Chereads / Contract Marriage: The Replacement Groom / Chapter 6 - Grandpa's death

Chapter 6 - Grandpa's death

Old Man Lee didn't want to alert the enemies, so he began to investigate things from the dark. His granddaughter's wedding was fast approaching and she was extremely happy about it, so he didn't want to ruin her happiness by revealing these worry-inducing things to her, and by doing so, she had to find out in the most heartbreaking way possible.

"S–sorry, ch–child, I'm s–orry–" the old man's dimmed eyes slowly closed and the hand on her cheeks was about to fall off when she grabbed it.

"N–no, no, grandpa, please don't do this to me, grandfather, I beg you please… g–grandfather…" She slowly put his hand down and gently patted his body in an attempt to wake him up.

"Grandpa!" She called again while shaking him gently.

"Old man Lee!" She cried out as she patted his cheeks. 

When he's sleeping and she sneaks into his room, she would pat his face like this and call him, 'old man Lee'. He would smile before slowly opening his eyes to ask her what she wanted. 

She only called him by his name whenever she needed something, so she was expecting him to smile at her and ask her what she wanted, but her expectation was dashed!

"Old Man Lee…grandfather!!!" She started to shake him vehemently, but still, he showed no signs of waking up. 

"Christine!!"

"Guards!!!"

"Maya!!!"

"Aunt Martha!!"

"Uncle Wong!!!!" 

She called every name she could possibly think of at that dire moment but nobody came. Realization dawned on her that she was alone, all alone with her grandfather in the whole sitting room with no one to help or assist her. 

She searched around the place with her blurry eyes, looking for anything that could help her and she spotted the telephone. 

She hurriedly but gently laid her grandfather on the cold floor and stood up. She hurried to the telephone while tripping on her gown numerous times and almost falling.

On reaching the phone, she hurriedly picked it up, placed it on her right ear, and punched in the ambulance number she had committed to her memory. 

After punching in the numbers, she was expecting to hear an indication that her call was connecting or hear a voice from the other end, but nothing came even after trying it a few times. Her chaotic mind told her to check the wires and when she did, she painfully realized that they were cleanly cut! 

Jeslyn slammed the telephone on the table. She was about to hurry back to her grandfather when she tripped over her gown and fell, hitting her head on the edge of the center table. 

She felt a terrifying pain in her head but still managed to stand up. Dizziness washed over her and she swayed. But thanks to the table she held for dear life, she didn't fall.

She stayed still for a while because of the pain in her head before she stood up and staggered towards her grandfather with blood trailing down her injured forehead. 

While searching the couch they sat on earlier, she saw her phone, the damned phone she had been looking for, and hurriedly called the hospital for an ambulance, not having the time to think of how her phone which was supposed to be missing mysteriously appeared out of thin air. 

….

At the hospital….

Jeslyn was sitting on a bench, glancing at the operation room intermittently. She would stand up and pace around nervously for a while then return to her bench to sit. 

That was her routine for the five hours until the operation room door opened with a ding.

She rushed to the doctors who walked out with their nose masks on and asked in a frantic voice, "Doctor, how is my grandfather?"

The doctor sighed and shook his head, "I'm sorry, young Miss, your grandfather couldn't make it. The poison had destroyed his organs and… Miss Jeslyn!"

The doctor cried out and reflexively caught her limp body before she touched the floor and helped her into a VIP room.

....

Jeslyn opened her eyes to find herself in a white room and heard a beeping sound. She turned to her right where the beeping noise was coming from and saw the monitor producing the sound. That was when her mind registered to her that she was in the hospital.

She tried to sit upright but felt a needle pricking her wrist. She looked down at her wrist and it was an injection needle connected to a thin tube that ended in an IV bag. She sighed before sitting up with her head and her back leaning against the wall. 

'Why am I here?... Did grandfather bring me here again? Or did I suddenly fall unconscious before my wedding?... How long have I been here?' Those questions ran through her mind but she couldn't find answers. 

It so happened that the TV screen in front of her was on and a funeral scene was being played. 

A small frown played its way across her pale face when she recognized a few faces on the screen. The ones who shocked her the most were those of Ray and Christine.

Ray was holding Christine in an affectionate manner but that wasn't her problem. Why was Christine crying so much while looking at… wait, her grandfather's picture?!

At that moment, Jeslyn's mind turned numb and a cold shiver ran down her spine as unpleasant memories flooded her mind. She forcefully pulled out the needle from her wrist, totally disregarding the pain and the fact that the drip was not finished. 

She flung the white cover away from her body and got down from the bed. That was when she realized she was wearing a hospital gown. 

Taking her first step towards the door, pain and vertigo hit her hard in the head but she ignored it and staggered out of the room barefooted.

While she was walking along the corridors, everyone she bumped into either gave her weird looks or pointed fingers at her, but that was the least of her concerns. She was too carried away to notice the hateful stares and reactions she was getting. 

On getting to the road, she found no taxi but when she looked up, she noticed that all the billboards were playing her grandfather's funeral. It was too sudden and too shocking that Jeslyn didn't know how to react to it.

She badly wanted to believe that everything was a prank. She wanted to believe that her grandfather and Christine were pranking her and that she urgently needed to get to that cemetery and give them a piece of her mind. 

But at the same time, she knew that her grandfather was dead because the doctors said so. But why are they conducting his funeral so soon?! Didn't she just send him to the hospital a few minutes ago?! What if the doctors made a mistake?!!!

Inside a black inconspicuous car speeding across the road, Rex could be seen trying to force Jeslyn's groom to tell him who he got married to, but the cold looking man was adamant about keeping mum. 

"Brother, so you aren't going to tell me who you got married to? Your lil brother wants to know, ah. Tell me and I promise I'll zip my lips." He made a lip-sealing gesture and smiled broadly. 

The groom sneered, but said nothing. His head rested on his seat with his eyes closed. 

"Aai, brother, don't be like that. I might be a gossip monger but–" 

"Screech!!!" 

"What the f*ck!" Rex cursed after hitting his head on his brother's palm, thanks to the driver holding brake without warning. He was about to hit his head on his brother's shoulder, but his brother was quick enough to stop his head with his palm. 

"Hey, what the hell is wrong with you?! If you can't drive then you are fired!" Rex yelled at the driver in frustration.

"I'm sorry Young Master, it wasn't my fault, a crazy woman ran into the road." The driver apologized deeply.

"Run her over." Came the groom's languid and unfeeling voice.