Contract Marriage: The Replacement Groom

491 Lolita's troubles

"Congratulations..." Maverick said before hitting the 'enter' button.

"Thank you, br-" Rex was cut off before he could finish.

"... You are 11 billion richer." Maverick pushed his laptop aside and pecked his wife on the forehead.

"Hehehe, I think I'm rich enough to buy the country!"

"Who did you steal from this time?" Rex took a seat beside Celestine as he leaned towards Jeslyn to hear fresh gossip.

"The former first lady... Wait, that's not stealing. I only took back what belonged to me!" Jeslyn rolled her eyes.

Celestine shook her head, "You're becoming more shameless."

"I learned from the best," she beamed. "So, about your wedding..."

While Jeslyn and Celestine were discussing the wedding preparations, Rex drew closer to his brother and whispered.

"Brother, I need your Yacht."

"What about yours?" Maverick glanced at him.

"Not big and luxurious enough."

Meanwhile at school, Valen was receiving lessons, attentively listening to the teacher even though he found the topic boring. Suddenly, he zoomed out and what appeared in front of him, traumatized him. [Host found...bond initiating in 3...2...1... complete!... System Activated!] 1)

Right in front of him was what looked like a holographic image of himself floating beside numbers that appeared to be stats.

The next thing everyone heard was a loud 'thud. Valen fell off his seat and passed out. The class descended into chaos as the children screamed, while the teacher panicked. She immediately carried the child and headed for the infirmary.

The doctors checked on him but couldn't find anything wrong with the child. Meanwhile, the school had already called his family. Maverick arrived a short while later and took Valen home. Everyone in the Lu family was worried. The child had been sleeping for two hours. Even Matt couldn't find out what his problem was.

Valen's awakening in the evening sent the house into a joyous mood, but the child was still confused about what he heard and saw in class. He knew it wasn't an illusion, so what was that? "What happened?"

Sitting at the edge of the bed was Maverick. He had been with the child since he brought him from school. Jeslyn couldn't contain her worry. She offered to stay with her son and watch him wake up, but at the same time, she looked sick and exhausted. So, Maverick lulled her to sleep, cancelled his

important meeting and stayed by his son.

"Where is Mom?"

"She needs to rest. You stressed her out a lot today," Maverick replied.

The child flattened his lips and looked remorseful. "Did she worry too much?"

"Matt said she's fine."

Valen nodded. He finally had the time to respond to the earlier question. "I don't know, Dad. I saw a holograph of me. A computerized voice spoke to me out of nowhere and said something about a

system.

"Hereditary system?"

"I know it said system activated," Valen added.

Maverick remembered what the system told him back at the Dark Age and he sighed softly. He talked and reassured his son that he'd be fine.

He knows how to deactivate the system, but Valen has no child to pass the system to, which means, the system can't be deactivated right now...

The man looked at his son without knowing what to think. How the hereditary system came about, no one knows. Just like the rainborite stone, the hereditary system is also a mystery.

At Doc Matt's house...

The man was lying on the lounge with his face facing the evening sky. After the wedding, what comes next? His wife is pregnant. Will he allow other men to see his wife's body when he is a Certified obstetrician too?

He sighed and sat up. There was an old newspaper beside him. He took it and the front page was a photo of a pretty woman. Headline read:

[An unprofessional doctor's prediction took the life of a mother, child, and husband. ] Images flooded Matt's mind. The pictures were blurry but the feeling was real. It was raw!

Guilt, self-reproach, remorse, anger, hate... everything rushed into him at once. He was so into his world of mystery. So much so that he couldn't feel his nails digging into his palm.

...

Matt?" Lolita shook him. She had been standing there for about two minutes and talking to him, but he wouldn't respond. His eyes were red and veins could be seen in his forehead. His hands were scrunching the newspaper so hard that one would think he was holding on to the god of wealth. Are you ok?" she asked. However, what happened next was a tight slap to her cheek.

"Paah!"

The slap was so powerful that she staggered back and fell into the pool.

Matt got up, like a robot, he went to the garage, picked out a black car from the fleet of cars and zoomed out of the house.

Lolita was stunned as she looked at her husband's strange behaviour. After he left the house, she got

out of the pool and headed inside. She was heartbroken and disappointed, but on second thought, he had never treated her like this before.

Without a doubt, there's no love in their marriage, but he treats her with kindness, fulfils all her wishes, respects her as his wife, takes her to gatherings and proudly introduces her, and gives her the pass to bring him food in the hospital and also, he allows her to talk freely about them in interviews.

Intercourse is not that big of a problem, though sometimes, he turns away from her, but those are few times. Ever since they had their wedding three weeks ago, he had been exceptionally sweet to her because he couldn't take her on honeymoon.

Lolita wasn't angry about it because he explained that he needed to be around at all times in case Jeslyn needed him. Although she couldn't understand why Jeslyn would need him when there are doctors and nurses dying to be at her beck and call at the Lu hospital, she didn't question him and accepted with all of her heart.

So why did he suddenly slap her and not even look her way? Did he forget she was pregnant with his child?

As Lolita walked past the servants who were alarmed and ran helter-skelter to get her a towel, tears ran down her cheek as lots of thoughts spread through her mind.

Is he regretting marrying me?'

'Does he blame me for ending up with a woman he doesn't love?'

'Will he divorce me when he returns?'

'Did he find out about my

old lifestyle?'

'Did my family tell him lies about me, just to break my home?"

Different thoughts flooded her mind that she felt she might go crazy if she can't find an answer.