Chapter 2 Get Married

"What's going on?" Kaylee asked with a frown.

The servant averted her gaze, looking embarrassed. "Mr. Stephens is in his room on the second floor. He said... He's with a beautiful woman and has no time to get married."

As soon as the servant finished speaking, the few guests that were present all burst into an uproar. Some of them pointed fingers at Kaylee and laughed, while others felt sorry for her.

It was no secret that the second son of the Stephens family was rumored to be a fickle-minded playboy. Now, it seemed that he was only proving the rumors right.

How could he leave the bride at the altar and mess around with another woman on his own wedding day? They had never seen such an irresponsible man before.

Gemma pretended to be angry, but secretly, she reveled in Kaylee's misfortune. "Even though my sister's not that pretty, Elijah has gone too far this time. How can he embarrass her like this?"

Lifting the hem of her heavy wedding dress, Kaylee walked a few steps forward and politely said to the servant, "Which room is he in? Please lead the way."

As she spoke, Kaylee lifted up her veil without thinking, revealing her hideous and scarred face to the crowd. Everyone gasped in shock.

"I mean, I heard that she wasn't pretty, but I never thought she'd be that ugly!"

"No wonder Mr. Stephens left his bride at the altar. Just look at her face—he'd have nightmares every night of their marriage!"

Kaylee turned a deaf ear to these harsh words. She followed the servant calmly to the door to Elijah's room. The guests also tagged along, excited to watch the fun.

However, instead of madly knocking on the door as expected, Kaylee said to the servant calmly, "Please open the door."

The servant faltered, "We don't have the key..."

Kaylee glanced around her surroundings until her gaze landed on the flower vase by the corridor. She plucked one of the flowers from the vase and easily picked the lock with the stem.

Thanks to her sensitive hearing, picking an ordinary lock like this one was a piece of cake.

Inside the room, Elijah heard the sound of the door unlocking. He turned his head in surprise.

It had to be said that Elijah was indeed a handsome man.

His face was impeccable, as though God himself had chiseled the man's face.

But to Kaylee's surprise, both Elijah and the woman with him were neatly dressed, as though they hadn't been messing around just now.

Kaylee looked at Elijah and asked in confusion, "Have you started yet? Or are you done already?"

Her question caught Elijah completely off-guard, so he answered without thinking. "We just finished."

As soon as he said this, he noticed that the ugly woman in front of him looked at him as though... She felt sorry for him?

"Oh, really? Then... Well, that was fast." Kaylee looked Elijah up and down with pity.

The servant beside her tried her best to stifle her laughter.

Elijah's expression darkened.

Truth be told, he didn't even touch that woman. The reason why he behaved so ridiculously on his wedding day was that he simply didn't want to get married.

He asked in a low voice, "Did you pick the lock on my door?"

As he asked this, his eyes landed on the flower in Kaylee's hand.

Did she use that to unlock the door?

Ignoring the angry expression on Elijah's face, Kaylee met his dark eyes and said, "Yes. Now that you're done with her and fully-clothed, please go downstairs to the backyard and marry me first."

Her tone was flat, as though she was talking about a simple chore.

Elijah's eyebrows shot up in surprise. He thought that any woman would go crazy if she knew that her husband-to-be was messing around with another woman on their wedding day.

"And what if I said no?" With a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, Elijah stared at the monstrous looking woman in front of him.

Kaylee eyed him coldly and then suddenly grabbed Elijah by the arm. She dragged him out of the room, declaring, "I'm sorry, but we have to get married today."

It was true. She had to marry into the Stephens family.

Nine years ago, because Gemma kept sowing dissension between her and the rest of the family, Kaylee was driven out by her adoptive parents, who obviously favored their biological daughter Gemma. Kaylee became homeless. It was Diana Byrd, an old janitor, who found and saved her. Kaylee treated Diana as her own grandmother, and she was Kaylee's only family in the world from that day on.

Unfortunately, a little while later, Diana was poisoned. Kaylee hadn't found a way to cure her, but she was able to trace the source of the poison back to the Stephens family.

So when the Hadley family asked her to marry into the Stephens family in Gemma's stead, she readily agreed. She wanted to take this opportunity to get to the bottom of the poison that was slowly taking her grandmother's life.

Elijah tried to free himself from Kaylee's grip, but before he could make a move, his eyes landed on the small, dark red birthmark on her back.

It looked familiar... In fact, it looked exactly the same as that rose-shaped birthmark on that woman's back.

All of a sudden, Elijah stopped in his tracks.

Memories flooded into his mind, and all he could think about was that girl's smiling face from years back...