Hillbilly Girlie Marries a Billionaire – Episode 10
The applause faded as Grandfather Anderson entered. Age had bent his shoulders but not diminished his authority; board members cleared a path before the tap of his cane. His gaze settled on Emily, pausing at the family emerald around her throat as if he were examining an unauthorized signature.
Lucas kept Emily’s hand in his and led her forward. He introduced her simply as his wife. His grandfather corrected him with equal calm: Emily was not yet family in the old man’s mind. She was a decision Lucas had made without consultation, and decisions affecting the Anderson empire required scrutiny.
Emily felt the room gather around their confrontation. She had survived Rose’s money, Kevin’s betrayal, and Sophie’s contempt, but this judgment carried different weight. Grandfather Anderson could threaten the position Lucas had entered the marriage to protect. One wrong answer might cost him everything promised in their contract.
The old man asked how they met. Emily glanced at Lucas, then chose truth shaped carefully enough to protect them. She said she had stopped a thief from stealing his wallet and Lucas had later helped her when she had nowhere to stay. Their marriage had happened quickly because both needed something the other could provide.
Several board members exchanged looks. Grandfather Anderson seized on the phrasing and asked what she needed. Money would have been the humiliating answer they expected, yet Emily refused to dress desperation as romance. She said her mother required medical treatment and she had exhausted every other honest option.
Lucas’s grip tightened, but Emily continued. She would not pretend to have entered his life as a wealthy equal. She had signed an agreement because her family needed saving. However, Lucas had fulfilled his promise before asking her to sign, and that act revealed more character than the polished pedigrees surrounding them.
The ballroom fell quiet. Grandfather Anderson studied her as though recalculating. He asked what Lucas received in return. Emily answered that he received a wife willing to stand beside him, respect the terms she accepted, and tell him the truth even when truth was inconvenient.
“And affection?” the old man asked. The question pierced too close to everything Emily had begun avoiding. She said affection could not be guaranteed by a certificate. Trust had to be earned, and theirs was too new to name. Her honesty drew a faint, unreadable reaction from Lucas.
Kevin laughed from behind the guests, unable to contain himself. He called Emily an opportunist and claimed she had always dreamed of escaping her background. Grandfather Anderson turned his attention to him, displeased by the interruption, but Kevin pressed on as if destroying Emily might restore his own importance.
He said Emily had chased him to the city for money before attaching herself to Lucas. Rose remained beside him, increasingly pale as pieces of Kevin’s hidden history emerged. Emily faced him and explained that she had come to collect the tuition debt he promised to repay—not to revive a relationship he had already betrayed.
Grandfather Anderson asked whether the accusation was true. Kevin denied owing her anything. Lucas motioned to Adam, who produced copies of the messages Emily had shown at the hotel while arranging the hospital payment. Promises of repayment appeared beneath Kevin’s name and number in unmistakable detail.
Rose snatched the pages and read them. Her expression darkened at the affectionate messages Kevin had sent Emily only weeks earlier. She demanded an explanation. Kevin stammered that the words meant nothing, repeating the cruelty he had once used to dismiss Emily—this time to a woman with power over him.
Rose slapped him. The sharp sound cracked across the ballroom. She declared that she had no interest in financing a liar who mocked the women supporting him. Kevin reached for her, but she stepped away and ordered security to remove him from the event.
Emily watched him struggle, shocked by how little satisfaction revenge provided. Kevin had seemed enormous in her life for years; now he looked small, undone not by her schemes but by his own lies. As guards escorted him out, he shouted that her marriage would collapse as quickly as his fortunes had.
Grandfather Anderson returned his attention to Emily. He observed that she had brought scandal into the banquet. Lucas answered that the scandal belonged to the man who lied, not the woman who survived him. The old man’s gaze moved between them, noting how instinctively his grandson defended her.
He ordered Emily to visit the Anderson estate the following day for a private family dinner. The board could be deceived by a gown and a well-managed appearance, he said, but family pressure revealed what people were made of. If she wished to carry their name, she would be tested beneath their roof.
Emily accepted before Lucas could refuse on her behalf. She had spent too long being told where she did not belong. If the Andersons expected her to run, they would learn that country roots survived storms precisely because they grew deep.
Outside the ballroom, Lucas told her she did not owe his family proof of her worth. Emily replied that perhaps he did. He had risked his inheritance on a stranger, and she would not let fear make his decision look foolish. Pride flickered in his eyes beside an emotion warmer and more dangerous.
He touched the emerald at her throat, his fingers brushing her skin. For one charged second, the corridor and contract disappeared. Lucas said his grandfather was wrong about one thing: Emily was not merely a decision. She was his choice, and he did not surrender what he chose.
Across the street, Sophie sat inside a dark car and photographed them through the hotel windows. She sent the image to an unknown number with a message confirming that Lucas was already becoming attached. The reply arrived at once: Bring me the marriage contract, and we’ll make sure Emily never survives the Anderson family dinner.