Contract Marriage: The Replacement Groom

113 The truth about Valen

“Ehm…Maverick, I’ve been thinking… Well, uhm, I wanted to ask. What happened to Valen’s mom?” She looked at his side profile. She knew they weren’t close enough to talk about these things but curiosity got the best of her. D

“Why?” He asked without looking at her.

“I just… I’m wondering what would happen if she returns while we were still… you know, married.” She lowered her eyes at her wedding ring, then shifted her gaze to his fingers but there was no wedding ring on it.

This wasn’t the first time she noticed it. He doesn’t wear his wedding rings. Not that it mattered though, after all, the ring was never his size, so… but then, why was she feeling…disappointed? 3 Wait! Is this the feeling of disappointment? But why? It never mattered to her, so why is she suddenly feeling bad about it? This is stu pid. It must have been that she’s unknowingly stressed out because of Valen’s condition, yes, that’s right. She concluded.

“She left. She won’t return…she doesn’t want to return.” He replied with his eyes still on the road. He had searched everywhere for Vera but it’s like she disappeared into thin air. 5

Did he just explain to her? Like, he really answered her!

Jeslyn was elated. She immediately started to test the waters with the questions she had in mind for a long time, hoping he would answer a few, if not all.

“Did you two have a fight?”

“Hmm,”

“Oh…that’s bad. But you shouldn’t have let her leave. Why didn’t you go after her?”

After a long time, he parted his lips: “I did.” He replied without much

knew at once that he didn’t want to talk about that, so she changed the topic. “Valen missed her a lot. Although he looked tough, that child is a bunny inside,

water guns. He wants to attend a regular school like every other kid out there. That child wants to wear colored clothes, and he wants to eat what every other child is allowed to eat, but Valen was forced to be reserved because of how

she was done ranting, that was when she realized Maverick had pulled up and was staring at her. Jeslyn coughed awkwardly and blushed due to embarrassment. She knew she had crossed the line.

“I’m

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you raise your son, but I couldn’t

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marry you?” He didn’t sound angry

not sure.”

you so you could change him.”

“Huh?”

was still there and didn’t fire her because I wanted him to see the

actions one day. Here he was trying to explain his

her? Maverick doesn’t do that, so why? He

you mean by ‘his remaining days’?” It finally hit Jeslyn that Maverick’s words were ambiguous.

After a long silence, he finally spoke

you mean?”

after hearing that. “Wh- wha- what do you

phone from the phone stand. With one hand on the steering, the other

him and matt.

on her lap and focused on

when she saw the part where Matt said the child only has between a year and two to live. He also said that the