Hillbilly Girlie Marries a Billionaire – Episode 18
Victoria’s lunch invitation sounded gracious enough to deceive anyone who had missed the garbage served at breakfast. Emily declined, citing her promise to spend the afternoon with Lucas. Victoria’s eyes cooled, but Grandfather Anderson praised the young couple’s devotion, leaving her unable to insist without revealing her agenda.
Lucas suggested a small restaurant near Maple Malls instead. Emily wanted ordinary food and an hour without family surveillance. Noah invited himself before either could object. Lucas told him the table had only two seats; Noah replied that billionaires could usually afford a third chair.
They left the estate together, unaware Victoria had planned for either destination. Mia waited near the restaurant with two women recruited by Sophie. Their instructions were simple: isolate Emily, provoke a physical confrontation, and ensure cameras captured only her retaliation. Sophie had already promised a gossip columnist exclusive footage of the country bride revealing her supposedly violent nature.
At the counter, a temporary payment-system failure forced the restaurant to accept cash. Lucas and Noah both reached for their wallets and discovered neither carried any. Emily placed five dollars on the counter for a bowl of ramen and laughed at the helplessness of men whose cards could purchase buildings but not lunch. Lucas promised to repay her; she reminded him that he was already dangerously overdrawn in rescues.
Lucas insisted on finding a bank machine. Noah followed, unwilling to let his brother return as sole provider. Emily ordered her food and chose a corner table, amused by their rivalry despite herself. The normality lasted less than a minute.
Mia approached with a bandage wrapped theatrically around her wrist. She accused Emily of causing her dismissal and destroying a career built through years of service. Emily reminded her that serving garbage and making threats had been Mia’s choices.
The other women surrounded the table. One called Emily a surrogate who had been thrown out of the mansion; another asked why a CEO’s wife could afford only ramen. Several customers lifted phones, though two devices were already recording from carefully chosen angles. Emily recognized the performance and stood to leave. She would not supply the anger they had been hired to capture.
Mia blocked her path. She claimed Victoria supported her and that Sophie would soon become the real Mrs. Anderson. Emily asked why a woman secure in Lucas’s future needed hired bullies to corner his wife in public.
The insult struck. Mia grabbed Emily’s sleeve, but years of farm labor had made Emily stronger than expected. She twisted free without hitting anyone. The women stumbled into one another, ruining the image of a helpless victim they hoped to create.
One produced a glass bottle from her bag. Emily warned that she would call the police. Mia laughed and said the Anderson family would protect them once Victoria saw how violently Emily behaved. The admission was captured by more phones than she realized. Customers who had initially watched for entertainment began backing away, sensing that staged humiliation had become genuine danger.
Lucas returned at the sound of shouting. He saw the raised bottle and ran without pausing to call security. The attacker swung toward Emily’s face. Lucas stepped between them, taking the jagged impact along the side of his head and shoulder.
Blood appeared instantly. Emily caught him before he fell and pressed both hands to the wound. The restaurant erupted into chaos. Noah seized the attacker’s wrist while security locked the doors and collected phones before anyone could erase evidence.
Mia tried to flee. Noah blocked her and demanded to know who had arranged the ambush. She denied everything until he played the recorded threat about Victoria. The confidence drained from her face.
Lucas remained conscious, insisting Emily had not been touched. She shouted that he needed to stop asking about her while he bled for the second time in two days. Fear turned her voice harsh, but he heard the love hiding inside it.
An ambulance carried him to the hospital. Emily rode beside him, holding his hand while paramedics compressed the cut. Blood marked her sleeves, reviving the terror of the shattered bottle at the banquet. Lucas joked weakly that marriage to her had become hazardous. She told him the contract never required him to act as her shield.
“I’m not doing it for the contract,” he answered. The words settled between them with greater weight than the siren. Emily had no reply strong enough for what they implied.
At the hospital, doctors confirmed a concussion and a deep laceration but no fracture. Lucas needed observation. Emily remained at his bedside while Noah handled police statements and sent the recording to Adam.
Noah returned after midnight and admitted he had overheard part of Victoria’s plan but failed to warn them clearly. Guilt stripped away his usual charm. Lucas’s anger was immediate, yet Emily asked what Noah would do now rather than what he should have done before.
He promised to testify about what he heard, even if it meant turning against their mother. Lucas studied him, uncertain whether to trust the change. Emily believed remorse mattered only when followed by action.
The door opened before Noah could say more. Victoria entered with Sophie at her side, feigning shock at Lucas’s injuries. Behind them stood a lawyer carrying annulment papers—and a doctor Victoria claimed could prove Emily had deceived Lucas about the promised child.