THE LAST MINUTE GROOM : CHAPTERS 1 – 20
BY SIR ZACH
CHAPTER 3
At the Lee’s family mansion……
Grandpa Lee could be seen patting Jeslyn on the back as she cried on his lap. After crying for a long time, she finally raised her head to look at her grandfather.
“W– when did you find out about…sniff, about the poison?” The old man’s pupil dilated, ‘ She knew?’ he thought.
“Don’t lie to me, grandfather!” She yelled, knowing he was about to hide things from her.
She had lived with this man for 5 years after coming back from abroad, so she was very familiar with the expressions he makes when he wants to lie or cover things up.
The old man swallowed and asked: “How is my health related to you changing grooms at the last minute?”
“Because someone sent me messages on my phone…” that’s right. Her phone! She searched her body but couldn’t find her phone. “Where is my phone?”
“Your phone hasn’t been with you since we left the wedding venue, Miss.” A young lady with her hair made into a ponytail said from where she was standing.
“You said what?” Jeslyn couldn’t believe it. Her phone was with her even when she was hugging her grandfather… no, that’s not right. There was no phone with her… then where did she dropped her phone!?
“Maya, please, search for my phone. The evidence is on my phone. Call the hotel management, do everything you can to search for my phone!”
“Yes, Miss.” Maya, who seems to be Jeslyn’s assistant, walked a little distance from them to place calls to the hotel.
“Child, calm down, breathe in and breathe out…yeah, like that. Calmly tell me what the problem is. I don’t need evidence to believe you.” The old man gently rubbed her back to calm her down.
“Grandfather, Ray, he’s a bad person. I was in my hotel room…” her mind flashed back to the event of that morning.
THE LAST MINUTE GROOM : CHAPTERS 1 – 20
*Few hours earlier…*
Jeslyn was seen in a grand room getting dressed by two stylists and their assistants. One was applying makeup on her while the other was almost done with her hair.
The bride looked stunning with a beautiful smile on her lips as she imagined herself with Ray on the altar exchanging rings and kissing.
She chuckled to herself, evidence that she couldn’t contain her happiness.
The stylist left after they were done with her. She stood by the floor to ceiling mirror in the room as she checked herself out. “I’m a beauty goddess.” She stated with confidence.
Yes, she truly was a beauty goddess, no denying that, however her phone beeped, calling her attention from admiring herself any further.
She picked up the phone and saw a notification message for her email.
She opened it and saw there were a few videos, pictures and a note.
Jeslyn decided to watch the videos first. It might be a crazy fan’s video of her. She thought.
Some of her enthusiastic fans edit her pictures most times with themselves in it and send them to her email with a love message attached to it, which was why this kind of message didn’t look weird to her.
She sat on the bed and opened the first video. Instead of her picture, she saw Ray speaking to someone in a car. Somehow, only Ray’s face was visible and the other person’s appearance was blurred.
“Ray, what is wrong with you? Do you have to marry her? I thought the plan was different?”
“It was but she wanted the marriage and her grandfather approved of it. Also, if I don’t marry her on her 26th birthday, the properties will be transferred to the orphanage the following day. It’s not like you guys don’t know that.”
“Young Miss knows, but she’s not happy about you getting married to another woman.”
“I know she’s angry, I’m also angry too, but what can I do? This whole idea of approaching the Lee family was hers in the first place, so why is she angry at me and not taking my calls?”
“Young Miss is afraid that you might grow feelings for Jeslyn after you both get married. She’s a woman, so it’s natural to get jealous and battle insecurities.”
“Hahaha… how can she think so lowly of me? Jeslyn and I have been together for four years and I didn’t fall for her. Will a marriage of six months make me start loving her? After our wedding, I’ll travel with young Miss for six months and when I return, it’s to divorce her. Young Miss already knows that, so why is she still upset? I only have my eyes for your young Miss–”
“And me?”
“Come on, we both know we don’t have feelings for each other. We are just f*cking each other and nothing else, so don’t take it serious.” He touched the girl’s face and leaned towards her.
THE LAST MINUTE GROOM : CHAPTERS 1 – 20
A while later, Jeslyn could hear lewd sounds coming from the video as they kissed.
The girl’s fingers traveled all over his body as she started to hastily take his clothes off, including his pants.
Jeslyn hurriedly paused the video as she looked at her screen dumbly for a long time. She couldn’t believe what she just watched.
Tears slowly gathered in her eyes as she felt a stabbing pain in her heart. She slowly swallowed the lump that was forming on her throat and scrolled to the next video with her shaky fingers.
It was in a room, a hotel room. Ray and someone were in bed talking. The girl’s photo was edited again. Her image was blurred, just like the first one. only Ray could be seen stark naked and standing in front of the bed.
Jeslyn closed her eyes for a moment, prompting the river of tears in her eyes to gush onto her cheeks. When she opened her eyes again, there was the determination to watch whatever they would be doing on that bed, after all, she had already heard enough on the first video.
“Ray, I delivered your message. Young Miss isn’t throwing a tantrum anymore, but she still doesn’t want to talk to you.”
“I know.” He sighed and got onto the bed. “She knows that if I don’t marry Jeslyn, the brat won’t be able to get those properties, and our plans over the years will be for nought.”
“Hmm… that woman, Alice remained a bitch even to her death!” It was clear that the lady on the video was upset about Jeslyn’s mother.
“That’s why her husband hated her… so, why did you call me here? Don’t tell me it’s only to have a taste of me,” Ray said.
“That aside. Young Miss said that the last dose of the poison has been administered to old man Lee and he won’t have much time to live anymore, so our plan to get rid of that idiot after taking the properties from her will be a smooth sailing,” The lady replied.
“That’s good, and his properties, did he give a share to young Miss Christine?”
“He willed it all to Jeslyn, stating she can only get them after she got married.”
“Why do they all want her to get married before getting the inheritance? I’m so tired of hearing that! That stupid rule is the reason I’m having issues with the love of my life right now and also, why is that idiot so lucky? She got all her mother’s inheritance and now, her grandfather’s. What about Christine? Is she not their daughter too? How do they expect Jeslyn to manage the empire of the richest man and woman in Rose city? Is that old man senile?”
“As if you don’t know how careless and simple Jeslyn wants to live her life. She thinks she’s a princess, so I bet they were scared that she’ll be cheated out of her properties if she didn’t have a husband to support her…ironic!”
“Ironic indeed. I wonder what her grandfather’s face would look like when he finds out I’m one of those enemies he had been trying to tell Jeslyn about. Hahaha…”
The phone slid off Jeslyn’s hold after watching that video. Her world shook and everything in it tumbled. She stood up and tried taking a step to the door but she fell against the coffee table. Her head felt heavy and her eyes turned blurry.
“No, Ray cannot do this to me. They are lying about everything, it must be a prank. Grandfather, my grandfather.”
She murmured to herself even though she was suffering. She wanted to get up to go check up on her grandfather but she couldn’t stand properly as the world was spinning under her legs and her eyes were also starting to dim.
Just when she was thinking of calling her assistant or grandfather, the door clicked open and someone walked in. It was a lady, but she couldn’t see her clearly. She was wearing a black off shoulder dress.
The lady stood In front of her. Jeslyn could only see her mouth moving, but heard no sound. She struggled to stand on her feet with the support of the bed and tried to read the lady’s lips but her unfocused blurry eyes were bastards.
Her sight started to go dimmer and dimmer, solidifying her belief that she was drugged.
The lady lowered herself and got back up with something like a phone. Yes, that should be her phone, but before she could make sense of what the lady wanted with her phone, her world turned dark and she felt herself falling.
When she woke up a while later, the truth she just discovered rushed back into her mind and the first thing she wanted to do at that moment was to call off the wedding.
But what happens to her mother’s will? Her grandfather’s will can still be changed, but her mother’s can’t? Will her grandfather even have enough time to change his will before anything happens to him? Because in the video, they didn’t specify when the poison would ruin her grandfather.
Calling the cops will require enough evidence, but what if they claim the evidence she has was fabricated? She’s a celebrity and has seen lots of such things happen in the entertainment industry.
So the only idea that stuck to her confused brain at that moment was to get married, but definitely not to Ray. Even a janitor, or a waiter would do, until she’s able to sort things out.
She picked up her phone and left the room while crying along the way. It was like luck wasn’t on her side because after walking through the corridors of her hotel room, she didn’t find anyone until she saw him, that weird man coming out or entering the restroom.
She didn’t care if her words would sound desperate or if she was making the wrong decision, however all she wanted at that moment was to solve one of the biggest problems, so she shamelessly proposed to him, ignoring the weird air surrounding him.
…
THE LAST MINUTE GROOM : CHAPTERS 1 – 20
After hearing his granddaughter’s story, old man Lee was so furious that he yelled. “That bastard!! I will–”
The old man frowned in pain and clawed his chest. “Argh!” He cried out. “Puff!” He coughed out black blood which got onto Jeslyn’s wedding dress.
“G– grandfather, grandfather!”
Jeslyn rushed to support the old man who was slowly going down with his side.
“Grandfather, help!” She screamed while looking around the quiet and empty sitting room.
Her assistant was here a while ago, why isn’t she here now? She didn’t have the time to think of why the servants and guards that kept patrolling around the sitting room on other days like they were moths attracted to flame could not be found anywhere today.
“Somebody help me!!!” She continued to scream but no one came.
The old man kept coughing out black blood. He slowly raised his shaky hands to his granddaughter’s cheeks and used a finger to wipe her tears. The stubborn old man who had never cried for decades felt hot tears sliding down his cheeks as he looked at his poor granddaughter screaming her lungs out for help.
He knew help won’t come because the servants and guards in the house have been bought. He just found out a few days ago that he had been living with a deadly poison in his body when he started to cough out black blood.
He called his doctor to the house and his doctor told him he was only stressed and that nothing was wrong with him. The old man didn’t believe his doctor and that was when he started to suspect that enemies were lurking around them.
THE LAST MINUTE GROOM : CHAPTERS 1 – 20
CHAPTER 4
He called his doctor to the house and his doctor told him he was only stressed and that nothing was wrong with him. The old man didn’t believe his doctor and that was when he started to suspect that enemies were lurking around them.
He didn’t want to alert the enemies, so he started to investigate things from the dark. His granddaughter’s wedding was fast approaching and she was extremely happy about it, so he didn’t want to ruin her happiness by revealing these things to her, and for that, she had to find out in such a heartbreaking way.
“S–sorry, ch–child, I’m s–orry–” the old man’s dimmed eyes slowly closed and the hand on her cheeks was about to fall off when she grabbed it.
“N–no, no, grandpa, please don’t do this to me, grandfather, I beg you please… g–grandfather…” She slowly put his hand down and gently patted his body in an attempt to wake him up.
“Grandpa!” She called again while shaking him gently.
“Old man Lee!” She patted his cheeks.
When he’s sleeping and she sneaks into his room, she would pat his face like this and call him, ‘old man Lee’. He would smile before slowly opening his eyes to ask her what she wanted.
She only calls him by his name when she needs something, so she was expecting him to smile at her and ask her what she wanted, but her expectation was dashed!
“Old man Lee…grandfather!!!” She started to shake him vehemently, but still, he showed no signs of waking up.
“Christine!!”
“Guards!!!”
“Maya!!!”
“Aunt Martha!!”
“Uncle Wong!!!!”
But nobody came. Realization dawned on her that she was alone, all alone with her grandfather in the whole sitting room with no one to help.
She searched around the place with her blurry eyes, looking for anything that could help her and she spotted the telephone.
She laid her grandfather on the cold floor and stood up. Jeslyn hurried to the telephone while stepping on her gown numerous times, almost falling.
On reaching the phone, she hurriedly picked it up, placed it on her right ear, and started to punch the ambulance number she had on her memory.
After punching in the numbers, she was expecting to hear an indication that her call was connecting or hear a voice from the other end, but nothing came even after trying it a few times. Her chaotic mind told her to check the wires and when she did, it was cleanly cut!
Jeslyn slammed the telephone on the table. She was about to hurry back to her grandfather when she tripped over her gown and fell, hitting her head on the edge of the center table.
She felt a terrifying pain in her head but still managed to stand up. Dizziness washed over her and she swayed. But thanks to the table she held for dear life, she didn’t fall.
She stayed like that for a while before she stood up and staggered towards her grandfather with blood trailing down her broken forehead.
While searching the couch they sat on earlier, she saw her phone, the damned phone she had been looking for, and hurriedly called the hospital for an ambulance, not having the time to think of how her phone which was supposed to be missing suddenly appeared out of thin air.
….
THE LAST MINUTE GROOM : CHAPTERS 1 – 20
30 minutes later
At the hospital….
Jeslyn could be seen sitting on a bench, glancing at the operation room every 2 seconds. She would stand up and pace around for a while then return to her bench to sit.
Her exercise continued like that for five hours until the operation room door dinged open.
She rushed to the doctors who walked out with their nose masks on and asked in a frantic voice: “Doctor, how is my grandfather?”
The doctor sighed and shook his head, “I’m sorry, young Miss, your grandfather couldn’t make it. The poison had destroyed his organs and… Miss Jeslyn!”
The doctors immediately supported her limp body before she touched the floor and helped her into a VIP room.
THE LAST MINUTE GROOM : CHAPTERS 1 – 20
Jeslyn opened her eyes to a white room and heard a beeping sound. She turned to her right where the beeping sound was coming from and saw the monitor producing the sound. That was when she registered she was in the hospital.
She tried to sit upright but felt a needle pricking her wrist. She looked down at her wrist and it was an injection needle connected to a thin pipe. She sighed before sitting with her head resting on the wall.
For how long had she been unconscious, she had no idea.
It so happened that the TV screen in front of her was on and a funeral scene was being played.
She frowned when she saw a few familiar faces, and then the ones that hit her right in the core were Ray and Christine.
THE LAST MINUTE GROOM : CHAPTERS 1 – 20
Christine was being held by Ray. Now that’s not her problem. However, why is she seeing Christine crying so much while looking at… wait, her grandfather’s picture?!
At that moment, Jeslyn’s mind turned cold. Shiver ran down her spine as memories flooded her mind. She forcefully pulled out the needle from her wrist, totally disregarding the fact that the drip was not finished.
She pulled away the white cover from her body and got down from the bed.
Taking her first step towards the door, pain hit her hard in the head but she ignored it and staggered out of the room barefooted.
While she was walking along the corridors, everyone she bumped into either gave her weird looks or pointed fingers at her, yet, that wasn’t her concern. She was too carried away to notice the hateful stares and reactions she was getting.
Getting to the road, she found no taxi. However looking up, the billboards were playing her grandfather’s funeral. Jeslyn didn’t know how to react to it.
Her mind was telling her that everything was a prank. Her grandfather and Christine were pranking her, but she urgently needs to get to that cemetery and give them a piece of her mind.
At the same time, she knew her grandfather was dead because the doctors said so. But why are they conducting his funeral so soon?! Didn’t she just sent him to the hospital a few minutes ago?! What if the doctors made a mistake?!!!
_____
THE LAST MINUTE GROOM : CHAPTERS 1 – 20
Inside a black inconspicuous car speeding across the road, Rex could be seen trying to force the groom to tell him who he got married to, but the groom was adamant about keeping mute.
“Brother, so you aren’t going to tell me who you got married to? Your lil brother wants to know. Tell me and I promise I’ll zip my lips.” He made a lip-sealing gesture.
The groom sneered, but said nothing. His head was rested on his seat with his eyes closed.
“Aai, brother, don’t be like that. I might be a gossip monger but–”
“Screech!!!”
“What the f*ck!” Rex cursed after hitting his head on his brother’s palm, thanks to the driver holding brake without warning. He was about to hit his head on his brother’s shoulder, but his brother was quick enough to stop his head with his palm.
“Hey, what the hell is wrong with you?! If you can’t drive then you are fired!” Rex yelled at the driver in frustration.
“I’m sorry young master, it wasn’t my fault, a crazy woman ran into the road.” The driver apologized.
“Run her over.” Came the groom’s languid voice.
“Ah, take it easy bro, that’s a life we are talking about,” Rex smiled.
“Should have known better than to jump into the road.” He said with zero feelings.
Rex sighed. He turned to the driver and asked: “Man, why aren’t you moving?”
“Young master, the crazy woman is banging on the window.” The driver reported.
“Then give her a few seconds,” Rex said while looking at his brother. He sighed in relief when his brother said nothing.
The driver wound down the window to ask what the problem was. Just then, her pitiful weak voice sounded.
“Please sir, can you give me a lift? I’m heading to Rose Cemetery.”
“Sorry ma’am, we are heading to the airport,” Rex answered. He wanted to yell at her, but that pain-filled voice pulled at his heart string.
“Let her in.”
“Huh?” Rex asked in confusion.
“…” The driver was lost.
“Brother, you…”
“You got a problem with that?” He raised his brow at Rex.
“N–no, no, of course, not. Hehehe…” Rex laughed sheepishly.
“Thank you,” Jeslyn got into the front passenger seat with her hair looking like a bird’s nest and face pale like a sick person’s. She looked nothing like the infamous celebrity many people knew in Rose City.
“Hmm,” he answered her, leaving Rex in bewilderment. This is interesting, he thought.
She was supposed to look back at the people behind, but due to how desperate to get to the funeral she was, coupled with the confusion and disbelief she was in regarding everything that has been happening since her wedding day, she didn’t remember to look.
THE LAST MINUTE GROOM : CHAPTERS 1 – 20
After a while, the car became silent, too silent for Rex’s liking so he decided to scroll over the entertainment news. He loves gossip and loves to make some if there was none, so the minute he saw the glaring headline of a popular singer in Rose city trending, he couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
“Wow, this is by far the most interesting trouble this sensational celebrity has caused ever since her debut. She abandoned her 5 years fiance for her cheating partner at the altar and married another, then killed her grandfather because he was disappointed in her for ruining the family’s name and destroying her innocent fiance’s life.
Now, the grandfather’s funeral is being held and she’s absent. Hahaha…what a wicked soul!… Hmmm… let me see what the comment section is like…
hahaha… I thought as much, she’s being chewed alive… oh, this commenter is saying some weird things.
Ah? Why are these commenters diverting from the main topic? It is obvious they were paid for this shit. This is not genuine, I should scroll past.”
THE LAST MINUTE GROOM : CHAPTERS 1 – 20
The groom snatched the phone from Rex and scrolled through the comment. Seeing the weird abominable comments, he frowned slightly and raised his gaze to look at the girl in front but found out she was focused on the billboards by the side of the road.
He closed the app Rex was on and kept the phone by his side.
“Uhm, that’s my phone, can you please return it?”
He looked at Rex and then glanced at the phone before he wound down the tinted window and threw the phone out, then closed his eyes and rested his head on the headrest.
Rex stared wide-eyed at him. What’s wrong with this devil? That phone was just custom-made and sent to him yesterday!
Even though his eyes had started to bore holes into the villain, he refused to spare him a glance.
“Even though you threw my phone away, I have already seen everything. It says that the D-list celebrity, Jeslyn Lee killed her grandfather because—”
At the mention of her name, Jeslyn who had not been paying attention to the people sitting in the back seat peeked her ears. On hearing the words that followed, she didn’t know how she found the strength to go against her weak mental state and responded.
“Mister, I appreciate the fact that you were kind enough to give me a lift, I’ll be alighting from here, thank you… stop the car.” She said to the driver.
The groom who had his eyes closed all these while suddenly opened his eyes when he heard her words.
The minute the car was stopped, he turned to look at Rex and ordered, “get out.”
“Huh?” Rex who heard the words turned his gaze from the lady sitting in the front seat to the man sitting beside him.
He had thought his brother was telling the lady in front to get out but was stunned when he met those emotionless eyes. Not that his eyes ever held emotions though.
“Thank you for the ride,” Jeslyn said from the front seat as she was unbuckling her seat belt.
“Not you, young Miss. Rex, get down.”
Jeslyn was taken aback by that voice. She had heard that voice somewhere but can’t recollect where she heard it from. Her mind was still clouded and in total disarray with all the chaos in her life that she couldn’t make her mind to focus.
She turned to look at the person but couldn’t see much as the car was dark and he had his eyes closed with the back of his head resting on it.
“Brother, you want me to get down?” Rex pointed at himself.
“Hmm, now.”
“In the middle of–”
“You want me to pull you out?” He asked with a curved brow.
“Hehehe… of course not, I’ll get down, I’ll get down.” Rex swallowed his sorrow and opened the car door.
The car zoomed off before he even got to close the door and he was very sure it was the command from that demon.
Inside the car, Jeslyn sighed and said: “Thank you, mister, but you really didn’t have to do that. That place is dangerous and there have been multiple reports of bad things happening there lately.”
“He’ll be fine.” He uttered with his eyes closed.
“Oh,” she answered and shut her mouth. She looked out the window to see if she could see him but couldn’t.
…
THE LAST MINUTE GROOM : CHAPTERS 1 – 20
The black car stopped at a cemetery and from where the car stood, they could see people in black standing in front of a grave.
“Thank you, mister.” Jeslyn offered her thanks and got out of the car and started to run unsteadily towards the people.
The driver was about to start the car when he heard that emotionless voice.
“Hold on.”
THE LAST MINUTE GROOM : CHAPTERS 1 – 20
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