Faux Vows, True Desires

There were only eggs and sausages in the fridge, nothing else. They looked at each other, then at the pitiful spread.

"What can we whip up?"

"I'll rustle up some Eggs Benedict for you." Stefan muttered.

Lucinda's eyes lit up. "Really? Can you? My mom used to make that for me. It's delish, I love it."

Although she had a pastry chef at her café, she and Cecilia would sometimes lend a hand, whipping up sweet treats. Lucinda was quite good at it.

She had no idea Stefan could cook.

Stefan had once told her that the Anderson kids, despite their privileged start in life, were shipped off to the family training camp once they hit a certain age, every summer and winter break.

They underwent training on the Anderson private island and had to fend for themselves.

Lucinda thought Stefan was just spinning a yarn, but it turned out he could actually do a lot of things.

To her, he was like a thick book. Each page turned revealed something new, something exciting.

She'd struck gold.

"During my training days, I made Eggs Benedict countless times. The eggs were from chickens I raised myself." Stefan was telling as he got the ingredients ready.

"Listening to you, I'm getting more and more curious about your family's training camp. Can I visit?"

Stefan turned to her, a twinkle in his eyes. "Of course, you can. I'm the head of the family and you're the head's wife. You can visit the training camp anytime. We're booked solid this week. How about next weekend? We'll spend a couple of days there."

"Deal."

a second thought, Lucinda

was late,

helping out,

Benedict was ready and handed over to

"It smells so good."

Lucinda loved the aroma.

cutlery when he saw her eating with her hands. He handed her

Stefan. Do you want to join

at her. "I'm not hungry. You

filled him

so busy with work that he hadn't cooked in ages. Only after marrying

on feeding

"Yummy."

She commented.

I cooked. Thankfully, it turned out pretty well. When we visit the camp, I'll cook you some chicken. The chicken there is particularly delicious, probably because they're free-range and not fed any feed. Life there is completely self-reliant. No boats approach the camp during training, so no one has the time,

with no knowledge

food items. The first step was to cook for ourselves. Whatever

farming and gardening, planting various crops. Deciding what to

Anderson boys are so accomplished. And no

was indeed comprehensive, relentless on the academic front and strict on the

also taught to be independent, to

them from becoming

family, if anyone wasted money, their assets would be frozen and they would be sent back to the training