Our Dirty Little Secret

Peter’s question stopped Emily from getting out of the car, and she quickly laughed brightly.

”What are you talking about? Don’t you understand?”

Emily’s eyes were filled with the innocence and the cold backbone of Peter. The tough smile betrayed her. Peter knew that she was pretending , which made him very angry.

He took a breath and tried to restrain his emotion so that it wouldn’t explode and that he could talk to her as calmly as possible. ”Why did you lie to me? How long are you going to pretend? Do you really think I haven’t noticed? Emily! Do you think I’m an idiot? You think I can’t see the truth?”

Emily’s smile was on the trigger, her eyes flashed with fear, and she was worried about the inadequacies of her performance, that caused Peter to see it thoroughly.

”I wanted to make it clear to you so that you wouldn’t be found by an informant, and I wanted to give you a respect you deserved. I protected you everywhere, and you would still lie to me, Emily?”

Emily, bowed her head and bit her lower lip. She does not want to deceive Peter, but if she does not play crazy, Alex will kill her, regardless of Peter’s dissuasion or intercession.

Calmly, Emily whispered. ”Sorry.” She uttered the only thing she could say, whether Peter would forgive her or not.

”It’s not your apology that I wanted. You have your own secrets, but you shouldn’t have lied to me. Or do you think I’m not worthy of your trust?” Peter spoke in a low voice.

”That’s not what happened.” She shook her head in denial. ”I’ve always trusted you. But I don’t want to hurt you. If my family knew, they would blame you, and I don’t want that to happen.”

Emily knew Peter’s character, and her feelings for him are far better than Alex’s friendship, which only be disadvantageous to her.

Peter silently acted as Emily’s self-determined mentality pushed, his tone was much more relaxed. ”I knew you’re lying, though you look fine. You handed me over to Alex, and I didn’t complain.”

Emily’s sad voice rang through the car, and the two looked at each other silently and uttered nothing.

Peter’s eyes were as calm as the lake, no longer angry at being betrayed, then he suddenly smiled. ”Emily, is that what you think of me? Do you think I will betray you once I know the truth?”

”That’s not what I mean.”

Peter interrupted her. ”Even if there is no relationship between us, I will convince the family to give you a chance to do it again. I don’t want you to be unhuman, with lack of freedom, and pretend to be crazy all your life.”

When she saw Peter’s composure when he said those words, Emily felt distressed. She felt sick, her eyes were red, and she said with a lump in her voice.

”I have wanted to confess to you many times, but the longer it gets, the harder it becomes to tell you. You know, no one has been so nice to me since my father died. You are the only one, who cared about my daily work, you cared about my sadness. I miss being cared for and afraid of being abandoned.”

He didn’t expect Emily to be so weak. He heard her murmuring to herself without moving. ”If Alex treated me only half as much as you, that would be great. I wouldn’t do anything bad to hurt innocent people. Because I like him so much, too crazy to think. Nor deceive you, Peter.”

Alex’s name was mentioned, and all excited moments turned into nameless sadness, stereotyped and not shown on Peter’s face. ”You’re not with him for so long now, haven’t you forgotten him yet? I still think your feelings are...”

”Do you think, like an outsider, that I want to be Mrs. Hargreaves?” Emily laughed, out of breath and tears rolled down from the corner of her eyes.

”I have hypnotized myself in the same way. I used to think that if I only wanted to be his mistress, it would be a good thing to climb to that position. But the longer we spend time together, the more our feelings erode. Even when he left me, as soon as I see him with another woman, I will go crazy with jealousy. I can’t control these feelings.”

Peter suddenly envied Emily because she dared to speak and act her mind. He smiled and asked an unimportant question. ”You want to live with me for a year? What do you think?

The topic changed so suddenly that Emily was shocked and didn’t finish thinking. She laughed calmly. ”If I weren’t mad with jealousy, life around me would be as calm as it is now. I did so many things that I didn’t feel pain in my heart, and I still walked up and down wholeheartedly.”

Emily guessed the meaning of Peter’s words, so she did not answer.