Her Fake Lover

Chapter 34

"Am I bothering you?" said Chloe who came suddenly. Emmy and Anna's attention was suddenly distracted.

"No, Miss Chloe. What's wrong? We're done talking," said Anna.

"Ah, then now it's my turn." Chloe sat quietly.

"What's the matter, Chloe?"

"It's not an emergency. The reporters. No. I mean, producers of television and radio shows. Several have called me saying they want to interview you exclusively. They are stubborn. They shouldn't have called me at night."

Emmeline wore an understanding expression. "It must have something to do with the fashion show today."

Anna, looked away from Chloe, then put on a thoughtful expression. Emmeline realized that. "What's the matter, Anna?" she asked. "What are you thinking about?"

"Em ... are they going to talk about Corbin too?"

Emmeline widened her eyes, realizing the truth of Anna's words. Meanwhile, Chloe was still calm. "Not impossible," said Chloe.

"That's crazy. I wouldn't do it if they just wanted to talk about it," said Emmy.

"Then we can make an agreement about that beforehand, so they don't discuss anything other than your business."

Emmeline looked thoughtful. "Yeah. You're right. You take care of all that. I'll only be willing if they promise not to delve into the Corbin case."

Anna looked thoughtful again. "Did Corbin know all this?" she muttered, and Emmeline and Chloe heard it though it was a low one.

"Have you two spoken today? Maybe you called your brother first, or he called you. Is he watching your show? It's on the internet. Is your brother caring enough to watch it, or keep up with his sister?" Chloe bombarded Anna with lots of questions.

Anna furrowed her brows. "Usually he never misses any news about me. Even if it's simple news. No matter if he's angry or upset with me, he will still follow everything that happens to me."

"Oh, how touching," Chloe breathed playfully.

"Chloe, be quiet. Go on, Anna."

"But," Anna said as if ignoring Chloe's interruption, "he hasn't contacted me today. I also deliberately didn't call him first, Miss Emmy, because Miss Chloe told me not to do anything about this first, until she allowed it."

"Hm, that's true," Chloe nodded her head.

"So I guess, since I'm sure Corbin must have known about this, and he still hasn't contacted me, maybe he's ... currently having certain plans in his head."

Emmy straightened her back on reflex. "What do you mean? What plan?" she asked. "You—you certainly know Corbin better. So I'd like to ask your opinion. He hasn't contacted me either. We haven't spoken." Emmy looked away from Anna. Facing the blank in front of her while thinking.

Chloe's cell phone rang. No one cares but the owner of the phone itself. "Ah, here's the plan," said Chloe. Emmeline and Anna suddenly turned to look at her. "Instead of calling someone else, he called me. Hello, Corbin," Chloe picked up the call. Anna and Emmy suddenly widened their eyes, and then fixed their full attention on Chloe.

"Hey, Chloe. I hope you've had enough rest from your busy day."

"Think of it that way. I don't know if I'll really get enough rest even for some time to come."

Corbin was heard exhaling a short breath, mixed with a smile. Of course, according to Chloe, he knew something.

"Is Anna resting well?"

"Oh, I wanted to say yes, but do you think she can? You must know her better, after being her brother for so many years."

"But she has to. You have to force her even though she's pestering everyone with her curiosity about things."

"Oh," Chloe straightened up in her seat, cleared her throat once, and tried to be a little more serious. Emmy and Anna were of course affected. "Do you mean, you, already know all the news today?"

"Of course."

"Why didn't you contact anyone then? You didn't call Anna either."

"I know you must have been ordered to look after her. And if I call her, she will ask me a lot of questions that will only bother me to explain."

"Ah, right then, you already know everything!" Chloe straightened her back again with a word of affirmation. "Then why didn't you call Emmelin too? Don't you two need to talk?"

Corbin didn't answer right away. He only said after a few seconds. "I told her it wasn't going to be that simple. But she was adamant about her plan at the time. Now I'm sure she's in a quandary. Just tell her to rest. Because thinking about all this will do no good. Everyone will think this relationship is real, that's what's going to happen. Unless she's going to expose her own lies in front of everyone, there's no other way but to enjoy it."

"O-oh, Corbin, you." Chloe shook her head. "How can you be so calm?"

Emmeline couldn't take it anymore. She grabbed the phone and rose swiftly from her seat, instinctively moving away from Chloe and Anna. She said amidst the tightness, "Doesn't this bother you? I know I was the one who started this ridiculousness, but at this point, don't you even feel the need to think about it a little bit?"

"Oh," Corbin said with a sigh mixed with laughter. As if he was amused that Emmeline had taken over his conversation with Chloe. Corbin recognized the anxiety in Emmeline's voice. "How are you, Miss Karfis?"

"Corbin, come on. You know I'm serious."

"You're asking me now to think of a problem you created yourself?" Corbin said. "I remember that night, you said confidently that you let me go. And I was free to return to Italy if I wanted. You spoke like someone who keeps his word. Now what? Do you mean you're going to go back on your word?"

Emmeline sighed. She closed her eyes tightly. The shame that seemed to be wriggling inside her, she no longer responded to it. It was ridiculous to find that everyone now thought her charade was real, and for her this was a big disaster.

"Listen, Corbin. I don't know what to do now. I'll probably be in for an interview discussing the success of the fashion show. But I don't know for sure how they, or anyone else, will suddenly bring up this fake relationship thing, and if that happened, then I—"

"Just do as you would in front of your family," Corbin said bluntly.

Emmeline was silent for a moment. "You, are you serious?"

"Please do something else if you have a better solution."

"Er—no. I ... I can't think of any other solution either."

"That's enough then. There's no need to trouble yourself with overthinking it." Corbin was silent for a moment. "And yes, Emmeline," Corbin continued slowly, "I saw your fashion show. I saw what you and Anna did." Emmeline raised her eyebrows in surprise, hearing that Corbin had changed the subject of their conversation. "Thank you. You've taught her a lot in such a short time, and you're doing it with love."

"W-what is this? Is this ... a compliment?"

"Didn't you hear it? Yes. It's a compliment and a thank you."

"Um—no." Emmeline said. "Maybe you didn't notice, but I guess I might have made a mistake in this too. I took Annaliese out too early into a world she's never touched. She's mentally untrained. When another model, more senior than her, said a little bad things to her, her mentality immediately fell. And finally, she felt a great sadness in the middle of the show. Em-actually it's not a big deal. Bad words can be heard, or unpleasant things can happen in the middle of a competition, but—but Annaliese doesn't understand this yet." Emmy looked back, some distance away from her, and saw that Anna seemed to be chatting and joking with Chloe on the garden bench. Emmy looked away from them again. "I'm grateful I didn't destroy her innocent enthusiasm and zeal by my haste."

"You saved her. That's exactly what happened," Corbin said. He said calmly. "Life is full of surprises. And one has to always be prepared for them. Annaliese has to understand it. It doesn't matter."

Emmeline smiled. She couldn't help but smile, hearing those soothing words. But she quickly pushed the smile off her face. She again said seriously, "I hope the problem doesn't escalate. I hope there won't be any news to trouble me after this."

"Hopefully so. Although we never know, what other surprises we might encounter tomorrow. Good night."

"Em—good night," Emmy said, ending their conversation for the night.

***