“Miss Carter, I suggest you behave and work with us, or things will only get worse for you.”
What do you guys take me for? An idiot?! I’d still suffer even if I work with you guys! “Mmph…” Jolly stretched her neck strenuously, expressing her wish to say something..
At that, the two men in black exchanged a glance before one of them muttered, “Boss” order. We take what we need and leave. Don’t cause a ruckus. She’s the golden child of the Carter Family, after all.”
You guys might as well just say it right next to my ear! I’m not deaf! Jolly mused. After discussing openly for a while, one of the men in black turned to Jolly. “We have a few questions for you, and you’d better behave.”
To that, Jolly nodded with a frown. Even if she didn’t want to cooperate, she didn’t have a second option either. “You have a wedding dress that you took from the cruise, don’t you?”
Jolly’s heart skipped a beat upon hearing so. “Do you or do you not?” the questioning man in black reiterated. This time, he pointed at Jolly’s nose and behaved rudely.
Jolly nodded after coming back to herself, leading the men to exchange a glance. “Where is it?” the questioning man in black pressed on.
Where is it? Her frown deepened.
With Ryan, of course! She had handed it to him before alighting the cruise. If it weren’t for these guys, she almost forgot that Ryan had written down an IOU and still owed her a batch of diamonds!
I should tell him to pay up. Then again, he’s seriously ill now. I wonder how his surgery’s going. If he dies, would it mean that this debt will be written off?
In that short moment, Jolly’s mind had already conjured up countless thoughts. Of course, the two kidnappers didn’t know this woman was still leisurely thinking about the money her ex-boyfriend owed her when she was being kidnapped. They bore into her, waiting for her answer.
“Where is it? Answer us!” Losing patience, the questioning man in black reiterated.
“Mmph!” Jolly stretched her neck toward the two kidnappers, and her eyes were already nearly popping out of her eye sockets. Idiots! How am I supposed to say anything when I’m like this?! Ventriloquy?
It was only then the questioning man in black realized. He pointed at her nose and warned,
“Don’t you dare scream, or I’ll mangle you.” As soon as he finished speaking, he ripped off the tape on Jolly’s lips. Jolly exclaimed in pain, believing they had ripped the top layer of her lips away.
“Shut up!” The kidnapper pointed at her lips with a warning. Jolly took a deep breath. As utterly aggrieved as she was, she could only yield submissively.
“Where’s the dress? Tell us!”
“It’s at my place.”
“You’d better not trick us!”
“Why would I do that when I’m already like this?! Why don’t you guys follow me home and see for yourselves if you don’t believe me?”
The kidnappers exchanged a glance and came to an agreement at once. With that, they put the tape back onto Jolly’s lips, then chucked her into a van that stored wedding supplies. Needless to say, they snuck in as members of the wedding planning team.
However, little did they expect Jolly to chuck something from behind her back before they closed the car door. Back inside the summer villa, the ceremony was already about to commence, but the maid of honor and best man had gone missing, and the rings were nowhere to be found.
When Hernandez rushed back, Rachel asked, “Have you found them?”
“No, I don’t know where they’ve gone. I can’t reach Leroy’s phone anymore either.”
“How can this be?!”
Jolly had gone missing first, and now, Leroy was gone too. Rachel’s brows locked into a deep furrow. Just then, Justin came over from the banquet. “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”
“The rings are missing.”
With that, Rachel recounted the issue concisely. “Even these two unreliable ones are nowhere to be found. Worst of all, they’re the maid of honor and best man!”
Justin furrowed his brows slightly and said gravely, “Anyhow, they wouldn’t just disappear into thin air. Alright, here’s what we’ll do. Hernandez, you act as the ring bearer and deliver the rings later.”
“The problem is that the rings are gone too.”
“It’s okay. It’s just pro forma. The rings don’t have to be the ones they bought, so we’ll get a backup.”
“You have a backup?” Rachel was surprised. Shortly after, Justin returned with a wedding ring box he had grabbed from his study’s safe and handed it to Hernandez, who opened the box in front of Rachel. When he saw the wedding bands, he couldn’t help looking surprised. “Sh*t, you actually have them. Why would you buy them for no reason?”
“These aren’t your wedding bands, are they?” asked Hernandez, who was a straight talker. Then, he looked at Rachel before shifting his gaze to Justin.
Taken aback, Rachel wanted to deny it, but Justin spoke before she could do so. “Why do you talk so much? The ceremony is about to begin. Hurry up and go inside.”
Hernandez checked the time. Indeed, he had to rush over right now. Roses of pink and blue spread across the lawn, making the place a sea of flowers as it enveloped the guests in it. On the white- carpeted aisle, Charlotte and Samuel, the flower girl and page boy, each held a basket and threw a handful of petals every couple of steps they took. Behind them, Gloria held Justin’s arm as they walked down the aisle.
Gloria had lost her parents at a young age, and she didn’t have any siblings either. More than that, she had long lost contact with her relatives. Hence, there wasn’t anyone of the sort on the guest list; Justin was the only family she had left now.
On the other hand, Rachel was seated in the front row, watching Gloria through the sea of flowers while she lamented in her heart.
Come to think of it, she, Justin, and Gloria were tied together because of the wildfire twenty- plus years ago. Their story began with the wildfire and closed with a not-so-perfect but still satisfactory ending.
Amidst the sounds of everyone’s blessings, Justin gave Gloria away to Victor before walking down the altar.
Victor wasn’t an extrovert, so it was clearly unrealistic to demand him to propose to Gloria one more time in front of so many unfamiliar guests when it even took him a long time to kiss his new wife. In the end, Gloria was the one who held his head and forced a kiss on his lips while the crowd cheered.
With a flushed face, Gloria turned to her colleagues and threatened, “Alright, I’ll kiss him. Another word and I won’t toss my bouquet!”
The crowd guffawed in response.
“Another kiss. Kiss him!”
“Kiss!”
In the end, Gloria refused to toss her bouquet. As soon as the ceremony was over, Gloria went to Rachel with her bouquet. “What’s going on, Rachel? Where’s Jolly?”
That woman had been mumbling about wanting to catch the bouquet before going to bed. As such, Gloria even deliberately kept it for Jolly.
Rachel was still trying to reach Jolly’s phone right then, and she had grown anxious at this point. “I’m looking for her too.”
