Jean's melancholic eyes turned into a mixed feeling of surprise and anger as she caught sight of a very familiar man. The man she swore to forget and never be associated with anymore. 'Why is Ethan here? He should be with his family where he belongs.
I thought he would never dare appear in front of me after what happened. How dare he?
We are completely over long before!' She thought with her hands slowly clenched into a fist as memories of that day spiraled back into her mind.
'Who invited him to Grandpa Benjamin's party anyway? Why is he even here?'
Jean kept her seething gaze at Ethan, still confused of why he showed up. She was afraid of having to see him in the party, let alone meet him again after what happened. She didn't even expect to see him anytime soon.
She bit her lower lip as she was trying to figure out the reason for Ethan's presence. 'He couldn't have gone out of his way to see her, could he? He had to have other reasons that doesn't involve me.'
Jean tried to convince herself that. As her gaze stayed on Ethan, she noticed that he nodded and raised a glass at someone else. She followed the direction and saw Jesse, who nodded back and smiled at Ethan. At that moment, Jean started to feel a dark atmosphere after knowing that snake acknowledged Ethan as if they had plotted on something.
'Was she the reason Ethan is here?
If so, what's her purpose of inviting Ethan? Come on, Jean. Think.'
She kept pulling on the threads of her mind afraid that something wrong was going to happen tonight. When she saw Shirley in the party as well, she thought, 'Of course, Jesse invited Shirley, too. How could she forget Ethan?' She chuckled at herself for stressing herself out and shrugged the imaginary dust off on her dress as if to calm herself once more.
"It's been a long time, Jean. How are you?" Jean froze as she felt a breath behind her neck. She stepped forward, keeping her distance, before turning towards the man she was so occupied by moments ago. Ethan stood before her with a grin plastered on his face. He looked at Jean as if nothing had happened between the two of them.
In return, Jean's eyebrows furrowed into a frown. Ethan's presence made her deeply uncomfortable, but she couldn't figure out the reason why.
She shook these thoughts away and looked at Ethan, coming up with a response. Before she could open her mouth to say something, she felt another presence beside her, so she turned to see Zed, whose face showed no emotion except his eyes that were sending daggers to Ethan. "You are not welcome here, Ethan. If I were you, I would leave this place right now," he said, nonchalantly.
Zed never fancied Ethan. In fact, he hated him. His blood started to boil since the moment he caught sight of Ethan staring at Jean. Ethan's gaze never swayed and just stayed at Jean's face, adoring her with playful, but gentle eyes, and Zed disliked him for how he treated her. Whatever they had in the past should stay there, and now that Jean was his wife, he would never allow Ethan to hit on her again, let alone in front of him. Even some of the guests disagreed on how Ethan acted towards Jean.
Those guests felt relieved as they saw Zed step up in front of Ethan and tell him to leave. The party should end the way it started.
Ethan left his gaze from Jean and turned to look at Zed, giving him a playful smirk. "Argh! It's such a pity that you can't make decisions for me," Ethan said sarcastically and chuckled. "Are you going to put me under house arrest like you did before?" He taunted, narrowing his eyes fiercely towards Zed. He noticed that Zed started to fume, but he didn't stop and continued. "Or call my family to take me home like I'm such a lost child, wandering the streets? And then forbid me to ever come near this city? Is that what you're going to do to me again, Zed? Can't you just be a normal person, surprised for a moment and ask me what I'm doing here before making me leave?"
"What do you want?" Zed asked with a strong emphasis on every word. His patience was already wearing thin, but he didn't want to give Ethan the satisfaction of bursting in front of Grandpa's guests. "It seems like you haven't learned your lesson from last time."
Ethan exhaled deeply while glaring at Zed. His fists started to clench beside him. "You can't do anything, but threaten me, Zed! How about we settle this into a fight now?" He mocked, cracking his knuckles before him. The smirk on his face now replaced with burning fury.
"Ethan!" Jean yelled, stepping up between them before anyone of them can land the first punch. Her rage had built up inside of her once more. "What the hell do you think you're doing? This is not the right time and place to pick a fight. I suggest you leave. Now!"
Ethan looked at Jean, his face softened. "Is that care I'm getting from you, Jean? Are you worried that something is going to happen to me?" Ethan asked, thinking that Jean was worried about him, and that there was a chance for him to be with her again. Relief started to flow through Etha
When her sister ran away from the wedding, Autumn was forced to marry Charles.
His name had been linked to innumerable ladies.
He had different girlfriends for every day of a year.
Autumn had never thought that she would fall in love with him.
do…" Ethan continued. Everyone else was giving hesitant and confused looks at Jean's direction.
They knew the girl Ethan had mentioned in his story was Jean. It was Jean who broke her promise to Ethan, and most importantly, it was Jean who broke Ethan's heart. The feeling of wanting Ethan to leave had now turned into a mixture of pity and sympathy.
The looks made Jean queasy. It wasn't hard to feel the sundry air now passing by her direction. Even Zed had felt unnerved. Some of the guests pondered how Zed would react or just feel after Ethan's narration.
Although some may have been swayed by Ethan's proclamation, some kept to their opinion of him and realized that getting swayed was what Ethan wanted. That this room full of confused and sympathetic people was the scene he was going for.
"Zed," Jean whispered dejectedly, as if saying his name would not only make her feel better, but also make Zed feel that she didn't change her mind after all that. Instead, the burning flame of anger engulfed her. She was shaking uncontrollably, not knowing what to do. She felt like a helpless cub and turned to cling on to Zed tighter.
She thought about how she regretted loving Ethan before. Had she known that he would do this to her and everyone around her, she wished that she had never met someone like Ethan.
She cursed Ethan in her mind – how he was just an insane, desperate man for using their past relationship against her and how much he didn't deserve someone like her.
'I will never forgive you, Ethan. Even if it'll cost you your entire life begging for my forgiveness, ' she thought.
'If I could go back in time, I will make sure that our paths will never cross.' Her hands clenched into fists as she glared on the ground Ethan had knelt on moments ago.
Zed noticed how Jean started to shake with rage from all that had just happened. He made her look at him and placed her hands on both her shoulders. "Relax. You have me." He placed a hand on her right cheek and drew imaginary circles with his thumb in efforts to console her. "No matter what you have experienced and whom you have loved, they're all buried in the past now. We shouldn't worry about what had already happened, because we can't change any of it, but we can do something about our present and our future. You are my wife now! There is nothing more I could ask for, and I'm really happy and thankful that I married you, Jean."
"Zed!" Jean shouted as she gave her husband a hug. Tears brimmed her eyes. She was deeply moved by Zed's words that she, too, felt thankful for marrying Zed. She realized that although she couldn't change the past, at least then her past had led her to Zed.
"We can just avoid meeting those kind of people in our whole life together, Jean. Whatever happens, I will always be here for you," Zed whispered in her ear rubbing her back as she cried on his chest. "Let's just ignore him. A jerk like him doesn't deserve to even have the satisfaction that what he did, destroyed us. We are stronger than that." Jean nodded. She started to feel blessed to have Zed. From now on, no one can make her feel any less worthy. No one can break them apart. With Zed, her life would be untouchable. At that moment, she was sure that the only man she would love was Zed. A while later, Maranda rushed to them and comforted Jean after witnessing what had transpired.