The Substitute Husband

"Mister, please, will you marry me?" Ukuruduasked a man she saw entering the restroom of the wedding venue. 'He must be one of the guests,' she thought.

Ukuruduwas 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, Ukurudubreathe 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?"

Ukurudunodded 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?"

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 Ukuruduwould 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 Ukurudufell for, however, the man in front of him was simply gorgeous– if a man could be called that.

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

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

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

At her words, the hall fell into deep silence for more than two minutes before it erupted into a commotion.

"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, Ukuruduloves 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.