His Nanny Mate (Moana and Edrick Morgan)

Chapter 95

#Chapter 95: The Banquet

Edrick

“There’s my favorite girls,” I said with a smile.

I didn’t even think about it before I said it, but I knew as soon as it came out of my mouth that I’d made

a mistake. Ella didn’t seem to notice, but Moana sure did. Her green eyes, which looked even more

beautiful with the small amount of gold eyeshadow around them, widened.

“Ha,” I said, feigning surprise at myself in the feeble hope that I could get away without Moana dwelling

on this too much, “slip of the tongue. Are you two ready?”

…

When we arrived at the banquet, the party had already begun. The end of summer banquet was a long-

standing Morgan family tradition. The banquet that I had taken Moana and Ella to earlier that summer

was solely for more immediate family and close friends, but this banquet was different. Each summer,

practically every single member of the entire Morgan clan, from immediate family to cousins several

times removed and all of their own friends and extended families through marriage would come from all

over the globe to visit my parents’ mansion. Needless to say, these parties were huge, and often went

on for two or three days. That was why I paid my old friend Tyrus to come and do Moana’s hair and

makeup; sure, it was necessary for the nanny, but I wanted to make a good impression. Besides, I had

to admit that I wanted to do a little something nice for Moana to make her feel better, although I would

never tell her that.

The driver pulled up to the front driveway and we got out. Moana held Ella’s hand as we walked up the

wide stone pathway, lined with fountains and sculptures, but as soon as Ella saw her other little cousins

she instantly took off running.

“Oh— Ella!” Moana called, taken by surprise by Ella’s sudden mad dash.

“It’s alright,” I said with a chuckle. “She only gets to see these kids once a year. She’ll be fine —

although that dress will probably wind up in the trash by the time she’s done rolling around with them

like an animal.”

Moana managed a wry laugh and followed me up the steps to the front door, where servants were

waiting to take our jackets. Glasses of champagne were handed to us almost as soon as we walked

into the large banquet hall, but Moana refused.

“Darling!” my mother’s familiar voice called as I entered. She waved at us from across the crowd, and

Moana and I made our way over to her. Of course, with so many people here, she only extended

Moana the basic pleasantries, although I knew that my mother secretly wanted to dote on the mother of

my second child all night. When I was with Olivia, it was the same thing. I didn’t have to hide my

relationship with Olivia quite as much as with Moana, so my mother would spend hours at these events

gushing over her despite my father’s sullenness that I wasn’t married to her. Although, Olivia quickly

stopped even coming to the events as soon as she got pregnant; I didn’t realize it at the time, thinking

that she was just dealing with morning sickness throughout the pregnancy, but she was really sneaking

around with other men and only used the pregnancy to keep me faithful.

“How are you, mom?” I asked, planting a kiss on her cheek while Moana stood nearby, looking a little

out of place despite her luxurious outfit.

“I’m splendid,” my mother said, then turned to Moana. “And you look absolutely stunning, dear. You’re

glowing.”

Moana blushed. “Thank you.”

Then, my mother turned back to face me and lowered her voice. “I’d advise steering clear of your

father, at least until he’s had a couple of drinks in him,” she said, patting my hand. “He’s not happy

about the tabloid.”

My eyes widened; so my father did see the tabloid after all. When he didn’t call to scold me about it, I

thought that he never saw it.

“Does he know…?” I asked, indicating Moana’s pregnancy.

“I think he might have an idea,” my mother replied. “But I told him that we were just having a nice lunch,

and that you never mentioned anything about a pregnancy. That might have allayed his suspicions for

the time being.”

“Good.” I felt a lump rise in my throat as I scanned the crowd for my father, but when I finally spotted This text is property of Nô/velD/rama.Org.

him, he was far on the other side of the banquet hall and appeared to be deep in conversation with one

of my uncles.

Suddenly, I felt someone tap my shoulder. I turned around to see none other than Kelly grinning up at

me. She really seemed to go all out for this banquet with her hair and makeup, but what most struck

me was that she was wearing an eerily similar dress to the one that Moana was wearing. In fact, the

longer I looked at it, the more I realized that it was in fact the exact same dress; just tighter, as though

she had it altered to sit snugly around her waist and show off her flat stomach. I couldn’t help but

wonder if it was intentional, as if she was trying to one-up Moana, who had to hide her belly somewhat.

I personally found Kelly to pale in comparison to how beautiful Moana looked.

“Hello, dear Edrick,” Kelly said, planting a wet kiss on my cheek. “It’s been a little while, hasn’t it?”

“Since the gala, yes,” I said. “Thank you again for that generous donation.”

“Hm.” Kelly pursed her lips and glanced over at Moana, who had still hardly said a word this entire time.

Kelly’s eyes slid up and down Moana judgingly before coming back to me. “Well, it was the least I could

do to help you get a head start,” Kelly finally said. “Of course, if it were a werewolf orphanage, I could

have donated more… But, you know, I didn’t want to be making too much of a political statement.”

I stifled a scoff. Of course Kelly would say that; she had always been anti-humans, at least since we

were teenagers. I always found it funny because of the fact that we often played with the human

servant children when we were little, and she didn’t seem to have a problem then. But, then again, I

supposed that it was bound to happen eventually being raised by a wealthy werewolf family. Even I still

had my hang ups about humans, although I had to admit that Moana was slowly breaking those walls

down.

“Anyway,” Kelly said, “I’m glad I found you. Can we talk? I only need a minute of your time.”

“Sure,” I replied, only to be polite. I followed Kelly across the banquet hall, taking one last glance over

my shoulder at Moana. She stared after us with a combination of abandonment and jealousy on her

face, and it admittedly made me feel a little bad.

Kelly eventually pushed through one of the doors that led to a small garden outside. Once we were

outside and alone, she stopped on the steps and turned to face me.

“I have a proposition,” she said, a coy smile spreading across her face.

I frowned. “What is it?”

“Well… Everyone saw that tabloid, you know. Now, I’m not saying that what was on the cover of that

tabloid is necessarily true — although I think the nanny’s added weight says it all anyway — but you

know that people are bound to start asking questions. And, well, say that the tabloid was right, and you

did have something to hide… I could help you hide it.”

“Oh?” I asked, raising an eyebrow as I folded my arms across my chest.

Kelly grinned. “Yes. I think you need a public ‘wife’, so to speak. Preferably an Alpha from a good

family.”

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. “And I suppose you expect that to be you,” I replied. Kelly didn’t seem

fazed.

“I mean, it could be anyone,” she said. “It’s not like it would be real. Only real to the public. This ‘wife’

could also claim Ella as her daughter, so not only could you be free of speculation, but you also

wouldn’t have to hide Ella as much anymore. I think it’s a win for everybody.”

I didn’t know what to say. I was completely taken aback by this preposterous idea of Kelly’s, and it

made me wonder deep down if she somehow orchestrated this; she was so infatuated with me that I

wouldn’t put it past her to be the anonymous donor who tried to pay the tabloid to keep the picture up,

just to cause an uproar and give me no choice but to go through with this ‘fake’ relationship.

Before I could say anything, however, Kelly spoke again. She moved closer to me as she did, and her

eyes narrowed seductively.

“Think of it this way,” she said. “If I came out as your Alpha wife and Ella’s Alpha mother, then no one

would bother you about the nanny anymore; because no one would ever accuse the CEO of WereCorp

of being unfaithful to his wife with a lowly human servant… Right?”