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.

Ella!” Moana called, taken by surprise by Ella’s sudden

a year. She’ll be fine — although that dress will probably wind up in the trash

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

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

asked, planting a kiss on her cheek while Moana

mother said, then turned to Moana. “And you look absolutely stunning, dear. You’re

Moana blushed. “Thank you.”

least until he’s had a couple of drinks in him,” she said, patting my hand. “He’s not happy

he didn’t call to scold me about it, I thought that

I asked, indicating Moana’s

having a nice lunch, and that you never mentioned anything about a pregnancy. That might have allayed

when I finally spotted him, he was far on the other side of the banquet hall and

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,

Edrick,” Kelly said, planting a wet kiss on my cheek. “It’s been a little while,

“Thank

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

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

Kelly said, “I’m glad I found you. Can we talk? I only need a minute

the banquet hall, taking one last glance over my shoulder at Moana. She stared after us with a combination of abandonment and jealousy on her face, and it

led to a small garden outside. Once we were outside and alone, she stopped on

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