Contract Marriage: The Replacement Groom

66 Barbing-hitting his soft spot

So let's begin!"

Jeslyn started by blow-drying his damp hair before combing. She picked up the long lengthy hair carefully and braided it to give way for the sides.

After achieving that, Jeslyn picked up a small comb and combed down the short hair on the sides of his head while trimming off odd lengths.

Finally getting what she wanted with the sides, she applied hair gel to hold the sides down and blow-dried it a little.

Jeslyn loosened the braided hair and combed it before she started to trim off the tip. Her aim was for the length of the hair to rest on Valen's brows rather than cover his eyes. Once she was done, she applied cream on the long hair to give it a soft and shiny look before she combed the hair back to give a smooth comb-over look.

Thirty minutes later, Jeslyn was done.

"Ta-da!" She spread her arms and shifted to the side for Valen to see the outcome.

Valen looked at himself in the mirror and his eyes widened a little. His lips tugged into a faint smile but when he remembered Jeslyn was still there, he raised his gaze to look at her. 1 Seeing the bright smile on her face, Valen rolled his eyes.

"You ruined my hair, but I won't hold you accountable, hmph!" He got up and was about to leave when the flabbergasted Jeslyn pulled him back. 1

"Young man, it's either you appreciate me for using my skill on you or you sit back down and watch me barb 'skin' for you!"

Jeslyn sounded serious- almost angry. This ungrateful child was the first to taste her barbering skills and he dared to not be appreciative. How dare he!

Valen looked at the handsome cute boy in the mirror and couldn't imagine his pretty hair getting cut, so he mouthed the words, "thank you."

"I don't hear you say anything," Jeslyn frowned.

"I said, thank you!" Valen said aloud and scoffed before walking to his black wardrobe.

"That's more like it. You should show appreciation when you receive help. Also, you need to hurry up with this. Your treat shouldn't get warm before you eat them or else you won't enjoy them as you should." Valen turned to look at her, "what are you talking about?"

"I made some delicious cake and treats for you," she smiled brightly.

"I'm not interested, take them back." He said as he opened his wardrobe.

"Not like you have a choice. It's a token of apology, so you have to accept them." Jeslyn orated while

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walking towards him.

"Apology accepted, you can leave." Valen didn't want to accept the cake and whatever because he was warned by Mulan not to eat sweet things.

"That's not how the world works dear." Jeslyn opened his wardrobe and frowned at the outfit.

Everything was plain black with a few white shirts.

"Your wardrobe smells of doom," she stated. 1

"Dumb," he whispered.

He is the son of a mafia, so what did she expect?

Jeslyn glanced at the boy and gave him a soft knock on the head.

"I'm 20 years older than you, so you should respect me. Would you call your mother, dumb? And I'm old enough to be your mother." Jeslyn narrowed her eyes at him.

She was expecting the boy to throw a tantrum like he used to, but the boy didn't say anything or do anything. He only had his head down.

Jeslyn found it weird, so she lowered her height and squatted in front of him, then raised his jaw with her fingers.

The child's face didn't change but his eyes held pain.

"V-Valen?" Jeslyn softly called.

The child only looked into her eyes without uttering a word, but Jeslyn could see liquid slowly gathering In the boy's eyes.

She looked around and spotted Maya still standing there with her head bowed.

"Riya, please excuse us."

"Yes, ma'am," Maya bowed and walked out.

Jeslyn turned her attention to the child and held his shoulders.

"No one else is here, you can cry if you want to. I'll also listen if you choose to tell me what the problem is."

"I'm fine, you should leave me alone." Valen threw her hands off his shoulders and stretched his hand- to pick up a random hanger holding black shorts and a black shirt.

Jeslyn watched the child's back as he headed to his bed.

"I lost my mother while I was in a coma."

Valen paused on his step without turning back before he started walking again.

"At that time, I was 19. I spent two years in a coma, not knowing when my mom died and what happened before I went into a coma." Jeslyn stopped talking and sat on the bed, staring at Valen who was pretending to not care.

After a few minutes of silence between them, Valen raised his gaze to meet Jeslyn's hazel eyes.

"Why are you telling me this?"

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"For you to know that a lot of people are suffering silently, just like you are. Your eyes have too much pain for a child like you to handle. If you don't let them out, you'll suffer greatly

"Who are you to tell me that?" Valen felt he had been stripped off his cover. How did she know that he was hiding his pain only through his eyes? Was it because he almost cried just now when his mother was mentioned?

"I am..." she paused to search his eyes for something. "The older sister you don't have."

For the first time, Valen laughed. However, it was mocking laughter but it sounded rich and cute în

the ear.

Jeslyn felt a stab of pain in her heart. The sound of the child's laughter coupled with his overly handsome face when he laughed was an image she didn't want to erase from her memory. However, the laughter was too brief for her to commit to her memory.

"Jeslyn, you. are. my, father's. wife!" He spelled it out for her. "You are almost like those girls running after my father and we both know the reason." He smirked. hoping to see her raging like usual. @