#THE_LAST_MINUTE_GROOM
©Sir_Zach
EPISODE 50
“That’s right, a child like this should never be allowed to suffer.”
Jeslyn smiled when she heard everyone from the crowd defending her.
“Why are you insulting this lady when it’s obviously your husband who couldn’t take his eyes off other women?” A bystander added. She wasn’t sure what was happening. She thought Madam Chen was fighting Jeslyn because of her husband.
“Some men cheat because of how their wives treat them.” Another added.
“I support that. If she could cause so much drama in a mall with her naughty daughter, then I wonder how much trouble the house would be in.”
“By the way, if I may say, this lady and her child came here with two guards. From how well they were protecting the lady and her child, it doesn’t look like how a mistress would be treated. Mistresses are afraid of being exposed for the fear of the legitimate wife finding out.” Someone who saw when Jeslyn came in said.
“Not all mistresses are like that.” Jeslyn finally spoke up. She turned to look at the crowd of people gathered around her and beamed at them.
“There was a story I happened to read. A married woman’s assistant who also happened to be her best friend was actually having affairs with the married woman’s husband and even had children for the man. Going deeper into the story, the assistant–”
“Stop spewing nonsense!” Madam Chen screamed.
Jeslyn covered her mouth with her fingers and chuckled. “Why? Madam Chen? Were you the woman?” Jeslyn widened her eyes and mouth like she just spewed tea. “It was really you?!”
“Shut up, you lying Ɓîtçh!”
“If you aren’t a Ɓîtçh yourself, how did you know I’m a Ɓîtçh? I heard it takes an experienced witch to know another witch. In this case, you were a gold-digging Mistress, that was why you knew I was a mistress at a glance.” Jeslyn fired back.
“Manager, send this wench out of here! Now, or else I’ll pull out my shares.” Madam Chen thr_@tened the manager who was already angry.
“You don’t have to. Our store doesn’t welcome troublesome people like you. I knew you were trouble the moment I set my eyes on you, so leave now. You are forever blacklisted. If you don’t leave on your own accord, I’ll call security on you.” The manager pulled out her phone, ready to call security at any moment.
“I heard that this store used to belong to the oldest Miss of the Lee family. So after the disaster that struck that family, the hidden stepmother who never liked Jeslyn suddenly became a shareholder while the Manager that Jeslyn picked up from the slum, who knew the in and out of Jeslyn’s family suddenly became best friends with the Young Miss’ enemy…”
Jeslyn turned to look at everyone gathered around them. “People, if you want to live long, protect yourself from ‘friends and family’. They will be the ones to shield you and also be the ones to push you into the storm. Jeslyn’s case is an eye-opener for me.”
At those words, the people were stunned. Many of them knew the case regarding Jeslyn but they only knew the surface. None of them knew that Jeslyn owned the store, likewise everything else that was revealed.
The people started to give the Manager and Madam Chen funny looks. It angered the Manager so much that she immediately called security. She was a big woman now. After she betrayed Jeslyn like she was told to, she became the owner of the store, as she was promised. Her store still sells what Jeslyn wanted to buy but because she buys some goods from Country M, she mixed them all and started to sell them at high prices, deceiving the people.
She didn’t know from the onset that the lady in front of her had issues with Madam Chen. She started to h@ťě Jeslyn because the lady talked about low–quality goods. What if a customer heard it? She has so many h@ťěrs in this mall. They wouldn’t think twice before they twist what they heard.
Then if an investigation was made, her fraudulent activity would be exposed. She would most definitely be going to jail. That was why she wanted to immediately send Jeslyn out of her store, but who would have known that so much trouble would occur?
“Get this lady and her people out of here. If she refuses to leave amicably, call the cops on her.” The manager didn’t mean it though. She only wanted to thr_@ten Jeslyn and make her hurry away from here, but she didn’t know what she just dipped her hand into.
“Pink, call the cops and tell them that fraudulent activity is going on here. If any security man, guard, or wh@ťěver, takes a step towards me or my son…” she paused and fixed her gaze on the manager. “…ki|| them.”
Her command reverberated in the quiet space. Some of the people standing around to gossip immediately started to retract their steps, creating a huge space between them.
“I came to shop for my son in peace. Since you don’t want to live in peace, I don’t mind sending you to hell in pieces.” Jeslyn smiled with her eyes narrowed. A totally wicked expression.
“Have you called the cops?” She asked.
“Yes, Ma’am,” Pink answered.
“Great. While we wait for the cops, Madam Chen, I’d like to hear your story one more time.” Jeslyn walked toward a couch and sat on it. “Valen, honey, I’m sorry for the inconvenience.”
“No, mother, I’m fine. Just teach them a thorough lesson or else I’ll be angry… so would dad.”
Jeslyn’s heart was so overjoyed that it almost danced out of her chest. Valen called her mother!!
‘Stay calm, Jeslyn, he is only playing along with you.’ her mind immediately stopped her from acting stupid.
She nodded and smiled. “No one can bear your daddy’s anger, I’m not an exception, so I certainly have to do this right.” She chuckled.
However, when she turned to look at the manager and Madam Chen, her smiling face from a moment ago changed. “I’m waiting for your explanation. I do not take defamation of character lightly. Who did I seduce, where did you see me and a married man together? How did you know I am taking care of my son with other men’s money?”
While the commotion was happening in the store, Ray, who had been forced to accompany a lady to go shopping since morning, had grown tired of waiting for her to try on the whole store, so he got up and walked out.
Going out of his office was something he stopped doing unless he was going to visit the columbarium.
His grandfather called him home last night and introduced his friend’s daughter to him. As expected, Ray kicked against it but his grandfather was prepared. He promised to destroy the Lee’s columbarium if Ray didn’t do as he asked.
Ray was annoyed. He knew it was his sister who ratted him out and for that, he was going to teach her a lesson.
The friend’s daughter came around this morning and the first thing she asked was for Ray to accompany her shopping. Of course, he couldn’t say no, since his grandfather already made known what he would do. The old man was that crazy.
He had been with the girl for hours, trying on almost everything in the ladies’ store and he became furious. Although Jeslyn loved shopping, she never made him accompany her. Even though he did it of his own volition, Jeslyn never wasted his time.
Ray abruptly stopped walking. Why was he making comparisons between other girls and Jeslyn?
“Mary, What’s going on there? I saw you coming from the fifth floor.”
“Oh, you mean the children’s section? Madam Chen was causing trouble for a lady and her son. She accused the lady of being her husband’s mistress. The lady seemed to be from a powerful background because she wasn’t backing down… Guess the biggest gist!”
When things happen, everyone tends to make their own versions.
“She’s a native?”
“Noooo… bad guesser. She called the cops on manager Rita. She accused the store of fraud.” The girl called Mary said with excitement.
“That greedy woman. Serves her right!”
“Wait, you have a problem with manager Rita?”
“Yes… In fact, my whole family does.”
“Wow, tell me about it.” Mary beamed.
“Manager Rita, Director Rita, CEO Rita, or wh@ťěver she calls herself. After what happened to Jeslyn Lee and her family, somehow Jeslyn’s company ended up in her hands…”
Hearing Jeslyn’s name, Ray, who was about to walk away, stopped. He frowned slightly. He wasn’t aware that Jeslyn had a clothing company.
“Oh, that’s right. That beautiful lady said something about that. Even Madam Chen couldn’t speak because she was mentioned… there, the cops are here!”
Ray turned his head and saw the cops heading up. He changed his mind and went after them.
Inside the store, Jeslyn had Madam Chen kneeling. Her guards were lying on the floor, Mõ@ɲing and growling in pain.
Chi Chi was almost out of breath crying beside her mother while Valen was making ugly faces at her. If he wasn’t considering whether Jeslyn would be pissed, he would have long whipped the little girl for all the nonsense she spewed earlier.
“Madam Chen, have you ever seen me with–”
“The cops are here!”
Jeslyn looked over her shoulder and smiled.
“We got a call that fraudulent activity was happening here.” A policeman said.
Before Manager Rita could speak, Jeslyn pointed at the clothes put out for sale. “Those clothes weren’t made from Country M, yet she sells them for an exorbitant amount.”
“Wh– what nonsense are you saying!” Manager Rita barked. Right now she was regretting everything she did. If she had simply handled this case amicably, it wouldn’t have grown so big and the police also wouldn’t have gotten involved.
“If you don’t believe me, you can search her store. There are Fanny’s collections from two years ago… oh, there,” she pointed at a gown, hung in between expensive-looking dresses. “I saw that on the TV last year. It was one of Fanny’s collections that they claimed went out of stock after a rich lady bought them all. The cloth wasn’t popular because it was immediately taken out of the market the minute it was brought out.”
The people hanging around gasped. Murmurs and different voices of displeasure went amok. Nobody wanted to verify the claim. Provided the person making the claims sounded convincing, that was all it took to pull the crowd.
Even though manager Rita was trying to make her voice heard, nobody wanted to listen. The police went to get the pink dress. There was nothing special about it though, just A–shape flowery dress.
“How Much does this cost?” The police asked one of the salespeople.
Maybe she would have lied if she was here a year ago. However, the only price she knew was what she told. “$5000” she responded.
The crowd, including the police, took in a sharp breath. Forget the real price. Even though it was in Country M where people don’t care about money, this price for a plain dress would be frowned upon.
“Hahaha… When Jeslyn was here, a friend of mine bought this same dress for $200. I remembered the dress because my friend lamented about it, saying the quality was too low for a $200 dress.” Jeslyn shook her head.
“That’s right! I also saw this exact dress on TV! It was really as that Lady had said. My daughter… ” The woman pulled her daughter to the front. The 8-year-old girl was wearing the bigger size of the same dress, but hers was purple. “Has the same dress.”
“Where did you buy yours and how much, Ma’am?” The policeman asked the woman who just spoke.
“I got this dress for $250 last year from this same store.”
“Thank you for your cooperation, Ma’am.” The policeman said before he turned to look at Manager Rita. “You are under arrest for passing off lesser quality goods as what they aren’t and defrauding customers of thousands of dollars. You have the right to an attorney.”
Just like that, Manager Rita was taken away. Unbeknownst to everyone else, she would be rotting in jail because Jeslyn would make sure every single one who betrayed her, even a little, would suffer a terrible fate.