Contract Marriage: The Replacement Groom

Maverick’s phone rang as he was about to get down to business even when Jeslyn was pushing him away. He stared at her red and swollen lips before getting up to pick up the call. After listening to the other party for a while, he hummed before going out, not forgetting to give Jeslyn one last look.

Jeslyn breathed a sigh of relief and sat up. Her hair looked messy from struggling and her chest heaved up and down in quick successions. "Why is he calling me Rossa? He thinks I’m Rossa? This will be harder than I thought... Maverick, you’ve gone crazy!" She cried out and brushed her hair out of her face.

..

Maverick entered one of the rooms he prohibited Jeslyn from entering. The room was a laboratory with weird and familiar hospital equipment. On one of the beds was Valen and on the other was Vera.

Vera had some brain testing equipment fixed on her head while Matt took her blood sample for testing.

Maverick took the lab coat he was offered by Rex and walked to stand beside Valen’s bed.

"How is it?" He asked.

"Vera’s brain report shows that her brain was tampered with." Matt explained.

"Can it be fixed?"

"Yes, but it will take about 3 to 5 years or probably forever, but if her mind is stimulated with enough memories of her past, especially those activities she loved doing, the process will be quicker and that will be greatly appreciated."

"What about Valen?"

"The research is in its final stage. Once it’s successful and doesn’t fail like the rest, we will immediately carry out the operation. Meanwhile, he has to remain in bed until that time."

Maverick frowned and Rex asked. "Has he drifted into a coma?"

"I’m afraid, Yes."

"Why? Was it because of the activities he did?" Rex asked worriedly. Hope Jeslyn won’t get into trouble?

"Partially. You shouldn’t have taken him out of the Country. The temperature is different, the water is different, the food, air and everything is different. He inhaled too many bacterials due to the contaminated air."

"For how long will he be like this?" Rex asked. His brother was just staring at his son. Rex wasn’t even sure if Maverick heard what was being said.

"I’m not sure. If he wakes up before a month, then it’s a good sign but if he stays asleep longer than that, then, I’m afraid..." Matt shook his head.

Rex shut his eyes and took a deep breath to calm down.

Maverick’s fist was so tightly clenched that veins popped out after hearing that but his facial expression was just like always ... blank.

"Why does Jeslyn seem to be doing ok? Except that when she faints, she wakes up after a few days. Nothing serious seems to be happening to her."

"I already told your brother. Her virus is being suppressed. If I’m not mistaken, she was supposed to take her dose last week or her condition would relapse. How is she doing right now?"

Maverick froze and his brows furrowed slightly. Rex looked at Maverick with fear in his eyes. After Maverick told him yesterday that Jeslyn is Rossa, he changed the direction of their investigation and now they seem to be heading somewhere.

Using ’Jeslyn’ as the main subject for the investigation was futile. It seems all her data was saved under the name, ’Rossa’. So Rex was scared that his brother would go crazy if something happened to Jeslyn again.

When Maverick first thought that she died on that island, his brother caused so much mayhem in the family which later caused the split in the Lu family.

"Go check on her," he finally opened his mouth but didn’t take a step away from his son.

Rex took Matt to Jeslyn’s room and after testing her, he returned to Maverick with the result. "She has taken the dose."

"When?" Maverick asked with clenched jaw.

"Approximately 6 or 8 days ago. At the moment, she is fine but some time from now she will need to stop taking it because it will kill her when the dose finally can’t suppress the virus anymore."

After Matt left, Maverick ordered Rex, "get her into the red room."

Rex nodded and headed out of the room.

Inside a room with only red lights, Maverick sat crossed leg on a couch with a gun in hand and a knife on the table.

In no time, Rex walked into the room with a lady in turn. He also took a seat on an empty couch and waited patiently for his brother to begin questioning.

"Tell me everything." Maverick said coolly.

"What, boss?" The lady looked on with uncertainty.

"If not because she would be sad, a bullet would have flown into your skull." Maverick explained calmly.

Seeing him like this, the lady knew she couldn’t play with words anymore. Besides, she Matt come out of Jeslyn’s room a while back. "The suppression is my doing. I inject her when she’s sleeping."

"What are the side effects?" Maverick inquired. He knew Pink cannot hurt Jeslyn. From the way she had been protecting her from him, Maverick investigated and found out she was the reason Jeslyn went to jail so easily.

He also found out she protected Jeslyn tightly against Queen and was still doing it even now, so Maverick got to understand that Pink cannot hurt Jeslyn and the only reason why she could go all out in a Country she knew too well, just to protect ’a friend’ of her ’boss’ wife’ was for another reason.

"Nightmares or illusions... She gets nightmares when she takes the dose. When the dose wears off, she faints and sleeps for a few days then wakes up with a nightmare and throbbing head."

Maverick didn’t ask her where she got the dose from because he knew who Pink was. But who was Jeslyn to her?

"Who is she to you?" He asked.

Pink hesitated for a while before she opened her mouth. "Rossa is my ..."

...

Pink walked out of the third room on Maverick’s floor which had the red room with tears on her cheeks. She wiped them off and tried to return her face to its natural state but couldn’t. She stopped and faced the wall to let out the emotions she had been buckling up for so long. "I failed you all," she whispered while sobbing.

"Pink? Is that you? What are you doing there?"

Pink immediately stopped crying but there was nothing she could do at that moment to prevent Jeslyn from knowing she was bawling her eyes out.

Jeslyn walked up to her but before she could touch her, the red room’s door burst open and Maverick stepped out in his full glory.

Looking from Pink to Maverick, Jeslyn pieced the puzzle. It must have been Maverick’s fault. She placed Pink’s matters at the back of her mind and asked: "how is Valen?"

"He has been taken away for treatment."

"When? To where? Why wasn’t I aware? Who went with him? Please take me to him, I’ll stay with him." Jeslyn panicked.

"The laboratory doesn’t allow visitors. He will be fine. He has gone there several times."

Hearing that, Jeslyn’s suspended heart finally calmed down.

Rex cleared his throat before leaving with Pink. He never knew his brother could lie through his teeth like this.

After the two left, Maverick went into his room and Jeslyn followed.

"It’s sad and boring without Valen. A day without him is already like years living in bondage. I think I should start doing things to get myself busy."

Maverick stopped and turned to look at her when she said that ’a day without Valen is like living in bondage.’

"You want to say something?" Jeslyn asked while blinking. He shook his head and continued walking.

"Between Writing stories, being a voice over artist, and enrolling with a voice training coach online, which is better? I intend to do everything but I don’t want to rush it. One step at a time." She already knew what to do but she needed to start making her moves now. Valen must not go through what she went through.

"Voice over and voice training goes hand in hand. You can do both at the same time." This reminded Maverick of how she used to ask for his opinion on everything on the island. A faint smile rested at the corner of his lips as he gazed at her with warmth in his eyes.

"That’s right. I thought about that too, which means, I will be hitting two birds with one stone." She smiled. "I’ll go look for a decent coach online and register with him."

Maverick watched her leave before he picked up his phone and made a call.

While Jeslyn was surfing the internet and going crazy over the over-demanding and amateur coaches online, her eyes swept through an advert.

Jeslyn was so shocked that she accidentally clicked on the website. A while later, she shook her head, "It can’t be. It has to be a scammer." She chuckled but decided to have fun with the scammer to get evidence before reporting them. How dare they use her idol’s name!

However after going through Celestine Xuan’s portfolio, she became mute. Why would the world’s idol be here? Even her words sounds like her:

[ I’m bored and needs something fun to do. One C–lister, one D–lister, and one newbie to train. Offer ends In 5 minutes. Find the signing fee in the link below. ]