#THE_LAST_MINUTE_GROOM
©Sir_Zach
EPISODE 44
He had a head of white hair and a long white beard. The old man had a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. His black eyes held warmth as he stared at the camera.
Jeslyn gently bit her nude lips as she reminisced about her days with the old man.
While she was standing there, mourning her loss, Blue brought in Jeslyn’s luggage and stood beside Pink because she had no idea where the rooms were.
“Little bunny, enough of that, you’ve got your whole life to mourn your grandpa. Your husband gave you a maximum of one week to stay here, so it would be better if you start managing the time you’ve got.” Pink doesn’t know how to console someone, so she said that instead.
Hearing Pink say that, Jeslyn frowned and turned to look at her. “Maverick gave me a week? Why? Can’t I decide when to return?”
“No chance,” Pink shook her head.
“I’m not a child!” Jeslyn hissed. Her mood was already bad after remembering how her grandfather died and now she was being treated like a hostage.
“You should have known that before agreeing to the marriage,” Pink rolled her eyes.
“I’m your–”
“I’ve heard that before. In as much we aren’t around your husband, you are like a child to me, so forgo all that…” Pink walked towards Jeslyn and stood in front of her. She could see that Jeslyn’s eyes were brimming with tears, but she ignored it and continued.
“… You’ll forever be that little girl I –” Pink swallowed and gently patted Jeslyn’s straight black hair. “You should rest for today. Tomorrow is a big day for you.”
Jeslyn didn’t think much of Pink’s words and walked towards her room. She wasn’t in a good mood and she needed to sleep it off, or else she might do things out of anger.
After Jeslyn left, Pink motioned for Blue to follow behind her with the luggage.
Once she was the only one left in the large sitting room, Pink’s countenance changed as her eyes were glued to Alice’s frame.
Pink took a few steps towards it and picked up the framed picture. She looked at the picture for a long time without uttering a word.
Thirty minutes passed by so quickly, yet Pink was still standing there, lost with the picture of Jeslyn’s elegant mother in her hold.
Just like her daughter, Ms. Alice had same face. However, the difference was that she looked strict and classy, unlike Jeslyn who has an adorable personality, just like those girls who would melt a man’s heart and trigger their protective nature with brimming tears in their eyes.
“Boss,”
Pink shifted her gaze from the picture frame in her hands and looked at the Old Man’s picture. “Hmm,” she answered.
“Madam has gone to sleep,” Blue reported with her head down.
“Hmm,” Pink hummed and stayed silent for a while before she spoke again. “An hour from now, prepare her a plate of veggies, non–oily food, but she loves chicken… She loves her egg boiled but not properly cooked. The yoke shouldn’t be solid. She likes…” Pink mentioned the food Jeslyn loved despite not being there whenever Jeslyn eats.
If Jeslyn was here, she’d be shocked as to why Pink knew her so well.
Blue was staring dumbly at Pink until she heard the last word. If she was Yellow, she would have asked how Pink knew Jeslyn so well, but because Blue wasn’t as close to Pink as Yellow was, she didn’t dare to become casual with her.
Blue is allowed to be informal with Yellow and those below yellow, but wouldn’t dare to be casual with Pink because the organizations in Country M have a strict rule about hierarchy and respect to superiors, especially in Alpha chaos’ gang.
He is ever serious and so are his men. That has helped him build a strong and loyal gang, but that doesn’t mean that the heart of humans can’t grow greedy, after all, Country M is like a forest with wild animals. Anyone can ki|| anyone just to survive– survival of the fittest.
“Yes, boss,” Blue bowed before She walked away. Jeslyn had shown her their rooms when Blue was following her a while back, so she is a little familiar with the inside.
After Blue left, Pink’s eyes caught sight of Ray’s photo. There were two photos of Ray. One has Jeslyn smiling while looking at his side profile. Ray’s attention was on his phone at the time. The picture looked harmonious and cute.
The second picture has only Ray cuffing his sleeve. The guy looked dashing with a small smile on the corner of his lips.
Pink’s eyes dimmed; she stretched her hand to grab the frame and raised it, ready to smash it on the floor but stopped herself in time. She didn’t know what Jeslyn had in mind.
It isn’t that easy to forget your first love. Even though Jeslyn looks like she has moved on, Pink knew it was a lie. She was there before and understands the feelings. First love isn’t a thing that could be swept off the heart just like that.
Besides, all the drama happened about 4 months ago, so it’s still too early for Jeslyn to forget Ray, So she thought. Also, Jeslyn was here a while ago and she didn’t throw Ray’s pictures out even though she glanced at them.
Pink put the picture back and glanced at old man Lee’s photo. She brushed her fingers over it before walking away with her eyes brimming with sparkling liquid.
What would her subordinate and Jeslyn say when they see her crying? It was not ideal, so she walked out of the sitting room and left to take a walk around the house.
Meanwhile, at the Zhou cooperation, Ray was seen, sitting behind the desk in his office. Even though it was nighttime, he was still there working his butt off.
The ringing of his phone kept interrupting his typing, but still, Ray wouldn’t stop to pick up his calls.
Ray’s office door burst open and his sister strode in. With her momentum, it was clear she was angry.
“Ray! What is wrong with you?! Today marked three months you have been inside this office and wouldn’t come out. I bet you have forgotten the road to the house. What is going on? You don’t tell me anything anymore. Mom, dad, grandpa, and everyone else are worried about you. The security said you barred them from coming into the company. How could you do that to your family? What is wrong with you?!”
“How did you get in?” Ray raised his head from the keyboard and asked his sister.
“Wh– what?!” Sharon was totally flabbergasted. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
At the gate earlier, the security men refused to let her in. Not until she called Frank who spoke with the chief security officer was she allowed in. She had thought her brother would react differently when he sees her, after all, she had been his most beloved person since young. She didn’t expect he would ask her this with a plain look on his face like he was addressing a stranger.
“What are you talking about?” She asked again.
“Sharon, what are you doing here?” Ray pushed his seat back and got up. He walked towards the floor-to-ceiling window and stopped to look at the dark city with sparkling lights coming from the tall buildings.
“Ray, it’s me, your older sister–”
Ray turned to look at her. His hair looked disheveled, and his white shirt, although looked clean and well-ironed, was left flying over his black trousers.
He wasn’t wearing shoes but slippers instead. His sleeves were folded up to rest just below his elbow. Totally unlike Ray.
Sharon swallowed when she saw the look he was giving her. If not that she knew her brother was allergic to dirt, she would have vowed that her brother hasn’t bathed for a few days.
“You are the last person I want to see.” He said.
“Wh– why?”
“What else do you want from me? Haven’t you used me enough all your life? Ever since we were little, you have never stopped manipulating me. You made me do things I never thought I would regret. I had thought you were the motherly figure you made me believe you were.
Mother and father were never there for us while growing up… they were always busy, so I relied on you and opened my heart to you, which was why you could manipulate me to your satisfaction…. Not Anymore… not anymore, Sharon.”
Sharon’s lips fell apart in disbelief. She couldn’t fathom what her little brother was telling her. Yes, he was right. Ever since young, she had been the only one who cared about him… no, she was the only one who had time for him. She gave him a listening ear, gave him a shoulder to cry on, took care of him whenever he was sick, fed him whenever he couldn’t eat… She was literally everything to him because their parents were busy trying to stabilize their grandfather’s failing business.
Even after their parents realized that neglecting their children was a bad trait, it was already too late. Ray couldn’t love or rely on anyone anymore. His feelings and trust for his sister had overwhelmed what any man could feel for another.
“R– Ray…”
Ray raised his palm to stop her. “Don’t try. It won’t work. You and Emilee have succeeded in ki||ing Jeslyn even after I warned you all not to touch her. I might have been stupid all this while, I might not have known what I felt for Jeslyn at that time, and I might have thought I loved Emilee, but now that I know what my feelings truly were, it’s already too late. There’s nothing left in me for you to drill anymore. Sharon, I’m only a shell now… please, I beg you, leave me alone to wallow in sorrow. It might be that I’ll be able to join Jeslyn and ask her and her family for forgiveness in the afterlif–”
“Stop it! Stop talking, you fool!!” Sharon couldn’t take it anymore.
The brother standing in front of her right now looked like a stranger to her. How could her fierce and decisive brother look so tired of life? How could her proud brother sound so down? All because of Jeslyn?! How dare that vixen?!
Although Sharon was mad, her face looked sorrowful. She forced tears to run down her cheeks– just like she always did.
She walked slowly to the tired–looking Ray and held his palm in hers.
“Brother… ” she hesitated. “How could you…” she choked on her tears. “How could you think so evil of me?… I loved you with all my heart and everything I did was for your own good. I know that you are upset because of Jeslyn…”
Ray pulled his hands out of Sharon’s hold and turned his back to her. He didn’t want to see her looking this way. He knew she was faking it, but it hurts watching her break down like this.
“Ray, Jeslyn was never the type of girl you can be with. Emilee and you have been dating before the plan to use Jeslyn. I know I was wrong for making you do it, but brother, we needed to do what Emilee wanted so that grandpa would give you the company.
Second uncle’s son was doing better than you and grandpa was thinking of handing the company to him. You know what would have happened if the second branch became the head of the family.
Ray, Jeslyn was never your type… Yes, I agree, she is the prettiest girl in Rose City, she’s cute and friendly, and you’ll have a joyous home if you had married her but what about Emilee? You know she’s not to be messed with. She might not be here but you know how possessive she is of you. Right from high school, she had been your woman. Have you forgotten what she did to those girls that confessed their feelings to you?”
“…If I hadn’t stopped you from knowing what you felt for Jeslyn, do you think you would have lived to this day? All I did that for your safety… I love you so much and I’ll do it again if I have to.”
Sharon stretched out her hand and touched Ray on the shoulder hoping he had been brainwashed again, however, Ray pushed her hand off and turned around. His eyes were red and his hands were balled in fists.
“I thought you could change. However, you can never stop your schemes, never!” He pointed at the door with his back turned to her. “Get out… leave!!”
Sharon furrowed her brows slightly. She knew this was not the right time to continue. Whenever Ray is angry, it is better to leave him alone. With that, she picked up her purse from the desk and left the office.
She had no hand in spreading the rumor regarding Jeslyn’s death, also, she was sure that the vixen was still alive somewhere, however, she wasn’t intending to tell Ray that. It is for everyone’s good that he believed Jeslyn was dead.
Ray closed his eyes. Why was he just knowing that his sister could be this manipulative? She still didn’t take any blame for all that happened. From everything she just said, she put all the blames on Emilee and the situation their family was in at that time.
Yes, Ray agreed that his sister was right. He and Emilee had been dating from a young age. Emilee had always been the jealous type and wouldn’t think twice before she ki||ed another lady because of him…she did it a few times in high school.
Emilee ki||ed a few girls because she found out or suspected they liked him. One of the girls she ki||ed happened to be a politician’s daughter. The man wouldn’t let the matter go, so Emilee had to run away from home.
After a few years, Emilee sent a girl who claimed to be her assistant to him and told him she was fine but didn’t explain anything.
From there onwards, the lady became the bridge between them, and even when Emilee and Ray started to communicate through the phone, the lady didn’t stop visiting Ray and that was because she had started to love Ray.
However, after the last time the lady and Ray had segz in the hotel where they discussed the poison Old man Lee was being given, Ray stopped hearing from her. He believed that the lady must have been ki||ed by Emilee.
That aside, Ray knew that he did wrong to Jeslyn. If it wasn’t because of Emma and Ava who approached him and talked some sense into him, Ray wouldn’t have realized what his beloved sister was doing to him.
He had the belief that Jeslyn had been ki||ed by Emilee and for that. Ever since his life had become miserable. He no longer sleeps at night due to guilt, and burning rage for himself and everyone around him.
Ray knew that if he didn’t stay away from everyone, he might ki|| someone.
Ray brushed his fingers over his messy hair and sighed. He walked into the office room and entered the bathroom. After washing his face, the makeup covering his dark circles was washed off.
Ray’s face looked pale like that of a ghost. His dark circles were so thick that it was scary.
Ray stared at his reflection in the mirror for a long time before he returned to the office to continue working. When it’s dawn, he’ll call his makeup artist to come apply makeup on him. He’d been living like that for around three months now.
….
The next morning, Jeslyn got dressed in an off–shoulder black lace gown. She wore a black Ç0çƙtail hat with a veil. She held three bouquets of roses. One is a dark crimson which they say represents sorrow, while the other two are yellow roses, which the people say symbolizes strong ties.
Jeslyn got into a black car which was driven by Blue with Pink sitting in the front passenger seat.
Both guards wore black suits and black inner shirts.
Jeslyn had her eyes closed all through the journey to Rose City’s columbarium.
After a long time of driving, they arrived at the City’s columbarium. Blue was made to stay inside the car while Jeslyn and Pink got down and walked into the building after Pink spoke with the security men and people in charge of the Columbarium.
The management of the Columbarium walked Jeslyn and Pink into the building and directed them to the private sector specially designed for the Lee family. Although Jeslyn was already familiar with the place, she didn’t stop the three men from taking her there, after all, she had her face disguised and she didn’t appear like Jeslyn but a family friend.
The people didn’t suspect that the young lady was lying because almost everyone in Rose City knows that Jeslyn was dead.
After the men left, Jeslyn walked into the large room alone, leaving Pink to stay outside the door.
Standing in front of the niches, she stared at the glass covering the urns with her family’s pictures, an inscription telling the biography of each member of the Lee family, and a bunch of red roses placed on each of the Lee family’s glass.
The flowers caught Jeslyn’s eyes because they were still fresh. They must have been placed here this morning. She thought.
Jeslyn walked closer to the niches and felt the roses before counting them. There were 15 roses in each vase. From what she knows,15 roses are for an apology.
She knew that her family had enemies but who could have wronged her grandfather, grandmother, and mother that they needed to apologize like this?
Whoever it was, Jeslyn planned on finding them and forgiving them on behalf of her family.
“Grandpa, I’m so sorry… your unfilial granddaughter finally found the time to come and see you.”