Chapter 76: Chapter 76: Eloping at Night

How could Jessie Sterling possibly tell him? She just glared at Victor Morgan, her eyes wide in defiance.

Victor Morgan found it amusing. He wasn’t actually trying to get a rise out of her, so he decided to quit while he was ahead. He turned and whispered something else in Jessie’s ear.

“Do you want to leave tonight?” Victor asked.

Jessie didn’t immediately understand.

Today was the third day of the wedding reception. Though their families had booked rooms for the guests until the following week, many would likely start leaving after tomorrow.

Jessie and Victor would be leaving as well, for their honeymoon.

The original plan had been to leave the next morning, but Victor suddenly proposed, “If we fly to The Saros Islands tonight, we can still catch the sunrise.”

It was already the end of the year, and Victor had taken a significant amount of time off for their wedding photos and the ceremony. Jessie had been the one to suggest they could put the honeymoon on hold for a while.

But Victor felt it would be unfair to Jessie to go right back to work after getting married. Everyone else got a honeymoon, and she deserved one, too.

As a compromise, Jessie chose to go diving in The Saros Islands.

That way, they could be back in Aethelburg in about five days.

“Don’t overthink it. Wasn’t the wedding exhausting? Traveling is tiring too, and I just want to go home and rest. Besides, we’ll have plenty of chances to travel later. Let’s stick with this for now!” Jessie had made the final call when she saw the hesitation on Victor’s face.

Victor gave a faint, resigned smile. Of course he knew Jessie was doing this for his sake.

With the end of the year approaching, a wave of corporate matters was coming, along with tedious events like the annual gala. He was, in fact, going to be swamped.

Jessie stopped deliberately trying to step on Victor’s feet and matched his pace instead. He took her hand, spun her around, and pulled her back into his embrace.

Victor’s earlier proposal was starting to tempt her.

“We’d just be sneaking off? Is that really okay?” Jessie was still a little hesitant.

Victor: “Why wouldn’t it be? If anyone asks, I’ll just tell them I’m whisking you away to elope.”

Jessie: “…”

Though Victor was smiling when he said it, the effortless confidence in his voice was impossible to fake.

Jessie was sold.

Since they were leaving that night, Jessie and Victor left the ball early to return to their hotel room and pack.

To her surprise, as she stepped out into the garden, she spotted two people standing in a nearby colonnade.

One of them was a person Jessie knew very well.

It was Lynn Jennings.

Lynn had changed into a form-fitting, dark green gown for the evening, exuding an air of cool, mature glamour. Right now, however, her expression was icy.

“Why are you still following me? Cyrus Sheridan, we’re adults. Can’t you just be straight about things?” Lynn frowned at the man before her, her voice laced with displeasure.

The man she was scolding remained silent, simply following stubbornly behind her.

Annoyed at being followed, Lynn took two more steps before whirling around. “What is it you want?!”

Cyrus Sheridan: “Isn’t this the way to the ballroom?”

Lynn gave him a suspicious glance. “You’re going to dance?”

“Mm.”

“Dr. Sheridan knows how to ballroom dance?” Lynn scoffed. “Who would have thought?”

The man in front of her pressed his lips into a thin line, offering no explanation.

Lynn found him dull. “Blockhead.”

She shrugged, preparing to ignore Cyrus and walk away.

But in that instant, everything changed.

One moment, he was the “blockhead” Lynn was mocking; the next, he suddenly grabbed her arm, pinned her against a nearby Roman column, and pressed his body against hers.

Jessie gasped. She had been about to greet Lynn when she saw her, but held back when she realized Lynn was in the middle of an argument. Besides, the man with Lynn had to be a guest at the wedding. If he were someone important to her, Lynn surely would have found time to introduce them over the past three days, no matter how busy she was. But since she hadn’t, Jessie naturally respected her privacy.

Even good friends needed to give each other a little private space.

But Jessie never imagined that while waiting for Lynn to finish her conversation—just to let her know they were leaving—she would witness such a shocking scene.

Jessie hadn’t even had time to process it when Victor, who was with her, reached out, pulled her into his embrace, and blocked her line of sight with his chest.

“What are you looking at,” Victor said, his tone one of mild exasperation.

Jessie: “…”

After a moment of hesitation, Jessie tugged on Victor’s shirt. “Are they done yet?”

Victor: “It’s not going to be that quick.”

Jessie: “…”

’Why couldn’t Lynn and that man I don’t recognize find a more private place to get hot and heavy? How are we supposed to get past them now?’ she couldn’t help but grumble to herself.

After a moment, Jessie heard Victor’s voice from above her head. “They’re gone.”

Jessie finally let out a sigh of relief, pulled back from Victor’s embrace, and glanced toward the spot. Sure enough, both Lynn and the young man had vanished.

She looked back up at Victor. “Where’d they go?”

Her question was met with nothing but a knowing smirk from Victor.

Where else would a man and woman—who had just been kissing passionately in the open—be going this late at night?

When Victor didn’t answer, it dawned on Jessie. The tips of her ears turned red, and she quickly started down the garden path. “Do you know him?” she asked.

Following behind her, Victor thought for a moment. “Not personally, but I know who he is.”

“Who?” Jessie was bursting with curiosity.

Victor: “Cyrus Sheridan. He came with Gordon Chapman, the head of Scitech Pharma.”

“So he works for Scitech Pharma?” Jessie asked.

“I’d assume so.”

“That’s so strange,” Jessie said. “Mr. Chapman came to our wedding with an employee instead of a date?”

Victor just smiled and said nothing.

It wasn’t as if Jessie was really expecting an answer from Victor. She skipped ahead, full of restless energy, and continued her analysis aloud. “And Lynn’s been acting suspicious, too. She came to the wedding as my bridesmaid, but it’s not like I forbid her from bringing a date. And yet, she came all by herself…”

Jessie rambled on. For a player like Lynn, it was just too suspicious.

As they approached the hotel entrance, Victor noticed that Jessie’s mind was still completely preoccupied with Lynn. He couldn’t help but frown.

Just as she was about to step inside, he sighed, took a step forward, and grabbed her wrist.

“What are you grabbing me for?” Jessie turned back in surprise, glancing down at the wrist Victor was holding with a puzzled look.

Victor sighed. “We’re about to go on our honeymoon.”

Jessie blinked. ’I know that.’

“So, are you sure you want to spend the rest of the night talking about someone else?” Victor asked, a hint of exasperation in his voice.

If this kept up, Victor felt he might become seriously annoyed with a woman for the very first time in his life—even if that woman had done absolutely nothing to him.

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