one of the pockets of Khalid’s suit. The expensive-looking brooch was now deformed because of her pulling herself just now, but she couldn’t care about this now. She quickly tore off the part of her shirt clean from his suit and tried to patch it back on her body, but it was no use because the tear was too great. She was really unlucky! Fern was in a turmoil right now, especially when she stole a glance of Khalid who was lying still in front of her. Although his eyes were shut, but she couldn’t shake off the feeling that he had seen her bare chest, and a sense of shame immediately crept up on her. She rushed into the bathroom at one. Khalid only opened his eyes when he heard the bathroom door being slammed shut. A faint curve appeared at the corner of his lips. The reason that he had forced Fern to lay down with him was to verify whether he would feel uncomfortable being so close to her. But he now knew that there was no such feeling, and about Fern’s torn T-shirt that was stuck on his brooch, that was his purposeful doing, not her bad luck causing it to happen. He didn’t think that she would have a good figure although she looked so young! Fern wrapped herself in a towel in the bathroom and she made sure there were no openings for her to be exposed again. When she raised her head and saw her reflection in the mirror, she shrieked again. “What the hell” Her face in the mirror was a mess, her makeup was smudged with all the different colors mixing together, like an art palette. When she left her house in the morning, she had put on a heavy makeup to make herself looked much older, since she was going to play the role of a hostess. She looked so mature previously but now she couldn’t even recognize herself anymore. She didn’t have makeup remover at the moment, so she had to sprinkle hot water on her face for a while to make her look like herself one again. When she was wiping her face with a handkerchief, there was a persistent knocking on the door of the room. “I’m coming now!” The knocking sounded very nervous, so Fern didn’t care less about how she would look as she sped towards the door to open it. There was a handful of reporters waiting by the door, some of them holding a microphone while the others snapped photos of Fern furiously. “You, you guys…” Why were they here so early? She didn’t even call them yet! She was just beginning the second phase of her plan. And in front of her now were reporters from all the major media outlets, which she had thought most of them would not come. But every one of them was here without anyone missing! “Miss, may I know your name? Is Mr. Marsh in there?” The reporters pressed forward one after another as they planned to squeeze into the room to get a good shot. She had no choice but to go into the third step prematurely, she couldn’t miss this chance now! Fern tried to vanquish her nervousness and showed a big smile in front of the reports, preparing to tell them a story about how Khalid and her had spent a lustful night… Well, not literally, but they did do some indecent things. But after cooking it up in her mind, and just before she could start telling the story, the reporters in front of her were already focusing their gaze on the scene behind her. Some of them were so excited that they were trying to push here aside and barge into the room. She was wearing sandals provided by the hotel, which caused her to be a little off balance. Just when she was about to topple over, a hand supported her back and stopped her from falling. “Mr. Marsh, did you really sleep with this miss here? What about your fiancée?” “Miss, do you know that Mr. Marsh and Miss Cleo from the Woods family is going to engage in a marriage? Don’t you think that you have become the third wheel now?” “Of course I know that, I…” Fern was about to make a great story out of this and infuriate Cleo with this interview. She would jump on her feet if she saw this. But Khalid abruptly interrupted her without giving her any chance to say anything, “She did know about that, because she is my engagement partner from the Woods family, Cleo Woods.” His tone was calm and cool and sounded undeniable. “What? I, I am not…” Fern turned around and stared at Khalid, she was whimpering now out of fear. Khalid’s suit was ruined, the buttons on his shirt were all messy and out of place, and the top most button was gone too. His hair was in a mess, and there was a sign of fatigue showing on his handsome face, as if he had just finished his business on the bed. “Are you serious?” Fern pinched her own thigh through the towel and immediately registered the pain to prove that she was not hallucinating. But in the name of God, she hadn’t done anything to Khalid! “So you are Miss Woods?” They were going to engage, yet they appeared at a hotel room? The reporters were immediately rendered speechless. They had been rushing here to get a big scoop out of this, but it turned out to just be a romance between couples! But it was indeed rare for them to interview Khalid, so although there was no shocking news here, they still tried to pry some news out of him. “Then, Mr. Marsh, have you decide the engagement date with Miss Woods? After your engagement, when are you going to hold your wedding ceremony?” Khalid was in fabulous mood now, so he didn’t refuse their questions, “This depends on when Miss Woods will say yes to my proposal.” After saying that, he shot a lovely glance at Fern who was rooted to the spot beside him. Fern who had seen his eyes trembled slightly, and her mind was now in a state of mud, as if she had lost all her thinking ability. She was just frozen there the whole time the reporters were probing Khalid with pesky questions. Although he did answer them, but they didn’t some like genuine answers, but that was enough for the reporters to feel satisfied and leave them alone finally. The room returned to its previous peacefulness, and Khalid took out his phone to make a call. Only then did Fern came back to reality as she waited patiently for Khalid to finish his phone call. Seeing him hanging up the phone, she quickly stood in front of him and bowed, “Mr. Marsh, I’m sorry for my actions today, but there is something I need to make clear of, I’m not your fiancée, Cleo Woods, I’m…” Before she could finish her sentence, Khalid raised his hand and interrupted her, “You’re Fern Woods, I know that.”