Contract Marriage: The Replacement Groom

"Mister, please, will you marry me?" Jeslyn asked a man whom she saw entering into the restroom of the wedding venue. 

'He must be one of the guests,' she thought as her eyes took in the magnificent stature of the hunk of a man who stood before her.

Jeslyn was taken aback by the coldness he was exuding when he turned to face her. His dark chocolate eyes held so much darkness that she flinched when she beheld them. All her senses were instantly alerted, ringing bells in her mind to walk away...but to where? She had been searching for a groom for a long time already and couldn't even find a janitor, let alone a waiter, so where else would she see a husband? The auspicious time was already passing.

He calmly assessed the disheveled and feeble looking bunny in front of him. Jeslyn's white wedding gown wasn't looking elegant nor was she putting in effort to look presentable.

His aura relaxed a little when he saw Jeslyn's makeup-smudged face and the line of tears on her cheeks.

Seeing this, Jeslyn breathed a sigh of relief and tried to focus her mind so she could interact with him like the human he was.

The man looked to his right and then to his left, there were only the two of them in the spacious hallway, so he pointed at his nose with a perplexed expression on his face.

"Young Miss..." he hesitated. Then he frowned slightly, "You mean...me?"

Jeslyn nodded gently while wiping her face with the back of her hand, ruining the mascara even more.

The man chuckled after seeing Jeslyn's nod. This girl in front of him was the most daring bunny he had ever come across. So tender, fearful, yet audacious!

"You don't know me, do you?" he asked after his weird, unexpected chuckle.

She swallowed and shook her head, then said timidly with a tearful voice. "T–that makes it better."

The man raised a brow, "how so?"

"W—we will sign a marriage contract and get a divorce after one year, t—then you can continue your life," she explained.

"Oh, so you want to use my service when you don't know me? Interesting. It so happens that I need a woman for my brat but before then, Young Miss, I'd like to sound a note of warning...You might die. " he uttered the last part with an ominous tone as he looked at her, waiting to see her flinch or show repulsion, but she didn't, so he continued.

"You are about to step into the abyss. Are you still willing?"

She nodded promptly.

The man squinted his eyes at her for a moment before he relaxed and said: "Deal."

"Good, I'll send my assistant to bring you the contract after our wedding." Seeing him nod, she grabbed his wrist with one hand and held up her long, heavy wedding dress with the other before she hurried toward the wedding venue.

The tall man looked at her side profile with his dark chocolate eyes as an interesting smile found its way to settle on his lips.

…

"Where is the bride? The groom has been waiting here for more than fifteen minutes already!"

"I wonder what that young Miss' problem is."

"Young brats from rich families who are also celebrities are mostly like this, making people wait for them, hmph!"

"The more reason she should be scared of upsetting people...but no, young Miss Jeslyn would never consider her reputation. She knows exactly how bad it would be if word gets out that she kept the guests waiting for 20 minutes on her wedding day."

"How can you expect her to be so sensitive when her reputation is already as bad as serpent's."

"I wonder why she's even the one getting married to young master Ray, with her ruined reputation. Her sister, Christine, would have been a better choice. Tch!"

"Quiet down, don't let her grandfather hear you say that. You'll be in trouble."

While the murmurs and words of displeasure were flying around the hall, the relatives of the bride and groom were busy looking at the door, hoping to see the 'abomination' walk in through the entrance.

A man presumed to be the groom stood on the altar with the priest, waiting for the bride.

The groom had a little frown of impatience settling between his brows as he focused on the door with hands balled in tight fists and knuckles turning white. His jaw was clenched to suppress the fire in his heart.

'Does she dare to stand me up? Is she going to cancel the wedding at the last minute? No, she can't. She knows what's at stake if she refuses to get married today,' the groom's mind went wild with thoughts of rage, frustration and fear as he wondered about what would be the outcome of the wedding if his 'supposed' wife refused to show up.

Amongst the guests who were seated in the wedding hall was an old man who was resting his jaw on the back of his palms that were placed on the top of his walking stick. He appeared to be lost in thought and the numerous wrinkles on his face served to further add more wisdom to his face.

Just when he snapped out of his daze and was about to wave over one of his bodyguards standing around the hall, he heard an uproar from behind and turned sharply to see if it was his granddaughter entering the hall with grace.

Lo and behold, it was his granddaughter, but she wasn't actually entering with grace, but rather with disgrace!

The old man's eyes dilated and his lips parted in shock. If her appearance was not bad enough to shock him into a coma, then the fact that she was running in with an unknown man would.

The guests gasped in surprise and watched in confusion as the famous young Miss of the Lee family ran to the stage with a man! An unknown man!

The groom stood there with narrowed eyes, completely at loss at the sudden turn of events. However, he had a weird feeling that things were about to go bad for him and he needed to stop her real quick!

"What do you think you are doing, Jeslyn?" He asked her when she climbed the altar. His eyes rested on the man who had a slight nonchalant smile on his lips.

Ray was the most handsome young man in the city and that was one of the attributes Jeslyn fell for, however, the man in front of him was simply gorgeous– if a man could be called that.

And it stirred something in his heart seeing such a handsome specie with his fiance.

Instead of her answering his query, she pushed him aside in a hurry and said to the priest.

"I'm sorry for coming late and wasting your time. I have decided to change my groom at the last minute, please start the ritual."

At her words, the hall fell into deep silence as everyone present struggled to assimilate the shocking news that had just been delivered to them. This silence lasted for more than a minute before it erupted into a commotion.

"What?!"

"What joke is this?!"

"Has she finally gone mad!?"

"Oh my... I had thought she was kidnaped on her way here. I never expected this move," One of the girls sitting in a corner of the hall said with a chuckle.

"That's right, Emma, it seems she finally sharpened up and understood what we've been trying to make her understand for the longest time."

"She might probably have been hit on the head, Jeslyn loves that idiot too much to leave him," Emma said after what seemed like a deep thought.

"I think something happened, I mean her appearance is too bad for this to be a prank," Ava disagreed.

Emma nodded, "Probably. We'll ask her later."

Jeslyn's grandfather composed himself and continued to watch in silence. If his beloved granddaughter who had been the happiest about her marriage, and had the best designers and makeup artists in the city dress her up and made her into a fairy this morning would enter her wedding venue looking like a used woman, then something serious must have happened.

These were

the old man's thoughts as he sat glumly on his seat, watching the shocking events play out on the altar.