Hillbilly Girlie Marries a Billionaire – Episode 11
The Anderson estate looked colder in daylight. Its pale stone walls rose behind iron gates, beautiful and severe, as though the house had been built to keep ordinary life from crossing the threshold. Emily sat beside Lucas in the car, remembering the message Sophie had sent from outside the banquet. She did not know a trap was waiting, but every instinct warned her that this dinner was an examination.
Lucas noticed the way she twisted her wedding ring. He reminded her that she could still refuse Grandfather Anderson’s invitation, regardless of what she had said the night before. Emily shook her head. Running would only confirm the family’s worst assumptions, and she had not survived Kevin merely to let another wealthy household decide she was too fragile to enter.
Inside, Grandfather Anderson received them in a private drawing room instead of the dining hall. Only one other family member waited beside the fireplace: Noah Anderson, Lucas’s younger brother. He was handsome in a warmer, less disciplined way than Lucas, and the curiosity in his smile made Emily feel studied rather than welcomed.
Noah introduced himself with theatrical charm and kissed the back of Emily’s hand before Lucas could stop him. Lucas’s jaw tightened. The brothers exchanged a look shaped by years of competition—Lucas controlled and guarded, Noah amused by every boundary he could provoke. Emily withdrew her hand and greeted him politely, refusing to become a weapon between them.
Grandfather Anderson began the meal by announcing that Emily would receive five percent of the family holdings as Lucas’s legal wife. Emily nearly dropped her fork. The gift was worth more than she could imagine, but the old man presented it as both welcome and test: accepting the Anderson name meant carrying its financial weight as well as its privileges.
She said she had not married Lucas for shares. Noah laughed softly and observed that most people claimed disinterest only after securing the money. Lucas warned him to stop. Emily answered for herself, saying the hospital payment already fulfilled the bargain she had accepted and anything beyond it should remain under family control until trust was earned.
Her response pleased Grandfather Anderson more than he showed. Noah, however, leaned back and asked how much trust could exist between two people who had met only days ago. He described their marriage as impossibly convenient: Lucas needed a wife to keep the CEO title, while Emily needed money for her mother.
The room went still. Emily’s pulse thudded at her throat. Lucas told Noah that speculation did not become truth merely because he enjoyed hearing himself speak. Noah produced no contract, yet his smile suggested he knew enough to damage them. Somewhere, Sophie’s threat seemed to breathe through the walls.
Grandfather Anderson asked Lucas directly whether the wedding was fake. Lucas held the old man’s gaze and said the marriage was legal, deliberate, and none of Noah’s concern. It was a careful answer rather than a lie, but Emily saw that his grandfather recognized the difference.
When the questions turned toward her, Emily remembered the Vows Office, Lucas transferring the hospital deposit before she signed, and the way he had defended her without hesitation. She said they had not known each other long, but time did not always reveal character. Sometimes one act in a crisis showed more truth than five years of promises.
Grandfather Anderson asked whether she loved his grandson. Emily could not manufacture the word beneath Lucas’s attentive gaze. She said love was too important to use as a shield, but she trusted Lucas with her mother’s life and her own safety. For a marriage only days old, that was the most honest answer she possessed.
Noah pressed harder, asking why a healthy young woman had been searching for a surrogacy client before the wedding. Emily’s face lost color. Lucas turned on his brother, but the damage was done. Grandfather Anderson now knew the most humiliating detail of her desperation.
Emily refused to lower her eyes. She explained that the hospital had issued a final notice and Kevin had withheld money he owed her. Becoming a surrogate had seemed preferable to letting her mother die. She had entered Lucas’s office by mistake, but she would never apologize for being willing to sacrifice for someone she loved.
The old man’s stern expression shifted. Before he could speak, Noah suggested the entire marriage remained a transaction. Fear pushed Emily into the reckless declaration she had been trying to avoid. “Then judge us by what comes next,” she said. “We intend to build a real family.”
Lucas looked at her sharply. Noah’s brows rose. Grandfather Anderson heard a promise of heirs and seized it with delighted certainty, asking when he should expect good news. Emily realized too late that her attempt to defend the marriage had created an expectation no contract required them to fulfill.
Lucas rescued her by calling her blunt and insisting the matter was private. His grandfather waved away the protest. If they were serious about becoming a family, they would move into the estate immediately, where Emily could learn Anderson customs and where no one could question the legitimacy of their life together.
Lucas refused. Noah supported the idea with suspicious enthusiasm, claiming the estate had plenty of room. Grandfather Anderson ended the argument with one strike of his cane. Remaining under the family roof, he said, would prove whether their confidence survived beyond cameras and banquets.
Emily touched Lucas’s wrist beneath the table. Moving in was dangerous, but rejecting the order would deepen suspicion. She agreed to stay temporarily. Lucas’s expression hardened, yet he would not contradict her publicly and make her seem powerless.
After dinner, Noah intercepted Emily near the staircase. He told her the Anderson house consumed secrets and that Lucas had never brought a woman home before. His tone held warning beneath flirtation. When Emily asked what he wanted, Noah glanced toward his brother and answered, “To see which one of you breaks first.”
At the far end of the corridor, a housekeeper opened the master suite and revealed only one prepared bed. Grandfather Anderson had ordered every guest room closed for renovation. Lucas and Emily stared at the single set of pillows, while footsteps paused outside their door—and Noah quietly waited to discover whether the newlyweds would expose themselves before the night ended.