#THE_LAST_MINUTE_GROOM
©Sir_Zach
EPISODE 69 (FINAL)
She walked to the bed and stood beside Madam Chen. The person stared fervently at Madam Chen’s face for a long while before they cleared the bedside wardrobe and sat on it while staring at the sleeping woman.
Some time passed and for some reason, Madam Chen opened her eyes only to see a shadow looming above her. She instinctively wanted to scream but her voice couldn’t be heard.
“Hi, long time no see, Bella.”
Madam Chen froze when she heard her name. She looked at the person in front of her, she was wearing a mask and when she removed it, she got the biggest shock of her life.
‘Alice?! How is that possible? They attended her funeral!’
“Don’t worry, I’m not who you think I am. I’m not Alice, but Alex. Does that ring a bell? Probably not.”
That’s right, Alex doesn’t ring a bell. Is she Alice’s twin?
“That’s right. I’m Alice’s twin sister, Rossa’s mother!”
Madam Chen’s eyes widened in horror. Of course, she knew who Rossa was.
When her husband, Wales Chen married Alice Lee, she gave birth to a girl and Madam Chen paid a nurse to kill the child because she didn’t want her husband to have another child with another woman.
However, when Alice was discharged, she came home bearing a newborn baby. It was later said that Alice gave birth to twins. One died and the other survived.
Madam Chen was skeptical because she was very sure that Alice didn’t gave birth to twins. The nurse said so. However, there was no report of another woman giving birth in that hospital a week before and after Alice gave birth… weird, right?
The hospital only recorded one birth a week before and after Alice’s child was born.
The child’s naming, Alice decided to name the dead child Rossa Lee, while the one she brought home was called Jeslyn. However, at a point, especially when Jeslyn was young, Alice used to call Jeslyn Rossa.
Bella got confused as to why Alice would call her child Jeslyn and Rossa. As her Assistant and best friend, she had asked Alice a couple of times but she wouldn’t give her a definite answer.
“I like the name, it reminds me of Rose, and rose is for love… isn’t love depicted with a heart symbol?”
That explanation was weird, so Bella took it as; Alice doesn’t want to tell her why.
The most surprising thing about it all was that, in the Chen family’s record book, Alice wrote the two children’s names. One was Rossa Lee and the other was Chen Jeslyn Lee.
Alice wouldn’t give an explanation why she made the names that way, so Chen Wales left the names be.
So, what was this woman saying?
“After you killed my sister’s child, I happened to have also given birth at the same hospital as my twin sister. What do you expect? You can’t find anything even though you searched because the hospital was mine!
There were no birth records doesn’t mean there truly weren’t. However, that’s not the case. You didn’t treat my daughter well even though she was harmless to you.
You and your husband cheated my sister out of her wealth, her trust, her love, and her child. Not only that, you caused my father to die and made my daughter suffer.
Bella, how do you think I should punish you? Nah, asking for forgiveness is not a part of it. Your only option is death, so how do you choose to die?
Let me make things clearer. I have here; a gun, a whip, poison, I can force you to commit suicide by hanging, or I can burn your mansion down. Which do you choose? I give you 5 seconds before I choose for you.”
Madam Chen widened her eyes in alarm. She tried so hard to say something but couldn’t. She started to say something with her hands flinging around in panic as tears of remorse streamed down her cheeks, yet Alex was unbothered.
“Times up. I know the pain of being separated from your child, so I’m sending you all off. Don’t worry, Christine and Emilee, plus your husband will join you two after my daughter is done taking her revenge on them.”
With that said, Alex pulled out a small bottle from her backpack and sprinkled the content around the room. She walked to the window and before she could jump down, Alex lit a lighter and threw it into the room.
Before the lighter touched the ground, the room had already caught fire.
A while later, Alex watched from afar how the whole Chen mansion got burnt to the ground. Some servants made it out but no one took the child, Chi chi.
After the building was consumed by uncontrollable fire, Alex turned and walked away.
*At the cemetery…*
Alex used a key to unlock the doors while dodging the camera spots. She entered her family’s columbarium.
Looking at the pictures, Alex sighed before bowing to Old Man Lee and Old Madam Lee.
“Dad, Mom, your prodigal daughter is back. I’m sorry for every pain I caused you, I’m sorry for the tears you shed. I’m sorry for the heartbreak I caused you… I’m sorry for making you leave everything behind and seek solace in this City. Mom, Dad, I’m very sorry. Sister… ”
Alex stared at Ms. Alice’s photo. A face that was 99.9 percent identical to hers.
“Where do I start from?”
“There were things I couldn’t say to your face in those years. Instead of admitting my wrong, I ended up fighting you and being ungrateful. Despite how horrible I was to you, you never deserted me. I refused to understand you even though I should have been the one shouldering your burdens.
I know I was a bad sister. I know I caused your death, I should have been the one who died, yet you chose to die in my place. I thought I had good intentions, but what’s considered good intentions were never really good, instead it drove you to your death. If only I had known this earlier…”
“… I watched the family fall apart in the hands of a riff-raff. If I couldn’t even protect my family from a nobody like Damien, then, how can I protect it from others?” She shut her eyes tightly as memories flashed through her mind.
There were no sweet memories between her and her family. It was either she was having a heated argument with Alice, her mother, or father.
Other times, it was her threatening to leave the house. The last one was after Alice slapped her. She fought back and in the end, Old Man Lee gritted his teeth and disowned her.
Alex had thought that was the best thing that could ever happen to her…getting disowned. Unfortunately, it was the beginning of her misery.
Her eyes opened and tears gushed out.
A long while later, she decided to change the topic. The memories were too painful to relive. “Alice, I can feel our daughter will be different from us. I hope to be alive to watch her bring changes to the world. But I’m scared.”
She sat on the tiled floor and rested her back on the wall with her hands supporting her knees before she started speaking slowly like she was having a non-serious conversation with a friend who was sitting in front of her.
“I left when things got tough and took on another identity and appearance, thinking everyone would believe I died too, but I was wrong… so wrong, sister. I was informed that they are searching for me and the baby I ran away with. Alice, the child isn’t theirs, she’s not supposed to be theirs. She’s a curse to them all but why are they still hunting for us?” She sighed and rested her head on the wall with her face raised and eyes closed.
Her sharp and pointed nose stood there intimidating her mildly freckled face. Her full and long lashes, just like Jeslyn’s sat there protecting and shielding her eyes. Her full pink nude lips didn’t look tired even though the owner was.
“How should I break this to her? Rossa will be mad, sis, just like her husband was. If her husband could be so angry after finding out everything and still doesn’t see me as his mother-in-law, then what about my daughter? Will she ever accept me?” Tears slid down the edges of her eyes.
Her heart hurt so badly that it wanted to explode. Alex had never regretted anything in her life like she was regretting her irrational decisions right now.
What right did she have to h@të those who mistreated her daughter when she knowingly put her daughter in that situation? What right did she have to seek revenge for the suffering her daughter went through when she had intentionally made her daughter suffer?
Alex was right there when her daughter was going through the most difficult phase in her life. She was there when they were scheming against her daughter and family but she couldn’t do anything because she was hiding away from her enemies.
Now she regrets it. If she had saved Jeslyn on her birthday night, She wouldn’t have gone through that pain and agony she went through. If she had saved Jeslyn from the clutches of those evil men, Jeslyn wouldn’t be living with a virus in her body. She wouldn’t be afraid of abruptly fainting every day of her life.
All the child wanted was to live a carefree life while being a musician. It wasn’t difficult at all, but because of her mother, it became an extremely difficult thing to achieve.
“It’s all my fault.”
The more Alex blamed herself, the more her tears poured.
After a long while later, she made up her mind. “Sister, I have decided… I shall go back to them and sacrifice my life for our daughter to be free.”
When Alex left the Columbarium, she entered her car and put on a human mask with the face of Pink.
_______
*Inside Maverick’s laboratory…*
Doctor Matt came bearing good news and bad news after running a test on the sick Vera.
“Mav, I don’t know if this should be a congratulatory message but Vera is pregnant.”
Maverick froze for a moment before his brows slightly furrowed. “How?”
“How? Are you seriously asking me that? d@mn! She’s two weeks pregnant.” Matt patted his shoulder and sighed. “I don’t know why you care so much about what Jeslyn how you would feel but… I’m already feeling sorry for you. Meanwhile, the good news is, the experiment was successful but if applied on Valen due to how young he is, it would damage his bone marrow which would mean, a new bone marrow has to be ready before the treatment starts.”
Vera, who was lying on the bed, stared at Maverick without saying anything. When she was pregnant with Valen, he didn’t show happiness but he didn’t look this cold either. Right now, she could feel his anger from where he stood and she knew that a wrong word from her might get her baby terminated. Maverick is that evil.
