Page 37 of Dr. Billionaire's Fake Marriage

We are seated at the family dinner table. As I tell her about my marriage with Camile, Mother looks like she is about to have a heart attack.

She takes a deep breath and foams angrily. "It is all on me, Mother," I apologize. "I coerced Camile to do this." She shakes her head; I am sure she doesn't believe me.

I knew she won't until I show her the proof, so I take our marriage papers from my chest pocket. Her hands shake as she reads the content.

She grips her chair when she realizes that I haven’t been joking. She looks at everyone else sitting in the room. Henry and Amelia have their heads bowed, and Mother knows they both know about my marriage with Amelia.

"You knew?" She glares at Henry. "Who else knows but me? The whole world?" She tells me how dangerous it is if the news is leaked the media outlets and how the Robinson family is supposed to uphold is long-term social class.

"No one knows about it except for everyone at this table and Camile," I say to Mother. She looks like I just stabbed her with a sharp knife.

Her face is flushed, and she looks like she may stand up and turn the table upside down.

She lets out a long sigh and finally breathes deeply. No one answers her; she feels betrayed by her family for keeping such a great secret from her.

“Why would you do this?” she asks. I feel like I have indeed betrayed her greatly.

“Emilie is a great girl,” she says softly, trying to play with my emotions, but I shake it off.

“Mom,” I say, “Emilie is a spoiled brat…we all know that.” I pause and continue, “We all know that is why Henry refuses to marry her younger sister. I cannot give in to the torture of marrying Emilie.”

I look at Henry and Amelia. I must have said too much, as Amelia didn't know Henry was supposed to marry Emilie's sister.

I turn back to Mother, and I can see her reaction. She knows I have just played her game, and she can't force me into marrying Emilie anymore.

"This is not over yet." Mother's words sound like a threat. I know she cannot accept defeat, but she'd overcome it with time.

I start to leave and say, "Camile will attend the family functions as she is now a part of this family, and you will treat her accordingly."

“She is not accepted into this family,” Mother says definitively. “You don’t have my blessing to marry her.”

I walk out of the family dinner house, and it hit me that I may have to start eating more at my house.

Chapter twelve

It Sucks

Camile

With Mother at the hospital in treatment, I can move into Troy's home. His home is just as I thought it would be. It has only the essential furniture, which makes it look like a rented space.

Now, I understand why Troy stays more at his mother's mansion. He has nothing exciting in his house. He has nothing personal around him, and nothing makes the huge duplex space feel like a real home.

We got out of his mother's mansion after she declared never giving her blessing for our marriage. We will have to start eating our meals at Troy's house.

Troy, too, knows that going to his mother's mansion is out of the picture for now, so he calls an interior decorator to make the house feel more like a home for me.

“We can invite Amelia and Henry over a few times,” Troy offers. “We can have your mother over too when she is discharged from the hospital.”

Troy says “we” as though we are a real couple. Then, I have yet to tell Mother about my secret marriage. I sit in the passenger seat of Troy's car as he drives us to the hospital.

I am not worried about going inside with Troy because he usually arrives before everyone assumes their shifts. I unbuckle the seatbelt, but Troy stops me before I open the car door.

"Your mom is in safe hands," he promises.

“I know that” I say. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t know Mother would be fine.” He understands thatheremeans being married to him.

Troy turns off the ignition and looks at me. "Are you ready?" he asks, but I don't answer. It will be hard to confess the marriage to her, as she is healing.

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