I am Hollywood

[Chapter 982: So What?]

Feeling Eric's movement, Caroline's long eyelashes fluttered as she cautiously opened her eyes. Gaining a bit of courage, she locked gazes with Eric for a second. Her small hand stretched out to grasp his larger one, and she rubbed it against her cheek as she murmured, "Eric, I, I really like you."

"I know," Eric replied gently, not pulling away his hand as he felt the soft texture of the girl's skin. He added, "You know, the weather is nice tonight. How about I take you for a drive? We could head back to Los Angeles or maybe Las Vegas."

Caroline paused for a moment, her eyes opening wide again as she looked at Eric with a yearning gaze. Still holding his hand, she silently pulled deeper under the covers.

After lingering in silence for a while, Eric softly coaxed, "Carly, I like you too, but we can't do this."

In another brief moment of silence, Caroline finally lifted her small face and whispered, "Eric, I'm already twenty-seven."

Realizing that she had loosened her grip on his hand, Eric withdrew it, gently stroking Caroline's soft golden hair, laughing as he said, "Yeah, time flies, but little Carly is still so young. Maybe you should find a... um, girlfriend. I would prefer it if you found a girlfriend; girls can be more thoughtful."

Upon hearing Eric say this, Caroline quickly blinked a few times, her lips curving into a smile as she reclaimed Eric's larger hand, resting her small head on his arm. She whispered, "Eric, you're really bad."

Eric nodded, justifying himself, "Actually, I'm not that bad. I'm being a gentleman right now."

"You," Caroline paused, avoiding Eric's gaze for a moment. After a brief hesitation, she said, "I just mentioned that I am twenty-seven. You can't treat me like your daughter."

Eric was taken aback and laughed, saying, "Where did you get that strange idea?"

"I..." Caroline started to say something, only to find she couldn't articulate her thoughts, given that it was Melanie who had 'analyzed' that situation for her.

Eric sensed what was happening and chuckled, "Looks like I really need to discipline Melanie this time."

"You wouldn't dare," Caroline retorted, then added, "Then why, if you don't think of me that way, are you being so nice to me?"

"Because I see you as a sister. Isn't it normal for a brother to care for his sister?"

Caroline's mind turned over that reasoning, finding it quite reasonable. She no longer felt troubled by the earlier thought planted in her heart by Melanie. Instead, her thoughts shifted back to tonight's events. After a moment, her face turned slightly red as she carefully took Eric's hand, attempting to bring it toward her chest.

Feeling her intentions, Eric gently resisted and easily pulled his hand out of Caroline's hold.

The room fell silent once again. In the wake of Eric's rejection, Caroline slowly withdrew into the blankets.

Eric sat awkwardly on the edge of the bed, watching the girl's movements. Noticing she stayed still for a long time, he worriedly reached out to pull back some of the covers. Caroline was curled up like a kitten, her small face stained with tears. Although she didn't sob out loud, large droplets of tears streamed from the corners of her eyes.

"Carly, I really like you too," Eric said, pulling several tissues from the box at the bedside. Feeling sorry, he helped Caroline wipe her tears, whispering, "But we really can't do this."

Caroline still hadn't cried aloud; she quietly let Eric wipe away her tears. Then, she softly asked, her voice thick with emotion, "Why not? You clearly really like women."

Eric replied, "I just mentioned that I see you as a sister."

Caroline's voice remained soft, but this time she immediately retorted, "I don't want to be your sister."

With that, she finally couldn't hold back and began to sob, her tears flowing more freely as she turned her head away from Eric's attempts to wipe her eyes.

Watching Caroline tremble slightly from her sobs, Eric sighed again. After a brief hesitation, he got up and found his phone, slowly dialing a long string of numbers as he sat back down on the bed.

...

After getting help from Katzenberg for that DNA test, Eric was unable to suppress his curiosity. He secretly hired a private detective to search for information about that woman. Initially, he thought he would gradually forget about this, but today he found himself having to confront it.

The room was quiet. Although her back was turned to Eric, Caroline could still clearly hear the beeping of the phone in his hand. Soon after, a somewhat puzzled female voice replied, "Hello, this is Olivia. Who is this?"

Hearing her aunt's familiar voice, Caroline halted her tears, realizing that she was currently in a standoff with Eric, which helped her resist the urge to turn around.

Ultimately, inheriting all the memories of this body, Eric still felt some complex emotions swell within him. Taking a gentle breath, he said, "I'm Eric Williams, and Carly is next to me. Can you explain this situation to her?"

Delivering his statement all at once, Eric directly handed the phone to Caroline and stood up, walking out of his suite toward the terrace at the end of the second-floor hallway.

Somebody had left a chair there, prompting Eric to take a seat and gaze thoughtfully at the dim mountains under the faint starlight.

Perhaps due to having lived two lives, Eric carried a natural detachment and indifference toward this world. This could also explain why, after his rebirth, he had encountered many women, yet only a few remained by his side. From the beginning, he never cared much about uncovering the nature of his relationship with Caroline and a few others; he just didn't want too many people involved in his life.

Yet now, perhaps it wasn't so bad to suddenly gain a little cousin.

Wearing a bathrobe and finding no cigarettes, Eric sat still for a moment, confirming that the phone call must have nearly finished, before heading back to his room.

...

Reaching the door, he remembered he forgot to take his key card. Raising his hand to knock, he reconsidered and walked to the door where Melanie and Caroline stayed. The two women were responsible for his daily life, so they also had a spare key card.

After knocking twice, the door swung open.

Melanie had thought Caroline had returned. But seeing Eric standing at the door in a bathrobe, she shrank back slightly, nervously asking, "E-Eric, is there something wrong?"

Eric extended his hand, "Give me the key card."

"Uh? Oh!" Melanie quickly fished out a key card from her pocket and handed it to Eric. She had just begun to muster the courage to ask something when Eric shot her a look that suggested they could deal with that later and turned to leave.

Opening the door, Eric quietly stepped into the bedroom only to find Caroline still lying on his bed, still on the phone.

Seeing Eric at the door, Caroline softly said, "Auntie, he's back. I'll hang up now... um, bye."

Once Caroline ended the call and set the phone aside, Eric sat down beside her on the bed, quietly watching the girl still curled up in her blanket without speaking first.

Caroline's eyes sparkled as she gazed at Eric. After a moment, it seemed she gained some courage and emerged from under the covers.

Eric blinked, taken aback as the girl, dressed in only a small shirt, nestled closer. He found his body stiffening.

This situation felt wrong. Had that woman not told her the truth?

Looking around, Eric leaned in slightly, pulling the covers tightly around Caroline's small body. He asked, "What did your aunt tell you?"

Caroline allowed Eric to wrap her tighter in the blanket, softly responding, "Auntie wanted me to apologize to you for her. She also asked if she could come to Los Angeles to see you."

However, Eric was more concerned about something else and pressed further, "What else?"

Caroline's courage seemed to fade now that she was cuddled up against Eric but didn't dare move too much. She cautiously held onto his arm, blinking slowly as she said, "I-I didn't know you would be my cousin. No wonder you're so nice to me. And you all think of me as a child and don't tell me anything."

By the end of her statement, her tone had taken on a playful note of complaint.

Sensing something was still off, Eric gently moved his arm that Caroline was holding, asking, "Do you know what you're doing right now?"

"Mm." Caroline nodded slightly, and as she noticed Eric's movement, she felt shy but didn't loosen her hold.

"That, Carly, don't you think you should return to your own room?"

"I don't want to go back."

"But, I'm your cousin!"

Caroline thoughtfully replied, "So what?"

"..."

Eric suddenly found himself at a loss for words.

Feeling Eric's uncertainty, Caroline quickly added, "Eric, my aunt wishes for me to marry you. But I know you probably won't want that. I just want to stay by your side, okay?"

"Um, okay, wait, what did you just say?"

From Eric's reaction before reaching out to his aunt, Caroline clearly understood his concerns. Watching Eric's current flustered expression, she softly remarked, "In England, cousins can marry too. The royal couple are cousins."

Eric countered, "But we're in California."

Caroline blinked innocently, "California seems to allow it too."

"..."

Finally understanding why he had always treated her especially but still kept a distance, Caroline felt very happy at this moment.

The girl, simple-minded, hadn't connected these thoughts to family history but believed her parents and aunt knew yet purposely kept it from her out of kindness.

Although Eric seemed to struggle with getting too close, she felt reassured that as long as she took the initiative, everything would be fine.

He was such a bad guy.

With those thoughts, Caroline delicately shifted, tentatively calling out, "Cousin."

Eric immediately felt a chill run down his spine and quickly said, "Don't call me that."

Caroline smiled, nodding obediently, "Then I'll just call you Eric."

Finally breaking free from his thoughts, Eric came to himself, feeling a heavy responsibility ahead. He replied, "That's fine, Carly. It's getting late. How about you head back to your room tonight?"

Caroline knew nothing would happen between them tonight. She released Eric, clutching the edge of the blanket, her voice laced with a little playfulness, "Mel took all my clothes! Eric, will you carry me back?"

Though some petty thoughts crossed Eric's mind about docking her pay, he stood up and gently picked up the blanket-wrapped girl, heading toward the exit.

With only her head poking out from the blanket, Caroline gazed up at Eric with bright eyes. After stepping out of the bedroom, she suddenly asked, "Oh, Eric, can I tell Mel about this?"

Eric, feeling a bit "defeated," replied, "Go ahead."

But Caroline quickly added, "If you don't like it, I'll keep it from Mel."

"It's fine; anyway..." Eric shrugged and stated, "As long as you don't use the excuse of being Eric Williams' cousin to do bad things."

"Ha! I wouldn't do that."

Exiting the room, they took a few steps to the door of the two women's room. Eric, holding Caroline, lightly kicked the door with his foot.

"Eric, that's very rude," Caroline commented instinctively upon feeling Eric's actions. Then, she stretched out a fair little arm from the blanket and knocked a few times on the door.

This time, whether Melanie had fallen asleep or not, it took quite a while before she opened the door.

Waiting at the door in such an odd posture, Caroline knocked a few more times. Then she suddenly recalled something, "Oh, Eric, I just mentioned that Auntie wants to come see you in Los Angeles!"

Eric nodded, "That's fine."

Caroline sensed a hint of coldness in his tone. After hesitating a moment, she asked, "So, Eric, will you call her 'Mom'?"

"Um, probably not," Eric shook his head, looking down at the girl in his arms. "I don't think she'd mind."

Caroline shook her head in response, "She definitely would mind. Auntie has been keeping an eye on you. I now understand why I suddenly received that letter from Auntie from Greece. She even said she missed me, her niece. Huh, Auntie must really want to know how you're doing." Although she slightly scrunched her nose, this kind-hearted girl didn't seem to take it hard. She reiterated, "She definitely cares."

*****

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