Chapter 14: The Stranger

When she finally arrived at The Nightingale Bar, she received a message right after she parked the car. It was a room number. Edie walked into the bar, escaped the crazy dancing crowd, and looked for the room number. When she had found the room, she opened the door and saw a man in a white shirt sitting on the sofa.

Having heard the noise she made, the man turned around and raised the glass in his hand towards her, and his long, narrow eyes lifted slightly. He had such a delicate, alluring face, beautiful eyes, and cherry red lips, so beautiful that she could not tell his gender. "So, you were the one on the phone?"

"Yes, come on over," the man said while ogling Edie. His movement was fluent and seducing; it seemed as if he did this often. Edie walked in and sat down on a sofa far away from him, she straightened her back, portraying a cautious posture. "Let's start. What do you want to tell me?"

The man walked towards her with two glasses of wine in his hands, and he gave one of them to Edie as if he had never heard of her. "No thanks, I am driving home today." Edie had not yet figured out what the man wanted to do, and she certainly wouldn't drink the wine he just handed over.

The man smiles, looked as if he had seen through her mind. He put down one of the glasses, had a sip of wine, and then spoke, "Sister Edie, there's no need to worry. I am not a bad guy; actually, we are family."

Edie frowned, disapproving immediately, "Who's your family? I don't even know you!" The man was playing with the crystal glass in his hand, "Your name is Edie Lara, you married Stuart Yates yesterday morning at the city courthouse. You are now Stuart's legal wife. You are now living with him, even the car you drove here today is from Stuart's garage."

He stopped and turned around to smile at her, "Am I right? Sister Edie?" He spat out these words like he was talking about himself! Edie was astonished, she frowned and looked at him cautiously, "You are investigating me? Who the hell are you? What do you want from me?"

"I don't mean you any harm, and I am only investigating you for the sake of Stuart." The man raised the corner of his mouth and smiled with intemperance, "Sister Edie, I am Aaron. Stuart and I are in a complicated relationship." The words he used stirred up Edie's imagination. "What kind of relationship?"

Somehow, Edie recalled what Melissa had just shown her, the document about Stuart being gay. Seeing her facial expression is so volatile, Aaron smiled again and took a photo out of his pocket. "I know you doubt me, take a look at this."

It was a selfie from the man in front of her, his smiling face took up half the photo, and in the other half, a man was sleeping. That was Stuart on the bed! From the shoulders of these two people, it was clear that both of them were not wearing clothes!

Edie's mind was blown away the instant she saw the photo. "This… this photo…" Edie was shaking, and she didn't even know what she wanted to say.

Aaron's appearance changed all of a sudden; grief and sorrow appeared under his eyes. "This photo was taken when we were in England. We were childhood friends, Stuart and I have been in love for as long as I can remember. However, because of his family's denial, he was forced to return home and marry someone he didn't love.

He didn't want to betray me, so we figured out a plan. Find someone he could have a fake marriage with and deceive the Yates family so that after Stuart sorts everything out, we can be together."

It was only a few sentences, yet it had turned Edie's world upside down. Suddenly it all came to her. She remembered, when Stuart was going to marry her, he seemed to have said that the family had arranged an unwanted marriage for him. That was the reason why Stuart faked the marriage with her. Everything made so much more sense!

"Sister Edie, you don't understand how hard it was for us. All we wanted was to be together. The feelings of not being understood by anyone was devastating. All I ever wanted was to date him, what have we done wrong? Why is everyone against our relationship?" He spoke in tears. He looked more feminine than Edie when he wiped his tears away.

Edie was stunned and could not lift up her jaw. "So... what do you want me to do?" Aaron grasped her hand all of a sudden, placed it on his chest and said sincerely, "Sister Edie, I know that you are a kind-hearted person, I am only telling you this because I don't want to keep you in the dark, I hope that you can help us. Please take good care of him while I am away, don't let him grieve too much overthinking about me, okay?"

Too much information had been squeezed into Edie's head all at once that she was nearly blacked-out. She nodded rigidly, "okay." When Edie walked out of the bar, she felt as if though she was sleepwalking. While she's in the car, her mind still tangled as a ball of yarn.

Stuart Yates is gay? So her first night was a ... Edie felt sick to her stomach. This might haunt her for the rest of her life. No wonder why Mr. Bates had to emphasize the fact that Stuart was drugged. No wonder why Stuart couldn't say it himself. He must have detested feeling her deep inside him.

The only gay person she knew was Danny, and he hated looking at a nude woman! After coming back from the bar, Edie stood in front of the mansion for twenty minutes; she was hesitant to open the door. She didn't know how to face Stuart.

As she started counting the intricate decorative patterns carved on the front door, a cold voice emerged suddenly behind her. How much longer are you going to stand there?" Edie couldn't be more familiar with the voice, and it was the person she was thinking about the whole night!

Edie felt overly guilty, as she turned around, she lost her balance and fell towards the ground. She closed her eyes and accepted the fact that she was going to fall, only hoping not to land too hard. Surprisingly, she did not experience the pain as she slipped into two strong arms.

Her face could feel the power of his muscles through the shirt. "Throwing yourself at me?" He said playfully, which was rare from him. He seemed to be in a good mood. Edie had goosebumps all over for an instant. She would never throw herself at a gay man even if she had to die alone.

Edie pushed Stuart away immediately and said with her head down, "Sorry, I lost my balance; let's go in." She couldn't look Stuart in the eye. Edie turned around and entered the mansion without him. Seeing her flee, Stuart scowled, his eyes frosted. He wouldn't tell her, he just came back from The Stars Entertainment and she wasn't there.