Every word felt like a grenade that blasted Phoebe’s heart. They made her stunned, shocked, and shaken up.
She couldn’t believe her ears. What she heard was even more unrealistic than a dream.
Did she hear it wrongly? It had to be!
Otherwise, why would she feel that suddenly, the world became so unreal? So quixotic, even more impossible than a dream.
Stanford noticed how tensed Phoebe looked, he felt a bit jittery and uneasy.
He clenched his fingers and explained in a low voice.
“No matter why that happened yesterday, you are my woman from now on. I will take responsibility. After all, I did that to you last night.”
Stanford was oddly conservative.
Since they slept together, he should take responsibility. She would be his woman, his future wife.
Phoebe was still in a daze, but she snapped back into reality upon hearing what Stanford said. She understood now that everything was real.
Stanford wanted to be responsible towards her!
Taking responsibility, meaning that he would take her as his wife.
Phoebe turned from a person who got forced into a person who would benefit from this. This change came so suddenly that she couldn’t accept that it was a fact.
She didn’t know what to say at all.
Stanford’s heart got heavier seeing that Phoebe was staying silent for so long.
Like a stone that was thrown into the pond, his heart slowly sunk into the bottom of the lake which was as dark as night.
He had a complicated look on his face, he was frowning hard.
He understood that this matter was too sudden to Phoebe as she was the victim.
He was willing to take responsibility, but it didn’t mean that she would just accept it. Marriage mattered a lot to a girl and the rest of her life.
Society right now also wasn’t as conservative as before, she didn’t need to marry him just because they slept together.
Stanford felt gloomy, he pondered briefly and said in a low voice.
“If you don’t want to, I can…” Wait for you…
“I would love to!”
Before Stanford could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by Phoebe who sounded very eager.
Their eyes met and suddenly, it was quiet.
Their hearts were pounding so hard that they were about to jump out of their chest. They were shaking and their heart racing.
The next moment, Phoebe looked away anxiously. Her face turned as red as a tomato.
She thought that she was too eager and wasn’t lady-like at all. It was embarrassing.
Very embarrassing.
She wanted to dig a hole and hide inside, but at the same time, she was ecstatic and on cloud nine.
Stanford took a breath of relief. His heavy heart was light and clear again.
It was great that she was willing to.
He couldn’t help but smile, even his voice sounded gentler than before.
“Then I’ll go today and ask your parents for your hand in marriage.”
“What?”
Phoebe looked up abruptly in shock, she couldn’t react to what was happening.
Asking for her hand in marriage? It was way too soon, things were happening too rapidly.
She was panicking and alarmed, she answered subconsciously, “Isn’t that too soon? I’m not ready yet.”
It was true that she wasn’t ready yet. She was still in a daze and felt like she was dreaming.
Stanford answered in a deep voice, “Then, how long do you need?”
How long? She didn’t even think about that.
But looking at him, he was pressing this matter and seemed like he wanted to get married as soon as possible. He was even more eager than she was.
Thinking about this, Phoebe felt like she was on cloud nine again, it didn’t feel real.
If she agreed, put on a wedding dress, and took the oath just like this, then it would feel unrealistic to her forever. She was afraid that someone would pinch her, and she would wake up from this dream.
She suppressed her agitation and said with sparkles in her eyes.
“I think that we are not too familiar with each other and don’t know each other that well yet. We should start by getting to know each other. Only a marriage with love would be a happy one.”
“Love?”
Stanford repeated the word puzzledly, there was a hint of confusion on his handsome face.
He never knew the word “love”.
Phoebe was baffled as well, she stared at him all rattled.
Only then she snapped out from her elation. She realized that Stanford only wanted to be with her all of a sudden because he wanted to take responsibility for what happened last night.
It wasn’t because of love or any other emotions.
They knew each other for quite a long time, she more or less understood his personality and his way of thinking. He didn’t like her, she tried to woo him for so long and it never worked out.
Even if they got married, it would be because of responsibility.
Her joyous heart suddenly got dreary. Phoebe became listless and languid.
Stanford grimaced and thought for a while, he then said seriously.
“I don’t really understand, but I will try to learn how to love. I will learn to do so because I said so. I will love you.”
He would love her…
Love her…
Phoebe’s eyes were wide open from shock. She stared blankly at Stanford who treated love seriously as if it was a task.
The way he understood love seemed to be very different from her way of understanding love.
But because of what he said, the dreadful feeling lingering in her heart was gone in an instant.
Phoebe couldn’t help but laugh. This was the man she was in love with, arrogant and haughty, but didn’t know a thing about love. An extremely serious man, yet he could be this cute.
She couldn’t find a reason to reject him.
“Haha.”
Florence couldn’t help but mock, “Who said that my brother has extremely low EQ? How could it be? With a few sentences, he managed to get a girl’s hand in marriage. He’s definitely experienced, he’s not an amateur.”
Ernest smiled contently, his help didn’t go in vain.
He was in a good mood. He leaned down slightly and pressed his thin lips on Florence’s ears. He whispered.
“Come to my room tonight.”
What he said made Florence blushed.
Why was he always thinking about things like this?
Not to mention that Stanford put them in separate rooms on purpose. If she went out in the middle of the night, she would get caught.
Ernest could see the embarrassment and worry on Florence’s face. He smiled even more profoundly, there was a hint of firey lust in his eyes.
He said in a seductive and magnetic deep voice, “Your brother doesn’t have time for us.”
So tonight, they could do whatever they wanted to.
Florence blushed even harder after hearing what Ernest said. She knew what he meant and she felt very flustered.
Ernest was sly. He had a motive for helping Stanford and Phoebe get together. The mission was accomplished and now he just wanted to sleep with her.
Seriously, he was as shrewd and sly as a fox.
“Am I really dating Stanford now? Is he really going to take responsibility and marry me?
Phoebe already asked herself the same question eighteen times.
Three hours had gone by and she still felt like she was dreaming. She was so happy that it didn’t feel real. She felt like she was floating and stepping on clouds.