Contract Marriage: The Replacement Groom

"Where did you drop your phone? I’ve been calling for ages."

"You only called once." Jeslyn retorted.

"Doesn’t make a difference. Check your email. I bet you haven’t. There must be a message for you too because Ruben and I just got ours a while ago."

"Alright..." 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

"Hey, don’t end the call. I need to know if you also got an invitation for the audition because Sparkle entertainment already made a foolish announcement about you on the platform. I’m sure Fearless Entertainment won’t want to offend them."

Jeslyn opened her laptop that was sitting beside her and opened it to see a message notification. Opening it, there it was, an invite from Fearless entertainment. "They sent me an invite."

"Woohoo! I was thinking if they didn’t, I’ll reject their invitation. It seems they have a strong backing to go against Sparkle entertainment."

"I think so too. They are a startup company with just five years in the industry, yet, they’ve produced an outstanding artist like Toria amidst suppression. That’s a convincing factor that they aren’t a non-entity."

"You are right. I’m about to go shopping for new stuff. I don’t want to attend the audition next week looking like an eyesore. See you!" Lolita ended the call.

After the call, Jeslyn thought of what else to do and an idea popped into her mind. It’s been a long time since she last heard from Emma and Ava. She opened her social media platform and saw that her 2000+ fans had dwindled to 500+ and signed.

"This account is dead anyway. It’s time I create another account." She murmured. However, before she closed the account, she saw the news on her ex manager and one other artist who used to be Christine’s Voice artist at Delly entertainment.

According to the news, Manager Miles and the lady had resigned from Delly entertainment and followed Christine to Country M as her Manager and assistant (voice artist) but unfortunately, the voice artist was not fit to be Christine’s assistant at Sparkle Entertainment, so she was sent away. But due to her dilemma in Country M, she was unfortunate to encounter mobs. However she refused to give them what they wanted, so they killed her and still made away with her belonging.

"Hehe... ’encountered mobs and resisted, so she got killed’ or she was deliberately killed to conceal the secret that Christine can’t sing." Jeslyn snorted. Too bad, her enemies are just killing themselves without her needing to do anything. What a pity. She sighed and continued with her initial purpose.

Opening Emma’s chat, her last seen was a week ago. And there’s no message from her. She checked on Ava. Same thing, Ava was last seen five days ago. Jeslyn flattened her lips, thinking of what reason would make them go offline for so long but decided to overlook it. There’s no news from Rose City that said anything happened to them, so she thought it might be that they were taking a break from social media.

As she was about to delete the account, she saw a message from Chen Wales among other piles of unread messages from fans/haters. "Huh, is this not Christine’s father? Is he on Chatme app now? I thought he detested social media?" She scrolled on her screen and saw more than a thousand messages attached only to his name.

"What!!! Does he send one message every two seconds? What’s with this plenty of messages? Who will read them?" As she lamented, she read the first ten or so messages.

’We didn’t raise you to become like this. You got married to one of the Lu family’s sons and you didn’t bother to tell him about your father. You are unfilial!’

’The company is not progressing after so long, introduce me to Mr. Maverick.’

’Your stepmother is dead. She died in a fire that happened in the house. I’m sure the killer is you. Do you really have to be so callous?!’

’If you want to break ties, you should compensate me for providing for you all these years and also killing my wife, your stepmother, else I’ll sue you!’

’Jeslyn, why aren’t you replying to my messages?’

’I’m still your father! You have no other father!’

’Are you aware that the man you married is a killer? It’s for your own good. I’m telling you this so that you should return home.’

’Although I told you to return home, you should only leave after you are pregnant so that you won’t be leaving empty-handed. The money you get from him can then be used to support the company. Once your baby becomes an adult and has the talent of his father, I’ll hand him the company.’

’Reply to my messages and get your husband to help me, or else, I’ll tell him what you did on your 18th birthday with a stranger. Not only that, the secret nobody told you, I’ll tell him that too.’

’Believe me, he’ll kill you when he finds out you’ve been deceiving him.’

’Jeslyn, don’t think you can wash yourself off the Chen blood in you. You are part of the family, so you are mandated to help the company!!’

Jeslyn stopped reading and sighed deeply. "This man... what a father indeed."

She immediately deleted her account and set aside her laptop before placing the back of her head on the headrest, thinking about the past and trying to remember if there was a time her father was ever kind to her.

Searching her memory, she shook her head and sighed again. There was never a single time he was nice to her in both words and actions. Although at that time, she didn’t count it as anything because she believed that was his way of showing he loved her but now, after what he had done and these messages, she came to understand that he never did.

There was no remorse, no apology for what he did to her and he even had the guts to threaten her. Alright then, let’s see how he’s able to keep that company.

Jeslyn picked up her phone and dialed Spid’s number. After it was answered, she resumed: "Hey Spider, I’ll be quick. My husband told me that the Chen company in Rose City belongs to him now. I want to get the company back from the Caretaker, Mr. Chen... Also, send him to life imprisonment...

You should find some good crimes that would nail him to prison forever without parole. Yes, you can accuse him of killing my mother, my grandfather, or even his wife and child, whatever it might be. Just don’t let him have freedom anymore.

Also, help me find people to take care of him in prison but don’t let him die. I’ll pay him a visit someday. Yes. Thank you." She smiled evilly as she put her phone down.

"None of you shall survive my wrath!" She enunciated with narrowed eyes.