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Unexpected Marriage With Mr. Leighton: Rebirth of the Villain-Chapter 142: A WEDDING GIFT FROM LAUREL
Chapter 142: A WEDDING GIFT FROM LAUREL
Nelson decided to join Marcus, pushing another cold can of beer into his hands.
"Why are you like this again?" Nelson asked. He sat down next to him. "I think you are not really happy with your girlfriend."
"I am happy with her." Marcus closed his eyes and leaned his body against the sofa. "The only thing I am not happy about is myself," he added, staring emptily at the ceilings. The noise around him was irritating, yet strangely comforting; it drowned out his inner turmoil, even if only temporarily.
"No, I think you are mistaken," Nelson continued. "If you were happy, you wouldn’t be here. You need to reevaluate whether you should even be with her."
At that, Marcus glared at him, irritation flaring. Nelson raised his hands defensively, signaling surrender.
"Just saying," he replied calmly. "Deep down, you know you don’t deserve her, right? You and her family are worlds apart. You don’t fit with each other."
Marcus groaned internally at those words, turning his focus back to the cold can of beer in his hand.
The truth weighed heavily on him, but he had no solutions. He couldn’t help but think that probably Nelson was right...
Nelson was someone Marcus had known for a long time, the first person he befriended when he joined the crowd. He considered Nelson like a brother, since he was five years older than him and someone who actually listened.
So, whenever Nelson suggested that Marcus wasn’t a good fit for Olivia, that he didn’t deserve her, it hit him harder than he could explain.
It played with his insecurity.
Despite whatever confidence Marcus tried to project, he was having a hard time with his resentment towards Olivia for being ’above’ him, as his psychiatrist had pointed out.
The psychiatrist had elaborated on the idea that Marcus wanted to bring Olivia down to his level, when the healthy way to cope with this was that he needed to elevate himself to deserve her.
However, that felt daunting, and he struggled with this internal conflict.
"Man, think about this again. What are you going to do if you are not part of the crowd? Are you going to just stay at home waiting for your girlfriend to come back from work? You don’t know how to make money."
Nelson patted his back as if he felt sorry for him.
"If you are not with the crowd, then what are you going to do? How long will she stay with an unemployed man like you? You are the man in the relationship, but if you have nothing to offer, let’s see how long she will stay with you. You need to take control."
"No, that’s not right." Marcus shook his head. "You don’t understand." He let out a deep sigh, feeling the weight of his own struggles.
"You are the one who doesn’t understand."
"I don’t want that. Your advice didn’t work for me before. I don’t want to hurt her anymore." Marcus was overwhelmed, and the alcohol didn’t help with the turmoil he felt inside.
He had become accustomed to handling everything alone, and asking for help now felt like a foreign concept.
"It’s not cool, man, to be fed by your own girl." Nelson chugged down his drink. "Not only do you lack education and family background, but if you choose to leave the crowd, you will lack money too. You have no redeeming quality to be with her..."
***
Meanwhile, it had taken Ranon a week to return to their apartment, and Laurel was still there.
Most of the time, Laurel would retreat to her bedroom while Hazel spent her days holed up in the bedroom sleeping, working on her laptop, or simply listening to or reading the text of the conversations Ranon had.
Initially, Hazel wanted all the information Ranon had gathered, but as the days passed, she found herself just wanting to hear his voice. She was enthralled by the sound of his deep and heavy voice.
The way he talked to his men and gave them direction, or when he held back his annoyance because his men misunderstood his order, Hazel found herself studying his mood by simply listening to the tone that he used.
It was silly and wasted her time, but the simplicity of it all soothed her. And now when Hazel saw Ranon had returned, she found herself smiling widely. She immediately stepped towards him and kissed his cheek affectionately.
"Fine, now that Ranon is here, it’s time for me to leave," Laurel said, glancing up from the television as Ranon entered the room.
Laurel, witnessing the sweet exchange, couldn’t help but make a face. She was still struggling with the problem of her own divorce, largely because James made the entire process a nightmare.
"Where are you going?" Hazel asked while Ranon acknowledged Laurel’s presence with a simple glance before he left them.
"I have a few properties; I can stay in one of them." Laurel flicked her hair away with an air of arrogance.
"In that case, why didn’t you leave earlier?"
"Well, I am here because I am accompanying you. You should be grateful for that," Laurel retorted, making it sound as if she were doing Hazel a favor.
Hazel scrunched her nose in disgust. She would never understand Laurel’s logic. They barely talked with each other when she was here.
Soon after, Laurel packed her things, though there weren’t many items to gather. Most of the clothes she wore during her stay with Hazel were from an online store, shipped directly to the apartment.
Still, she had something special for Hazel.
"Here. This is my wedding gift for you," Laurel announced, pulling out a small package on her way out of the apartment. "It just arrived yesterday, so I can only give it to you now."
By this time, Hazel had been married to Ranon for nearly a month, making it somewhat hard to believe that Laurel had thoughtfully prepared a wedding gift.
"What is it? Poison?" Hazel shook the box and listened to the sound that it made.
"Even though I dislike you, you are not someone that I want to poison."
Well, the feeling was mutual.
Two hours later, Laurel had left the apartment, and the small gift box sat on the table, wrapped in a pink, tacky gift wrapper adorned with a polka dot pattern and secured with a ribbon of the same color. Hazel couldn’t help but feel that Laurel deliberately chose the tackiest color she could find.
"Don’t you want to open it?" Ranon asked, nodding towards the box, which was large enough to put something other than a ring but too small for an entire set of jewelry.
"I am not sure that’s a good idea," Hazel replied, eyeing the package warily. "The color she chose is horrendous."
Ranon chuckled softly and walked over to pour himself a cup of coffee. The trip had been long, and while he tried his best to finish work quickly, Rafael was proving to be quite a headache.
Ranon had no desire to cooperate with him again in the future.
Meanwhile, Hazel sat contemplating the gift, her curiosity waging war against her better judgment. In the spirit of curiosity, she finally decided to unwrap it.
However, as soon as she opened the box, she felt a wave of regret crash over her. Inside were pink handcuffs adorned with furry white balls.
"What the hell is she thinking?!" Hazel exclaimed, nearly hurling the handcuffs into the trash bin. Not only were they hideously pink, but the fur around them made her skin crawl. "Yuck! This woman has no taste at all! Your sister is crazy!"
Ranon walked over and saw the cute handcuffs. An amused smile on his lips. "Her taste is really something else."
But when Hazel looked over at Ranon, she saw his expression. "What is it? Don’t tell me you actually like that." She asked incredulously.
He looked innocent, but there was nothing innocent about him.
"I thought that’s a thoughtful gift..." Ranon looked generous when he said that.
"I know your weirdness is genetic," Hazel scrunched her nose in disgust, observing the handcuffs like they were alien.
She contemplated asking Ranon to dispose of them, ensuring that no one would ever find that wretched gift.
But Ranon seemed to like the wedding gift more than the house that Denzel gifted to them the other day.
***
Meanwhile, after leaving Ranon’s apartment, Laurel had retreated to one of her properties. It was a place where James wouldn’t be able to locate her, a sanctuary of sorts.
Her lawyer had advised her not to block James’s number, resulting in an incessant flow of texts from him and pleas for her to return bombarding her phone, alternating between anger and desperation and begging her to come back.
James accused Laurel of not truly loving their family, insisting that if she did, she would fight for them and attempt to mend things between them.
Each accusation felt like a fresh wound, but what made Laurel even more furious was when James dragged Carl into everything.
[Carl is heartbroken; he’s the one who’s suffered the most.]
[Carl is looking for you; when will you come to visit him?]
[I know I messed up and I am willing to fix everything. Tell me what to do to fix this and I will do it.]
James sent those messages, and Laurel stopped reading them because they elicited her distaste for him.
So, Laurel chose to ignore his relentless texts and calls, deliberately shutting herself off from any communication.
She was confident in one moment and then depressed the next second.
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