Injustice Stories & Experiences

"Yoo, wait for me." Rex's voice sounded from the sitting room and his hurried steps could be heard a while later.

"Ah, the family is gathered and you all were about to exclude me? What a– Jeslyn, good morning." He beamed at her.

"Good morning," Jeslyn answered.

"Your night must have been good, right?" Rex walked to the dining and took the only vacant seat while a maid wearing a black gown and a white napkin tied around her waist hurried to start serving him.

"Hmm, that can also be said," Jeslyn answered ambiguously.

While Rex and Jeslyn were talking, Mulan's head was aching. From what she knew, none of the Lu brothers had ever brought a woman home before, so who is this Jeslyn? and what position does she hold to be at the table with the Lu family, and also able to hold a smooth conversation with Rex?

"Father, I just asked you a question." Valen interrupted the conversation between Rex and Jeslyn, prompting them to shut up and look at him.

Looking at what was placed in front of Valen, Rex sighed. He doesn't need to be told of what was going on.

"Darling Valen, it was prescribed by Matt, so you can only take that," Rex intervened.

"Uncle Rex, if I recall correctly, I wasn't talking to you, right?" He glared at Rex who immediately shut his mouth and turned to focus on his food.

Jeslyn knitted her brows but said nothing.

"Valen, don't say that, he's your uncle," Mulan said in a soft voice.

Too soft for Jeslyn's liking which made her frown grow deeper. She narrowed her eyes at the child and scrutinized him all over one more time.

'Cute but rude, huh?' She snorted.

Jeslyn's reaction pulled everyone's attention to her. Like she wasn't being looked at, she continued to eat her food without paying attention to anyone.

"Hey, you, get these Veggies out of my sight and get me something appetizing," Valen said to one of the maids who had her head down.

The maid raised her head and confusion laced her face.

What would she do? Disrespecting or disobeying Master Maverick was never an option, however, little master Valen can also not be disobeyed.

'What should I do?' The maid stood rooted there in trepidation.

"Did I not just talk to someone!" Valen roared with his small voice and slapped the table. His aura suddenly turned fierce and wicked.

"Valen!" Rex called. His voice sounded fearful and pleading.

Maverick raised his head and shot Mulan a glare.

Mulan hurriedly turned to Valen and tried to talk him out of his anger.

"Little master, calm down and take it easy. I'll immediately go and get you the meal you want, you'll hurt yourself, please don't be annoyed, daddy is sorry."

At Mulan's words, Valen tuned down his anger and glared at his father.

Jeslyn bit her lips trying to suppress the rage building up in her. One of the things she hates in her life is spoilt children. She's allergic to them and never wants them having anything to do with her.

Among all the spoilt kids she had seen, Valen seems to be holding the crown.

'Stay calm, Jeslyn, stay calm,' she told herself while breathing in and breathing out.

She watched as Mulan rushed off to get Valen different dishes while the maids hurried over to clean out the healthy food they had left on the table.

The table became quiet and Rex's naturally cheerful face was replaced with bitterness and sorrow.

Maverick had his usual deadpan look on his face. Only his mouth opening once in a few seconds to allow in food, distorted his facial expression.

Jeslyn suddenly lost her appetite when she saw the table had become a ghost house.

She looked at Valen, the cause of everyone's misery. The boy was on his phone with a serious look on his handsome face.

A while later, Mulan hurried in with a few servants holding dishes.

The new dish was arranged in front of Valen. Most of them were fried food and raw food like milk, cheese, eggs that were not properly cooked, and so on.

Rex's breath hitched in his throat when he saw Valen cutting the egg and having the yoke pouring out.

Maverick wasn't saying anything but the hand holding his cutlery was having veins popping out at how tightly he was pressing the spoon against his plate.

Mulan pursed her lips as she looked at Valen.

Watching the family looking so weird and awkward, Jeslyn seemed lost. What's wrong with the kind of food Valen was eating? She also eats oily and uncooked food too, especially the egg.

Just when Valen was about to put the egg in his mouth…

"Put it down."

It was Maverick. He didn't sound like he would be taking a 'no' for an answer.

Valen closed his open mouth and dropped his cutlery.

Rex breathed a sigh of relief and patted his chest like he just escaped death.

"Take the food away and bring back the veggies," Maverick ordered.

"No!" Valen yelled.

"Valen!" Maverick called with the same tone of voice.

The father and son started a stare-down contest. None wanting to back down for the other.

Those in the room except Jeslyn felt the world was ending.

"B– brother, please calm down. H– he's just a child." Rex immediately intervened.

"Y– yes master, Valen is just a child, please forgive him," Mulan added.

Jeslyn sighed and pushed away her plate of food to get up. Just when she did, everyone turned to look at her and Valen spoke up with so much anger.

He needed a place to vent and he finally got one.

"Don't you know how to do things without inducing a commotion? You are too noisy!"

"Eh?" Jeslyn looked around her, she was the only one standing and Valen was glaring at her. She knitted her brows, not believing it was her the little brat was talking to.

"If you are leaving, please hurry up and get lost! Furthermore, you can f*ck out of the house and never come back!" He scowled at Jeslyn.

Now Jeslyn was sure he was referring to her. She silently walked around the table and went to stand beside Valen after shoving Mulan out of the way.

She pulled the child up from his seat and sent him a loud 'smack' to his soft butt.

Valen's face changed and so were the people in the dining room. From the servants to Maverick.

A light flickered through Maverick's eyes before it disappeared into nothingness.

"How dare you!" Mulan roared.

"Shut the f*ck up!" Jeslyn thundered. Her anger could no longer be suppressed.

"You raised him." She pointed at Valen while her eyes spat fire at Mulan. "Only a person like you could raise such a rotten kid–"

"Y–you,"

"Don't interrupt me when I'm talking!... " Jeslyn shut Mulan up.

"Are you proud of a child like this? Do you call yourself a woman after inculcating such morals in him? A child who has no respect whatsoever. Are you happy that he only listens to you? Who are you to do that? Who gave you the right to ruin someone's child!"

Ever since Jeslyn was born, she had never been this angry, nor had she ever let her anger consume her to this extent. She also didn't know why she was feeling this way.

"Who the hell are you!" Valen screamed.

"Shut your little mouth and head to your room, right now!" Jeslyn roughly shoved the child to a maid who was staring at her like she had seen a demigod.

The maid wasn't the only one who was that way. Every single person in the dining room was not left out. They were shocked into dumbness by Jeslyn's outburst.

Maverick had his sharp eyes on Jeslyn all through and when he saw her shove his son, he almost flew out of his seat. But seeing where the child was pushed to, he relaxed.

"Send him to his room and take along his food too." She ordered the maid holding Valen.

The maid turned her head robotically to know what Maverick would say. Seeing him nod, she also nodded like a soulless puppet.

Jeslyn lowered her angry eyes at Valen. The child was still in stupefaction, he couldn't believe what was going on.

"You naughty little thing, I seriously don't care if you cause trouble later, but you see those veggies that your papa asked you to eat, you should quietly eat them all.
I have seen your ugly side and I tell you, mine is a lot worse than yours. You wouldn't want to taste it, now take him upstairs."

The maid cautiously held Valen's little hand and hurried out of the dining room with a few other maids carrying the dishes with veggies along with them.

Once Valen was gone, Jeslyn turned to look at Maverick who was also staring at her.
The silence in the dining room was enough to scare a ghost.

"How could you?" Jeslyn asked but Maverick remained silent but his eyes never left her.

Jeslyn turned to Rex who had his lips parted in amazement.

"And you too, why would you let your nephew be raised like that?"

"Eh… Ahem… Jeslyn, you see, there's a little, eh…" Rex stammered all through. How was he supposed to explain why Valen turned out to be like that? His brother wasn't saying a thing, so what can he say?

"You can't even explain," Jeslyn chuckled in rage.

She turned to look at Maverick and pointed a finger towards the entrance. "That was your child, Mr. Maverick. He's just 6 years old but already knows how to use the 'f' word. I understand that this country is not for the weak, but Mr. Maverick, raising a child to become that way is not healthy for him and the society.
I'm very sure the little display he demonstrated a while ago is just the tip of an iceberg of what he's capable of."

Jeslyn paused. She suddenly felt a sting in her eyes and a feeling she didn't know assaulted her heart. It was painful. It felt like she was betrayed.

"I'm wholly disappointed in you, Mr. Maverick," she whispered in an awkward voice. It was obvious that a little push would make her tear up.

"How dare you! Who do you think you are to butt into Mr. Maverick's–"

"Paah!"

Jeslyn turned around without a warning and sent a resounding slap across Mulan's face.

"You don't interfere when I'm talking to my husband!" She yelled, prompting her emotions to spiral out of control.

A tear slipped from her left eye and she wiped it furiously. She took a step to stand in front of Mulan who held her right cheek and was staring dazedly at Jeslyn.

Jeslyn lowered her voice, hoping it was threatening and domineering enough before she said;

"You listen and listen well. I don't care who you are and what you are to the Lu brothers. In as much as I'm the madam of this house, and Valen is my stepson, you have no right whatsoever to butt in when I discipline Valen or talk to my husband. You get that?"

Done talking, she patted Mulan on her left cheek before she shifted her gaze to Maverick who was equally looking at her. She glared at him before walking out of the dining room.

A long while later, Mulan came around from her reverie and pointed at the door. "M– Mr. Maverick, wh– what does she mean?"

What was the meaning of 'my husband, Valen is my stepson, madam of the house?' What does that mean? Mulan refuses to believe that those phrases have the same meaning as what she already knew. It cannot be possible!

Maverick pursed his sexy pink lips while staring at the entrance. Nobody knew what he was thinking.

A few seconds later, he got up and walked out.

Mulan was still in disbelief. Her clear and pretty eyes slowly turned sparkling with liquid gathering in them. A blink would make the salty water run down her smooth cheeks.

"Y– young master Rex, wh– what is going on?" She turned to look at Rex.

Rex sighed and got up from his seat. He walked up to Mulan and reluctantly patted her shoulder before saying;

"I know you have something brewing inside you for my brother. I don't know what it is nor do I care to know. However, it is your fault. My brother brought you here to be Valen's nanny and not to fall in love with him. He pays you a huge sum of money and makes sure your family is well protected.
He was kind enough to give you more than sufficient benefits as his son's nanny. Now my brother is married and I'll advise you to kill that thing growing inside you.
You can see that my sister-in-law is not a pushover like you had thought. She can be crazy when she's furious. She's mad at you for what you tried to do to her this morning, plus Valen's behavior ticked her off.
For now, I'll tell you to not push her. I know what you are capable of and I know what you have done and what you are planning to do to get my brother to notice you. I'll only warn you once, desist.
My brother is not a good guy like me that would give you a warning or a second chance. If he could treat his loyal subjects like he does, who are you that he cannot get rid of?
For the sake of Valen, I am willing to talk this much." He patted her shoulder again. "Good luck."

WATCHOUT FOR EPISODE 23

PLEASE LIKE OR COMMENT IF YOU ENJOYED THE STORY

From morning till afternoon Jeslyn didn't go downstairs to eat nor did she open her door to the maids that had been knocking.

Now it's evening and she's still inside and a maid is standing outside her door, banging and ringing the doorbell with urgency.

How many hours has it been that the guest she was warned to care for by the butler hasn't eaten? She loves her job and doesn't want to be fired.

Being under master Maverick means an automatic protective shield in this hell of a country, so the young maid was frightened by the thousands of bad thoughts running through her mind.

"Ring, ring, ring!"

"Knock, knock, knock!"

"Bang, bang, bang!"

"Ma'am, please open the door!"

There's a spare key with the butler however the man couldn't be found in the large mansion.

"Step back."

The maid turned with a start at the cold voice. She hurriedly stepped out of the way and bowed her head to avoid looking at those cold eyes owned by the demonic man she was working for.

When will this master learn to make a sound while walking? Every time, he walks around like he wasn't stepping on the ground.

While the maid was thinking that, Maverick brought out a key card and slid it through the magnet reader, and waited for it to beep green before he turned the knob and opened the door.

"You may leave." He said to the maid who still had her head down before going into the room and shutting the door.

Maverick walked to the large bed and saw the girl curled up in her sleep with messy hair and a red nose. Her gorgeous face looked pale with sweat forming on her forehead.

He lowered his height and stretched his hand to touch her forehead. Maverick knitted his brows after feeling her burning forehead and stood upright. He pulled out his phone and dialed a number.

"Come to the house… now."

Maverick put his phone away and glanced around the room for a brief moment before he headed to the bathroom.

The overly gorgeous-looking man with an incredible figure came out a few seconds later with a bowl and a white towel. He sat down beside Jeslyn and turned her from the fetal position to face up.

The pale-looking Jeslyn didn't stir in her sleep for a second.

Maverick placed the towel in the bowl of water, squeezed the water out, and cleaned her face with it. The cold-looking man repeated the process a few times before folding the towel and placing it on her forehead.

He raised his hand and glanced at his inconspicuous black watch before he stood up and returned the bowl to the bathroom.

Maverick came back to sit beside the sleeping woman and glanced at her face one more time before he looked away with no changes to his facial expression.

He rested his head on the headboard with one long leg placed on the bed and the other left on the fluffy rug.

With eyes closed and expression unreadable, he stepped into the world of unknown thoughts.

A long time passed and the beeping sound of his phone ringing made him open his eyes.

Maverick's bloodshed eyes flashed in the direction of the phone and the murderous look in his eyes dissipated a little. When he closed and opened his eyes again, only the redness could be seen and his face had returned to its normal emotionless state.

He stretched his hand to the top of the drawer to take his phone while looking at Jeslyn who didn't stir from the ringtone of the phone.

Answering the call, Maverick listened to what the other party was saying without uttering a word before he took the phone off his ears and placed it back on the top of the drawer.

Soon, the door dinged and a maid pushed it open. She bowed to the man sitting on the bed before stepping aside for the doctor to come in.

The doctor, a young man that was no older than Maverick, with his hair dyed white, walked into the room, holding a black suitcase.

He placed the suitcase on the bed and started to open it while saying: "I thought you called me for your son. Who is she?"

Maverick ignored him and closed his eyes with his head resting on the board again.

"I knew you wouldn't answer that. Rex left a message in the group saying someone got married. With this lady here, I think the answer is obvious."

Maverick didn't say a word and the doctor sighed. "I told you to sleep a lot but I know you never listen. Your eyes are red and your face–"

"Stop talking and do your job," Maverick said in a passive voice like the person he was talking to meant so little to him.

"If only I can. As your doctor, I think you should listen to me once in a while. Take a few days to rest. Your health is just as important as your son's. You can always run the–"

"Matt, don't push it." Maverick's voice came again like nothing, making doctor Matt sigh and shake his head.

He focused his attention on the woman lying on the bed and checked her temperature before injecting her.

"She has a high fever but that's not all. I'll take her blood sample to the lab. Am I permitted?"

"Hmm."

"Good." Doctor Matt drew Jeslyn's blood in a syringe before he kept away his materials and threw a pill bottle beside Maverick. "That's all I can help you with. I'll see you tomorrow morning with the result of her condition."

Maverick didn't open his eyes nor said a goodbye word until he heard the clicking sound of the door.

He slowly opened his eyes and turned to look at the green bottle lying beside him. He picked it up and glanced at it. He made a throwing gesture, but before he could throw it into the bin standing quietly by the side of the door, he glanced at the sleeping Jeslyn, looked at the bottle in his hand before he got up, took his phone, and walked out.

Jeslyn opened her eyes to something covering her view. She took it off her face and sluggishly sat up. She raised the fabric and saw it was a white towel.

Touching her forehead, it wasn't burning up nor was she feeling any discomfort. Wondering why a damp towel was placed on her forehead, she got down from the bed and dizziness washed over her.

She swayed and immediately held the bed for support.

"Tsk, what is wrong with me now?"

She murmured to herself before she slowly raised herself to stand for a while. When she felt that she could walk without falling, she took the towel and walked towards the bathroom to spread the towel and also wash up.

Coming back to the room, Jeslyn saw a maid standing by the door with a tray. On the tray were dishes tightly sealed.

"Good evening, ma'am, master said your food should be delivered to your room," the maid spoke out with her head lowered.

"Oh, keep it there," Jeslyn pointed to the table.

"Yes, ma'am," the maid walked hurriedly to the table and placed the tray of food on it.

"Ma'am, master said you should eat something light and healthy because it's already late at night, so I brought you some light meal." The maid explained while opening the plates of food.

"What time is it?" Jeslyn asked as she stared at the garnished pasta, a plate of grilled fish, fruits, dessert, and juice being arranged on the table.

"It's almost 11:00 PM, ma'am," the maid answered while taking the tray away.

"So late?" Jeslyn frowned. For how long did she sleep?

"Ma'am, please," The maid gestured with her hand to the table before she took a few steps to the side.

Jeslyn had already washed up in the bathroom earlier, so she sat on the couch and started to eat, after all, she was famished.

All through Jeslyn's food, the maid had her head down and didn't dare to look at her.

"Lady, what's your name?" Jeslyn asked.

"My name is Maya, ma'am."

Jeslyn's hand paused and she turned her head to look at the maid. She examined her from head to toe and her frown grew deeper. 'Why do they have the same height?'

"Raise your head and look at me," Jeslyn commanded with a cold voice, totally different from her usual cute tone.

The maid slowly did as told.

Looking at the maid, she was far prettier than that betrayer and they looked nothing alike.

"Do you have another name?" Jeslyn asked.

"No, ma'am," answered the maid.

"Oh... Then it would be hard for you to stay around me..."

"N–no, If you don't like my name ma'am, you can give me another." The maid hurriedly cut her off.

Sending her away? The master would punish her if he finds out that his guest wasn't satisfied with her.

Jeslyn raised a brow, "you are good with your name getting changed?"

"Yes, ma'am," the maid answered while nodding.

What is a change of name? She'll agree to change her family a thousand times if that would mean that she would continue to be under her master Maverick's protective umbrella.

Jeslyn nodded slightly before turning her gaze back to her food. "That's good then. From now on, I'll call you....hmm... Let me think of a better name. I'm still eating, when I'm done."

The maid smiled when she saw how the young lady changed from seriousness to being playful like a chameleon. She knew that the master cannot be friends with soft people.

A while later, Jeslyn put down her cutlery and blurted out instinctively, "Riya, get the plates out."

Maya knitted her brows in confusion. She was the only one here, so who is Riya?

Jeslyn looked up at Maya and said without a smile or the usual softness in her voice. "Riya.... I'll call you Riya from now on."

Maya smiled after her puzzlement had been cleared. "Yes, ma'am," the maid curtsied before stepping forward to get the dishes.

WATCHOUT FOR EPISODE 20

PLEASE LIKE OR COMMENT IF YOU ENJOYED THE STORY

A while later, Jeslyn put down her cutlery and blurted out instinctively, "Riya, get the plates out."

Maya knitted her brows in confusion. She was the only one here, so who is Riya?

Jeslyn looked up at Maya and said without a smile or the usual softness in her voice. "Riya.... I'll call you Riya from now on."

Maya smiled after her puzzlement had been cleared. "Yes, ma'am," the maid curtsied before stepping forward to get the dishes.

"Uhm... Riya, is the young master back?"

"Young master Rex doesn't live here, ma'am."

"I meant your master's son."

The dishes made a clicking sound as the maid's hands shook and accidentally hit the dishes together.

"M–ma'am, why are you asking about little master Valen?" The maid asked with a tinge of uncertainty in her voice.

"Oh, it's nothing. I've been hearing about him quite a lot, so I thought of seeing him in person."

"Oh... That's right. Little master Valen is popular in country M but no one knows him."

"What do you mean?"

"He doesn't go public. The Lu family hides him from sight, so no one knows him."

"D–did you say, Lu family?!" Jeslyn subconsciously screamed in terror.

"Y–yes, ma'am. Didn't you know?" The maid frowned a little.

In country M, there are a few families that are on the ladder of success. The Lu family, the Yu family, and the Xu family.

Those three families are the top dogs in the country that must not be provoked and their names are known throughout the world.

There are two branches of the Lu family. Maverick, Valen, and Rex makes one, while the other relatives make the other. (Maverick's branch is the second branch he formed on his own.)

The second branch of the Lu family tends to keep a low profile. Although, the second branch of the Lu family has been keeping a low profile, people from country M still know who the young masters are.

Their names are unique to them alone, and that was why when Jeslyn asked like she was surprised, Maya felt suspicious.

If Jeslyn was connected to Maverick, she is supposed to know the household he's from, right?

As the maid's face was turning ugly with every weird thought that crossed her mind, Jeslyn suddenly chuckled.

"You are really fun to be with. Your expression was priceless. I think I like you... Just a little," Jeslyn beamed.

She just realized that her reaction didn't go well with Maya, so she decided to act smart.

The maid smiled. She was happy that her master's guest liked her to the extent of playing around with her, albeit, a little.

However, that means a lot to someone like her. It means she might get noticed by the master soon.

After all, for the master to bring home a guest means that he has a considerable amount of likeness for them as an acquaintance.

"So, Riya, have a seat, I have some questions for you."

Hearing that, Riya took a step back and her temperament changed.

Seeing this, Jeslyn sighed. In country M, a person doesn't randomly call another, especially a stranger to sit for some question and answer sections.

Asking or answering such questions might result in a person's misfortune and worse case, the annihilation of their family.
Especially when the question is related to the three top dogs of the country.

Every time, the cops dress as normal citizens and roam around fishing for information to pin down the evildoers. They also use other people too, including children.

They might scheme for a child to be adopted by their target and use that child to fish out information regarding the families they had their eyes on.
So that's why the citizens don't trust anyone who wants to ask them questions. Especially on the three top families.

Maya doesn't want to offend the Lu family even though it's by mistake. Because offending the Lu brothers is the same as calling for a tribulation thunder on oneself and their family.

Which is what Maya was trying to prevent.

"Hey, don't be like that. I know the rules of the country, so I'm not going to ask you for secrets. Besides, what would you know about your master anyway?" Jeslyn rolled her eyes.

That's right. Maya doesn't know anything about Maverick or Rex, but she certainly knows about Valen.

Maya sighed, "Ma'am, I don't really know anything about the family. My work is to serve the masters and tidy the house, please pardon me and do not be angry, I'm sorry I lack sufficient knowledge."

Jeslyn waved her hand. "That's fine, that's fine, you don't have to cry."

She sighed and rested her jaw on her palms with her elbows on the table.

"If only I glanced through the contract... Sigh..." she sighed again.

"Riya, you should leave now. I believe it's already late into the night."

"No, ma'am, I was asked to wait on you."

Jeslyn shook her head. "I just woke up a while ago and might not be going to sleep until morning."

"B– but, what do I tell the butler? He'll be angry."

"Tell him I chased you away. You can leave now."

"Yes, ma'am." Maya bowed before she left with the dishes.

After the maid left, Jeslyn got up and did some exercise to aid digestion. Done with the activity, she became bored and started to miss her phone.

She sighed one more time. "I don't even know what is going on outside and what those fickle 300,000 fans of mine are saying about me. I bet I only have 50,000 fans left."

While talking to herself, her eyes roamed the room and zoomed in on a laptop placed on top of her bed.

"Is that a laptop? Why didn't I see it when I woke up?" She hurried to the bed and climbed into it before grabbing the flat and weightless laptop.

"Wow... So Impressive. Lightweight and cream color. I like this." She opened it and powered it on.

The laptop had nothing on it which means it was brand new.

She configured the laptop and logged into her Chatme app– the top social media app used in most of the countries.

Logging into her account, Jeslyn gasped at the massive inbox, comments, and tags she saw.

Even the number of her fans was dwindling. From 300,000, they have dwindled to 2,000+ and she was sure that the next time she comes back, they should have reduced to 0.

After a while of staring speechlessly at the numbers, she clicked her tongue.

"Tch, my manager couldn't even handle my account. What a wonderful company."

She scrolled through her page and occasionally stopped to read a few headlines and comments.

[ Breaking News!
Uprising singer, Jeslyn Lee, killed her grandfather! ]

[ News Flash!
D-list singer Jeslyn Lee abandoned her fiance of 5 years on the altar! ]

[ New Discoveries!
Young master Ray betrayed singer, Jeslyn Lee! ]

[ Unbelievable!
Jeslyn proved innocent!

Jeslyn ordered her husband to run innocent sister, Christine Wales down with his car! ]

"Ha, media... It's a pity the car didn't run her over though, I wish it did." Jeslyn clicked on the comment. Reading the people's take on it, she sighed.

'Cold-blooded murderer!'
'Jeslyn, get out of the entertainment industry!'
'I used to be her fan, but at this point, I have had enough! I'm no longer her fan anymore!'
'Bypass Jeslyn and her music!'
'I second that!'
'+2'
'+1000'
'Where the hell is she? Why isn't she coming out to talk to us?'
'What does she have to say? I'm starting to believe that she really killed her grandfather because he willed all his properties to Christine. Then she made her assistant take the blame.'
'That makes sense. These days, we no longer know what's true and what's a lie. Poor Maya.'
'I knew from the start of her debut that Jeslyn was a snake under the green grass. She only looks innocent and cute on the surface, but her heart is dark!'

Jeslyn closed the comment section and went to her inbox... 50,000+ messages.

"Wooo...take it easy on my account you hateful b!tches! That's more than my true fans already!"

She clicked open the messages. As she already knew, most of them were threats and malicious messages from people.

"Christine, you did a remarkable job. You know your assignment." Jeslyn said through gritted teeth when she saw that the few tens of messages she read were about her 'running' Christine over.

"Are these people blind? Who did the car run her over? She wasn't even standing in front of the car… or is there another meaning to 'run' over someone?"

She scrolled through a few of the messages in annoyance like she had a particular message in mind.

The minute she spotted the name, she blurted, "got ya!"

Manager Miles, her manager at Delly entertainment for four years and a half. They used to be good friends and she was waiting to see her take on this matter.

'Jeslyn, I'm so disappointed in you. If your grandfather's case was a setup, how about Christine's matter? You almost killed Christine! I saw the video, so don't you dare lie to me!
Christine did all of that for your sake, yet you had the heart to do that to her. I had thought I could remain your friend even after the company dissolved your contract, but as it is now, I feel disgusted even dropping this message for you.
Sign the contract termination I sent to your email and send me a copy. Don't bother showing your face to the company, no one wants to see you. Enjoy your life in hiding, good day!'

Jeslyn sighed and rubbed her temple with her fingers. "What a friend, indeed."

As she was about to scroll again, she caught sight of…

"Ray? What does he want?"

She opened the message out of pure curiosity and suddenly laughed out loud. Her voice was filled with hurt, she sniffed back her tears and opened the message.

'Jeslyn, where are you?'

"Eh?"
Jeslyn stared at the message for a long while without answering. It caught her by surprise that Ray of all people was asking her this.

Just when she was about to close the chat, another message was sent.

'I have searched everywhere for you... Are you with that contracted wild man?'

Jeslyn stared at the message without any intention to respond.

He was online and his status shows he was busy typing.

'I know you are there. Jeslyn, come back home, we need to talk.'

'I know that you are mad at me, well... I did all that because... Anyway, forget it.'

'You have reciprocated by abandoning me on the altar and marrying a wild man.'

'About your grandpa Lee, I think I should apologize.'

At this junction, Jeslyn tapped the keyboard. Her facial expression was as clear as a calm lake. There was absolutely nothing to make one think she was mad or happy, however with the force she was hitting the keyboard, a passerby would understand that the lady was a step away from killing someone.

'This should be the last time I hear you talk or see you write about my grandfather. You want me to come back? Sure, I will, but after I have handmade your coffin'.

With that, she hit the send button and closed his chat to prevent seeing his response.

Jeslyn scrolled over the other messages and saw two notifications she didn't expect to see. They were messages from Emma and Ava.

Those girls weren't her friends but they had stopped her a few times to warn her about Ray, but she paid no heed.

"Are you two going to rub it on my face? How bad can it be? Let me just read."

She opened Emma's message and what she saw left her flabbergasted.

'Hey, Jeslyn, sorry I didn't come for the trial and all, I was out of the country for a tour.
I'm not surprised about Ray though, but your sister, Christine, I was caught off guard.
Anyway, that's not what I'm here to say. Sorry about your grandfather. Please accept my condolences and stay strong. Where ever you are right now, think of your well-being and don't do stupid things. Those people have to pay and you are the only one fit to ruin them.
I'm a DM away if you need my help with anything'.

Jeslyn felt a sting in her eyes. How could a stranger she detested be this nice to her whereas her family...

She opened Ava's message and just like Emma, Ava was also sympathizing with her and wishing her the best.

'I never thought you'd be given such massive blows all at once. I'm so sorry for not showing up at the court. My manager forbade me to have anything to do with you. You know how the masses are.
However, I heard that Christine has been making plans with your manager for a few years now to be a signed artist under her.
It also seems she was one of those newbies the company was training in secret and it left me wide-eyed that they kept that hidden too.
Anyway, I intend to tell you that aside from the little I can do for you if you ever need me, I'll be helping you 'take care' of that bitchy sister of yours until you are mentally and emotionally alright to take over.
I also hope this would serve as a great lesson to you.
Please be fine. Reply to me when you see this, it would make me feel less worried'.

"Hahahaha…" Jeslyn wiped the tear from under her left eye. She wasn't expecting this from the girls she never looked at twice.

"That's right. Being too nice has taught me a bitter lesson. Though, I'm not sure if being evil or a little smarter could have helped anyway since the scheme was so deep. But I'll be more careful now.
Also, I'm perfectly fine, I have cried all I should and would be stepping out of the limelight for a while. Thank you so much, Ava. I'm grateful.
However, about Christine, don't do anything to her. She has a strong backing and you might suffer in the long run. Let her ride the horse for now, soon, I'll take it back."

After she typed the reply, she hit the send button and watched as the message was ticked with a blue mark before she left the chat while ignoring the incessant messages coming from Ray.

She logged out of Chatme and went to check her company's website to see the news.

As expected, news of her leaving Delly entertainment, and their cutting all ties with her filled everywhere.

The one that caught her attention aside from her news was the one relating to Christine.

[ To our lovely fans,
Christine Wales has been signed by Delly entertainment. Her talent is exceptional and her debut date will be further communicated to you all. Please support her on her new journey.
Management. ]

Jeslyn stared at the news for a while before she chuckled and then burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter mixed with hot tears.

She cried silently for a while and lay on her bed with her back while looking at the white ceiling, thinking of what to do next and how to start.

"One year, just one year," She murmured to herself.

WATCHOUT FOR EPISODE 21

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"F*ck! Where the hell are you, Jeslyn?!" Ray ruffled his hair in frustration.

"What about that lawyer and her…" he paused. How can he call that stranger her husband? He refused to give that pauper that title. "...that stranger she contracted to marry her?"

"Ehm… we couldn't find anything about them. They seem to never exist."

"That's not possible. Go and look into them! Don't come back here if you don't find anything about that contracted husband and lawyer!"

"Yes, young master." The guard bowed and left with his people.

Ray narrowed his eyes as he thought of where Jeslyn was. "Jeslyn, I hope you are not with that contracted man–"

His eyes widened like he had gotten his answer and he threw the glass of wine in his hand against the TV that was reporting on the court case of two days ago.

Yes, it had been two days already and Ray still couldn't find Jeslyn.

After he left the bar, he went to the places he believed Jeslyn would be. Using the keys she had given him to all her apartments and houses, he opened the doors but found no Jeslyn.

Those keys that were up to 8 were given to him whenever she was gifted or bought a new house but he had never thought of using them until two nights ago.

He didn't know why he went there nor how he went there, but when he couldn't find her, something he didn't know he would feel for her erupted in his heart.

At first, he felt fear and immediately called the young Miss and Christine, thinking they had done something to her because while doing his own path a few months ago, he made sure they promised him that they were never going to harm her after they had taken her property.

That decision of his had caused the young Miss to fight him for a few weeks before they reconciled.

After he got to know that no one touched Jeslyn, he thought she went to one of the rest houses to cry, but his guards couldn't find her there either, so he started to panic.

For two days he had been on her case and was even thinking of getting the police involved until he thought of the possibility that she was with that wild contracted man.

"Jeslyn, you better not dare!" He roared.

The front door burst open and Ray's friend walked into the house with rage. "Ray, what did you do to Jeslyn? How could you do that to the woman you love?!"

"Shut the f*ck up frank! How many times do I have to tell you that I don't love her? I don't love Jeslyn!" Ray roared.

"You do, you a*shole!" Frank retorted with the same amount of energy. He walked up to Ray in large strides and stood in front of him.

"Ray, I said, you love her!" With eyes spitting fire and a voice filled with anger, he said to Ray with gritted teeth, waiting for him to deny his feelings one more time.

"I don't–"

"Pow!"

A heavy punch landed on the side of Ray's mouth.

Ray felt that. It was damn painful, but still, he had no zeal to fight back. Instead, for some reason he didn't know, he wanted more of that punch.

"You d*ckhead, I know how much I love Jeslyn, but I stayed back when you got into the picture. I couldn't drag a woman with my best friend and when I saw how happy she was with you, I was also happy, but what did you do? You broke her for greed!
If I had known before now that you were only playing games with her despite loving her so much, I would have taken her away from you.
When did you intend to tell me about this huh? So if I hadn't forced your sister to spill the beans, I would have still been in the dark, thinking Jeslyn betrayed you on the altar and you sought revenge by testifying against her in court.
You knew I didn't go to court, you knew I hate the news, yet you didn't intend to tell me the truth?!
Ray, this will be the first and last chance I'm giving you. If you don't find Jeslyn and bring her back here, I'll ruin you… along with your family." Frank spat out before storming out.

Ray lost his momentum and staggered to sit on the couch behind him.

Frank was a classmate with Jeslyn and the two got to know each other after Ray got into a relationship with Jeslyn.

Frank has a dubious origin that even Ray, his alleged best friend, couldn't find out. He is the young master of the second richest family in Rose City and has stuck with Ray for some reason since his return to the city five years ago.

Ray had no idea that his best friend was in love with his woman until now. What the f*ck has he done?!

Losing Jeslyn and Frank were the two things he didn't want to ever happen to him.

He doesn't want to lose Jeslyn, not because he loves her, but because he can't let her go, especially not after the humiliation.

Yes, his feelings for Jeslyn are not clear. He doesn't know what he feels, but he was sure that whatever he feels, hatred is part of it.

As for Frank, well, there's a mystery around him that Ray wants to unravel. Aside from that, he genuinely likes to be around Frank.

"What the f*ck is wrong with me?!" Ray pulled at his thick black hair in frustration with reddened eyes and bleeding lips.

That injury left on the corner of his lower lip was so deep that it would take a few weeks to heal.

Christine on the other hand has been discharged from the hospital and was just entering the Chen mansion.

Getting out of the car, she looked around her environment and got lost in deep thought for a while before she stepped into the house.

The minute she did, confetti and cheerful voices welcomed her.

"Welcome home, young Miss Christine!"

The rows of servants in brown uniforms and white aprons exclaimed.

Christine nodded with a faint smile while her eyes darted around the luxurious sitting room. It was beautiful, but the Lee house was prettier.

"Welcome back home, child," Mr. And Mrs. Wales stepped forward and hugged Christine in a tight embrace.

"Thank you mom, dad," she smiled stiffly.

"Older sister, welcome home!"

The cute voice of a little girl of about 6–7 years old sounded, and very soon, a girl in a braided ponytail, decorated with a pink tiara and pins, wearing a pink school uniform trotted over and hugged Christine's thighs.

Christine looked down at the child and smiled brightly before picking her up.

"Older sister, Chi chi missed you," she hugged Christine around the neck.

"Older sister missed you too."

"Are you going back to those bad people?"

"No, not anymore. I'm done with work and will stay here with you."

"What about older, older sister? When will she join us?"

Christine stayed silent for a while before she said: "Call her eldest sister and call me older sister."

"Ok, eldest sister."

"That sounds better… As for when sister would return, I have no idea, she's very busy at the moment." Christine said that while looking at her parents who shook their heads.

"Chi chi baby, come, let your nanny take you to school before you get late." Mrs. Wales peeled the child out of Christine's arms and handed her to a lady in a servant's uniform.

"Bye," the child waved at them as she was being carried away.

After the child left, Christine brushed her gaze through the servants that had their heads down and said: "you all should return to your duties and sweep this rubbish off the floor. They look disgusting." The voice was not as welcoming as it was a while ago.

"Yes, miss," the servants scattered after that. Some went to get cleaning tools to get rid of the confetti littering the floor.

"Christine, see me in my study," Mr. Wales said and headed upstairs.

Christine and her mother followed behind him, with Christine's mother holding her arm.
…

Inside the study room, Mr. Wales looked at his wife and daughter sitting on the couch in front of him with a stern look on his face.

"What is that sister of yours up to? What does she mean by the whole property should be transferred to her? Jeslyn is my daughter too and I have the right over those properties more than your sister does!"

"Father, I don't care what you and my older sister had. However, I'm not in for your drama. Sister wanted the properties and she plotted for years to get them.

If you had also wanted the properties, you should have plotted when you married Alice, but no, you were busy enjoying the marriage… as if cheating on mom wasn't enough, you got her pregnant and she gave birth to that idiot, Jeslyn.

Don't get me involved in your fight with my sister. Sort out your problems. I'm heading back to transfer all the properties to her like she instructed." Christine stood up, ready to leave but her father's roar made her sit back down.

"You dare take a step from that place!"

"Dad, what exactly do you want? You don't expect me to disobey sister for you, do you?" She raised a brow at him.

"Both of you take it easy. Wales, Christine is not wrong. You know the daughter you gave birth to. You know what she's capable of doing if she doesn't get her way. She wouldn't mind striping you off everything you own just to prove a point. Let Christine give her the properties. After all, we already have enough wealth.

As for you, Christine, I have told you times without numbers that your father did nothing wrong by staying with Alice for so long. I permitted it and thanks to that decision, we are this wealthy…"

"Notwithstanding, he deserves to be hated. A man who could do that to his wife and daughter isn't worthy to be called a man!" With that said, Christine glared at her father and got up before storming out of the room.

It wasn't that she found fault with what they did to Jeslyn and her mother. She was only upset that people kept rubbing it in her face that she was enjoying the privilege of being rich because she was adopted.

She had spoken to her father multiple times to tell the world that she wasn't adopted, but he wouldn't, saying it was for the greater good.

Now, after the greater good, he got nothing from his sacrifices and he's mad about it.

Well, let him be mad because Christine is also angry at him for how her life had turned out.

She would forever be at the mercy of Jeslyn and her family for the rest of her life. Who likes that?

WATCHOUT FOR EPISODE 19

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Jeslyn had thought she was thinking that in her mind until she heard a snicker.
She paused her fingers on the document and raised her head slowly to look at the man in front of her. She blinked and blinked again.

'Huh? I thought I heard him sniffle a laugh. Why is his face still looking like a robot's? Perhaps I was thinking too much.' She shrugged her shoulders and continued to flip the pages without reading anything.

Jeslyn sighed again. All her contracts were handled by Maya and Christine. She dislikes reading these 'tiny' words filled with clauses, party A, party B, rights, and so on.

Don't these lawyers get tired? She sighed again. She picked up the pen on the table and just when she was about to put down her signature, Maverick pulled the contract off the table.

"Jeslyn Lee, you haven't read the terms and conditions, you don't know what your duties are, you haven't read what you should expect of me, how you should treat my son, what to expect of him–"

"Mr. Somebody I don't know his name, I hate reading–"

"Maverick," he interrupted her with narrowed eyes.

"Eh?" She looked at him in a stupor. Those narrowed eyes sent goosebumps crawling under her skin. She swallowed as her heartbeat took another beating tune.

Seeing how the bunny in front of him was changing from a happy and cute girl to a withdrawn cat shivering under the rain, he suppressed the air around him and explained: "Call me Maverick, that's my name."

"Oh, Mr. Maverick…" She draws the name on her tongue while repeating it, checking how it sounds, and also thinking of the meaning.

After a while, she slowly nodded while thinking, 'it makes sense that he bears that name, it suits him perfectly because he doesn't look, behave, nor give her the feeling of how humans are. It's understandable though, this is country M'.

She cleared her throat awkwardly when she saw him looking at her.

"Ehm, Mr. Maverick, I believe that you won't sell me, deprive me of food and sleep, stop me from fulfilling my dreams, and the most important thing, I believe you will not prevent me from seeking revenge."

Her face turned fierce at the mention of revenge.

Those people, if she doesn't skin them alive, she'll leave the face of the earth in the most hateful and dishonored way.

Her name will be painted around the world and also will get a place in the book of world records as the most disgusting human to ever live. This she pledged.

For a brief moment, Maverick pursed his lips when he saw her brief transformation.

'She's faking her persona!' He thought.

It wasn't known if Jeslyn showed that fierce and evil side of hers out of hatred for her enemies or if she was subconsciously showing the real her, but whatever it was, Maverick got to understand that she wasn't a harmless bunny.

He had been thinking all these while of how he would make her adjust to the lifestyle and the gloomy air of country M, it seems that's not necessary now.

Jeslyn beamed at him after her thought and clicked the pen, ready to sign.

"You should know that once you sign that, you–"

He paused when she dragged the contract to her side and signed it before he got to finish his words. He slowly shook his head and stopped talking. She was definitely going to regret not reading it.

There were some conditions in there that he expected her to protest about, like the— no intimacy rule, hidden marriage from the public, treating Valen like she would treat her son– meaning, condoning his excesses, and other bizarre conditions.

"Done. Even though I didn't read it, it took me almost 5 minutes to sign everything. Mr. Maverick, why are there so many pages? There are literally more than 50 pages. Why is it so much?" Jeslyn tilted her head in perplexity while looking at his gorgeous face.

"It doesn't matter anymore, you already signed it."

"No, wait, I can trash it. Another can be sent, right?" She blinked.

Maverick looked at his wife speechlessly for a while before thinking: 'Jeslyn, are you this careless or just acting stupid?'

He'll never know.

"I don't do second chances." He picked up the document and stood up. "You can do whatever you want, go wherever you want– in the house, but the rooms on this floor are off limits, only this room is open to you on this floor."

Jeslyn nodded.

"The servants will call you downstairs for your meal. You can decide to have your meals in your room, but joining the family will be better for your task with Valen."

"W– what is my task with your son?" That's right, she doesn't know.

"You missed the chance of finding out when you didn't read the contract. I don't give second chances, so find out for yourself." He walked out after that.

"Say, Jeslyn, why are you this ridiculous? Your brain needs to be checked in the hospital, ah." Jeslyn murmured to herself while slowly slapping her head. So dumb!

"I don't even know how old this child is, what he's like, what he loves and hates… Why exactly am I still living? With this brain of mine, I should have been chewed out in the entertainment industry by those wolves."

She sighed one more time before she got up and walked out of the room with the thought: ' Whatever that boy is, he's just a child and I can spank him if he's rotten. Hehehe…'

Talking about rotten children, Jeslyn would prefer to be barren than have one. She calls them; the agent of short life, home destroyers, heart attackers, and any bad name she could think of.

She'll be like, 'how can only one child be this troublesome? Giving parents headaches and anxiety. I'll certainly send my child for adoption if he or she turns out to be a rotten brat.'

Well, Maverick's child has to be good-behaved due to how Maverick is. She thought.

Jeslyn returned to her room and sat on her bed, thinking about her matters. She still couldn't believe that her dearest grandfather was dead. She slowly closed her watery eyes as the tears fell down her cheeks.
It hurts so badly. She didn't get to see his body before he was cremated. She didn't see his ashes and also, the most painful part is that she didn't get to bid him farewell or attend his funeral.

That must be the reason she isn't able to move on. All this while, she didn't get a place… this quiet to think about her sorrows.

She had two unfeeling friends in prison who wouldn't want to see her mourn or lament. Now that she is finally alone, she can cry now, right?

"Grandfather," her lips shook. It hurts… Mentioning his name hurts very much.

"I miss you a lot…" she broke down in tears as she wailed like she had never before.

Jeslyn didn't feel this way when her mother died and that was because she woke up after two years from a coma. Although she cried for a few weeks, she didn't feel the kind of pain she was feeling right now.

Her mother was the strong-headed type of woman who wouldn't tell Jeslyn she loved her but would rather do things to make her know how important Jeslyn was to her.

Ms. Alice was the type that would frown at Jeslyn for playing with dirt and wearing her slippers wrongly.

She was the type that prefers to fight for her daughter instead of letting her daughter fight for herself.

She wanted Jeslyn to only see the goodness in life and protected her so tightly from the evil of the world and that was the reason Ms. Alice didn't let Jeslyn and grandpa Lee meet for a long time.

Grandpa Lee, on the other hand, was the type of grandfather who would rather join Jeslyn to play with dirt than pull her away.

He was the kind of old man that would wear his shoes the wrong way when Jeslyn does, just to make her happy.

Grandpa Lee was the type of man who would rather let Jeslyn fight her own battles than do it for her. He would stand by the side to blow a whistle to cheer her on.

He wanted Jeslyn to see that the world is like an ocean, beautiful with amazingly gorgeous creatures, but at the same time, the deadliest when she dives into it.

He would tell her, "my child, playing at the bank of the ocean just to admire the beauty is a wonderful thing but not an achievement. However, going into the ocean to see the dangers underneath it and also to learn how to survive those perils is the best achievement you can ever have.
I'm old now and one of these days I will join your mother, but what about you? You and your sister will be the only ones left in the Lee family.
The Lee family might look peaceful and happy at the moment, but when I die, enemies will pour out. Those that would come for the Lee cooperation would, the enemies I made along the road to success would come for you, the homes that were wrecked due to my indirect involvement would show up, and mostly, your beast of a father will come too.
What will you do then? Learn to be strong, grow a thick skin, and hide your emotions under the facade of whatever persona you choose to display.
When the world thinks you are weak, your enemies would go easy on you, then dissolving their attacks would be a walk in the park for you.
I made the mistake of allowing your grandmother to teach your mother that way, but I won't make that mistake with you. If your mother had not gone away from home and went to live with that father of yours in country G, breaking all communications with me because I showed displeasure for that husband of hers, her life would have taken a different turn.
I only got to know about your mother's dilemma when she came back home without you. I wanted to destroy your father but she didn't allow me, saying it would hit you too hard.
Child, whatever you do in the future, never forget the lessons I taught you. Never show your weakness to anyone…"

Jeslyn screamed in pain after remembering her grandfather's life lesson. He had sat her down beside him on the field after they finished playing golf on that day.

"You were my pillar, grandpa. I rested my whole weight on you, but why did you let me fall so hard and didn't give me a heads-up?
Grandfather, they killed me along with you. They didn't just take your life but dug your granddaughter's heart out. They showed me the cruelty of life the hard way. I will not forgive them. They took you away from me…"

Jeslyn's voice couldn't contain her agony. She felt the pain she had been buckling up tearing at her heart. The pain was unbearable.

She curled herself on her bed and muffled her voice with a creamy pillow. The river of tears gushing out of her eyes wet the pillow like it was soaked in water.

Jeslyn stayed in that fetal position as she cried from that morning until the afternoon before falling asleep… curled up.
…

"Where is she?" Ray asked the men in black standing in front of him with their heads bowed.

"We are sorry young master Ray, we couldn't find her."

"What do you mean you couldn't find her?!... Where have you searched?"

"Everywhere she could have possibly been–"

"Have you searched her holiday house? The beach? The snow house? The resort? The Lee resting house? The park house? The paint house? The glass house?!..."

"Yes, young master. We searched all the places you asked us to…including the apartment given to her by her agency."

"F*ck! Where the hell are you, Jeslyn?!" Ray ruffled his hair in frustration.

WATCHOUT FOR EPISODE 18

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Rex sighed and motioned Jeslyn to sit down before he started to explain things to her, but what exactly?

Jeslyn sat down with a skeptical look on her face. She had heard of country M. In fact, the whole world knows of country M, but what she doesn't understand is why she is in this villainous place.

Country M is known for her two names 'paradise in hell' and 'kindness is lost'.

Country M is the house for the wealthiest and most demonic set of humans that could ever exist in the world.

Committing all the sins there are in the book is their fort. Although, they do it diplomatically.

They don't go about stealing along the streets or picking up a lady on the road to rape. Carrying out 'petty' crimes like that is considered the work of a weakling and such practices are frowned upon.

Being able to survive in country M automatically means the person has a dead heart.

From the police to the citizens are horrible humans and only a handful of people could be said to be 'kind' and that 'kindness' is extended to some members of their families and friends alone.

Although that might be it, there are still few who know what love is and they aren't stingy to show it.

However, the lover and the loved has to be at the top of the game, or else the enemies lurking around would use that against them. After all, the struggle to be at the pinnacle is no joke.

Getting dragged into a country like that would certainly make a faint-hearted person like Jeslyn pee on themselves.

"Miss Jeslyn, I don't know what happened, but from what I understand, I don't think it was my brother who married you, but rather, you married him, correct?"

Jeslyn slowly nodded and glanced at the man whose head was on the headrest of the chair.

"Good. It was your fault for not knowing who you were marrying, so…"

"I want a divorce!" Jeslyn immediately yelled.

Rex choked on his words and his voice disappeared while he looked at his brother who also happened to be looking at Jeslyn.

Seeing those menacing eyes staring at her, Jeslyn shrank her neck, almost curling on the couch.

"Our deal was one year," he said. From his hard voice, it was obvious he wouldn't be welcoming anything else except that deal.

"B– but what I married you for is over now, I lost." She didn't know where the courage came from, but she was glad it came.

"I also had a condition and I said it, didn't I?" Maverick asked with his thick dark brown raised.

"Huh? You said what? I didn't hear you state your condition." She refused to be cornered or forced to live in this hellish country, especially not with this man that reeked of wickedness.

"It so happens that I need a woman for my brat... I said something like that, did I not?" He quoted what he said that day before he agreed to the deal.

Jeslyn blinked and knitted her brows, trying to recall but she couldn't remember much. All she could recollect was him saying 'brat and deal' before she pulled him away.

"It doesn't matter if you don't remember, the deal cannot be changed. As for the contract, my lawyer will bring it over in a while."

"..." Jeslyn stared incredulously at him. Can this be called kidnapping?

"Valen will be coming home soon, get the servants to return to the mansion and set everything in place for him." Maverick got up after entrusting the task to Rex.

"Got that, brother."

"Come with me," Maverick said to Jeslyn who was wordlessly regretting her actions on that day.

She got up like a confused robot and slowly walked behind him. She didn't know or care about where he was taking her to. She made the wrong decision, so she could only abide by his rules now.

She had never heard of where a contractor suddenly became the contracted. What an amazing life she's living.

Jeslyn followed Maverick out of the house, wondering where he was taking her until she realized he was showing her around the massive building!

Should she laugh or cry at this predicament? Was this the right time to show her around the house? She was already feeling like dying when she realized she was in country M and this man is showing her around the house, is he for real? What eyes is he expecting her to admire the beauty of the house with?

"Ehm, Mr… don't you think it's not right to be doing this right now when my brain has been fed with too much trouble to swallow? My brain is already suffering from indigestion and you are giving me more, please can I return to the house? I want to rest." She held her head dramatically, feigning dizziness.

Maverick glanced at her. Seeing how 'exhausted' she seemed, he gave a small nod before turning around and heading in the opposite direction.

Jeslyn watched his disappearing back with narrowed eyes for a few seconds before her eyes lit up like she just got an idea and she ran after him.

"Mr, wait up!"

Maverick paused in his step and turned to look at her.

She beamed, making her look like a cute fluffy doll. Even though she knew that she was using her cutest expression right now, the man in front of her didn't seem to care at all.

"What?" His voice was so distant like he was stopped by an annoying stranger.

Well, she's an annoying stranger and Jeslyn was aware of that.

"Ehm, you see, I was thinking, ehm… see, I know we are married…" she said 'married' in an awkwardly low tone, like it wasn't real.

"...and it's a contract. I understand that you want to stick to the end and I'm not going to oppose, after all, I caused it. However, what I wanted to say is that…"

She walked up to him and grabbed his right hand.

Maverick frowned slightly at her touch but didn't pull out his hand.

The audacious little bunny was too preoccupied with how to explain her intention that she missed the reaction he gave at her touch.

With his left hand in his trouser pocket and his right hand in her hold, he stared down at the middle of her head.

Jeslyn looked up at his face and wondered why he was so tall.

'If I ever get the chance to kiss him, I'll have to either wear tall heels or stand on tip toes and he will also have to lower his head a little…damn!'

Realizing she had lost track, she gently hit her head before she beamed again. "Mr, can I return to my country?"

Seeing his face changing, she immediately let go of his hand and waved at his face in a hurry. "No, no, I'm not saying I want to divorce. I mean, uhm, this country is not for people like me. I want to return to my country but I can still remain your wife and when it's time to divorce, you can send the divorce papers over and I'll–"

"No." His cold and stern voice sounded.

"Huh?" His reply startled her. What did he mean by no?

"Mr, there's no reason for me to be by your side, right? I have a career that I–"

"Miss, you have issues up there?" He pointed at her head.

Jeslyn shook her head out of reflex.

"Then, you mustn't have forgotten my condition for accepting the deal, right?"

"Eh, you said it's for a brat and–"

"That brat cannot travel out of this country, which means you'll have to stay here."

"But my career! I'm a singer, a well-known singer who will soon be climbing to be a C–lister in a few weeks!" She knew she was lying, however, staying anywhere in the world is better than staying in this country.

Maverick stayed silent for a while before he responded. "Being here doesn't stop you from doing anything. There are great companies here, I'll get Rex to find you one."

"No, Mr. I don't use the back door to attain my dreams."

"Neither am I giving you access through the back door."

"What do you mean?"

"What you heard… return to the house, your stepson will be back soon. How you make him trust you as a stepmother is all up to you." With that said, he walked away.

Jeslyn's lips fell open in disbelief. What did he just say? Did he just…

"Hahahaha…"Jeslyn suddenly laughed. "It seems my life is just getting worse by the day. No problem, I'll endure, so far I won't die before I ruin those people."

She murmured to herself before she turned around and headed to the house.

Walking back, she caught sight of the sparkling blue-colored pool a distance away and couldn't help but beam. She loves water and she could envision herself a few days from now diving into that pool in her bikini.

Jeslyn entered the house and climbed the stairs. On getting to the passageway, she stopped and brushed her fingers through her hair.

"This is unbelievable, haha…" she laughed awkwardly.

She looked back to where she was coming from but no one was behind her, so she sighed and shook her head.

"Well, we can't get lost, can we?... Jeslyn, you can do this!" She patted herself on the shoulder and continued to walk forward.

The complication of the passageway, plus the designs of the large doors got her confused.

"How can all the doors be the same? Where is the room I came out from? God! Why is a house this big and complicated anyway?.... Forget it, I can just open all the doors until I get to my room."

The floor she's standing on has three rooms with the doors looking the same. She got baffled as to which room she should go into.

"Let's start with this," she said and walked to the first door on her right.

Turning the knob of the first floor, it didn't bulge... It was locked.

"This is not the room," she shook her head and went to the other door. "This should be it."

She turned the knob handle and… voila, it turned!

Jeslyn smiled and pushed the door open.

"..."

She stared speechlessly at what was in front of her. T–this isn't the room, she thought and was about to shut the door when she heard,

"Enter."

"Ah!!" The fright she got made her open the door wide with her hand holding tightly to the door knob while her body rested on the door.

Maverick, who was standing behind her, watched her cute reaction for a while before he bypassed her and stepped into the dimmed room.

"M–Mr. Can you please, make some noise while walking In the future? You almost scared me to death."

"No," he didn't look back as he threw her the answer.

"Ok, then I should just head to my room." As she was about to turn, his voice fell.

"Your room is not on this floor."

"Ah?"

"Last floor."

"Oh… ok, let me go–"

"Come in," he told her again.
Jeslyn walked into the dimly lit room and sat on the black couch.

Looking around the room, she found nothing to interest her. From the brown wall to the black couches and black doors, down to the hot chocolate curtains and brown rugs… it gave her the wrong feeling.

The only breather in the room was the white sheets on the bed, though it had a black duvet tucked into the bed frame from the lower half of the bed… so sickening!

'Must your room look like a coven?... Anyways, it's a beautiful coven', she shook her head at her taste.

Well, she might be the only person in the world seeing beauty from something that makes one's hair stand on end.
While Jeslyn was busy with her thoughts, Maverick dropped a document on the table.

"You should read through that and sign it," he said.

Jeslyn knitted her brows in puzzlement before she followed his jaw that was gesturing to the table. She looked down to see a brown envelope.

She opened it and pulled out the paper that had a 'contract' written on it.

She sighed– like she wasn't expecting him to really take this marriage to this degree.

Well, it was her idea.

Flipping open the pages, Jeslyn suddenly developed a headache. She rubbed her temple in frustration.

"Why must these contracts, terms, and conditions… In fact, why is everything about law this complicated, cumbersome, and exhausting? Can't they write things more straightforwardly? Ah, my head already." She lamented while flipping over the pages.

Jeslyn had thought she was thinking that in her mind until she heard a snicker.

WATCHOUT FOR EPISODE 17

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Jeslyn stirred awake and stretched while turning on her side. She furrowed her brows as she tapped the soft and fluffy thing she was sleeping on with her eyes still closed.

'When did manufacturing companies make the car seats this fluffy and wide'? She thought.

She slowly opened one eye and saw a white duvet covering her lower body. Her other eye flew open and she immediately sat up to glance around the place she was in.

It was a big room painted nude with gold intricates. The two single chairs placed beside the gold curtains were also gold, and a floor-to-ceiling window separated the balcony from the room with a white long curtain.

Jeslyn couldn't believe what her eyes were seeing. She blinked and blinked again, still, the images didn't disappear.

She lowered her eyes to the bed. The large king-size bed with a gold headboard and gold frame was the most prettiest she had seen... and the beautiful chandelier that was lit above her head made her throat go dry.

What about the floor? The fluffy cream foot rug placed under the bed that spread to cover a small space around the bed made Jeslyn forget to close her mouth.

She had seen wealth and tasted it, after all she is the young Miss of the Lee and Chen family, but this luxury right in front of her was something she had only seen on TV.

After admiring the room, Jeslyn went back to sleep. "That's enough, we have seen too much luxury. Dream goddess, I want to wake up, take me back to the car."

Jeslyn closed her eyes while patting the bed with a small smile on her face. Even though she'll be living in the slum from now on, she won't be upset because she had dreamed of living in a room that her enemies cannot afford. That's a great achievement and a good sign that she would be crushing them all.

At the thought of that, she chuckled and opened her eyes, hoping to see herself in the car, but no, she still found herself in her 'dream'.

"Dream goddess, are you joking with me? Do you want to trap me in my dreams too? Is my life not hard enough already? Please take me back and I promise to not sleep in the car ever again. Besides, this might be my last time riding a beautiful car." She joined her hands in a pleading gesture and stayed like that for a while, but still, nothing happened.

"Ok, fine. It seems you want me to look around the house before you send me back. That's so kind of you. How did you even know that I was longing to bid farewell to my room? Were you reading my mind?..."

Jeslyn talked to the 'dream goddess' for a while before she got up and started to admire the things in the room. She wandered around until she found herself in the walk-in closet and almost fainted from shock.

The white massive room was no different from a store in a luxurious mall. Everything a lady could ever want. From clothes to shoes, bags to hats, wigs to cosmetics, and even watches and rings which includes earrings, nose rings, finger rings, and so on. Goodness, the closet was a sight to behold!

Jeslyn closed her parted lips and started walking from section to section in admiration. She could only look and didn't touch anything. What if she touched and broke something out of shock and the 'dream goddess' wants her to pay, where would she get the money?

What if the 'dream goddess' wants her to pay by staying here and doing the cleaning and maintenance, doesn't that mean she would be seen as a dead person on earth and buried?

"No, no, I haven't made those people pay and that innocent man I married, I haven't divorced him yet to set him free." Thinking of that man, Jeslyn sighed.

She walked out of the closet and checked the bathroom. The bathroom was a little simpler with gold curtains above the bathtub, a white ceiling, a chandelier, a large mirror, and flower vases.

She sighed and closed the door before heading out of the room.

As she walked down the corridor, the feeling she got from the house was a weirdly quiet and super clean house. She couldn't get the right feeling, but it somehow reminded her of that man she married... Weird!

She walked down the fleet of twirling stairs and finally found herself standing in the sitting room.

Jeslyn sighed again. Although there was nothing much in the sitting room. However, from the soft tone of the nude paint on the wall to the brown couches and brown rug with a center table on top of the rug, wow-ed Jeslyn so much that her mouth fell open.

"Dream goddess, I have seen enough, please take me back." She said and was about to head back to the room she came from when she heard…

"Ahh!!... Who are… Jeslyn Lee?!"
Jeslyn turned to look back and almost got the shock of her life.

The specie in front of her was so handsome that she didn't know that she was almost drooling.

Call her whatever, but she got a soft spot for handsome men and that was why she could fall into the scheme they plotted for her, using Ray.

If Ray was handsome, then this guy in front of her has no name to qualify him.

"Y– you are fine," she blurted without thinking.

"Huh?"

"I said you are beautiful." She said again with dreamy eyes before she smiled. "The dream goddess knows what I love. She's making me see them one after the other. If only I can touch him."

It's a 'dream', so of course, she can do anything which includes acting shamelessly.

Rex blinked. He didn't understand what she was saying, but one thing he desperately wanted to know was why the infamous D-list singer was in his home… no, his brother's home. Unless…

Rex gasped with widened eyes and mouth... Wholly lost, so much so that he didn't see when she came to stand in front of him and hugged him.

"Beautiful people should be hugged," She said.

Rex froze when their bodies came in contact... Those two peaches in front of her chest were soft and…

"What is going on here?"

Rex woke up from his stupified state and hurriedly pushed Jeslyn away.

Jeslyn was confused. In beautiful dreams like this, such things don't happen. Wait, that voice…

Jeslyn and Rex simultaneously turned to look in the direction of the voice.

Her eyes turned saucers. He is here too? Why?

"B– brother, wh– who is… wh– what is she doing here?!"

"Huh?" Jeslyn looked at Rex who had his finger pointed at her while his large eyes rested on the man standing by the door.

The man had no expression on his cold face as he looked at her. Yes, his emotionless eyes were on her for a long time before he shifted his gaze and settled them on the blue-haired young man who still had his finger pointed at her.

"She's my wife." He said before heading towards Jeslyn.

Rex felt different emotions run into him at once. One was disbelief, another was disbelief, and the third was… massive disbelief!

How could his brother say something so, so, so unbelievable?!

His mind suddenly started to spiral out of control as he started to remember the things that had happened and placed the missing puzzles.

They had gone to Rose City to look for crucial materials for their investigation. They booked the best hotel and on that fateful day, he and his brother decided to use the hotel's bar. His brother had gone out to use the restroom and it took a long while before he returned.

On that same day was Jeslyn Lee's wedding which was also taking place in the hotel. When his brother came back, he told him he had gotten married.

A week later, they were heading to the airport and a crazy lady asked to be given a ride to the cemetery and which was also where Jeslyn Lee's grandfather was being buried.

Rex glanced at Jeslyn who was moving back from his brother and his brain spun to the right path. "The crazy Miss on that day was you!"

Well, his cry did nothing to pull those two's attention.

Jeslyn had been crying in her mind for the dream goddess to take her back as the man in front of her was suffocating her with his handsomeness, plus his aura was too overwhelming for her to want to be around him.

'He's dangerous!' her mind had been screaming and she was not blind to that fact.

Well, she was… when she married him.

"M–Mr. S– stay right there, d– don't come, take another step…ah!"

She yelped when she fell onto the couch. She hurriedly sat up and screamed, "dream goddess, I command you now, take me back!!"

Maverick paused at her scream with his eyes still on her.

Rex, who had been watching the show with his pointed finger following Jeslyn around, knitted his brows and let out a sound to show his confusion. "Huh?"

"Wait, " he put down his finger. "You think you are dreaming? Is that what I think it is?" He hurried over to stand beside Maverick.

"Of– of course. Does this look real to you?" Jeslyn replied while blinking.

"Pfft… hahahaha…." Rex couldn't keep his snicker and laughed so hard that he held his stomach. He pointed a finger at her and said amidst laughter. "Jeslyn Lee, you are… hahaha…"

"Wh… what is it? What's so funny?" Nobody answered her and she watched the man walk towards a single couch and sat down with one leg over the other.

After Rex had laughed his intestines out, he also sat beside Jeslyn and said while trying to look serious. "This is no dream, Lee."

Jeslyn looked around the house one more time and shook her head, "You can't be serious." She refused to believe it.

The first reason was that she was clearly sleeping in the car and when she woke up, she met herself here.

Secondly, this house is too luxurious to be owned by someone in Rose City. Her Lee family was the richest. If they cannot afford a house like this, then no one in the whole City would dare. Unless they want to relocate to the slum.

Thirdly, Jeslyn was brought up in wealth and spoiled rotten with the latest brand of everything; from accessories, and clothes to furniture. She knows most of the brands and from all she had seen, starting from the room she woke up from, to the sitting room and even the style of the interior decor, no designer in the whole of country A does it.

"You are not in country A." Maverick finally spoke. From the way she was looking at the decorations in the sitting room, he figured out what she was thinking.

If Jeslyn had been shocked, now she was more flabbergasted at what she just heard.

"Wh– where am I?"

"Country M," he answered.

"Ahhhh!" Jeslyn screamed and jumped up to her feet.

Rex sighed. He was still wondering what his brother was thinking. How could he bring someone from another country into their country? Not even a strong-hearted person but a little puppy like Jeslyn Lee.

Now, he's only going to sit back here and watch how his brother explains to her...

'wait, let me get my popcorn. Drama is about to begin! Hehehe'

Just when Rex was attempting to stand up and go get himself popcorn, he heard the devil say, "Rex, explain to her."

"Eh?" Rex looked at his brother and saw that his eyes were already closed and his head was resting on the chair.

'Why again was I born as his junior brother?' Rex asked himself with sorrow in his eyes.

How was he going to explain the situation he doesn't know to this dumb young lady?
'Why is my life so hard?'

If only that idiot didn't fail her mission, she wouldn't have been sent to prison and would have been the one doing this trouble right now.

Rex sighed and motioned Jeslyn to sit down before he started to explain things to her, but what exactly?

WATCHOUT FOR EPISODE 16

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Then she thought of her career. Which agency would agree to take her now? Even if the doors are open, the so-called young Miss who's after her life wouldn't allow agencies to take her in and no agency would want to fight those people for a D-list singer like her.
And that husband of hers. He isn't even here to pick her up, which means she was right all along. He has forgotten about her. Anyways, why was she even adding him to her list of worries? Whenever she sees him, she'll just drag him to the civil affairs bureau to get a divorce. After all, what she needed the marriage for, she couldn't protect it anyway.

"Young Miss, please get in the car," Spid said as he walked over with two cups of milk tea in his hands.

Hearing that, Jeslyn instantly remembered what Pink warned her about and she took a protective stance.

"W–what do you mean?"

Spid stretched the milk tea to her and said: "Now that you have won the case, you should take something. You haven't eaten since."

Jeslyn took the milk tea from him but that didn't make her relax her guard. She looked at him skeptically, waiting for him to explain what he meant by 'get inside the car'.

"Where do you want to go now aside from following me?" He asked her with a brow raised.

He knew that her property had been taken from her but his boss told him to not care about it in court, so he didn't bother to bring it up.

"I still have other places I can live. I'm old enough to take care of myself. By the way, I don't know you, and you still won't tell me who sent you." She said while taking the straw in the cup to her lips.

Seeing that she was dragging the content in the cup, Spid's eyes smiled before he said:

"Hmm," he nodded. "I can see that you have a place to stay, it's written all over your face. As for who sent me, I don't know how you both got to be familiar with each other, also, that isn't my business. I'm almost done with my task, so don't make..."

"Sister!"

The minute Jeslyn heard that voice, she knew Christine was about to play the white lotus card in public. She would probably cry and show the world how much she loved her sister.

Jeslyn didn't bother to turn back and hurried into the car. "Mr. Spider, please start that car, I don't want to have anything to do with those people."

Spid turned to look at the court entrance. The Chou and Zhou families with a few reporters were heading towards them with Christine running over while wiping her face. She looked like a good sister crying for her older sister.

Spid whose face was concealed behind a mask narrowed his eyes at Christine who was a few steps away from the car before he opened the driver's seat and got in.

He waited for Christine to hold the knob of the back seat's door... attempting to open it before he turned the key, started the car, and stepped on the accelerator.

The action of the car speeding out of Christine's hand shocked her into falling with a loud thud!

Unfortunately for her, the area she fell to wasn't a flat surface, so she fell head-first on the raised side of the road.

"Christine!" Mrs. Wales screamed. She rushed to help her and rested Christine's bleeding forehead on her lap while screaming for an ambulance.

Looking at the cameras, Christine burst into tears while saying: "Mother, father, older sister hates me now. She misunderstood me again." Her voice grew weaker and weaker until her eyes closed and her breathing went slower.

"Christine!"

"..."

"Call the ambulance, hurry, my child!"

The reporters ran wild and started to take pictures of Christine who had fainted.
"Poor Christine, that fall must have shocked her so badly, coupled with the hatred from her sister!"

"Jeslyn is too ungrateful. Christine did so much just to preserve her life and yet she almost ran her over with a car!"

"Jeslyn might not have killed her grandfather, but with what she just did, she is capable of killing someone, such a black-hearted lady, hmph!"

Even though it was obvious that Jeslyn wasn't the driver of the car, the people believed that she asked the driver to run Christine over.

The public that was rejoicing over Jeslyn's release a while ago suddenly didn't know what to start feeling anymore.

Some were in a dilemma, asking themselves how they would feel if a family member they loved so much testified against them in court.

Some supported Jeslyn while others supported Christine.

Whatever the public thought, one thing was apparent. Christine was not hated by the masses, instead, they felt sorry for her. Also, she succeeded in making Jeslyn a dubious character in the eyes of many.
....

Inside the car heading to the airport, Jeslyn could be seen with her head on the headrest, eyes closed and breathing calmly.

Spid pulled off the mask to reveal a well-sculpted face. He glanced at the sleeping Jeslyn, then curled his sexy lips into a faint smile before he picked up his phone to make a call.

"Hey, get the plane ready."
…

That night, Ray was seen at a bar drinking himself into a stupor.

"Ray, that's enough, stop it already!" His friend tried to force the glass off his hand.

"Let go of me!" Ray pushed his guy's hand away.

"What the hell do you want, Ray? You never liked her, so what's your problem?!"

"Yes, I never liked her! For four years, I felt nothing for her, she was like a pest to me, but what the hell did her lawyer mean by all that? What did she tell her lawyer about me?!"

"Well, Ray, actually it was 5 years, you two had been together for 5 years…"

"Shut the f*ck up and stop acting like that damn lawyer!" Ray's mind flashed as he was forced to remember the event in court.

"Mr. Ray, for how long have you been together with Miss Jeslyn?"

"Four years–"

"From your report, it's been 5 years, Mr. Ray….Your honor, if Mr. Ray cannot even remember how long he and Miss Jeslyn had been together, then how can he claim he loved her?"

Ray watched as the judge nodded his head before the mask lawyer continued.

"Mr. Ray, have you ever had intimacy with Miss Jeslyn?"
"No."

"But she had visited you a lot in the past."

"Yes."

"Have you ever shown her your naked body?"

"No"

"Oh? And you mean she hasn't seen your great body anywhere before?"

"Yes, I have never shown her my body. She tends to be shy when she's with me and I wanted to honor and respect her, so I made things easy for her by covering up any time she came around."

"Then, what do you guys do when she comes around?"

"We either go out or watch some movies with popcorn while she sits in between my legs and I hug her in my arms. She likes that a lot…" his voice trailed off like he was reminiscing something.

He slowly looked at Jeslyn and saw she was glancing at her nails. She does that too when she's sad.

Ray slowly bit his lower lip. He didn't understand what funny things his heart was doing at the moment. It felt bitterness and anger, but for who?

"Ok, so, all in all, she has never seen you without clothes on. Your honor, please kindly note that down." The lawyer said before he continued. "Mr. Ray, what if I say that the reason Miss Jeslyn abandoned you on the altar and married a stranger was that she found out you have been cheating on her?"

The audience gasped and so were those watching from other places that knew the couple too well.

That allegation was too much for people to believe, so the majority of those that knew the couple denied the fact. They believed that the lawyer was only saying that to lead Ray to confusion.

"That's not true! I have never cheated on Jeslyn for the four…five years we have been together. If she's looking for something to defend herself for humiliating me on the altar and shattering my heart, then she should look for another lie to tell!"

Ray glared at Jeslyn. He was sure he left no evidence behind, so what could they find to pin the crime of cheating on him?

That's right, Ray left no evidence behind and even the videos that were sent to Jeslyn were wiped out, so how is Spid going to find the evidence?

"Fine… If Jeslyn had never seen you without clothes on, how then did she know about the tattoo on your butt?"

The audience took in a sharp breath and so did Ray.

"W– what are you talking about?" Ray panicked.

"What I'm talking about, Mr. Ray is that you have a tattoo… a butterfly tattoo on one cheek of your butt, and Jeslyn, who had supposedly not seen your body, knew of the tattoo."

"How is that possible?!" Ray was alarmed.

"That's right. How is that possible?... It can either be that she saw you in the shower, or she met you sleeping on your belly while naked, or you were sleeping with someone."

"T–that's not possible!"

"Hold on, Mr. Ray, let me analyze it for you since you don't understand."

The lawyer squinted before he continued, "Jeslyn whom you said is shy around you must definitely not enter your shower even though she's in your house while you were showering, let alone, you don't have a reason to shower when she's around.
Secondly, Miss Jeslyn cannot enter your room to meet you sleeping naked because you never sleep naked…" he paused to look at Ray's shocked expression.

However, Ray had his eyes glued on Jeslyn.

"...You don't sleep naked Mr. Ray and in fact, you hate that idea.

Thirdly, there's a possibility that you were sleeping with someone, unbeknownst to you both, the scene was being recorded and sent to Jeslyn, so she saw the butterfly tattoo. If you say I'm lying, pull down your pants."

That comment was supposed to be funny but everyone was too shocked to laugh.

Jeslyn and Ray were known to be the best couple in Rose City. Their lovely relationship was the envy of every lady. That was why the people were angry when they thought Jeslyn broke Ray's heart.
Ray couldn't defend himself, and neither could his lawyer. So Spid went ahead to finalize his words.

Now that they found out Ray was the unfaithful partner, the people couldn't help feeling betrayed.

"Your honor, Miss Jeslyn found out her fiance of five years was cheating on her. Heartbroken, she thought of making him pay. While leaving to cancel the wedding, she saw a man coming out of the bathroom and asked him to marry her for one year before divorcing her.
Miss Jeslyn and that man were strangers, and Jeslyn never cheated on Mr. Ray.
So, your honor, Mr. Ray's testimonies cannot be taken because he said those words out of anger for Miss Jeslyn. He was angry that she humiliated him on the altar and also wanted her to suffer.

We are men with egos and when a woman shatters our ego in public, we tend to want to make her pay. Mr. Judge, you are a man, so you can relate."

That was how Ray was labeled an evil fiance by the people and they started praising Jeslyn for destroying him on the altar.

Ray snapped out of his reverie and held the tumbler firmly.

"Jeslyn, I won't let you off!" It would have been nicer or less painful if the man she chose over him was someone she knew.

Picking a random stranger over him was the greatest insult Jeslyn could give him and it was about to drive him crazy.

"Jeslyn!!!" He screamed her name in frustration and rage as he smashed his glass on the tiled floor.

"I won't give you rest, I promise. I'll ruin you and make you pay for everything you did to me!... Ahhh!" He swept off the wine bottles and cups on the table, including phones.

"Ray, take it easy, you'll hurt yourself. I thought you didn't have any feelings for her, now look at how you are."

"I don't have any feelings for her! Damn it!"

"Tell that to an idiot who would believe you. Tsk." His friend clicked his tongue in irritation.

He sat there and allowed Ray to continue venting until he couldn't vent anymore and broke down. His reason for reacting this way was not known, but whatever it was, Ray's friend was sure that regret was part of it.

WATCHOUT FOR EPISODE 15

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The court resumed back from break and this time, there was no suspense at all. Maya admitted to all the crimes immediately.

"I faked the video, I cut the telephone wire to prevent Jeslyn from calling the hospital, I threatened Christine to give false testimony in court or else Jeslyn will be killed. Christine loves her sister, so she did everything to protect her sister, hoping she could find out about me and then arrest me while she brings Jeslyn out of prison.
I blackmailed the doctors to cremate the old man's body to prevent the investigation from finding out he was poisoned and also, I spiked Jeslyn's drink so I could make her take the blame and prove to the court that she was on drugs."

"Miss Maya, why are you protecting them?" Spid asked.

"I'm not protecting anyone, why should I put my freedom on the line for others?"

Spid nodded like he understood. "Why was there a need for you to do all that?"

"Because old man Lee caused the destruction of my family!" Maya said that with so much bitterness and hatred as she glared at Jeslyn with fire brewing in her eyes.

Spid nodded again. While he was doing his research, he found out about the business deal Maya's family had with old man Lee which turned sour and wrecked her family years ago.

"It was clear that your family was greedy and were never satisfied! Good that my grandfather ruined them. If I had known you were one of those power-hungry people, I would have ruined you a long time ago. Unfortunately, I didn't know you were a leech just like your ungrateful family!" Jeslyn yelled from her chair.

Ever since the court session started, she hadn't said a word. She also has no idea who Maya's family was nor did she know about the matter, however, hearing all the excuses Maya was giving and claiming she did everything, irked her.
Plus hearing her saying nonsense about her grandfather automatically pulled out a nut in her head… forgetting she was in court.

"Your grandfather was nothing but a beast and a bully!" Maya retorted.

"My loving grandfather is the sweetest person anyone could ever wish for. I'm proud that he's a good beast and a righteous bully! Nobody except your mentally unstable family had issues with him. How can a worthless family like yours have eyes on my grandfather's wealth? Of course, they were courting death and he gave it to them like they deserved!"

Jeslyn was very sure that the problem wasn't from her grandfather and also, looking at how Maya and her brother grew up to become people who had eyes on other people's things, she was sure that the family was the same. They must have wanted to defraud her grandfather and when he retaliated, they couldn't take it and that ruined their family.

Using that explanation which wasn't far from the truth, Jeslyn's belief solidified.

"Now you are reaping what he sowed!" Maya retaliated with mockery in her eyes.

"The same can be said about you. Aren't you going to prison for 'avenging' your worthless family? No, you are not avenging them, but taking someone else's place. Hahaha…your family must be crying in hell right now for giving birth to a junky child like you. I might have been a bad judge of character and fallen into schemes, but you are nothing but a pawn and a used puppet who has exhausted their usefulness is always made to take the blame."

"Order in court!"

"Lawyer S.P, caution your client," the judge sounded a warning.

"Sorry, your honor, my client was merely agitated. She's very well-behaved and has never said a thing since. Worry not because she won't utter another word after she is done venting, after all, she's just a human with emotions."

The judge stared at the lawyer in a black mask who was staring back at him for a while, in silence. The judge was shocked that a knowledgeable lawyer like him would condone disorder in court and expect him to do the same.

No, that's not just it. If he understood lawyer Spid's statement well, he meant to say Jeslyn could continue to exchange words with Maya until she's satisfied and the judge and everyone else has to swallow their saliva and just watch with closed mouths!

Who is this lawyer? The judge thought.

"Ahem… lawyer S.P, are you aware that this is a courtroom?"

"Yes, your honor."

"And you are advocating disorder in court?"

"No, your honor… However, as a human who was unjustly sentenced and had to bear so much agony and suffering in prison, my client has the right to fight back when she's provoked.
My client was beaten by so many people in prison, starved for days, made to do hard labor, slept on the floor, washed the toilet, and was even deprived of a good lawyer after her beloved grandfather died. Isn't such a person allowed to vent a little?"

"...."

The judge was rendered speechless for a while before he asked: "Isn't that why we are in court? To prove her innocence?"

"It is, but can her life be returned to her? The trauma she went through in prison, will Miss Maya be able to soothe her? So, your honor, if venting a little can help her get better, please, you should allow it and turn a blind eye. Besides, my client is done venting, right, Miss Jeslyn?"

She nodded with a faked beam.

"See?" Spid smiled at the judge with his eyes.

The judge looked from Jeslyn who was looking at him with puppy eyes to lawyer Spid who still had that smile in his eyes and waved his hand in irritation.

"Go on, go on!"

"Thank you, your honor!... Miss Maya, you did so many atrocities for that reason?" Spid asked.

"If you were in my shoes, wouldn't you have done the same?" Maya reciprocated with a question.

"I can't be in your shoes, Miss Maya..." he stretched her name while his mind completed the statement, '...because all those who bothered me are already 6 feet below', his eyes smiling at her.
"So, in other words, you don't feel remorseful?" He asked again.

"I don't."

"Your honor, that's all I have to say." Spid returned to his seat beside Jeslyn while waiting for the court to carry out Maya's judgment.

The audience watched the judge who was writing in his booklet, waiting to hear the judgment.

Maya composed herself although her heart was a mess as it beat chaotically. If it were in her power, she would choose to walk out a free person, but she knew it was not possible.

A while later, a young lady walked out of a side room and handed some papers to the judge.

The judge looked through the papers before he cleared his throat and started to give his statement.

"On this day, 27 October, an appeal was filed on the case of murder carried out by the trial court of Rose City on the 15 of October 2022.

However, after new evidence was found and the court heard from both parties, the jury, having returned the verdict of guilty murder in the first degree on deliberate premeditation and extreme cruelty and atrocity, Jeslyn Lee was found… not guilty and is hereby discharged of all crimes leveled against her.
Maya Wang, the court having duly considered your offense and your act of not showing remorse hereby sentence you to death by Lethal injection which will be carried out on the 31st of October, 2022!"

The second after the judge pronounced Maya's sentence, he broke the nib of his pen and got up to leave the room.

Maya couldn't believe her ears. She knew she would be sentenced but the death sentence was out of her expectation!

How could they give her a death sentence? Wasn't Jeslyn accused of the same crime? Why wasn't she given life imprisonment?

The cops approached Maya while those thoughts ran through her mind.

They tried to cuff her hands but Maya wouldn't cooperate. She started to struggle while screaming at the top of her lungs.

"This is injustice! I refuse this verdict! Let me go, let me go! This is unfair!!!" She cried as she fought to be freed.

Jeslyn was surprised at first but later burst into a puddle of laughter. She wasn't laughing because she was happy that Maya would be dying. She was laughing because her name had been cleared and she was a free bird now.

A teardrop slowly fell from her right eye and she wiped it before she stood up from her seat.

"Jeslyn, Miss, please save me! I'm sorry, please I beg you, talk to your lawyer, he can save me, please, I don't want to die!"

She begged frantically as she was being dragged away.

Seeing that Jeslyn wasn't feeling concerned, she hurriedly opened her mouth as they were already approaching the entrance.

"Jeslyn, they are lurking around you. They don't intend to give up. The Miss has no intention to let you go!" She had thought that by saying that, the kind-hearted Jeslyn would tell the police to stop, but to her astonishment, Jeslyn was looking at her with a smile while waving at her.

Her desperation grew stronger as she changed her tone and started to beg for her dear life.

"I'm sorry for betraying you… please give me one last chance… forgive me and tell the judge to take back his verdict! Please Jeslyn, Jeslyyyyyyn!!!

Maya's voice faded away as she was dragged out of the entrance.
Jeslyn looked at her family after Maya was gone and the corner of her lips curled into a sneer.

"Whatever comes, I'll face it head on. It won't break me but rather make me stronger." She said before she followed Spid who just came back from signing some documents out of the court.

The people were excited when they heard Jeslyn was innocent. While some were crying, others were rejoicing.

Meanwhile, in another country, Maverick who was sitting beside Rex picked up his phone and made a call while his eyes were on Jeslyn who was going out of the courtroom with Spid.

"Bring her here." He said into the phone before he disconnected the call and set his phone aside.

Rex, who had been watching the court preceding while eating popcorn, turned to look at his brother.

"Huh? Who are you bringing here?"

Maverick ignored him and picked up a magazine to read.

Rex drew closer to him and beamed. "Brother, who is my sister-in-law? I have waited for so long and my organs are no longer stable. Just tell me who she is, please."

Silence.

"A little, please!"

Silence.

"Ok, the first and last letters of her name."

"Has the goods been seized from them?" Maverick asked without looking at him.

Rex's lips slowly covered his teeth and his face changed. He formed claws with his fingers and made a strangling gesture, like he was imagining himself chocking his brother.

"It's been a long time since you strangled someone. The CEO of latex needs to be strangled, go do it... I want the result tonight."

"Ah?!" Rex was startled by his brother's order.

"Rex?"

Maverick turned his gaze from the magazine to look at the astonished-looking Rex.

"B– brother," he swallowed. "T–that guy is a tough one."

"Hmm, that's why you have to be the one to go strangle him. Kill him with your claws. Don't use the gun, nor employ a seductress." With that said, he got up and left.

Rex almost cried as he watched his brother's back. "Who is going to save me from this monster? I have lived a sorrowful life for so long!"
…

At the front of the court, Jeslyn who was now wearing a white gown instead of prison uniform stood by the black car as her mind wandered around.

She remembered she hadn't bid her friends in prison a proper farewell. She bit her lips as memories played in her mind. Those few days with Pink and Yellow were one of the greatest days of her life and she didn't wish for days like that to end.
Secondly, she thought of how her life would be now. Everything has been taken from her and she has no place to go.

She didn't bring up the matter of the inheritance in court because she knew that whoever the young Miss was, she wouldn't give up until she ruined her completely and to achieve that, her grandfather's reputation will be placed on the line.

Then she thought of her career. Which agency would agree to take her now? Even if the doors are open, the so-called young Miss who's after her life wouldn't allow agencies to take her in and no agency would want to fight those people for a D-list singer like her.
And that husband of hers. He isn't even here to pick her up, which means she was right all along. He has forgotten about her. Anyways, why was she even adding him to her list of worries? Whenever she sees him, she'll just drag him to the civil affairs bureau to get a divorce. After all, what she needed the marriage for, she couldn't protect it anyway.

WATCHOUT FOR EPISODE 14

PLEASE LIKE OR COMMENT IF YOU ENJOYED THE STORY
#claraslibrary

After the last person was interrogated by lawyer An, he sighed like half his life had been wasted before he stood up and saluted the judge.

Spid is known for not interrupting his opponent all through their interrogation of witnesses and also doesn't object to anything.

After all, he wasn't known to be the best lawyer in the world by battling words with others.

"Your honor. In here is the new evidence I gathered. The case was too sudden, so I didn't have time to gather enough." He stretched the brown envelope to a court staff member who walked up to him to collect the file and handed it to the judge.

The judge went through the so-called evidence with a frown of displeasure on his face.

"Lawyer S.P, what is the meaning of this? Are you here to play with the court?!" The judge yelled.

First of all, this lawyer introduced himself as S.P, an upcoming lawyer. Secondly, the envelope filled with 'evidence' was just a few pieces of paper with the same matter the court was handling but with a few changes here and there.

"Keep calm, Mr judge. I can't bear the burden of you fainting because of me. If you'll allow me to explain my report, it will save us both from too much trouble, thank you."

The judge's mouth fell open at his effrontery to speak to him in such a manner. D–did an unknown lawyer just, just…

His thought was cut short when he heard the man say:

"Can Miss Christine Wales step into the witness box, please?"

Christine walked out of her seat with confidence and stood in the witness box.

A wrapped book was given to her to place her hand on and make an oath.

Seeing this, Spid rolled his eyes. They'd swear and still lie.

After she was done swearing, Spid asked her to repeat her testimony and she said the exact words she had already said two times already.

The first time was in Rose City's court, the second time was a while ago when lawyer An interrogated her, and now is the third time.

"Miss, are you sure you were there and you witnessed it all?" Spid asked again.

"I– yes, I witnessed it all." She was shaken when she saw his eyes, but she still stood on her ground.

Spid nodded and said, "Your honor, she said she witnessed it all."

"What are you trying to prove?" The judge asked with irritation in his tone.

"Nothing, just so she doesn't deny it later. I'm making sure you all heard it." Spid said funnily, making the audience laugh.

The judge rolled his eyes.

Spid turned serious and then raised a question: "Miss Christine, in your words, you said that they left you at the wedding venue, correct?"

Christine nodded.
"However, from the CCTV footage along the hotel, it captured that you left them in the wedding venue and not the other way round. What do you have to say about that?"

"I– I didn't go–"

"Your honor, point to be noted." Spid silenced Christine by butting in before she got to think of an excuse.

By the time Christine got to realize what just happened, the point had been noted by the judge. She panicked and immediately started to protest.

"That was when my sister hadn't entered the venue. I went out to meet, to get…"

Christine couldn't finish her words because it would be implicating her if she tells them who she went to meet.

"Who did you go out to meet, Miss Christine?" Spid picked up her last statement immediately. That was why he brought up this matter of her leaving the court in the first place.

He had trapped Christine in the middle of two dangerous pits. If she accepted that she went to see someone, she would have to say who that person was. But if she chooses to protect that person, then she would have to admit to his claim that she left the wedding venue before everyone else and another deep pit would be waiting for her to jump in.

"Objection, my Lord, my client's privacy is being violated!" Lawyer An immediately stepped in when he saw Christine struggling to answer.

"My Lord, this isn't a violation of privacy but solid evidence to know if the person Miss Christine met up with is connected to this case."

"Objection overruled."

Lawyer An sat down, hoping Christine would use her brain.

"I– I left the venue before them."

"Who did you meet up with?

"I didn't meet anyone, I went home!" She barked at Spid.

"Another point to note, your honor. She went home straight while the wedding was ongoing."

The judge nodded and noted that down.

"Miss Christine, what were you doing in the house when your sister was getting married?"

"I– I slept off because I was tired."

"Your honor, she slept off because she was tired," Spid repeated.

"Objection, my Lord, how does her routine concern this case?" Lawyer An disagreed.

"My lord, it has a connection to the case."

"Objection overruled."

"Thank you, your honor…Miss Christine, for how long did you sleep?"

"Objection–"
"Overruled!"

"I can't remember how long I slept for."

"But you knew when the assassins got into the house."

"Assassins?!"

"That's right, Assassins. They got into the house at exactly 4:15 pm. How did they not see you?"

"No, there were no assassins at that time. At 4:15 pm, I was in the shower. I just woke up and…"

"Your honor, Miss Jeslyn, and her grandfather got into the house from the wedding venue at exactly 3:50 pm. The old man arrived at the hospital at exactly 4:15 pm. So, when did Miss Christine witness the murder?"

Everyone in the room was stunned. That's right. If Christine woke up by 4:15 and entered the shower, what time did she witness Jeslyn killing their grandfather?

"I, I… that's not true, I…"

"Your honor, that's all I have to say."

The Judge nodded and penned down some words while Christine was being taken out of the witness box.

Spid interrogated the rest workers and every single one couldn't hold on to what they said earlier. He made them change their statement by attacking them mentally.

Lawyer An had shouted 'objections' so many times which were brutally rejected by the judge till he stopped objecting and just sat there like a baby doll.

The last person to be interrogated was Maya.

"Miss Maya, you are Miss Jeslyn's assistant, am I right?" Spid asked.

"Yes."

"When she entered the house with her grandfather, where were you?"

"We entered together."

"How many of you were in the sitting room at that time?"

"Just the three of us."

"Where were the guards and the helpers?"

"We didn't look for them, however, none of them were in sight."

"You were there when Miss Jeslyn told everything to her grandfather, yes or no?"

"Yes."

"She looked for her phone, yes or no?"

"Yes."

"What did she ask you to do afterward?"

"She asked me to call the hotel management."

"Did you?"

"Yes."

"Who did you call?"

"The manager."

"At what time?"

"I can't remember."

"What did the manager say?"

"He said they'd look for it and contact me."

"Give me the manager's number."

"Huh?"

"Bring her phone here." Spid gestured to one of the court staff and they handed him Maya's phone.

"Miss Maya, where were you when Miss Jeslyn was crying for help?"

"She wasn't calling for help, she was cleaning the evidence!"

"So, you were there."

"Yes, I was."

"Doing what?"

"Nothing."

"Interesting… so, your boss was cleaning her evidence and you were standing by the stairs, doing nothing… note that, your honor."

"Yes, I wasn't doing anything, I was shocked."

"Or you were recording?"

"Huh?"

"You heard me. You were recording while she was 'killing' her grandfather and also cleaning the evidence."

"No, I wasn't!"

"According to your statements, Jeslyn killed her grandfather and you were the only one there to witness it, and it so happens that there was a video of that scene that was played a while ago. So in other words, you recorded it."

"Someone else could have done that."

"The angle for where the video was taken, was exactly where you were standing, bedside the stairs."

"Someone else could have been coming from the stairs, Miss Christine was also home and she may be the —"
.
.
Hope you're feeling the vibe?

WATCHOUT FOR EPISODE 13
#claraslibrary

"I'm here on the order of someone to get you out of here, so I need your full cooperation," he said.

"Who?" She asked.

She's not sure if she has such a person that would risk offending the Zhou and Chen family for her sake.

"You'll know the person after you get out. Now, explain everything and how it happened."

Jeslyn put aside her curiosity for the moment and started to narrate everything as it went.

After she was done, the man curled the corner of his lips and passed her a pen and paper.

"List everyone you know was involved in this case."

Jeslyn looked at her cuffed hands. How can she write like this?

The lawyer saw it too, so he sighed and pulled out a pin from his pocket to which he hacked the cuffs open.

Jeslyn stared mouth-agape at the man who beamed at her before he gestured to the pen and paper with his jaw.

While writing, she was wondering who the man was and how he was so good with such a thing. His skill was so smooth like he had hacked open cuffs numerous times.

After she was done giving him the names of everyone she thought would be useful for the case, the man placed back the cuffs, locked them on her wrist, and left.

"Eh? He won't tell me anything?"
…

"What happened? You weren't slapped this time? Why?" Pink asked when Jeslyn walked over to sit beside them in the field.

"Were you expecting me to get slapped?"

"Of course. It happens in the movies a lot. They'd even pull your hair or scratch your face." Yellow laughed as she wondered about the bizarre things humans can do to vent.

Jeslyn sighed. "It wasn't my family,"

"Then who?"

"A lawyer, I think." She frowned a little.

He told her… No, he only made her believe he was a lawyer and didn't even say so himself, and she didn't even ask to see his documents or ID. What kind of a dumba*s is she again?

"The way you are looking means you don't know him." Pink said with certainty.

"That's right," Jeslyn nodded.

"And you didn't ask for his credentials," Pink added.

She nodded again.

"And you think you are not stupid?."

"..." Jeslyn looked at her speechlessly.

How can you bluntly call 26 years old, stupid!? But who was she to pick offense? Was she truly not stupid?

"Tsk. Tsk. Tsk." Pink clicked her tongue and shook her head.

"Hahahaha… little bunny, you never cease to amaze me. You managed to walk yourself into such a foolproof conspiracy that your family came up with.
Just a week and a few days in here, you caught the queen's eyes and now, you got a 'lawyer' you know nothing about. How bad is your luck, bunny?" Yellow laughed.

Jeslyn sighed. "As bad as… wait, I remember his name. He said spider!"

"Spider?" Pink frowned and opened her bottle to drink water.

"Yes, spider… no, he said, Spid–"

"Puff!" Pink spat out the water she just poured into her mouth.

Yellow widened her eyes in utter shock.

"W–what is it?" Jeslyn asked the two girls. She was feeling anxious about the way they were reacting. Hope she isn't in trouble again?

After a while, Pink collected herself and asked with a serious tone. "How do you know Spid?"

Jeslyn glanced at yellow and saw she was also seriously looking at her.

She shook her head. "I– I don't know him."

"Are you sure you haven't met him from anywhere before?" Yellow asked.

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Not even the person he works for?" Pink queried with a deep frown.

"Huh? No, I don't think I remember meeting a new person late–ly." The thought of her husband flashed through her mind but she immediately brushed it off.

"Spid don't do anything unless he's commanded by that person, so think well, Jeslyn."

For the first time in a week and a few days, Pink didn't address her by her nickname, which means it was a serious matter.

Jeslyn looked from one of the girls to another before she swallowed and started to explain. "I met a man on the day of my wedding and proposed to him out of desperation. We got married and that's it. He didn't take the marriage seriously just like I don't, and besides, I'm not sure he would care about– huh?" She stopped when an idea struck her.

"What?" Yellow asked, hoping or not hoping to hear what they were suspecting.

"He promised to send someone to me when I was still in police custody, but he never came back. The person who put me here must have threatened him," She stated with a nod.

That's right, that has always been her belief. Besides, who would even care to help a person like her? The marriage was just a… forget it. No words can describe how meaningless it is.

"You mean the person who promised to help you didn't show up?" Yellow asked.

"Yes, and I'm sure he has already moved on."

The girls looked at each other and shook their heads. If it was him, then she wouldn't have stayed in police custody let alone stay in prison for so long.

"After Spid helps you out of here, make sure to stay far away from him," Pink warned before she continued drinking her water.

"Ok, but can you tell me why?"

"He's not a good person. That's all you need to know." Yellow said and that was all.

Jeslyn sighed. Too many mysteries surround these people and yet they keep feeding her more things to make her curiosity increase. At this rate, she's going to die before she leaves the prison.

"Oh, little bunny, what's your husband's name? You kept saying 'the man' all through and didn't say his name." Yellow looked at her, waiting to hear the name.

Jeslyn sighed. "You are probably going to call me stupid again." She looked at both girls and said in a small voice as she shrank her neck. "I didn't ask his name and I don't know anything about him."

"Hahahahaha"

"Pfft"

Yellow laughed so hard like her life would end if she didn't have a good laugh while Pink sniffled a laugh, causing the water she was drinking to go down the wrong path.

She coughed for a while before saying: "Little bunny, I'm very confident now that you'll be the end of me. You never stop stabbing me with your foolishness."

"That's right. Bunny, who marries a stranger? What if he's a villain? Did you stop to think that he might be worse than your gold-digging family? I drop my hat for you, honey, you are a badass. Hahahaha…"

Jeslyn sighed and allowed Yellow to laugh her lungs out.

She thought about Yellow's words and sighed again. She was really a stupid person.
…..

The next morning, as early as 6 am, Jeslyn and the others heard the banging sound on the gate.

"Who the f*ck are you!? Why won't you let me sleep for God 0's sake!!?" Yellow yelled as she grabbed her pillow to cover her head.

"Inmate Lee…69, you have a court summons by 8 am. The people are here to get you." The wardeness said while she ignored Yellow.

Hearing that, the three girls sat up on their beds.

Jeslyn didn't know how to feel about this, nor did the girls.

She got down and smiled at the girls who were looking at her with complicated emotions on their faces.

"This is the first trial, I think. I'll be back in a while, don't miss your little bunny too much." She said as she hugged them one after the other.

The two girls hugged her before Pink said: "Yeah, come back early or else you'll sleep with a rumbling stomach."

Jeslyn laughed and responded. "My big sisters always got my back. I'm sure you'll keep a portion for me," She winked.

"Ouch, she's seducing me." Yellow held her heart dramatically, making Jeslyn laugh.

"Get your a*s out here!" The wardeness yelled at Jeslyn.

"Shut the f*ck up!" Pink yelled back at the wardeness who flinched at those menacing eyes that were staring at her.

"You wanna get spanked, child?" Yellow raised the corner of her lips. She hates this wardeness and soon enough, she's going to get rid of her.

Waking her up with a banging on the gate and treating her like a disgusting piece of shit seems to not be enough for her, now she dared to yell at their little bunny.

Jeslyn got to the door and waved at the two before she left with the wardeness.

"Think she's coming back here?" Yellow asked Pink.
"It's Spid, so she's not coming back." She answered and headed to her bed with an intricate look on her face.

After a while, her face turned sinister. A look that Jeslyn had never seen before. "That wardeness…" she stated.

"Yes, boss," Yellow answered with a slight bow of her head.

Pink doesn't need to finish her words before Yellow understands the point.

"When is his letter coming? I need to leave this damn place before Q does." Pink asked as she stared at the gate.

"The letter should be arriving next week. Q went on a mission with her girls and will be done in a month."

"That's good news." Something flickered across Pink's eyes for a brief moment and disappeared like it never came...
…

At the court, Jeslyn could be seen, sitting beside Spid who was wearing a black mask. She wondered why he was wearing that though but didn't ask.

There were plenty of cameras in the Courtroom, viewing the room from different angles.

Reporters and Journalists were outside the supreme court, giving reports on the happening in the court to the people.

Almost the whole world was forced to participate in this case as all the media outlets which included; radio stations, Tv stations, websites, magazines, newspapers, and so on were covering Jeslyn's case.

Many wondered who this sensational criminal was that needed the world to see her name getting cleared, so they dived in on the old news about her.

Some immediately sneered at the hidden truth in her case while some believed she was guilty without even waiting to hear the supreme court's judgment. However, the majority chose to sit on the fence.

Some who knew of the case before, including Jeslyn's fans, were starting to doubt their earlier choice while the stubborn ones still held on to their conviction that she was guilty while accusing her of utilizing her family's wealth to try to prove her innocence.

Thinking it that way, Jeslyn became more detested, just like a maggot.

In court, the judge walked into the room and the normal ritual of greeting was held before the trial commenced.

Witness after witness was brought to the box, including those that had testified against her before, and all of them stood by their words.

Lawyer An and his team did a great job of pinning the crime on Jeslyn and wouldn't let go.

Let her go? When she already knew what kind of a person he was? Of course not! She must rot in prison and he would make sure of it.

Although they were all bothered by the fact that Jeslyn could find herself a lawyer while in prison to help her make such a fanfare, however, they believe that she would only be destroying herself the more and if possible, the judge and the jury should give her a death sentence for wasting the supreme court's time.

They didn't believe the evidence could be found to be fabricated. How can a real video be proven to be forged?

The video was real, but not the humans in it.

Lawyer An curled his lips as she thought of the excellent plan they came up with that had no single plot hole.

How is Spid going to handle such a case?

Spid sat there with his hand resting under his jaw, looking bored.

After the last person was interrogated by lawyer An, he sighed like half his life had been wasted before he stood up and saluted the judge.

WATCHOUT FOR EPISODE 12
#claraslibrary

Jeslyn cried and lamented for a while before the wardeness opened the door and took her back to the others.

She had managed to wipe her face on her way and tried to compose herself, however, her sadness, plus puffy red eyes and red nose were too obvious for anyone to ignore.

She joined the queue for food. Over the week, she had learned to adjust after she got nothing to eat for three days. Thanks to her two buddies, those bullies left her alone.

As she took her food and was walking back to her friends, she collided with something heavy. Her first instinct was to protect her food as she needed it to stay alive.

"How dare you collide with the queen!"

Hearing the word 'queen' Jeslyn instantly turned to look at the ladies and her heart jumped. It's the queen and her gang!

"Can my life be any worse?" She sighed in resignation. "Just kill me if you want to, what's there to live for anyway?"

Her response to the 'threat' in front of her stunned the people who were in the queue, the queen, and her gang.

It's understandable that most people hate the prison, but the majority pray for a miracle to get out and not death, but this Cinderella in front of her is asking for death while others beg her to spare their lives.
It was the first time she was hearing such and it caught her by surprise.

"You want to die?" She asked.

"If you want to kill me, I can't stop you, can I?"

The queen chuckled and stretched her hand filled with tattoos forward. Jeslyn instinctively moved back.

The queen narrowed her eyes at her with displeasure but didn't put her hand down, instead, she took a step forward while Jeslyn took another backwards.

The two continued like that with one going back and the other approaching her until Jeslyn hit the wall with her back.

The queen curled her lips that had the cyber bites and the spider bites' piercings into a smirk and trapped her to the wall.

Jeslyn made her plate of food a barrier to prevent the wild lady from getting closer to her than she already was.

"My Cinderella, why do you want to die?"

Jeslyn lowered her head, not wanting to look at her, but it seemed that gesture was a bad idea as the queen raised her jaw with her ringed fingers.

"Look me in the eyes, Ella." She said and Jeslyn did as told.

Yeah, she was beautiful, if only she would take those piercings off her face and clean off the tattoos. Jeslyn rolled her eyes, shocking the queen.

She didn't mean to do it, but she still did because she was used to rolling her eyes at things that annoys her.

"Cinderella, did you just roll your eyes at me?"

Hearing that, Jeslyn froze. She did it again, but she has to come up with a solution. Who said she wanted to die? She was only spitting rubbish a while ago because her mind was too preoccupied. However, now that she is getting a hold of herself, of course, she wants to live.

"I can still do that right? Since I'm going to die?" She asked.

"Hahahaha… of course, a dying person can do anything. You are interesting Ella. What cell are you in?"

Jeslyn blinked and looked at her hazel eyes. So beautiful and that's the kind of eyes she has too.

"I– "

"She's with us, Q"

The queen frowned in irritation at the voice and turned to see it was Pink who was bold enough to get involved.

"You want to cross my path?" She asked.

"I don't mind that if it's for my little bunny."

"Oh," the queen looked from Jeslyn to Pink and her lips raised into a wicked smile. She wrapped her hand around Jeslyn's waist and yanked her to her chest and blocked the plate of food from pouring on her.

"She's mine now," she declared.

"And I refuse." Pink objected as her eyes turned fierce, startling Jeslyn.

The queen's gang got into a fighting stance, but Pink only smirked.

"G–guys, please stop." Jeslyn pushed against the queen's chest, prompting the queen to look down at her.

"I'll stop on the condition that you come with me," The queen said.

"Take a step after her and this place will reek of blood," Pink threatened with a cold voice.

Jeslyn was shocked into dropping her jaw. No, not her food, her jaw.

The queen let go of Jeslyn and walked towards Pink while chuckling.

"Pink, you want to start what we didn't get to end? I have been itching to start another bloody battle with you and I think this is a perfect time. As for my Cinderella, you should stay away from her, I have got my eyes on her."

"Q, you don't want to try me again. The last time was the sauce, this time will be the main dish."

Jeslyn looked at the two ladies staring at each other in the eyes like they would start to fight at any moment and slowly walked to the two of them.

She handed her food to one of queen's people and surprisingly she accepted it.
She got into the middle of the two ladies and pushed them apart from each other.

"If you want to fight, do it but it shouldn't be because of me," she said.

"Then make a pick," Queen said.

Jeslyn looked around the prisoners. Many of them had scurried away from the area. Only Yellow was still in her spot, eating. Her eyes lit up and she pointed at Yellow. "I choose to go with Yellow." She made her pick and Yellow laughed while Pink smiled faintly.

"Little bunny, you know that choosing me would mean I can eat your honey, right?" Yellow teased.

"You dare!"

"You are courting death!"

The Queen and Pink both screamed at the same time.

Although Jeslyn and Pink knew that Yellow was just joking and doesn't do girls, Pink still reacted out of instinct, like a mother hen.

"Chill b!tches, not my fault, she's a cute little bunny and anyone would love to eat her. Aren't you after her honeypot too? Q?" Yellow raised her brow at the queen.

"It has nothing to do with you, so mind your damn business!"

"Whatever" Yellow rolled her eyes and continued eating.

The queen pulled Jeslyn over to her and rolled her hair in her finger then smelt it. "You don't use a nice shampoo or you aren't being provided one? My Gs will bring you some. You should eat more, you are too thin. And why are your eyes puffy? Who touched your cheeks?"

Her voice turned colder and colder as she checked Jeslyn out. The fingerprint was still on her face. It mustn't have been from Christine but must certainly be her father's.

"It's fine, it's just–"

"Little bunny, come here."
Yellow waved her over. The queen didn't stop her from leaving, so Jeslyn took her food and hurried to the table.

Yellow checked her face with narrowed eyes and asked: "Who did this?"

"Don't worry about it. We are all here anyway." She smiled and started to eat her food in silence. Even though she told them, what can they do about it?

Soon Pink joined them at the table and the queen went to grab her food.
….

The next day, Jeslyn was with her friends, as usual, eating breakfast when a wardeness came to her.

"Lee…69, you have a guest!"

Jeslyn looked at her friends at the table.

"You seem to have quite some annoying flies bothering you these days, huh?" Yellow smirked.

Jeslyn shrugged her shoulders and got up to follow the wardress.

"Little bunny, are you not taking your food along? I don't want that tummy of yours seducing my ears tonight." Pink said without much care.

"Don't worry big sis, there's still lunch and dinner," She smiled.

"If only you don't get in trouble again," Pink said and the girls laughed.

The queen had gone to their cell last night to bother them over Jeslyn sleeping in her cell and the group ended up having a brawl.

Walking away with the wardeness, the queen looked at Jeslyn's disappearing back with longing in her eyes. She is never the type to feel attached to anyone, but this Cinderella has something pulling her like a magnet and it's a feeling she wants to accept.

Seeing her sitting with those two and staying in the same cell as them gets her angry, really angry and that was why she went to get her last night but ended up having a fistfight with the girls.

She felt a pang of pain in her heart when Jeslyn slapped her across the face. Yes, her Cinderella slapped her!

It not only surprised her but everyone else. Funny enough, she wasn't even as angry as she thought she would be. Instead, she felt pain because Cinderella had tears in her eyes.

"Oh f*ck!" She cursed.

"Queen, what's wrong?" One of the girls asked.

"Cinderella didn't look at me, she hates me now, right?"

"..."

"..."
The four girls were caught by surprise. When has the heartless queen started to care about what others thought of her?

"Ahem, I don't think she does. She's only distracted, I think." One with a less piercing said.

"Probably." Another with a few nose rings added.

"I don't believe you two. I'll find out when we get back from the mission tomorrow. Hope you girls are ready for the assassination?"

"Yes, queen." They answered and the queen nodded.

Meanwhile, Jeslyn was seen in front of an unidentified man. He was wearing a black suit and had a black leather suitcase on the table and his right hand was stretched out to her.

"Miss Jeslyn Lee, pleased to meet you."

Jeslyn looked at his outstretched hand for a moment before she accepted it with both hands since her hands were in cuffs.

"Nice to meet you, Mr…?"

"Oh, pardon my manners. Call me Spid."

"Huh? Spid, as in, spider?" She asked with her head tilted.

"Haha, you are funny, Miss. Please have a seat." He motioned to the seat in front of him and Jeslyn let go of his hand and walked to the seat.

"I'm here on the order of someone to get you out of here, so I need your full cooperation," he said.

"Who?" She asked.

She's not sure if she has such a person that would risk offending the Zhou and Chen family for her sake.

"You'll know the person after you get out. Now, explain everything and how it happened."

WATCHOUT FOR EPISODE 11

#claraslibrary
@clarasvlog

Seeing how shocked Jeslyn looked, Christine laughed. "That's not the only thing that should make you shocked, dear Jeslyn. That's just the tip of the iceberg."

Christine stood up and started to slowly walk around the room while telling a story.

"Once upon a time, there lived a happy couple with a daughter. The family wasn't doing too well, and the man was an ambitious man, so he went out to look for better means to elevate his status.
One day, this man came across the daughter of the richest man in the city and pretended to have fallen in love with her. He did everything he could and eventually forced this woman to reciprocate his love.

They got married and lived happily for a few years.

Meanwhile, the man's first wife created a ruse of an accident and rushed into the scene to save this rich heiress, which earned her the introverted rich heiress' trust.
The rich heiress made this lady her assistant and while she was home alone during her pregnancy, her husband and her assistant were in their matrimonial home living like a couple with their daughter.
After six years of giving birth to her daughter, the rich heiress found a child and adopted her.
What she did not know was that the child isn't an orphan but her husband and assistant's child…"

Christine stopped to look at Jeslyn who was staring back at her with dead eyes.

"Oh, you already guessed," she smiled.

Jeslyn said nothing as she looked at Christine. No, what can she say? That her mother and grandfather were deceived for years? That her father was a jerk? Certainly, he's worse than that, but Jeslyn's brain was too shocked right now to have a better reaction to this story.

"Well, it's good that you have understood that part, however, it's not over yet.
Your mother divorced my dad and went back to her father when she found out dad was cheating with my mother. It was after the incident at your graduation party that she discovered the whole thing about dad and her lies and that I wasn't an orphan. What a witch!"

"But unfortunately, your mother found out everything and hurriedly transferred all the properties, including the one she had given me to you. Isn't that wickedness?
The reason I was sent to your mother's arms in the first place was to get a share of her property, but you ruined it all on your graduation!"

"Bang!"

She slapped the desk and glared at Jeslyn with her finger pointed. "It was all your fault, your fault! It was due to your culpability that your mother died. It was your irresponsibility that killed your grandfather. It was owed to your fatuousness that brother Ray was sent to you. Everything was your damned fault!
If you hadn't done that silly thing that night, your mother wouldn't have found out anything. I would have still been the holder of 50% of her properties right now.

As for that grandfather of yours, he never liked me. Hey, don't misunderstand. I didn't poison him, but I'm glad he was because he was closing in on the secret, making me feel antsy until I realized he didn't have much to live and–"

"Who was it?"

The tone of the voice was far from what Christine knew. Her heart jumped and she trembled at those words due to fear, but she hurriedly composed herself. She was able to tell Jeslyn all that because she was in handcuffs and also, Jeslyn was never known to be violent, so she calmed her heart down and asked.

"W—Who was what?" Although she looked like she composed herself, those demonic eyes that were staring at her didn't allow her confidence to return.

"Who is the young Miss?"

She was surprised at the news of betrayal from her father and she knows that she needs to punish him, but that can only happen after she leaves jail. So, finding out who the young Miss was could be her starting point.

Christine's eyes widened but she quickly pretended like she wasn't surprised, however, that flitting change didn't escape Jeslyn's eyes.

"I don't know what you are talking about."

"She was at my wedding, was she not?"

Jeslyn watched as a glint flashed through Christine's eyes and knew that she was right. So the young Miss sent her those videos just so she could call off the wedding and hasten her grandfather's reaction to the poison, but why? Was the cure to the poison found? Or is there another reason why the young Miss did that?

"Well, it seems that you already know of the young Miss' existence. Then the rest of the job will be easy now." She wasn't crazy enough to tell Jeslyn who the young Miss was, so she changed the topic.

Jeslyn stared at her and watched as she pulled out her phone and made a call. "Let them in."

After she put her phone away, Jeslyn asked: "What else do you want? Are your schemes so deep that you'll take the whole day?"

Jeslyn wasn't feeling well anymore. She wanted to leave this place so badly. For a long time now, there has been a fishy taste in her throat that she had been suppressing, but it seems the blood will soon be gushing out as her anger had reached the maximum she could bear.

"No, the scheme for you is just starting."

The iron door cracked open and two men walked in. She recognized the man in the front as he is their family lawyer, but the other is someone she doesn't know.

"Lawyer An, why are you–" she stopped asking as it dawned on her that they were the people Christine just called.

"Miss Jeslyn, Young Miss Christine." The lawyers took turns to greet the two ladies.

"Have a seat." Christine gestured to the empty seats while Jeslyn watched them with little understanding of what was about to happen.

After the two men sat down, lawyer An brought out two files and placed them on the table.

"Miss Jeslyn, as you know, I'm your mother, Ms. Alice Lee, and your grandfather, Mr. Lee's lawyer, and their wills are stored in my possession.
Before your mother died, she made it clear that you must not be given a dime unless you get married on the day you clock 26, and also if you refused to get married, all her properties should be distributed to the orphanage the next day.
Now, I don't know why she made such a condition, but the fortunate thing was that you fulfilled her condition and now, her properties can be fully transferred to you. The only thing that you need to do is to put your signature on the documents." He pushed a black file to her with a pen.

Jeslyn glanced at the file and then at the lawyer without uttering a word.

"Ahem. There is this one too, your grandfather's will in which he also transferred all his assets to you with a condition that you get married before it is handed over to you, though there was no expiring date. However, since you have fulfilled the condition, you can sign them."

"Pfft… puff"

Jeslyn tried to snicker but spat out blood in the process.
They all looked down at the documents she puked blood on and Christine's rage became visible.

"You–" Her remaining words died down in her throat at the stare she got from Jeslyn. That stare was no longer just cold but filled with viciousness and evil.

"Miss Jeslyn, please, sign them." Lawyer An urged her.

"To think my family trusted you. My grandfather made you into the lawyer you are today. He picked you up from the slum and sent you to school. He 'bought' you a wife as no one was willing to marry a pauper like you. He did everything for you until you became the best lawyer in Rose City. However, you couldn't wait to bite him back. Karma will locate you and be sure that as long as I live, you and everyone involved in the downfall of my family shall pay!"

"Enough of your threats, Jeslyn. You should find a way to get out first before you think of revenge, now sign them!" Christine yelled in frustration. Why was she even made to do this?

Jeslyn grabbed one of the files and held it from the middle. She was about to rip the files apart when the lawyer that came with lawyer An raised his phone to her.

"Do not do that, ma'am."

Once he said that he clicked the play button and a lady's chuckle was heard before her voice.

"Jeslyn, I knew you'd put up a resistance. I already did so much, so why do you think I won't have other things in store to force you to sign them? Let her see the prepared articles that will be published in the next five minutes if she still refuses to sign them." The lady's voice sounded sophisticated and calm like she was a big shot.

Jeslyn tried to remember if she had ever heard that voice but she couldn't remember anything.

She was so engrossed in her attempt to catch the owner of the voice that she didn't see the joy on Christine's face when the person was talking.

After the call ended, the lawyer scrolled through his phone and stretched his phone to Jeslyn who collected it with both hands to read the articles.

[News flash!

The truth behind her grandpa's death!...
The reason she killed her grandfather!

D-list singer, Jeslyn Lee, the heiress of the Lee family who killed her grandfather some days ago was said to have confessed to killing her grandfather because he had been sexually abusing her for a long time and after her wedding, he told her to have one last round with him before she goes to her husband. Enraged, the young Miss got into an altercation with him and he slapped her. In retaliation, she pushed him. Click the link below for more videos and pictures]

Jeslyn whipped her head up to look at them. She slammed the phone on the table as she cried out in pain with bloodshed eyes.

"Why!! Why are you doing this?!"

Her grandfather was already dead, ruining the good name of a dead person is something no one should do and it's the last straw that broke the camel's back.

The tears she had vowed to never shed started to gather around her eyes and she quickly picked up the pen and started to sign the whole pages that required her signature.

She didn't care to read anything. They won!

After she was done signing, another document was given to her– TRANSFER OF PROPERTY.

She swallowed and signed. All the properties were transferred to Christine.

After they had gotten what they wanted, as they were about to leave, Christine walked up to Jeslyn and slapped her cheek, forcing Jeslyn to almost fight back, but her hands were cuffed.

"That's for calling my mother a wh*re!"

With that said, they all left the room.

Everything is gone. She had lost, totally lost to the wickedness of men.

Jeslyn broke down in despair. She fell to her knees as she lamented her sorrow to the being who created her.

"They say truth triumphs over lies and light triumphs over darkness. They say there's a light at the end of the tunnel, but I am right at the end but why am I not seeing the light? Why is my life filled with so much darkness that I can't even take a step forward? Where did I offend the supreme being? If I offended you in any way, I'm sorry, please forgive me and make a way for me!"

WATCHOUT FOR EPISODE 10
#claraslibrary

"I can't believe this. She really killed her grandfather and was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole? Her lawyers must have been the most useless set of humans to live on earth. Even me, an idiot of law, could have handled her case better. Even though I couldn't prove her innocence, I could have appealed for a lesser punishment and labeled her crime as a mistake or self-defense. What type of a–"

"Call Smith," an emotionless voice sounded in Rex's ear.

"Eh, brother, did you say something?"

"Smith, call." He repeated in a more cold voice.

From his voice, Rex understood that he was angry and someone must be punished for his anger to subside and he wasn't going to be that idiot, so he hurriedly called Smith.

Fifteen minutes later, a man wearing a black suit, holding a black leather briefcase strode into the large sitting room that was lavishly decorated to give a cold and dull vibe.

"Mr. Maverick, young master Rex." The lawyer bowed to the two young men sitting on different brown couches.

"Hey, barrister Smith, it's been a long time we–"

"When did you return from Country A?" His cold and unfriendly voice cut Rex's words short.

Smith and Rex both turned to look at the man who had one long leg over the other with arms folded on his chest and emotionless eyes fixed on Smith.

"I– I couldn't make it on time and I was just about to board a plane to country A," He answered.

"Where did you go?" He asked.

"I was handling a complicated case in city F."

"So you are in the country." He nodded, then asked again. "Whose lawyer are you?"

"Your lawyer, Mr. Maverick."

"Do I pay you less?"

"No, Mr. Maverick."

"Did the case you ignored me for, paid you more than I pay?"

"No, boss, I'll bring Miss Jeslyn out of prison immediately, please give me one more week," he begged.

By now lawyer Smith was already starting to sweat. He knew he shouldn't have done that, but greed didn't let him abandon the case he was fighting.

He didn't even do research on the young lady he was told to rescue. After the call, he placed the phone down, hoping to tell his assistant to work on Miss Jeslyn's case, but it slipped his mind.

He actually thought Miss Jeslyn's case was long, so he was hoping to immediately handle it after he was done with the case he was on.

He just came back from city F and was making his findings on Miss Jeslyn's case when he discovered that the case was rushed and she had been sentenced to life imprisonment.

Inside his briefcase lay documents that he intended to file for an appeal to the supreme court of country A with, but now, with Mr. Maverick looking like this, Smith feared that his future was dim.

Seeing his older brother looking this way, Rex lit a candle in his heart for lawyer Smith.

Although he didn't know what was going on, he was sure that Smith had done something unforgivable.

"Rex, call inspector Fin. Hand him the criminal record we have on lawyer Smith."

"Roger that." Rex didn't bother to ask anything or feel anything. He knew that whoever offended his brother wouldn't be going scot-free, but wait!

He slowly turned to look at his brother, like something just struck him.

"Brother, how d—did you know Jeslyn Lee?"

Maverick turned to glare at him and Rex immediately shut his mouth and pulled out his phone to make the call that would destroy lawyer Smith's life while his heart swelled with ecstasy to fish out more gossip from his brother.

The lawyer fell on his knees and begged. "Master Maverick, please I beg you, forgive me, I'm sorry, I promise to bring her out, please forgive me." He begged fervently, but Maverick wasn't paying him mind but was rather chatting with someone on his phone.

Lawyer Smith knew that asking for forgiveness from this devil in front of him was no use. He had never heard where a devil forgave someone before but only wanted to try his luck.

He turned to the smiling angel who was about to make the call that would ruin him and begged. "Young master Rex, please save me."

"Hehehe… you have handled some minor cases for my brother and you were privileged enough to know a few things he's capable of, yet you took him for granted because of greed. Handing you to the cops is because of his benevolence, so you should thank him. Hehehe…hello."

Lawyer Smith felt his knees had lost their strength and slowly fell back on his butts, looking dazed.

What did he say? Benevolence? His criminal case is numerous and he knows that the only outcome for him is a life imprisonment sentence.

However what these two brothers didn't know, or they know is that he had sent a whole lot of bad guys, including good guys to prison, so what will become of him if he meets them in jail? And Rex is telling him to be thankful? Isn't dying once better than getting tortured daily in jail?

Of course, Maverick knows and that's the exact reason he is sending Smith to prison. One was to experience how life in prison is for making Jeslyn, his wife, stay there, and the second is to punish him for disobeying him and putting others before himself.

Meeting those bad and good guys he sent to prison with his wicked mouth would be the best punishment for him.

Smith is one of the second-class criminal lawyers in Country M and has a lot of bad records that no one could find because he was under Maverick's protection, but now, he was doomed to condemnation.

"Brother, inspector Fin is glad and will be here with his men in a while."

Inspector Fin has been on lawyer Smith's case for a long time and he kept hitting a dead end, so getting such good news was certainly going to make him overjoyed.

"I don't want to see him, send him the record," Maverick said and stood up to head towards the stairs.

Rex sighed. "When are you two going to make up?... Ah, Smith, your end makes me laugh. But before your end comes, tell me the spicy news you have heard so far. What's going on with the…."

Maverick shook his head when he heard his brother forcing a dying man to tell him the latest gossip.

He dialed a number on his phone and waited for the person to answer before he said, "I have a case for you."
…

At the prison, Jeslyn was sitting with her friends when a wardeness called her.

"Prisoner Lee…69, you have a visitor."

Jeslyn was surprised. It's been a week already and nobody had come to pay her a visit, so who just remembered her?

"Little bunny, I hope that isn't your shitty family?" Yellow asked with a yawn.

"I doubt that." She got up from the grass she was sitting on in an open field where they were brought out to have fun and headed towards the wardeness.
Getting to the visitor's room, Jeslyn paused in her step when she saw the people waiting for her.

She turned around to leave, but the wardeness pushed her back in and locked the door from the outside.

Jeslyn chuckled. That's right. The Lee family, Zhou family, and Chen family are three rich families that have the power to bend the law in Rose City.

The Lee family is the richest in Rose City and the Chen is the fourth richest with the Zhou family being the seventh, of course, they can make the prison officers turn their eyes and outrightly destroy the rules governing visitation to inmates.

"Where are you going, sister?"

Jeslyn took a deep breath to calm down. This is her first confrontation with her family over the events that had happened. She isn't sure if she could remain firm but she has to do it. Nobody is on her side, so she should no longer care about who is hurting because of her.

She turned around and walked to sit on the empty chair in the dimmed room.

"Christine finally had the time to come see me today, I'm so honored." She said with sarcasm.

"You should be honored, sister. After what you have done, you should be honored that the family came to see you," Christine replied.

"When you mean family, you mean…?" Jeslyn slowly glanced over at the husband and wife sitting beside Christine and shook her head.

"Insolence!" Yelled the woman.

"I'd appreciate it if you don't yell my ears off. It's already difficult living in prison. Making me deaf would make it worse than it already is and I don't welcome that."

"Jeslyn! You are becoming more impertinent and I'm glad you are here. You can learn manners the hard way since your slutty mother forgot to teach you well–"

"Bang!"

"I dare you to say that again!" She slapped the table hard and stood up while giving Mr. Wales a death glare.

"It's not like it's not true though. Your mother was a promisc–"

Jeslyn cut the woman off and attacked her before she could say another bad word about her sweet mother.

"Only a ho* like you would know who a slut is. You should be hiding your ugly face behind coal rubbed on your face. Getting into a happy family with your flat butts and loose twat should make you a supreme b!tch–"

"Paah!"

The slap forced her face to turn. She touched the inside of her right cheek with her tongue. That heavy slap from her father was a tough one.

Her eyes stung with tears, but she had made a vow in court to never let these low-life people see her tears ever again.

So she stood brave and smiled at the man with blood trickling down the corner of her lower lips.

"Your slaps cannot silence me, nor will they silence the people. Everyone knows that your sweetheart is a wh*re!"

She said it! Jeslyn said it again in full this time.

Mr. Wales raised his hand to slap her again but he heard Christine say.

"Father, let it be. You and mother should excuse us for a while, I need to talk to sister."

Jeslyn rolled her eyes. Why did she not know that this hypocrite would make up with their father and his mistress?

Of course, she needs a mountain to rely on since none of the properties were given to her.

Jeslyn suddenly felt joy bubbling in her heart. Her mother and grandfather were good Judges of character. It was only a shame she didn't learn that from them.

Mr. Wales glared at Jeslyn before he pulled his angry wife and left.

Now, with Jeslyn and Christine alone in the room, Christine stared at Jeslyn for a long time before she sighed.

"Sister, how did you suddenly become so brave and could even say such vulgar words without batting an eyelid? You used to shy away from using such explicit words. Has a week in prison turned you ugly?"

"Thanks to you, dear sister, using explicit words has become a norm. But I tell you, that's not the only thing you should be worried about. Pray, I don't get out of here, or else, I will make every one of you pay for ruining my life.
You might have been convinced or confused but you are old and sensible enough to know that testifying against your only sister would ruin her forever."

"You are right, sister. Because I'm worried about you getting out of here somehow, that's why I made them freeze your account, and also, how wouldn't I know that testifying against you in court would ruin you? I'm 23, sister, so of course, I know that, but then, who again did you say told you that you were my only sister? Is your selective amnesia clouding that fact too?"

Jeslyn stared at her sister in disbelief. Yes, they have an older sister, born from their father and his mistress before he married Ms. Alice, but what shocked Jeslyn was that Christine had a hand in freezing her account!

Seeing how shocked Jeslyn looked, Christine laughed. "That's not the only thing that should make you shocked, dear Jeslyn. That's just the tip of the iceberg."

Christine stood up and started to slowly walk around the room while telling a story.

WATCHOUT FOR EPISODE 9

#claraslibrary

Soon, the inmates were seen in a large open space, queuing for food. Jeslyn joined the queue when she got there.
The line was well arranged and traffic-free until it got to her turn.

Just when she stretched her plate to get her weird-looking share of the good, a complete rouge, looking like a wild man with her uniform tied to her waist and hair left to look like that of a porcupine. Plus almost all of her face and body had tattoos drawn on them with different colors, and face and ear piercings that would disgust any onlooker, pushed her plate away then stood in front of her to queue for food.

It was obvious the person was a troublemaker, so Jeslyn took a step back for all her followers to get in front of her, unbeknownst to her that she just made a huge mistake.

Well, not her fault though. What could she have done?

After the five troublemakers had taken their share, Jeslyn was about to walk forward when she was unceremoniously pulled from the back and shoved out of the line.

"Nuisance,"
"Slow"
"Dimwit"
"Stupid"
"Pretty idiot"

Those abusive words came out from the lips of a few people in the queue as they glared at her.

Jeslyn stood dumbfounded. She didn't understand why she was getting hated on for staying out of trouble until she heard, It

"No more food. You came too late. Come back early next time."

"Huh?" Jeslyn widened her eyes in horror. What do they mean by 'no more food?' In this large and beautiful prison?

Well, not very beautiful, but better than those she had seen with toilets and water in the same space where prisoners sleep.

Jeslyn glanced around the place and saw that there were only five people, plus herself that hadn't gotten any food.

Those prisoners who got nothing to eat glared at Jeslyn with fire brewing in their eyes.

Jeslyn felt her head growing numb from all the glares she was receiving from all sides and just wanted someone to save her from this situation.

"Hey, little bunny, come here."

'God, thank you!'
Jeslyn hurried off to her friends who were waving for her to come over.

She sat beside the two while looking at the disgusting food they were eating. It looked like beans, but the water was enough to drown a fish.

The bread or whatever they call it was burnt on both sides. She subconsciously frowned.

'Why would the cook even bother to burn bread? Does it add to the number they produce?' All she could come up with was that whoever made those bread was plainly wicked!

"You just got into the black book. Stick with us from now on, or else you'll be getting your a*s whopped." The pink said while her eyes were focused on her food.

"But I haven't done anything wrong," She said.

"Listen, little bunny. In here, you don't need to do anything wrong before you get killed, so obey her when she tells you anything," Yellow advised.

"Ok, I'm Sorry."

"Don't be apologetic when you are sure you did nothing wrong. However, that only applies to when you aren't weak like you are right now," Pink lectured.

"Ok, I understand, I'll remember that, thank you."

"Giving thanks should also come when the person you are thanking deserves it." Pink orate again.

Jeslyn blinked. But she deserved the appreciation, right?

"So, older sister, do you mind telling me what I did wrong?" She asked with pleading eyes.

"Stop acting coquettish with me. I might rape you right here," Yellow frowned.

Jeslyn bit her lip and lowered her head. What was she supposed to do as the humble girl she was?

"You are doing it again. Keep doing that and the queen might think you are calling her attention by seducing her. Get into anyone's bad book, but never, I mean, never, allow the queen to notice you. If she does, even though you get freedom from here, she will get out of jail just to look for you," Pink warned.

"Let me tell you a secret," Yellow smiled.

Jeslyn looked towards yellow and nodded.

"The queen is not simple. She goes in and out of jail the way she likes and nobody can stop her. Just now, she and her babies took two portions of food, which included yours and those four other girls and that's why they want to eat you whole. But don't worry, you are safe with us. No fly can hurt you when you are with us, well, except the queen and her babies, so watch out for that group of five."

Jeslyn nodded.

"Why are you so nice to me?" She asked after a while of silence.

She knew that it was rare for anyone to be this nice, especially in a place like this.

The two ladies ignored her and continued eating their food.

Jeslyn also stopped feeling curious. She just sat there with her palm placed under her jaw and with her elbow on the table as she watched them eat. She wasn't hungry as the food wasn't appealing.

In fact, putting that thing in her mouth would cause her to puke her guts out.

After they were done eating, the prisoners were taken to the open field to work on planting grains.

Jeslyn, who had no idea of how farming works stood by those two colored hair ladies while watching as they planted some grains, corn to be precise.

After a while, she learned that one had to make a little hole in the soft soil with a stick and put in two seeds before closing the hole.
She saw it as fun while others saw it as hard labor.

Yes, they have been doing this for the past one month and they still haven't covered half of the field that the eyes cannot even see where it ended.

Some places they planted on had grown, some were just sprouting, and others were still bare.

She admires the field whenever she decides to take a rest.

During the day, Jeslyn tries to act like everyone else, like she had nothing eating her up, but at night, she cries herself to sleep.

It's been three days since she was brought here and she hasn't eaten anything.

Those prisoners were taking revenge on her and she was sure of it.

Whenever she gets in the queue, they push her out.

At first, she didn't feel anything, but after not eating for two days straight, her body started to protest, and today being the third day of starving, her stomach was no longer giving her face as it had started to contend with her, making growling sounds.

"Little bunny, what's that sound? It's f*cking my ears, shut it!" Pink grumbled in annoyance as the grumbling of Jeslyn's stomach disturbed her peaceful sleep.
"I can't control it," she said in a small embarrassing tone.

"Don't tell me you are hungry?"

"Hehehe…" Jeslyn laughed awkwardly.

"So, little bunny is a mortal? I thought you were immune to food. Serves you right. This will teach you to stop letting others bully you into giving them what is rightfully yours. If you can't sleep, start doing exercise, it will tire you out and probably put you to sleep in no time." Pink suggested.

"Or, I can bang you and you'll fall asleep very quickly after a few orgasms, what do you say?" Yellow chimed in with a tease in her voice.

"Shut that damn hole of yours. Little bunny shouldn't be corrupted. Use your f"*cking fingers on your freaking pot!" Pink yelled.

"F*ck you, pink! I don't get satisfaction from my punny fingers. I want a tongue and a large pecker down there. I've missed those modafackers, like damn! When are they coming?"

"Just use the girls, gush!" Pink felt irritated. She didn't know when Yellow started to crave girls and she freaking wants to give her a black eye.

"Don't take my word for it, I don't do girls. You talk like you don't know me."

"Nah, I don't know you anymore. You keep saying girls these days and I just want to spank you for being bad."

Yellow sighed. "I saw the queen the other day and her girls doing bad things. She didn't even bother to keep her business clean. Anyways, I was just playing around and as for that nerdy wardress, you know me. I hate being woken from sleep with that banging on the bar like I'm some criminal."

"Aren't you? You are in the unit for hardcore criminals, first-degree murderers so, what makes you innocent?" Pink teased.

"Yeah, we all know the law is blind and unjust. Thank you for reminding me." A flicker of emotion other than sarcasm and a playful tone could be heard in her voice for a moment before it switched back to her usual playful tone.

Their words got Jeslyn thinking if they were unjustly sentenced like her and she found it to be likely. Although it's obvious that they are bad, not all bad people are killers, right?

So naive!

All she hopes for is that a kind-hearted person to remember her one day and save her from this mess. She mustn't let those people go, she must seek her vengeance as only a shell of the once carefree. Jeslyn was left to wander in this prison cell along with dead-hearted inmates.

All that her family and friends served her, she must return with interest.

As she made that declaration, unbeknownst to her, her loving husband whom she had forgotten she married was looking at the headlines his brother was reading aloud in another country.

"I can't believe this. She really killed her grandfather and was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole? Her lawyers must have been the most useless set of humans to live on earth. Even me, an idiot of law, could have handled her case better. Even though I couldn't prove her innocence, I could have appealed for a lesser punishment and labeled her crime as a mistake or self-defense. What type of a–"

"Call Smith," an emotionless voice sounded in Rex's ear.

WATCHOUT FOR EPISODE 8

#claraslibrary
©Sir_Zack

Jeslyn walked into the prison cell with a folded white towel, another pair of orange uniforms, and toiletries.
Hearing the sound of the door closing, she turned to look back but the wardress had left.

There were two ladies in the cell. Both of them giving the vibe of cold-blooded murderers. They had lots of tattoos on their bodies.

One was wearing her jumpsuit with the upper part tied around her waist, leaving only her white singlet while the other had her jumpsuit falling off one shoulder.

They had lots of piercings and weirdly colored hairs with yellow as the outline for one and pink for the other.

The prison cell wasn't that bad, compared to the ones she saw on TV and the news.

The bunk bed had three frames with the first and middle one occupied, so she walked towards the bed to climb to the top.

"Hey, what are you doing?" The one tying the upper part of her uniform on the waist asked with a villainous tone.

Jeslyn shivered and all the facade of confidence she had on was about to crumble when she saw the stare they were both giving her.
Those eyes were like those of a butcher who had seen a customer after so long.

"H–hi, I'm Jeslyn, Jeslyn Lee." She introduced herself. The last thing she wanted was to have a problem with any of them.

"Nobody cares, newbie. Come here," the other one with pink hair waved her over.

Jeslyn put down her stuff on the middle bed and slowly walked to the lady.

"Good. Go down on your knees," she instructed.

"Huh?" Jeslyn subconsciously reacted the way she would have if she was told to kneel by a stranger in her home.

There was a frown of disapproval on her face.

"Are you deaf?" The one with yellow hair asked.

Jeslyn's head reacted before her senses. She shook her head in denial.

"So go down on your knees, you are too tall," said the pink-haired lady.

'Too tall?' She was just a girl with a normal height of 5'ft 4, so how was she too tall?

It was clear that Jeslyn didn't understand that what they meant wasn't about her height, but for her to come down to their level since they were sitting and she was standing.

"Yellow, get her to her knees." The pink-haired one said to the yellow-haired one.

"W–what are you– thud!"

She was forced to her knees as yellow kicked the back of her knees.

Jeslyn yelped in pain with her head lowered to look at her kneeling legs.

Rough fingers entered her view and rested under her jaw and raised it to make her look at the pink-haired lady in the eyes.
"You are beautiful," She stated.

'It's an obvious fact! I'm the prettiest lady in Rose city!' She wanted to yell at the lady, but couldn't find the courage.

"Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Too bad I hate to see pretty faces." The pink lady said with a shake of her head, shocking Jeslyn into leaving her mouth open.

"Hey, are you a goldfish now? Close your mouth." Yellow slapped her gently on the head. It was more like she was teasing than bullying her.

"Let her be, she was too stunned by my words. Little goldfish, do not blame me too much for what I'm about to do to your face. You should blame the lady who seduced that asshole that turned me into a mass murderer. If only she didn't seduce my man with that pretty face of hers, I wouldn't have tasted heartbreak and I wouldn't have killed all the guests at their wedding."

Jeslyn froze in shock, fear, and disbelief consumed her senses. She was brought into a cell with such a sick person?

"Do you want to know what I did to the cheating duo? I took them out of the church and boiled them alive until they–"

Jeslyn subconsciously dry heaved. Her innocent mind captured the scene and she couldn't help but retch.

"Hahaha… She's really a bunny, a cute bunny. I was just joking…" Pink laughed out loud.

Jeslyn was a little relieved when she heard that, but then, Pink said this.

"... I didn't boil them in a pot though, I poured hot oil on his d*ck and her p*ssy."

"Hahahah." Yellow laughed seeing Jeslyn's widened eyes.

"Ok, now that is another joke. But your expression is priceless, I love it." Pink said with a laugh and let Jeslyn's jaw go.

She rested her back on the wall and asked: "So, what brought a little bunny like you here?"

Jeslyn sat on the floor, feeling pains in her knees. "I– I was framed…"

"For a murder?"

She nodded even though she didn't know how Pink knew.

"Don't be shocked. These prison units are for murderers. So, who did you kill?"

"I didn't kill him…"

"It doesn't matter, little bunny. You were brought here, so accept you killed him."

"I didn't." She shook her head. How can she boldly accept she killed her grandfather?

"That's your problem. You better man up and be brave. If you show the queen this bunny side of yours, you'll be dangling from the ceiling the next day." Pink threw the warning nonchalantly.

Jeslyn blinked her long lashes in confusion.

"Ah, you don't know who the queen is. She's the–" Yellow was about to explain when Pink stopped her.

"Forget it. She'll find out tomorrow. She just came in, let her rest."

"That's right. You should rest first." Yellow said before she lay on the floor with her back.

Jeslyn climbed to the top bed with difficulty due to her aching knees and lay down on the bed, trying to block off their words that didn't seem to make sense as they looked at her. It was obvious they were talking about her, but she wasn't in the right frame of mind to care.

How again did she have such wicked people in her life?

Her sister, Christine, wasn't really her biological sister. Her mother had seen little Christine roaming around the streets without a grown-up to watch over her, so she made the authorities take her away.

The authorities placed Christine under their care for some time while looking out for her parents. Christine was only three years old then. So when nobody claimed the child after three months of daily adverts and awareness to the public, the authorities decided it would be best to send her to an orphanage but little Christine held on to Ms. Alice and refused to let go.

With a soft heart, Ms. Alice adopted Christine after having a talk with her husband, Mr. Wales.

Six years old Jeslyn was excited to know that she would be getting a sibling. After all, she had been on her parent's necks, disturbing them with the issue of wanting a sibling to play with.

Unbeknownst to her that she was pressuring her mother whom the doctor said could no longer give birth due to some medical condition that forced her womb to be removed.

Jeslyn could remember the first fight which happened between her parents was due to Christine being called an adopted child and getting bullied repeatedly in school. Ms. Alice took the matter with the school and the child's parents so incredibly that it ended up in court and the school got closed down.

Mr. Wales was angry that Ms. Alice took the matter to the extreme and ordered Christine to be sent back to the orphanage as she tends to cause too much trouble.

Ms. Alice packed out of the house to live alone in one of her mansions with her two daughters.

To her, telling her to return Christine to the orphanage was the same as telling her to denounce Jeslyn as her child.

What mother would do that?

At that time, Christine was already ten years old, so she had never been able to forget that day to date.

Learning what her adopted father said, Christine couldn't live freely with the family anymore and wouldn't dare to make mistakes assuming she would be sent away and that made the mother and daughter go all out to show her massive care and love.

On the day of Jeslyn's 18th birthday, Ms. Alice got drunk for the first time after the party, and the next day, she issued a divorce letter to Mr. Wales.

To this day, Jeslyn didn't know the full story, but from what she could gather, Ms. Alice found out that her husband whom she had married and given everything to was cheating on her with her assistant who was also her best friend.

Not just that, they had been betraying her for close to eighteen years, which meant that when Ms. Alice was pregnant with Jeslyn, her good husband was busy sleeping with his wife's assistant.

After the divorce, her mother returned to Country A while she and Christine chose to stay with their father who wouldn't let them leave with their mother.

At that time though, she was about to graduate from high school, so Ms. Alice saw no reason to fight for her custody since she was old enough to make her own decisions.

Jeslyn chose to stay with her father in Country G, but in a different apartment which her mother got her. She only had two months until she graduated high school before she would return to her mother in country A.

Christine chose to be with Jeslyn as she was more closer and free with her sister than their mother.

On the day of Jeslyn's graduation, a massive party was thrown in her name and weirdly enough, that was all she remembered before she found herself lying in a hospital bed in country A and realized later that she had been in a coma for 2 years and had selective amnesia, so everything that happened from the day of her graduation to the night before she woke up from coma were lost and nobody wanted to tell her about it.

A few days after she woke up from the coma, she discovered that her mother had died some months into her coma and it was that same month Mr. Wales held a lavish wedding for his pregnant mistress.

To Jeslyn's ears, it was more like they were celebrating Ms. Alice's demise.

From there on, Jeslyn's hatred for Mr. Wales was born and she cut communication with him, after all, he never asked about her well-being when she was in a coma.

She moved in with her grandfather after leaving the hospital. She had thought that her grandfather and her would live awkwardly since they didn't know each other well, but surprisingly, they hit off real good and that was the greatest decision she ever made in her life.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about Christine and Mr. Lee.

Although the old man didn't show any hostility towards her, he also didn't try to force the bond that wasn't there, so they had an awkward relationship.

However, that didn't stop the old man from being a nice grandfather who wouldn't cater to his granddaughter. Whatever he did for Jeslyn, he also did for Christine.
…

Jeslyn blinked when she heard the sound from the iron gate. She turned to look at her inmates, but they weren't where she had left them earlier.

"Wake up!" The wardeness yelled as she hit her baton on the gate, creating a loud ringing sound in the room.

"Come on, stop being a frustrated b!tch! Did you not get enough shag from your man last night? I can relieve your stress right here, by eating your hole right here, after all, I do both genders, I'm neutral." Yellow said in an annoyed tone.

Even though Jeslyn wasn't the best when it comes to such slang, she still understood what that person was saying and it was gross.

What does she mean by eating her hole here?

"Shut the f*ck up, you as*wipe!" The wardeness yelled with her face turning red.

"Hahaha… it seems she's a nubcake," Yellow laughed.

"That's right, I haven't seen this face before… so red like a tomato," Pink added.

The two ladies made fun of the wardeness who clearly wasn't having it as she glared at them.

After feeling satisfied from mocking the wardress, Yellow asked: "What do you want? Don't tell us it's morning already."

"Glad you know that, now get your worthless a*s out of my sight!" The wardress yelled at them.

"M–morning?" Jeslyn whispered. It was already morning? She remembered she got into bed in the evening, so does that mean she was in deep thought until morning!?

"Hey, noob, get down!" The wardeness pointed the baton to Jeslyn who looked lost.

"Yes, ma'am," she responded as she tried to get down from the bed..

WATCHOUT FOR EPISODE 7

#claraslibrary
©Sir_Zach

On getting to the back of the crowd, someone cried out.
"Isn't that Jeslyn? What is she doing here?"

At those words, the reporters rushed to her and pointed their cameras at her while others shoved their mics into her face.

"Miss Jeslyn, tell us. Is it true you killed your grandfather?"

"Miss Jeslyn, why did you kill your grandfather?"

"Miss Jeslyn, what can you say for yourself?"

"Miss Jeslyn, how could you cheat on your poor fiance and abandon him at the altar?"

"Miss Jeslyn, don't you think you are too heartless to remain a celebrity?"

"Miss Jeslyn, say something. The people wants to know.

"Miss Jeslyn…."
.
.
.
.
Jeslyn grabbed her messy hair tightly as she felt a throbbing pain in her head. Just when she thought the reporters would be the death of her, a loud sound rang in her ear accompanied by a stinging pain on her right cheek.

She turned her gaze to see who it was and came face to face with her sister's teary eyes mixed with rage.

"You monster! I'll kill you!" Christine yelled and was about to attack Jeslyn's face with her long nails when Ray rushed forward and grabbed her by the waist, preventing her from going physical.

"C–Christine?" Jeslyn called as she held her stinging cheek.

"Don't call me, you devil! What did grandfather do to you? Grandfather loved you so much and saw only you as his granddaughter, yet you paid him back with this? You killed him! What kind of heart do you have? You devil!!"

She flung her hands in the air in an attempt to fight Jeslyn but Ray wouldn't let her go further.

"Christine, I didn't do anything, I–"

"When has a thief ever agreed that they stole anything? Even when they are caught red-handed, they would say they were just about to keep the stolen goods in its right place."

Hearing that voice, Jeslyn shifted her gaze to Ray's older sister who just spoke, and returned her gaze to her sister. It doesn't matter if the world doesn't believe her, but her sister has to.

"I didn't do anything. Grandfather was poisoned and he–"

"Stop lying! Grandfather was healthy. He was pushed and hit his head on the coffee table. Maya and the guards witnessed it all!"

"W–what are you saying?" Jeslyn looked lost and immensely confused.
"Maya and the guards gave their testimony to the police, which included video clips of how you and grandfather argued over what you did to brother Ray.
Then you disagreed with grandfather and he slapped you.
You got upset and started to yell at him. Realizing his mistake, he tried to pull you for a hug like he always did and you pushed him, you pushed him!" Christine yelled.

By now, all the guests were gathered and most of them were already jeering at her and pointing fingers, while the others were loudly cursing her and calling her names.

"Christine, that's not true, that's a lie!" She yelled as she held her head to block off all the noises in her mind.

"Shove the evidence in her face. She will never cry until she sees the coffin." Someone said from the crowd.

Ray's older sister pulled out her phone. She scrolled through it and brought out the evidence. She started playing the video before literally shoving the phone into Jeslyn's face.

Jeslyn subconsciously rescued the phone from falling while coincidentally seeing the footage.

What drew her attention was her old man. Teardrops slowly fell from her eyes and dropped on the screen.

All that was being said or scripted in the video didn't gets to her. She wasn't even hearing any of it as all her attention was focused on her old man.

She brushed the phone with her fingers, outlining his figure and suddenly she jolted when the lady on the screen that looked like her pushed the old man who fell back and hit his head on the side of the coffee table.

"Grandfather!" She screamed, at the same time, dropping the phone to the floor.

"Officers, arrest her!" Christine said to the policemen that just walked over.

"Miss, please come with us to the police station." Said one of the policemen.

"I didn't kill my grandfather, he was poisoned, ask the doctors. Christine, I did nothing to grandfather."

Christine chuckled in rage. "What doctors? Is it the ones you bribed? Unfortunately for you, the doctors testified against you. They told the police that you urged them to cremate grandfather the minute he was pronounced dead to hide what really caused his death and you also forced him to diagnose you with fake mental health issues…"

"That's not true! Stop lying!"

"I didn't lie against you, sister, those were the doctors' statements in the station."

"Where are the doctors, tell me, they–"

"It's unfortunate because the two doctors committed suicide out of guilt."

"W– w– what are you talking about?" Her heart dropped to her stomach when she heard that. How was she going to prove her innocence now?

"You heard me. You killed two innocent workers too! Officer, take her away." Christine turned her face away in disgust as the policemen tried to force the resistant Jeslyn out of the crowd.

"Let her go." The voice wasn't loud, nor was it low. However, it was able to stop the commotion.

The people turned to look at him. He pulled the policeman's hand away from Jeslyn's wrist and said: "I'll bring her."

Jeslyn raised her misty eyes to look at the man in front of her and slowly recalled he was the man she got married to.
She wasn't the only one who remembered who she was. Those present that attended the wedding last week knew this man because of his outstanding appearance and the suppressed air around him.

"I–it's you?" Jeslyn asked like she didn't expect him to be here.

"What are you doing here?!" Ray, who hasn't said anything since finally spoke up when he saw this man again, his enemy.

The groom ignored everyone else and held Jeslyn by the wrist as he walked her out of the crowd with the policemen following behind them and camera lights flashing after them.

The crowd watched as the man and Jeslyn got into a black inconspicuous car parked not far away and Ray suddenly laughed.

It wasn't clear why he was laughing, but he murmured: "The last time he wasn't wearing custom-made, nor branded clothes. This time also he is still wearing an unknown brand and even a rickety car. I was right, he only has that superior air and nothing else."

Ray was supposed to be happy that the man who stole his bride and assisted her to humiliate him in public was not richer than him, however, all he felt was a burning rage to destroy the man.

"Christine, your sister is something else. She's not only humiliated my brother and my entire family, but she also became a murderer and now, she had the guts to bring that wild man here. Wow, just wow." Ray's older sister clapped in amazement.

With the commotion that just happened, the funeral was hastened and the people appeared to be upset, but not the reporters and media personnel that were present.
…

They arrived at the station, but before the groom could follow them in, his phone rang and he stepped aside to answer it.

"Master, it's little Valen, his condition has relapsed. The doctors need you to be here, quick." The nanny sounded anxious the whole time.

"Ok," he ended the call and dialed Rex's number. When he heard the programmed voice of the lady, he pinched the middle of his brows.
That's right, he made Rex phoneless a while ago.

When he walked into the station, he saw Jeslyn being taken to the cell. He strode to her and said: "Miss, something came up, I'll send someone over."

Jeslyn only nodded. She didn't have much hope that she would be freed from this trial, but she was happy that there was someone who stood by her when her family and friends deserted her. "Thank you," she uttered before she stepped into the cell in her hospital gown.

For some reasons, he didn't feel like leaving but he had to, his son is more important than the woman he just met– his wife now.

He walked out of the station and dialed a number. "Get Jeslyn Lee out of this mess." He said before he disconnected the call and got into the car to leave for the airport.

Jeslyn stayed behind bars for two days before she was charged to court.

In court, she had no lawyer. Her bank account was frozen, so she couldn't get herself a competent lawyer and had to stick with the waste she was given.

Ever since she was arrested, nobody paid her a visit, not that she was expecting many people, but her sister was the only person she badly wanted to see, but she never came. However, to her surprise, Christine came to court to testify against her!

What could be worse than a person you trust so much giving false testimony to a case they knew would ruin your life completely?

Even the lawyer she was given by the court was no good. He sat there and watched as allegations upon allegations were leveled against her by those people she had given her heart to. Like, Ray, Maya, Ray's sister, Christine, and a few other celebrity friends.

Jeslyn closed her eyes. Her tears had dried off but hearing her tell the court that:

"Grandfather loved Jeslyn a lot, however, Jeslyn constantly fought with him, and on that day that grandfather died, I was just coming in as they left me behind at the wedding venue…"

A teardrop slid from Jeslyn's eyes and that was the last tear she promised to reveal in front of these people.

She didn't wait for Christine to tell more lies and opened her mouth. "I'm guilty, please close the case and sentence me accordingly."

She looked at Christine after that, but Christine had her face turned and refused to look at her. Jeslyn smiled bitterly. This was the sister she loved and cherished so dearly.

She looked around the courtroom and saw her father and his wife sneering at her.

Ray had a complicated look on his face and his sister was all smiles. Maya had no visible emotions on her face but she didn't look like she was being forced.

"Is that your decision?" The judge asked her.

"What else can I say or do to prove my innocence? Those who want me to be hanged won't give up, and neither will you and the court believe that I'm innocent without 'sufficient' proof.
The world hates me now and even my fans must have thought I did it too, after all, my dear sister didn't believe me. To please you all, I'll take the blame. It's the death of my grandfather. Since I cannot give him justice, then what good would I be in living freely?"

She threw the questions at the judge who stayed silent for a while before declaring his judgment.

"On the 15th of October, Jeslyn Lee was charged with first-degree murder. The court finds Jeslyn Lee has no prior criminal history and has no health issues. Although there are cases of her taking hard drugs as some leftovers were found in her blood.
The court finds the evidence presented by the defendant to not hold substantial proof of her innocence and hereby sentence Jeslyn Lee to life imprisonment without parole for the murder of her grandfather, Mr. Lee." The judge struck the gravel to finalize his words.

Jeslyn looked from the judge to her sister who had a deadpan expression and then, to Ray and everyone else she knew, including her father and stepmother.

"Are you happy now? Of course, you will." Then she looked at the cameras and smiled bitterly. "Thank you everyone for ruining the life of an innocent person. I don't wish you to be in my shoes one day, but when you eventually do, you will understand how it feels to be condemned when you are innocent."

She doesn't take drugs, but they were miraculously found in her system. She knew it was from that drink she had before her wedding.

She stretched her hands out to the police officer who was coming towards her with handcuffs.

Once the handcuffs were placed on her, she followed the police officers as they escorted her out of the court and shielded her from the angry mob standing outside the court, ready to tear her into shreds.

Meanwhile, the judge was seen in his office, sitting there in deep thought, wondering if he had wrongfully sentenced a person. Then he shook his head. The evidence against her was too enormous and real.

So many people testified against her, including her family members. From her stepmother to her sister, friends, ex-fiance, assistant, and even her grandfather's workers, so it can't be a lie, but why was he feeling restless after her parting words?

The judge couldn't help, feeling frustrated with this case he just concluded.

WATCHOUT FOR EPISODE 6

#claraslibrary
©Sir_Zach

On getting to the back of the crowd, someone cried out.
"Isn't that Jeslyn? What is she doing here?"

At those words, the reporters rushed to her and pointed their cameras at her while others shoved their mics into her face.

"Miss Jeslyn, tell us. Is it true you killed your grandfather?"

"Miss Jeslyn, why did you kill your grandfather?"

"Miss Jeslyn, what can you say for yourself?"

"Miss Jeslyn, how could you cheat on your poor fiance and abandon him at the altar?"

"Miss Jeslyn, don't you think you are too heartless to remain a celebrity?"

"Miss Jeslyn, say something. The people wants to know.

"Miss Jeslyn…."
.
.
.
.
Jeslyn grabbed her messy hair tightly as she felt a throbbing pain in her head. Just when she thought the reporters would be the death of her, a loud sound rang in her ear accompanied by a stinging pain on her right cheek.

She turned her gaze to see who it was and came face to face with her sister's teary eyes mixed with rage.

"You monster! I'll kill you!" Christine yelled and was about to attack Jeslyn's face with her long nails when Ray rushed forward and grabbed her by the waist, preventing her from going physical.

"C–Christine?" Jeslyn called as she held her stinging cheek.

"Don't call me, you devil! What did grandfather do to you? Grandfather loved you so much and saw only you as his granddaughter, yet you paid him back with this? You killed him! What kind of heart do you have? You devil!!"

She flung her hands in the air in an attempt to fight Jeslyn but Ray wouldn't let her go further.

"Christine, I didn't do anything, I–"

"When has a thief ever agreed that they stole anything? Even when they are caught red-handed, they would say they were just about to keep the stolen goods in its right place."

Hearing that voice, Jeslyn shifted her gaze to Ray's older sister who just spoke, and returned her gaze to her sister. It doesn't matter if the world doesn't believe her, but her sister has to.

"I didn't do anything. Grandfather was poisoned and he–"

"Stop lying! Grandfather was healthy. He was pushed and hit his head on the coffee table. Maya and the guards witnessed it all!"

"W–what are you saying?" Jeslyn looked lost and immensely confused.
"Maya and the guards gave their testimony to the police, which included video clips of how you and grandfather argued over what you did to brother Ray.
Then you disagreed with grandfather and he slapped you.
You got upset and started to yell at him. Realizing his mistake, he tried to pull you for a hug like he always did and you pushed him, you pushed him!" Christine yelled.

By now, all the guests were gathered and most of them were already jeering at her and pointing fingers, while the others were loudly cursing her and calling her names.

"Christine, that's not true, that's a lie!" She yelled as she held her head to block off all the noises in her mind.

"Shove the evidence in her face. She will never cry until she sees the coffin." Someone said from the crowd.

Ray's older sister pulled out her phone. She scrolled through it and brought out the evidence. She started playing the video before literally shoving the phone into Jeslyn's face.

Jeslyn subconsciously rescued the phone from falling while coincidentally seeing the footage.

What drew her attention was her old man. Teardrops slowly fell from her eyes and dropped on the screen.

All that was being said or scripted in the video didn't gets to her. She wasn't even hearing any of it as all her attention was focused on her old man.

She brushed the phone with her fingers, outlining his figure and suddenly she jolted when the lady on the screen that looked like her pushed the old man who fell back and hit his head on the side of the coffee table.

"Grandfather!" She screamed, at the same time, dropping the phone to the floor.

"Officers, arrest her!" Christine said to the policemen that just walked over.

"Miss, please come with us to the police station." Said one of the policemen.

"I didn't kill my grandfather, he was poisoned, ask the doctors. Christine, I did nothing to grandfather."

Christine chuckled in rage. "What doctors? Is it the ones you bribed? Unfortunately for you, the doctors testified against you. They told the police that you urged them to cremate grandfather the minute he was pronounced dead to hide what really caused his death and you also forced him to diagnose you with fake mental health issues…"

"That's not true! Stop lying!"

"I didn't lie against you, sister, those were the doctors' statements in the station."

"Where are the doctors, tell me, they–"

"It's unfortunate because the two doctors committed suicide out of guilt."

"W– w– what are you talking about?" Her heart dropped to her stomach when she heard that. How was she going to prove her innocence now?

"You heard me. You killed two innocent workers too! Officer, take her away." Christine turned her face away in disgust as the policemen tried to force the resistant Jeslyn out of the crowd.

"Let her go." The voice wasn't loud, nor was it low. However, it was able to stop the commotion.

The people turned to look at him. He pulled the policeman's hand away from Jeslyn's wrist and said: "I'll bring her."

Jeslyn raised her misty eyes to look at the man in front of her and slowly recalled he was the man she got married to.
She wasn't the only one who remembered who she was. Those present that attended the wedding last week knew this man because of his outstanding appearance and the suppressed air around him.

"I–it's you?" Jeslyn asked like she didn't expect him to be here.

"What are you doing here?!" Ray, who hasn't said anything since finally spoke up when he saw this man again, his enemy.

The groom ignored everyone else and held Jeslyn by the wrist as he walked her out of the crowd with the policemen following behind them and camera lights flashing after them.

The crowd watched as the man and Jeslyn got into a black inconspicuous car parked not far away and Ray suddenly laughed.

It wasn't clear why he was laughing, but he murmured: "The last time he wasn't wearing custom-made, nor branded clothes. This time also he is still wearing an unknown brand and even a rickety car. I was right, he only has that superior air and nothing else."

Ray was supposed to be happy that the man who stole his bride and assisted her to humiliate him in public was not richer than him, however, all he felt was a burning rage to destroy the man.

"Christine, your sister is something else. She's not only humiliated my brother and my entire family, but she also became a murderer and now, she had the guts to bring that wild man here. Wow, just wow." Ray's older sister clapped in amazement.

With the commotion that just happened, the funeral was hastened and the people appeared to be upset, but not the reporters and media personnel that were present.
…

They arrived at the station, but before the groom could follow them in, his phone rang and he stepped aside to answer it.

"Master, it's little Valen, his condition has relapsed. The doctors need you to be here, quick." The nanny sounded anxious the whole time.

"Ok," he ended the call and dialed Rex's number. When he heard the programmed voice of the lady, he pinched the middle of his brows.
That's right, he made Rex phoneless a while ago.

When he walked into the station, he saw Jeslyn being taken to the cell. He strode to her and said: "Miss, something came up, I'll send someone over."

Jeslyn only nodded. She didn't have much hope that she would be freed from this trial, but she was happy that there was someone who stood by her when her family and friends deserted her. "Thank you," she uttered before she stepped into the cell in her hospital gown.

For some reasons, he didn't feel like leaving but he had to, his son is more important than the woman he just met– his wife now.

He walked out of the station and dialed a number. "Get Jeslyn Lee out of this mess." He said before he disconnected the call and got into the car to leave for the airport.

Jeslyn stayed behind bars for two days before she was charged to court.

In court, she had no lawyer. Her bank account was frozen, so she couldn't get herself a competent lawyer and had to stick with the waste she was given.

Ever since she was arrested, nobody paid her a visit, not that she was expecting many people, but her sister was the only person she badly wanted to see, but she never came. However, to her surprise, Christine came to court to testify against her!

What could be worse than a person you trust so much giving false testimony to a case they knew would ruin your life completely?

Even the lawyer she was given by the court was no good. He sat there and watched as allegations upon allegations were leveled against her by those people she had given her heart to. Like, Ray, Maya, Ray's sister, Christine, and a few other celebrity friends.

Jeslyn closed her eyes. Her tears had dried off but hearing her tell the court that:

"Grandfather loved Jeslyn a lot, however, Jeslyn constantly fought with him, and on that day that grandfather died, I was just coming in as they left me behind at the wedding venue…"

A teardrop slid from Jeslyn's eyes and that was the last tear she promised to reveal in front of these people.

She didn't wait for Christine to tell more lies and opened her mouth. "I'm guilty, please close the case and sentence me accordingly."

She looked at Christine after that, but Christine had her face turned and refused to look at her. Jeslyn smiled bitterly. This was the sister she loved and cherished so dearly.

She looked around the courtroom and saw her father and his wife sneering at her.

Ray had a complicated look on his face and his sister was all smiles. Maya had no visible emotions on her face but she didn't look like she was being forced.

"Is that your decision?" The judge asked her.

"What else can I say or do to prove my innocence? Those who want me to be hanged won't give up, and neither will you and the court believe that I'm innocent without 'sufficient' proof.
The world hates me now and even my fans must have thought I did it too, after all, my dear sister didn't believe me. To please you all, I'll take the blame. It's the death of my grandfather. Since I cannot give him justice, then what good would I be in living freely?"

She threw the questions at the judge who stayed silent for a while before declaring his judgment.

"On the 15th of October, Jeslyn Lee was charged with first-degree murder. The court finds Jeslyn Lee has no prior criminal history and has no health issues. Although there are cases of her taking hard drugs as some leftovers were found in her blood.
The court finds the evidence presented by the defendant to not hold substantial proof of her innocence and hereby sentence Jeslyn Lee to life imprisonment without parole for the murder of her grandfather, Mr. Lee." The judge struck the gravel to finalize his words.

Jeslyn looked from the judge to her sister who had a deadpan expression and then, to Ray and everyone else she knew, including her father and stepmother.

"Are you happy now? Of course, you will." Then she looked at the cameras and smiled bitterly. "Thank you everyone for ruining the life of an innocent person. I don't wish you to be in my shoes one day, but when you eventually do, you will understand how it feels to be condemned when you are innocent."

She doesn't take drugs, but they were miraculously found in her system. She knew it was from that drink she had before her wedding.

She stretched her hands out to the police officer who was coming towards her with handcuffs.

Once the handcuffs were placed on her, she followed the police officers as they escorted her out of the court and shielded her from the angry mob standing outside the court, ready to tear her into shreds.

Meanwhile, the judge was seen in his office, sitting there in deep thought, wondering if he had wrongfully sentenced a person. Then he shook his head. The evidence against her was too enormous and real.

So many people testified against her, including her family members. From her stepmother to her sister, friends, ex-fiance, assistant, and even her grandfather's workers, so it can't be a lie, but why was he feeling restless after her parting words?

The judge couldn't help, feeling frustrated with this case he just concluded.

WATCHOUT FOR EPISODE 6

#Claraslibrary
©Sir_Zach

At the Lee's family mansion…...

Grandpa Lee could be seen patting Jeslyn on the back as she cried on his lap. After crying for a long time, she finally raised her head to look at her grandfather.

"W– when did you find out about…sniff, about the poison?" The old man's pupil dilated, ' She knew?' he thought.

"Don't lie to me, grandfather!" She yelled, knowing he was about to hide things from her.

She had lived with this man for 5 years after coming back from abroad, so she was very familiar with the expressions he makes when he wants to lie or cover things up.

The old man swallowed and asked: "How is my health related to you changing grooms at the last minute?"

"Because someone sent me messages on my phone…" that's right. Her phone! She searched her body but couldn't find her phone. "Where is my phone?"

"Your phone hasn't been with you since we left the wedding venue, Miss." A young lady with her hair made into a ponytail said from where she was standing.

"You said what?" Jeslyn couldn't believe it. Her phone was with her even when she was hugging her grandfather… no, that's not right. There was no phone with her… then where did she dropped her phone!?

"Maya, please, search for my phone. The evidence is on my phone. Call the hotel management, do everything you can to search for my phone!"

"Yes, Miss." Maya, who seems to be Jeslyn's assistant, walked a little distance from them to place calls to the hotel.

"Child, calm down, breathe in and breathe out…yeah, like that. Calmly tell me what the problem is. I don't need evidence to believe you." The old man gently rubbed her back to calm her down.

"Grandfather, Ray, he's a bad person. I was in my hotel room…" her mind flashed back to the event of that morning.

Few hours earlier…

Jeslyn was seen in a grand room getting dressed by two stylists and their assistants. One was applying makeup on her while the other was almost done with her hair.

The bride looked stunning with a beautiful smile on her lips as she imagined herself with Ray on the altar exchanging rings and kissing.

She chuckled to herself, evidence that she couldn't contain her happiness.

The stylist left after they were done with her. She stood by the floor to ceiling mirror in the room as she checked herself out. "I'm a beauty goddess." She stated with confidence.

Yes, she truly was a beauty goddess, no denying that, however her phone beeped, calling her attention from admiring herself any further.

She picked up the phone and saw a notification message for her email.

She opened it and saw there were a few videos, pictures and a note.

Jeslyn decided to watch the videos first. It might be a crazy fan's video of her. She thought.

Some of her enthusiastic fans edit her pictures most times with themselves in it and send them to her email with a love message attached to it, which was why this kind of message didn't look weird to her.

She sat on the bed and opened the first video. Instead of her picture, she saw Ray speaking to someone in a car. Somehow, only Ray's face was visible and the other person's appearance was blurred.

"Ray, what is wrong with you? Do you have to marry her? I thought the plan was different?"

"It was but she wanted the marriage and her grandfather approved of it. Also, if I don't marry her on her 26th birthday, the properties will be transferred to the orphanage the following day. It's not like you guys don't know that."

"Young Miss knows, but she's not happy about you getting married to another woman."

"I know she's angry, I'm also angry too, but what can I do? This whole idea of approaching the Lee family was hers in the first place, so why is she angry at me and not taking my calls?"

"Young Miss is afraid that you might grow feelings for Jeslyn after you both get married. She's a woman, so it's natural to get jealous and battle insecurities."

"Hahaha… how can she think so lowly of me? Jeslyn and I have been together for four years and I didn't fall for her. Will a marriage of six months make me start loving her? After our wedding, I'll travel with young Miss for six months and when I return, it's to divorce her. Young Miss already knows that, so why is she still upset? I only have my eyes for your young Miss–"

"And me?"

"Come on, we both know we don't have feelings for each other. We are just f*cking each other and nothing else, so don't take it serious." He touched the girl's face and leaned towards her.

A while later, Jeslyn could hear lewd sounds coming from the video as they kissed.

The girl's fingers traveled all over his body as she started to hastily take his clothes off, including his pants.

Jeslyn hurriedly paused the video as she looked at her screen dumbly for a long time. She couldn't believe what she just watched.

Tears slowly gathered in her eyes as she felt a stabbing pain in her heart. She slowly swallowed the lump that was forming on her throat and scrolled to the next video with her shaky fingers.

It was in a room, a hotel room. Ray and someone were in bed talking. The girl's photo was edited again. Her image was blurred, just like the first one. only Ray could be seen stark naked and standing in front of the bed.

Jeslyn closed her eyes for a moment, prompting the river of tears in her eyes to gush onto her cheeks. When she opened her eyes again, there was the determination to watch whatever they would be doing on that bed, after all, she had already heard enough on the first video.

"Ray, I delivered your message. Young Miss isn't throwing a tantrum anymore, but she still doesn't want to talk to you."

"I know." He sighed and got onto the bed. "She knows that if I don't marry Jeslyn, the brat won't be able to get those properties, and our plans over the years will be for nought."

"Hmm… that woman, Alice remained a bitch even to her death!" It was clear that the lady on the video was upset about Jeslyn's mother.

"That's why her husband hated her… so, why did you call me here? Don't tell me it's only to have a taste of me," Ray said.

"That aside. Young Miss said that the last dose of the poison has been administered to old man Lee and he won't have much time to live anymore, so our plan to get rid of that idiot after taking the properties from her will be a smooth sailing," The lady replied.

"That's good, and his properties, did he give a share to young Miss Christine?"

"He willed it all to Jeslyn, stating she can only get them after she got married."

"Why do they all want her to get married before getting the inheritance? I'm so tired of hearing that! That stupid rule is the reason I'm having issues with the love of my life right now and also, why is that idiot so lucky? She got all her mother's inheritance and now, her grandfather's. What about Christine? Is she not their daughter too? How do they expect Jeslyn to manage the empire of the richest man and woman in Rose city? Is that old man senile?"

"As if you don't know how careless and simple Jeslyn wants to live her life. She thinks she's a princess, so I bet they were scared that she'll be cheated out of her properties if she didn't have a husband to support her…ironic!"

"Ironic indeed. I wonder what her grandfather's face would look like when he finds out I'm one of those enemies he had been trying to tell Jeslyn about. Hahaha…"

The phone slid off Jeslyn's hold after watching that video. Her world shook and everything in it tumbled. She stood up and tried taking a step to the door but she fell against the coffee table. Her head felt heavy and her eyes turned blurry.

"No, Ray cannot do this to me. They are lying about everything, it must be a prank. Grandfather, my grandfather."

She murmured to herself even though she was suffering. She wanted to get up to go check up on her grandfather but she couldn't stand properly as the world was spinning under her legs and her eyes were also starting to dim.

Just when she was thinking of calling her assistant or grandfather, the door clicked open and someone walked in. It was a lady, but she couldn't see her clearly. She was wearing a black off shoulder dress.

The lady stood In front of her. Jeslyn could only see her mouth moving, but heard no sound. She struggled to stand on her feet with the support of the bed and tried to read the lady's lips but her unfocused blurry eyes were bastards.

Her sight started to go dimmer and dimmer, solidifying her belief that she was drugged.

The lady lowered herself and got back up with something like a phone. Yes, that should be her phone, but before she could make sense of what the lady wanted with her phone, her world turned dark and she felt herself falling.

When she woke up a while later, the truth she just discovered rushed back into her mind and the first thing she wanted to do at that moment was to call off the wedding.

But what happens to her mother's will? Her grandfather's will can still be changed, but her mother's can't? Will her grandfather even have enough time to change his will before anything happens to him? Because in the video, they didn't specify when the poison would ruin her grandfather.

Calling the cops will require enough evidence, but what if they claim the evidence she has was fabricated? She's a celebrity and has seen lots of such things happen in the entertainment industry.

So the only idea that stuck to her confused brain at that moment was to get married, but definitely not to Ray. Even a janitor, or a waiter would do, until she's able to sort things out.

She picked up her phone and left the room while crying along the way. It was like luck wasn't on her side because after walking through the corridors of her hotel room, she didn't find anyone until she saw him, that weird man coming out or entering the restroom.

She didn't care if her words would sound desperate or if she was making the wrong decision, however all she wanted at that moment was to solve one of the biggest problems, so she shamelessly proposed to him, ignoring the weird air surrounding him.
…

After hearing his granddaughter's story, old man Lee was so furious that he yelled. "That bastard!! I will–"

The old man frowned in pain and clawed his chest. "Argh!" He cried out. "Puff!" He coughed out black blood which got onto Jeslyn's wedding dress.

"G– grandfather, grandfather!"

Jeslyn rushed to support the old man who was slowly going down with his side.
"Grandfather, help!" She screamed while looking around the quiet and empty sitting room.

Her assistant was here a while ago, why isn't she here now? She didn't have the time to think of why the servants and guards that kept patrolling around the sitting room on other days like they were moths attracted to flame could not be found anywhere today.

"Somebody help me!!!" She continued to scream but no one came.

The old man kept coughing out black blood. He slowly raised his shaky hands to his granddaughter's cheeks and used a finger to wipe her tears. The stubborn old man who had never cried for decades felt hot tears sliding down his cheeks as he looked at his poor granddaughter screaming her lungs out for help.

He knew help won't come because the servants and guards in the house have been bought. He just found out a few days ago that he had been living with a deadly poison in his body when he started to cough out black blood.

He called his doctor to the house and his doctor told him he was only stressed and that nothing was wrong with him. The old man didn't believe his doctor and that was when he started to suspect that enemies were lurking around them.

WATCHOUT FOR EPISODE 4

#fireandice
©Sir_Zach

EPISODE 2

On the altar, Ray grabbed Jeslyn by the arm and pulled her roughly to face him after her declaration. "What do you think you are doing?" He stared at her with eyes that were struggling to conceal the rage in them.

She looked at those dark eyes, the straight nose, and the pink lips she had dreamt of kissing but never got the chance to.

"Paaah!"
She raised her right hand and landed a resounding slap across his face. The slap was loud, so loud that the sound reverberated in the noisy hall, shutting the murmuring guests up.

The slap caught everyone by surprise, including both grooms.

"You don't hold me like I'm an unfeeling doll!" She spat out.

The replacement groom trailed his gaze to her arm and saw the redness from being held too tightly and narrowed his eyes at Ray who had his mouth and eyes widened with his palm holding his cheek.

He was dazed. He couldn't believe she slapped him. Jeslyn slapped him! It had never happened before and never in his wild dreams would he think she could ever slap him. While still in a daze, he was pulled back from his reverie at her words.

"Priest, please start the ceremony," she said in haste.

The priest glanced at the front audience seat, hoping to know what the grandfather thought. Until he saw the grandfather give a slight nod, and he start the marriage program.

Young master Ray wanted to protest, he wanted to pull her and probably give her a tight slap to wake her from her sleep, but when he saw the glare from her grandfather, he lowered the hand he had raised to pull her.

Ray just stood helplessly by the side and watched as his bride got married to another man in front of his eyes. It felt like a dream to him, a dream he so badly wanted to wake up from. How could all of the things he would get by marrying her slide away from his fingers like this? Impossible! But what can he do right now other than to watch as they were about to exchange rings?

Time to exchange rings, the bride took the diamond ring that had been prepared for her and handed it to her replacement groom. He placed it on her ring finger and that was when they realized they had no ring for her replacement groom.

Her mascara-ruined eyes swept through the hall for an alternative and they stopped on the ring bearer.

She raised her gown with both hands and rushed to collect Ray's ring, hoping it would fit her new husband. The ring wasn't a perfect fit as it was a little too tight, but that would do for now.

"By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride!" The priest said.

The husband leaned in. Instead of kissing her on the lips, he pecked her on the forehead, surprising the already stunned guests, the priest, and even the young Miss herself.

After the couple had successfully gotten married, Jeslyn turned around, leaving her husband on the altar and ran to her grandfather with her dress trailing behind her.

The husband chuckled thinking of how he got abandoned in the altar after just getting married.

"G–grandpa," she called with quivering lips as her eyes welled up in tears.

"Child," the old man stood up and pulled his granddaughter into a tight hug.

"I– I'm sorry, grandfather." She broke down in hot tears.

"Silly child, you are a celebrity. What would your fans say when a bad picture of you is published to the world?" He said while patting her hair.

That was the best line for consoling this granddaughter of his who cares about her appearance more than her reputation. She would only laugh if her name is being dragged on the internet, but if her face is being criticized, or an early morning picture of her is leaked to the media, she would cry the house down, yet look at her now, she didn't even care about her face this time. What must have happened to his dear granddaughter?

The old man was lost In thought when he heard a calm voice. It was clear that whatever was hidden behind that voice was being suppressed. After all, he had grown to this age, so he had seen more of the world and also met weird people.

"Grandfather-in-law. Is it right for me to call you that?" The young man asked with a deadpan face.

"Of– of course, grandson-in-law." The old man didn't know how his voice suddenly broke, but looking at this man in front of him that looked harmless, he was certain the man was not what he made himself out to be.

"I'm sorry for not bringing a meeting gift. The marriage with your granddaughter just happened in haste."

"I understand, thank–"

"Grandfather, I don't understand what is happening. Jeslyn and I didn't have a fight. We were happy together and I even called her this morning while she was getting dressed. How did she suddenly replace me without prior notice?" Ray hurried to old man Lee, hoping he would help him talk some senses into Jeslyn.

"That's right, old man Lee, I think our family deserves an explanation for this humiliation." An old man with white hair walked over and stood beside Ray with his eyes on grandpa Lee and Jeslyn who was still hugging her grandfather.

"You want an explanation, even I do. However, my granddaughter is too sad to say anything right now. We will call you over when she's better to understand what really happened. Until then, I have to take my granddaughter home." Grandpa Lee turned and started walking out of the hall with his granddaughter in his hands.

The new husband didn't go with them. After his bride went away with her grandfather, he turned around and was about to walk back to his private room when he suddenly felt something whistling towards his face. He subconsciously tilted his head back in time to avoid a punch from Ray.

The new groom turned to look at his assaulter and narrowed his brown eyes at him. "Do I owe you?" He asked.

"Hah, you still have the effrontery to ask me that?! You just stole my woman!" He yelled as he pointed at the entrance, almost crying.

"Oh?" the new groom smiled faintly.

"Or, you two had been cheating," a lady walked over and stood beside Ray as she glared at the new groom.

They could clearly see that the new groom didn't look like someone they should mess with but the Zhou siblings didn't care because they know all the affluent and power-holding families in the country and they are aware that this man in front of them, despite having the air of a powerful person, was not on the list of those people they should fear.

They knew that the man cannot be a pauper, but refused to believe that he was wealthier than them.

"So what if it is?" The new groom responded emotionlessly. He glanced one last time at the people that were starting to gather around him before walking towards the door.

"Hey! Stop right there, I'm not done with you yet!" Ray yelled as he ran towards the new groom and was about to yank his black shirt from behind when the new groom turned and avoided his hand. He kicked his leg forward and ruthlessly pushed him back, sending Ray falling into the empty seats.

The friends and family remaining in the hall were alarmed and immediately rushed to Ray to help him up, but Ray pushed them away. He got up and pointed a finger at the new groom.

He Ignored the fact that he was just humiliated in the presence of so many people and said: "Divorce her, come with me to the magistrate and divorce her, right now!!" He yelled like a crazy man. He was really going crazy. How dare she do this to him?

The new groom pulled out his phone that was vibrating in his pocket and glanced at the caller before he turned around and walked away without uttering a word to Ray.

The desperate Ray was about to stop him from leaving again when the lady earlier stopped him. "Ray, calm down, there are other ways to get her to divorce that wild man and marry you."

"Sister, how? What other ways?" Ray couldn't wait to get back at Jeslyn for humiliating him so much. "She will pay for this!!" He angrily kicked the chair in front of him.

"Calm down, brother, leave it to me, I'll take care of Jeslyn. You shouldn't give the reporter outside the hall the wrong impression that you are a violent man. Grandfather, you all should return home. I'll stay behind with Ray to speak with the reporters."

"Settle things well." The angry grandfather who had been sitting after the Lee family left, stood up and headed out of the hall with the other members of the Zhou family.
…

The new groom was seen entering a private room in the hotel. He sat on a couch and placed his hand on the arm of the chair.

A man sipping from his tumbler sighed. "What took you so long? I almost thought you left."

"I Just got married," He answered as he turned to look at the ring on his finger.

The other man choked on his drink and patted his chest to ease the cough.

"Don't kill yourself, I won't explain to your mom," He said.

"Y– you did what?!"

"Got married."

"Hahahaha… you must be joking. That was a nice joke you just told."

"Ok." That was all. He didn't explain further and he never does. He allows the person to believe what they wanted after he says the words he needed to.

He brought his hand from the armrest and started to play with the ring. He removed it and looked at the intricate designs on it. The ring had two initials which he presumed to be the names of the ex-groom and his bride. R heart J.

"Brother, what is that?" Rex stared at the ring in his brother's hand with a lot of interest.

"A bomb," he answered nonchalantly and dropped the ring in the wine glass in front of him. "Get me a set of couple's ring."

Rex's jaw dropped when he saw his actions and heard his words. "D– did you really just get married after leaving here?"

The new groom ignored him and asked instead. "Have you found the nurse?"

Rex pulled himself together and became serious. The issue of his brother's wedding was placed at the back of his mind. "N–no, my investigations said she died a few days ago."

"And the hospital where Valen was born?" He asked.

"The hospital was closed down last month."

"Then look for the higher ups," he frowned.

"Yes, our men are already on it… when are we returning?"

"I might leave you here. Return if you still can't find anything after a week. Whoever is obstructing our search is powerful. I'll need to pin him down myself." He said with a small frown on his dashing face.

"Ok…ah, I almost forgot. Valen's nanny called. The boy is causing chaos."

"Let him, provided he's fine…. I'm heading out." He stood up and walked out of the room.

After he left, Rex picked up his phone and logged into a chat group.

Rex: 'Hey, guess who just got married!'

He dropped the message and left the chat with a wicked smile on the corner of his lips. He wasn't going to be the only one to be shocked. Others have to feel what he felt.

#paradiseofstories
#sirzacklibrary

EPISODE 1

"Mister, please, will you marry me?" Jeslyn asked a man she saw entering the restroom of the wedding venue. 'He must be one of the guests,' she thought.

Jeslyn was taken aback by the coldness he was exuding when he turned to face her. His eyes held so much darkness that she flinched. All her senses woke up, 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 a husband? The auspicious time was already passing.

He assessed the withered 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 breathe a sigh of relief. She tried to focus her mind so she could interact with him like the human he was.

The man looked to his right and then left, there was only the two of them, so he pointed at his nose while confusion filled his expression.

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

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

The man chuckled after getting his answer. The girl in front of him is 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 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 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.

The man squinted his eyes at her for whatever reason 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 towards 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 the corner of 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 sensible 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 in 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.

'Did 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', he thought.

Amongst the guest sitting, an old man was seen resting his jaw on the back of his palms that were placed on the top of his walking stick as he appeared to be lost in thought.

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 wasn't 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 guest 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, not understanding what she was up to. 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 resting on the man who had a slight 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 program."

At her words, the hall fell into deep silence for more than two minutes 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 said with a chuckle.

"That's right, Emma, it seems she's finally smart 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 with 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.

That was the old man's thoughts as he sat there, watching the play on the altar.
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