#THE_LAST_MINUTE_GROOM_S3
©Sir_Zach
EPISODE 77
*In the sitting room…*
Maverick and Jeslyn appeared to see two old men drinking what looked like tea. Behind them were two people, a young lady and a young man.
On the other side was Pink, sitting on the opposite sofa.
At their appearance, everyone in the sitting room turned their heads in their direction.
“Hi… I heard you were looking for me?” Maverick assisted Jeslyn to take a seat before he excused himself, leaving the mother and daughter with the ‘strangers.’
The white-haired man from the Zhu family cleared his throat. “You’re Jeslyn, right?” he asked.
“Pretty much,” she affirmed.
“Uhm, have your grandparents ever told you about their background?” the man asked again.
Jeslyn sat upright. She glanced at Pink who had a neutral expression, so Jeslyn had no idea what was running through her mind. Anyway, she still had to answer however she deemed fit.
“As much as I can remember, no one ever talked about my grandparent’s background.”
“Oh,” the old man glanced at Pink before he continued. “Well, your grandmother, Lily, was my fifth Cousin. And as for your grandfather, Tai Lee, he is third Lee’s oldest brother.” The man spread his hand to the other old man.
Jeslyn moved her gaze between the two. What she had understood so far is that the white-haired man is from the Zhu family which apparently is where her grandmother is from. As for the other old man, he’s from the Lee family, her grandfather’s family.
“OK,” she nodded.
“We’ve spoken to your mother here, but she insisted we talk to you.”
“Oh?” Jeslyn glanced at her mother again. “So, what is it you want to discuss?”
“There was a misunderstanding in the past that led to Tai Lee getting banished. Lily eloped with him and they decided to live in Rose City. A few years later, the family asked him to return but he chose to stay in Rose City, so now, we are here to offer you and your mother the same privilege to return,” Third Lee explained.
Of course, Jeslyn had heard the whole story from Nancy, so she knew these men in front of her were here to do damage control.
“OK… So, why do you think we’re interested in ‘returning’ to a family who just realized we exist?” She wore a skeptical look like a child tasting things for the first time.
So cute!
The old men were tongue-tied. Alex already told them she and her children don’t want to have anything to do with them but the men thought that Jeslyn would say something else.
A while later, the white-haired old man cleared his throat and continued; “Child, we totally understand your grief. Anyone would be angry but, please return to your grandparent’s homes. I’m sure your grandmother would have wanted that.”
“I’m sorry, but you’re mistaken. My grandmother wouldn’t like that.”
“Why do you think that way?”
“The fact that she didn’t tell me about the Zhu family meant that she has no relationship with them. Same for my grandpa.”
“Child, it was a misunderstanding that has been cleared. The family regretted it and–”
“I’m sorry, but the regret came too late. If they had intervened when my family was going through hard times, my grandfather wouldn’t have died.”
“So, you mean you won’t return?”
The two old men were helping themselves out, still Jeslyn was not bulging. She believes that Brian won’t want to have anything to do with them either.
“Matter of fact… that way, no one would see me and my mother as opportunists who are there to feed on what my grandparents didn’t labor for.”
“Jeslyn, no one will see you that way. The family owes your grandparents for the unjust treatment they endured–”
“In other words, you are taking us back to compensate my grandparents for their suffering?”
“That’s not the case…”
“But that’s what I see… mum, my stomach hurts. I’ll make do with some rest.” With that, she got up and left.
…
After the visitors left, Jeslyn went to look for her husband. She met him beside the pool with his laptop. The weather was cool and he was sitting in the newly built sunken living room, beside the pool.
“What are you doing?” She approached him.
“Retrieving your money,” he replied without looking away from his laptop.
“Ouch, my husband is the best!” She sat beside him and hugged his side.
Maverick glanced at her side profile and smiled. “When are you going shopping for your friend’s upcoming wedding?”
“I thought about it last night but I don’t feel like leaving the house. So, I’ll get the designers to come to the house and do what’s necessary.”
Maverick nodded. “Sounds about right…
I have a meeting at work later, it might take some time. Don’t wait for me and go to bed early.”
“It’s fine, provided you aren’t seeing other women.” She looked away while rolling her hair on her finger.
Maverick paused and glanced at her, “you want me to look at other women? Sounds like a plan.”
“Mr. Lu,” Jeslyn smiled. “You don’t want to hear that a lady died horribly, would you?”
He paused for a long time before he answered. “I don’t mind,” he then continued what he was doing with a smile, when he saw her mouth agape.
“Is Rex teaching you how to cheat?”
“What is my name doing in your mouth alongside cheating? Sister-in-law, were you sent to stop my upcoming wedding from happening?!” Rex’s voice boomed.
Jeslyn looked in front and saw a fuming Rex coming with Celestine.
Jeslyn chuckled, “I didn’t say anything, your brother did.” She immediately pointed at him like a brat would do.
Maverick shook his head and laughed.
“Ahem!” Rex cleared his throat. His brother might not allow him to use his new yacht if Rex said something wrong, so he swallowed his grievance.
“Brother, Sister-in-law. We are here to invite you to our wedding. It’s a week from now.”
Jeslyn looked askance at him for a while before slowly clapping. “Congratulations, the child has finally grown.”
“Why are you so mean?” Rex glared at her.
“Am I? I bet Valen would have said something worse, ” she shrugged. How can a man engage a woman for almost a year and not marry her even though he has the means
“Congratulations…” Maverick said before hitting the ‘enter’ button.
“Thank you, br–” Rex was cut off before he could finish.
“… You are 11 billion richer.” Maverick pushed his laptop aside and pecked his wife on the forehead.
“Hehehe, I think I’m rich enough to buy the country!”
“Who did you steal from this time?” Rex took a seat beside Celestine as he leaned towards Jeslyn to hear fresh gossip.
“The former first lady… Wait, that’s not stealing. I only took back what belonged to me!” Jeslyn rolled her eyes.
Celestine shook her head, “You’re becoming more shameless.”
“I learned from the best, ” she beamed. “So, about your wedding…”
While Jeslyn and Celestine were discussing the wedding preparations, Rex drew closer to his brother and whispered.
“Brother, I need your Yacht.”
“What about yours?” Maverick glanced at him.
“Not big and luxurious enough.”
….
Meanwhile at school, Valen was receiving lessons, attentively listening to the teacher even though he found the topic boring. Suddenly, he zoomed out and what appeared in front of him, traumatized him.
[ Host found…bond initiating in 3…2…1… complete!…. System Activated! ]
Right in front of him was what looked like a holographic image of himself floating beside numbers that appeared to be stats.
The next thing everyone heard was a loud ‘thud.’ Valen fell off his seat and passed out. The class descended into chaos as the children screamed, while the teacher panicked. She immediately carried the child and headed for the infirmary.
The doctors checked on him but couldn’t find anything wrong with the child. Meanwhile, the school had already called his family. Maverick arrived a short while later and took Valen home.
Everyone in the Lu family was worried. The child had been sleeping for two hours. Even Matt couldn’t find out what his problem was.
Valen’s awakening in the evening sent the house into a joyous mood, but the child was still confused about what he heard and saw in class. He knew it wasn’t an illusion, so what was that?
“What happened?”
Sitting at the edge of the bed was Maverick. He had been with the child since he brought him from school. Jeslyn couldn’t contain her worry. She offered to stay with her son and watch him wake up, but at the same time, she looked sick and exhausted. So, Maverick lulled her to sleep, cancelled his important meeting and stayed by his son.
“Where is Mom?”
“She needs to rest. You stressed her out a lot today,” Maverick replied.
The child flattened his lips and looked remorseful. “Did she worry too much?”
“Matt said she’s fine.”
Valen nodded. He finally had the time to respond to the earlier question. “I don’t know, Dad. I saw a holograph of me. A computerized voice spoke to me out of nowhere and said something about a system.”
“Hereditary system?”
“I know it said system activated,” Valen added.
Maverick remembered what the system told him back at the Dark Age and he sighed softly. He talked and reassured his son that he’d be fine.
He knows how to deactivate the system, but Valen has no child to pass the system to, which means, the system can’t be deactivated right now…
The man looked at his son without knowing what to think. How the hereditary system came about, no one knows. Just like the rainborite stone, the hereditary system is also a mystery.
…
At Doc Matt’s house…
The man was lying on the lounge with his face facing the evening sky. After the wedding, what comes next? His wife is pregnant. Will he allow other men to see his wife’s body when he is a Certified obstetrician too?
He sighed and sat up. There was an old newspaper beside him. He took it and the front page was a photo of a pretty woman. Headline read:
[ An unprofessional doctor’s prediction took the life of a mother, child, and husband. ]
Images flooded Matt’s mind. The pictures were blurry but the feeling was real. It was raw!
Guilt, self-reproach, remorse, anger, h@ťě… everything rushed into him at once. He was so into his world of mystery. So much so that he couldn’t feel his nails digging into his palm.
“… Matt?” Lolita shook him. She had been standing there for about two minutes and talking to him, but he wouldn’t respond. His eyes were red and veins could be seen in his forehead. His hands were scrunching the newspaper so hard that one would think he was holding on to the god of wealth.
“Are you ok?” she asked. However, what happened next was a tight slap to her cheek.
“Paah!”
The slap was so powerful that she staggered back and fell into the pool.
Matt got up, like a robot, he went to the garage, picked out a black car from the fleet of cars and zoomed out of the house.
Lolita was stunned as she looked at her husband’s strange behaviour. After he left the house, she got out of the pool and headed inside. She was heartbroken and disappointed, but on second thought, he had never treated her like this before.
Without a doubt, there’s no love in their marriage, but he treats her with kindness, fulfils all her wishes, respects her as his wife, takes her to gatherings and proudly introduces her, and gives her the pass to bring him food in the hospital and also, he allows her to talk freely about them in interviews.
Intercourse is not that big of a problem, though sometimes, he turns away from her, but those are few times. Ever since they had their wedding three weeks ago, he had been exceptionally sweet to her because he couldn’t take her on honeymoon.
Lolita wasn’t angry about it because he explained that he needed to be around at all times in case Jeslyn needed him. Although she couldn’t understand why Jeslyn would need him when there are doctors and nurses dying to be at her beck and call at the Lu hospital, she didn’t question him and accepted with all of her heart.
So why did he suddenly slap her and not even look her way? Did he forget she was pregnant with his child?
As Lolita walked past the servants who were alarmed and ran helter-skelter to get her a towel, tears ran down her cheek as lots of thoughts spread through her mind.
‘Is he regretting marrying me?’
‘Does he blame me for ending up with a woman he doesn’t love?’
‘Will he divorce me when he returns?’
‘Did he find out about my old lifestyle?’
‘Did my family tell him lies about me, just to break my home?’
Different thoughts flooded her mind that she felt she might go crazy if she can’t find an answer.