#THE_LAST_MINUTE_GROOM_S3
©Sir_Zach
EPISODE 61
“And she didn’t tell you why?”
“No, she said she had no idea, so I thought it was because she missed you.”
“Hm.”
Maverick locked the door and wound up his window without another word.
Code 10 dismissed Lolita and entered the car before driving off.
Maverick’s brows were furrowed. He was afraid that the ATOM in her might have kicked in again. With his thoughts going haywire, he failed to grasp all what Code 10 saying to him.
Code 2 saw that their master was lost in his thoughts, so he shook his head at Code 10, stopping him from talking further.
After a few minutes, Maverick spoke, “you were saying something.”
Code 10 looked at him from the rear mirror before replying, “Yes… we’ve taken care of the Xu family as you’ve instructed. We sent that girl who wore your shirt to the hospital, and rewarded the one who saved you… But, your brother and Fin haven’t come to visit.”
Maverick didn’t respond for a long time. He moved his gaze to the window, staring at the tall buildings along the way as they zoomed past. “Drive to Rex’s house,” he finally ordered after what looked like forever.
“Yes!”
…
Arriving at Rex’s house, Maverick got in with a spare key. The house was clean as usual but it had no sign of a human presence. He went upstairs to Rex’s study room.
Inside the room, there were lots of papers piled up on the desk. He took a clean sheet from the top of the stack of papers. He observed it for a moment, then his eyes caught sight of a pen, sitting quietly in a corner of the desk. The blue pen wasn’t deliberately hidden from sight, nor was it left in the open. If someone else had walked into the study room and saw the pen like that, they’d think it was carelessly thrown out of sight.
Maverick picked it up and pushed the button and a blue touch lit at the other end of the pen. With the paper spread on the desk, he observed the paper closely with the blue light and saw a hidden note.
[ I don’t know what’s happening. I feel there’s something wrong somewhere but I can’t place my fingers on it.
Matt sent me a message before leaving for City B. He said there’s an outbreak of a new disease and the doctors there need him. Fin also gave me a call, saying there’s a serious gang fight in City F and he was ordered by his superiors to go check it out.
As for me, I got a couple of pictures showing me you are in danger. Everything is happening too fast and it all looks weird. However, I can’t risk it. There is an 80% chance that it’s real.
I mean, if you are truly dead, Mr. Hwang would likely cause chaos around the world to distract the people from PEACE Faction. But if you aren’t dead, then it’s a setup and I will need your help, big brother. ]
Maverick turned off the touch light and ordered.
“Code 2, take some men to City F and rescue Fin. Send Code 5 along with some men to City B to bring back Matt… Code 10, get all the media in the Country to announce that I’ll be taking over the Xu family’s territory.”
“Yes, Master!” They both chorused.
Although Code 10 had no idea why he wanted the world to know that; he still did as told.
That evening, news spread everywhere that Maverick, who had ruined the Xu family, would be taking over their territories.
Everyone who cared about the matter of power, heard the news and such people didn’t exclude the Half-hearts.
Doyenne was so mad that she ki||ed one of her girls.
“Didn’t you tell me that Alpha Chaos was dead?!” She roared.
“Cease your anger, Doyenne!” all the members in the meeting hall knelt with a plop.
“I should cease my anger?! What do you think would have happened if y’all had taken advantage of his brother?! Do you think we would be fine? Huh?!”
Everyone stayed silent with their heads on the ground.
She took a deep breath and commanded, “Get him out of prison and send him back home, immediately. If you know what would be good for you, feed him the pill to make him lose his memory of this place. Else, y’all will face my wrath!”
That was how unconscious Rex was sent back to Maverick. It then dawned on Code 10 that Maverick made the announcement so whoever was holding Rex captive would get scared and send him back.
He wished such a tactic would work on Reuben but unfortunately…
As for Matt and Fin, they were successfully rescued and brought back home the next day. Unfortunately, Fin sustained fatal injuries.
…
It’s been two weeks since Maverick returned and his wife was still nowhere to be found. There was no lead to trace her. He checked all the CCTV footage but couldn’t find her anywhere in the Country.
He knew she was taken by Reuben but the guy’s whereabouts was unknown, even to Damien.
“Brother, why don’t we alert the world about it? We might get a call from somewhere…”
Maverick glared at Rex, who wouldn’t stop repeating the same statement since his recovery.
“Why don’t you make your mind useful by remembering where the Half-heart’s hideout is?” he spat out curtly before storming out on Rex.
Rex scratched the back of his head. When he went to rescue his brother, he was captured by the Half-hearts. The men he brought along were taken advantage of and ki||ed while he was left in prison, awaiting whatnot, until he was rescued.
When he left there, after he was fed a pill, he forgot what happened to him until recently that his clouded mind slowly started to pick some things.
As for his brother, he was starting to lose patience and everyone was feeling the heat. These days, he was like a ticking time bomb. Everyone living their days in fear that he might suddenly detonate.
Rex understood the reason his brother didn’t want to inform the media about his wife’s matter. There are some malicious people who would take advantage of the matter and paint Jeslyn’s reputation with coal. Even though Jeslyn is found, she might not be able to handle the gossip that will be flying around her.
Despite her fans beginning to suspect something, Manager Kate was able to come up with an excuse. However, how long would that last? Rex sighed.
…
*Reuben’s hideout…*l
The guy was starting to panic as Jeslyn was still unconscious. It’s been two weeks and he was going crazy.
After she fainted two weeks ago, he thought she’d wake up the next day, but now, it was fourteen days and there was no sign of her waking up!
He stared at her peaceful face with anger rising inside him. She was sleeping peacefully while all his plans had been ruined! The only thing he has left is this hideout. If it is discovered, there will be trouble.
Thinking of that, he marched out of the room and returned to the sitting room. Reuben deliberated for a long time if he should get a doctor for her and finally accepted after considering all his cards.
“Hello, get me a doctor. Let the Chopper leave the airport tonight… Also, add some food supplies and a new laptop.”
‘I’m afraid it will be difficult. Alpha Chaos has his eyes and ears on everything in the City. We can’t breathe too loudly, let alone do anything to cause suspicion,’ the other person said.
“So you are scared of him, but not scared of me, huh?”
‘That’s not the case. You of all people should know I can’t betray you. I’m only worried about you getting discovered. What if he tracks the chopper to your destination?’
“You believed I didn’t think about that? Next time let me finish!”
‘I’m sorry, friend.’
“Maverick is scared for the world to know that his wife is missing. We should do it for him. When the chaos has grown bigger, release the pictures you took one after the other. I already taught you what to say. That should distract him from focusing on the chopper that would be leaving the airport.” He ended the call after that.
“Once her reputation has been ruined, she would want to live here with me instead of being in the open. Am I not too intelligent? Hahahaha…!”
That night, news of Jeslyn’s disappearance swept the internet by storm, but Maverick won’t know that until the next day. At the same time, the chopper carrying a team of doctors and food supplies left the airport.
What Reuben failed to detect was his twin brother tracking the chopper.
The next morning, Rex stormed into the house and greeted Maverick with what was going on.
[ Newsflash!
The world’s most beloved baby, VJ Cute has been missing for two weeks and her family is keeping the matter under wrap! ]
[ Unbelievable!
Jeslyn ran away because her husband was cheating on her with a waitress! ]
The comments were so aggressive that one would stop to wonder if Maverick owned all that insult.
‘He’s a $cvm!’
‘Worst than a douchebag!’
‘Our Jeslyn is so pitiful, look at how comfortable that Ɓîtçh is in the cheating bastard’s arms.’
‘She’s even wearing his shirt to tell the world how loving they are. Who the hell is that wh-_-re, does anyone know her??’
Maverick closed the comment and threw the phone to the desk.
“Where did that come from?” he asked.
“The pictures were extracted from the CCTV footage at the hotel. Sister-in-law’s fans are really angry and if they know which hospital that girl is, they might storm there.”
“I asked you, where did that news come from? That person has a link to my wife’s whereabout.”
“Ah,” Rex scratched his nose. “It was anonymous. I couldn’t find anything.”
Maverick took a deep breath. What the fans were saying didn’t affect him at all. What he needed right now was to find his woman.
“Keep an eye out. They’ll post something else soon.”
“OK, brother.”
…
Meanwhile, the doctors could be seen treating the unconscious Jeslyn, while Reuben paced back and forth in the room.
After a long while, the head doctor took off his gloves and said to Reuben.
“She’s out of danger now. You should be careful with her from now on. She can’t handle stress or what fluctuates her emotions.”
“Oh, please, stop beating around the bush and hit the nail on the head! Tell me, what is wrong with her?” he glared at the doctor.
The man took a deep breath and uttered, “She’s pregnant… Three months pregnant.”
“Shut up!!”
“Bang!”
Reuben punched the doctor in the face in rage. He grabbed the doctor by his collar and pulled him forward. With his furious eyes glaring daggers at the man, he conveyed.
“You are mistaken! Run that test again and again, and again until the result comes out negative… I don’t care what you do, or how you do it! I also don’t care if you have to abort the pregnancy, all I want to hear after three hours is that she is negative!!”
He threw the man to the side and stormed out of the room.
The doctor sat powerlessly on the floor until two nurses came to help him up.
“Doctor, she is Alpha Chaos’ wife. The child must also be his. We will be in trouble if we get rid of it,” one of the nurses said with worry.
“You’ll need to secure your life here first before you think about what Alpha Chaos would do to you,” the other nurse objected.
“Whether we leave here alive or not, either way, we shall die. But consider the little thing we’ll be getting rid of. We took an oath to save lives, our goal is to preserve lives and bring new ones into the world. We don’t ki|| people!” The first nurse argued.
“I have a family I want to return to. We can worry about Alpha Chaos’ wrath later. Moreover, they might not know that she is pregnant.” The second nurse disagreed again.
“Enough you two! I know what to do!” The doctor interrupted.
Three hours later, Reuben returned to the room but didn’t see blood stains like he expected. Wrath burnt in his chest as he looked at the doctors and nurses standing in front of him with their heads bowed.
Reuben felt the urge to clip them. “What is the result?” he asked.
“I’m sorry, Master Reuben, we couldn’t do it because she would die if her baby was tampered with.”
“Are you giving me an excuse to pardon you?”
“No, Mr. Reuben. Her heartbeat and the child’s is quite… unique. I don’t know how to explain it.”
“And you think I care about your incompetence? Your life or death depends on the knowledge you feed me.” Reuben pulled out a knife and caressed the head doctor’s face with it. “The knife is so sharp that a small cut…” he drew the knife across the man’s cheek and drew some blood. “… Like this in the throat will end your miserable life.”
The doctor didn’t dare to move, but his shaking legs and sweaty forehead was a dead giveaway that he was more scared than the others who were kneeling.
“I– their heartbeats are intertwined, it’s as though they only have one heart,” He explained.
“It still doesn’t make sense. Since the child doesn’t have a heartbeat, it means it’s dead. So bring it out!” He trailed the knife to the doctor’s throat. Just a little pressure on the wrist would send the doctor to his grave.
The man swallowed nervously. “Th– the heartbeat seems to belong to the– child.”
Reuben stared at him like a fool for a while before his lips curled into a villainous smile. Just as he was about to draw the knife across the man’s throat, Jeslyn moved on the bed.
Seeing this, Reuben immediately hurried to the bed. Her lips were moving, she was saying something. When he lowered his ear to her lips, he heard her murmuring;
“Maverick…”
Reuben’s face changed and he got up. He looked at the four nurses and two doctors and ordered;
“She is two weeks pregnant. Tell her that when she wakes up.” He stormed out after that.
The head doctor fell to his knees and sat on the floor for a long time for blood to circulate well around his body. Just now, he was scared witless that his blood froze for a while.
…
Behind the mountains, in the autumn forest, a chopper came to a stop. Damien got out with Randy and five men trailing behind them.
They looked around them before Randy spoke.
“This is the popular Mystery forest?”
“Yes, it is. If there’s an ocean anywhere around here, then it should be where the aircraft, Bluehair F2220 crashed into.”
“You mean the aircraft Jeslyn was in last year?”
“Yes. Also,” he pulled out his phone to check his signal. “The signal here is pretty bad. Once we leave here, find a way to send Maverick a message.”
“But Master, this is dangerous. We don’t know how many men your brother has on standby, yet you didn’t take an army along. Are you not scared of–”
“Stop talking and keep following me. This place is not safe.”
“How did you know?”
“I don’t know. Wait to find out for yourself.” Damien waved for the pilot to send the chopper back.
“What would we get back with?”
“If you’re able to preserve your life, that is.” Damien and Randy continued trekking down the forest.
They didn’t stop anywhere close to the glasshouse for fear of Reuben getting alerted. They wanted to catch him off guard.
…
*At the glasshouse…*
Jeslyn stirred awake to see people in white standing around her. She immediately sat up, looking defensive.
“Wh–who are you?” she asked, pulling up a false bravado.
“Relax, don’t be afraid. I’m Doc. Jeffery and this is my team. We were brought here to look into your case.”
“‘I’m not unwell!” She snapped at the man who was trying to smile at her with her hands tightly holding the sheets close to her chest.
“Indeed, you are perfectly fine.” The man and the others smiled.
“Then, why are you here?” Even though they were trying to make her see that they weren’t harmful, Jeslyn refused to loosen up her defence.
“You fell unconscious for two weeks, so we were brought here by your husband–”
Jeslyn’s eyes slowly widened as joy and happiness washed over her. Just as she was about to throw her sheets off and run out to look for her husband, the doctor sent her a devastating blow.
“Congratulations, you are two weeks pregnant! Mr. Reuben is very excited about the news and–”
Everything else he said flew right over Jeslyn’s head. The only words she could hear echoing in her mind were the words, ‘Two weeks pregnant!’