Chapter 190: Morning Whispering "Darling" and Housewifely Habits

The next morning, "ugh," Eric woke up, but suddenly, "hgh," he lifted his head to find six girls sleeping piled right on top of him.

"Ah... that’s right. They all crashed here last night since we ended up talking the whole night away," Eric thought in his head.

He stretched his arm out to the side to grab his smartphone, noticing a message sent to him last night from an unknown number. His eyes narrowed and his expression turned gloomy. Slowly, he tapped the notification to open the text.

"Good evening, Eric. This is Arthur, Emma’s father. Apologies for contacting you this way, but I heard about your conversation with Wesley since he filled me in. I’m not asking for anything from you, I just don’t want to be involved in your brother’s mess anymore. I’ve handed over all the evidence to the police and I’m cooperating with them, so please don’t press the issue from before. I will disappear from your life and Emma’s without bothering her ever again. Thank you for not escalating things. It was nice knowing you, and goodbye."

Eric fell silent for a moment, baffled by how Arthur could have gotten his phone number, considering he hadn’t given it to Wesley at all and there was no way Miranda had passed it along since they weren’t on speaking terms. "Ugh," Emma squirmed in his arms. Eric hurriedly locked his smartphone and set it aside. When Emma opened her eyes and met Eric’s face, she smiled.

"Good morning, darling," Emma said.

"Yeah... sorry if I woke you. If you’re still tired, feel free to sleep a bit more," Eric said.

"I’m not tired and you didn’t wake me up, I woke up on my own. But why the long face so early in the morning? Is there another problem?" Emma asked, staring into Eric’s face.

Eric realized he was still wearing a gloomy expression from his confusion over how Arthur had managed to reach him. But he quickly smoothed his face back out and smiled.

"It’s nothing, no problem at all. If anything, there’s a problem that just went far away and won’t ever be coming back," Eric answered casually with a smile.

"Ugh... morning... darling."

Eric turned his head to see Laura already awake and clinging to his arm, her single open eye gazing up at Eric with a soft smile on her face.

"Good morning to you too, darling... but this is getting kind of funny, isn’t it? Am I really supposed to call all of you ’darling’?" Eric asked.

"Well, what choice do we have? We’re all your fiancées now, darling," Emma answered.

"Yeah... Emma’s right. No need to overthink it, darling," Laura said.

"Ugh... good morning, darling."

Eric looked down toward the middle of his chest and saw Chloe’s face right in front of him, since she had slept stretched out right on top of him.

"Yeah... morning to you too... darling," Eric replied, starting to blush.

"Huaaaah... yum yum... morning, darling," Monica said, lying beside Emma in front of him.

"Yeah... morning... um... darling," Eric replied, starting to feel like something was off.

"Morning, darling. What are we doing today?" Priya added, having just woken up right next to Laura before leaning in to plant a kiss on his cheek.

"Um... we’re not going anywhere today. We’re staying put at the hotel for safety reasons... darling," Eric said, getting nervous.

"Uuuuh... morning, darling... whoops... looks like I’m the last one up," Heidi said, crawling onto Eric’s body and lying stomach-down right next to Chloe.

"Yeah... morning... darling... go back to sleep if you’re still tired," Eric said, starting to feel restless.

Finally, starting from Emma, then Laura, Monica, Chloe, Priya, and Heidi, every single one of them kissed Eric on the lips one by one. After that, they all got up and climbed off the bed, leaving Eric lying there with a bright red face.

"We’re gonna go make breakfast real quick, so just sit tight in there," Emma said.

"Yeah... give us a minute, we won’t take long," Chloe added.

"Monica and I will clean up out front, so don’t come out just yet," Priya added.

"Yep, exactly. Just kick back and relax for a bit," Monica added.

"I’ll help out with breakfast for a second, then do everyone’s laundry, including your underwear," Heidi said.

"I’ll help Heidi out," Laura added.

"Oh... okay," Eric replied, totally at a loss for words.

After that, all six of them happily stepped out with huge smiles on their faces and pulled the door shut behind them. Eric was left completely stunned, staring at the door. His body still felt flushed because his face was bright red and of course, because even though all six of them were wearing clothes, none of them were wearing any underwear.

"Okay... this is getting a little weird. All six of them calling me darling and acting like my wives now... honestly, I’m not used to this, and maybe I never will be. I gotta do something about this," Eric thought in his head.

Before Eric could even reach an epiphany on what to do, "ding," a message popped up on his smartphone. He picked it up and saw that the text was from Katie, informing him that the partnership agreement would be signed next week at Eric’s new office. He could see that Katie had forwarded the message to him, Caleb, Anthony, Sarah, and Robert. Everyone had already replied with an okay to Katie, but just as Eric was about to type his response, "ring," his phone suddenly rang. He glanced down at the screen and saw Norman calling.

"Hello, Mr. Norman. What’s going on so early in the morning?" Eric asked.

"Mr. Eric, where are you located right now?" Norman asked, his voice sounding visibly anxious.

"I’m still at Uncle Joe’s hotel. Why, what happened?" Eric asked.

"Thank goodness for that. Something happened here last night, let me fill you in," Norman answered.

Norman recounted everything that had transpired with Melissa at the hospital last night from start to finish. Eric’s face, which had been completely calm, suddenly turned dark—not because he was afraid of Jason, but because he was infuriated by his brother, who clearly didn’t know when to stop messing with him.

"So he knows my office address?" Eric asked.

"Yes... I’ve already asked my colleagues to keep an eye on your building for the time being. We don’t know what that man is planning to pull," Norman answered. "On top of that, there’s something else concerning," Norman added.

"What is it?" Eric asked.

Norman explained that after Melissa was given a new smartphone and checked the message history sent by Jason to Vivian—since it was still backed up on the cloud service—it turned out Jason had threatened Vivian, who had already returned to her hometown. He warned her to obey him or everything would be exposed to her parents and Eric. Vivian’s reply stated that she didn’t give a damn, since her parents already knew she was actually pregnant with Jason’s child back then and not Eric’s, even though she had previously lied to them claiming it was Eric’s.

Hearing that, Eric closed his eyes. He wasn’t heartbroken, nor was he angry—all of that was already in the past for him. Yet, hearing the truth still brought a certain feeling that nagged at him: sheer exhaustion.

"Regarding that, Mr. Norman, neither of those two have any connection to me whatsoever," Eric said.

"Right, I understand, but I had to let you know because there’s a chance you might get dragged into this. We’ve already contacted the local police department over there to protect Ms. Vivian and keep her under surveillance, since we have no idea what your brother might do to her," Norman said.

"Understood, sir. Thank you for the heads-up," Eric said.

"For the time being, please stay put at Joe’s hotel. If you need to go back to your apartment to grab any belongings, you can request a police escort just to be safe," Norman replied.

"Thank you, sir, but that won’t be necessary. We packed everything up back then so there’s no issue, and we won’t be stepping foot out of this hotel for a while," Eric replied.

"Good. Alright then, Mr. Eric, I’ll take my leave now. I still need to keep an eye on Mrs. Melissa and question her further regarding last night’s incident. Have a good morning," Norman replied.

"Good morning, and thank you, sir," Eric replied.

The call disconnected. "Sigh," Eric let out a heavy breath, picked up his smartphone, and got ready to type out a reply to Katie’s text. But before he could hit a single button, "blam," the door swung open. Emma and Chloe walked in wearing nothing but aprons, without a single thread of clothing underneath.

Priya and Monica stepped in as well, wearing only unzipped jackets with absolutely nothing on underneath, while Heidi and Laura were just wearing cropped tank tops with no underwear in sight, leaving their lower halves completely bare.

"Come on, time for breakfast!" all six of them announced cheerfully.

"Sigh... so this is what they meant by breakfast. They weren’t talking about food after all," Eric thought in his head. In the end, he never got around to replying to Katie’s text, because right after that, all six girls ambushed him all at once.