Chapter 198 - Matchmaker Kevin

Halia looked into the eyes of the man before her and felt her heart melt. She didn't know why he brought her to this bridge and why they were dressed in wedding outfits, but even if he was to marry her right there and then, with no friends nor family around, she was more than willing. 

"What are we doing here?" she asked nervously.

Jackson glanced over at the entry to the bridge and waved at a few people that had arrived. 

"We are getting some pre-wedding photos taken," he finally revealed with a smile.

"Pre-wedding photos?" Halia said with excitement. She had forgotten that this was the trend these days.

"What a beautiful place to take pre-wedding photos!" she exclaimed. 

Jackson nodded and led Halia back off the bridge to a woman that was waiting with a fold-out chair.

"Miss Feng, please sit and I will do your makeup," the woman said professionally as she opened up a suitcase of makeup products.

Halia looked at Jackson in surprise. "How did you arrange all this so quickly?" she asked.

"I've never wanted to flaunt my wealth, but for once, money really did come in handy," Jackson replied.

Halia laughed. Her fiance was, after all, the biggest shareholder in one of the biggest casinos in Macau, and she was the heiress to one of the biggest baijiu producers in China. When it came to money, both of them had plenty of it. And even though they were modest people, there were times when money definitely came in handy.

Halia sat down patiently as the makeup artist began to apply some makeup to her face. At that moment, a man also approached and started doing her hair.

Halia felt like an actress on the set of a film as people walked past and looked at her curiously.

The last time she had something like this done was when she was a child and her father wanted to take her with him to a ball. Since then, she had never had her hair and makeup done by professionals.

After all, her line of work did not permit her to look too fancy. Thus, she only ever had light make up on and her hair was usually left out or tied into a ponytail. But, even so, Halia was a natural beauty that was capable of turning heads. Otherwise, how did she attract the cold and aloof Jackson?

Jackson watched as his fiancee was transformed into a beautiful bride and smiled proudly as hikers walked past with admiration on their faces.

"She's so beautiful," a German couple whispered.

"Are they models?" a woman discussed with her friend.

As the makeup artist and hairstylist moved away to admire their creation, Halia looked into a mirror in her hands with amazement. When she hopped on the plane from China to Europe a couple of days ago, she did not expect that she'd end up here, in a wedding dress, looking like a princess.

Life was certainly unexpected.

Jackson walked over to Halia and grabbed her hand, "Let's get some photos taken before more hikers and tourists arrive." 

Halia nodded her head and walked back to the middle of the bridge with Jackson.

It was a beautiful spring day: the sky was blue, the trees were green, and there was a light breeze. The conditions were perfect for photos.

As the couple stood in place, two men with cameras approached them with a smile. They were obviously the photographers that Jackson hired. "What a beautiful couple," one of the men commented.

"Come, relax. Groom, wrap one arm around the bride's waist and look into her eyes. Think about how you first met and how you fell in love with her," the other photographer instructed.

Jackson looked into Halia's eyes and suddenly chuckled. "What's so funny?" Halia asked.

"I was thinking about how you flipped Kevin the first time we met. You completely forgot that you were a nurse. If it was someone else, you may have been sued," Jackson laughed.

Halia pinched Jackson on the arm, "It's not funny. Your boys were teasing me, it was self-defense. Kevin was acting so sleazy!"

Jackson pulled Halia towards him lovingly, "If not for that flip, you wouldn't have caught my attention. Now that I think about it, I should really thank Kevin for being so sleazy. He deserves a red pocket on our wedding day for being a good matchmaker."

"You need to teach him some manners. How will he ever find a girl if he continues like that?" Halia sighed as she shook her head. 

"He's actually not that bad. He's just a bit of a jokester, but he's not really that disrespectful towards women. That's why he let you off without suing you. You might not believe it, but he was actually brought up in a household of women. His family was originally from Vietnam. They were refugees that fled the country after the war. At that time, France opened its gates to many refugees and Kevin's family was amongst them. His mother was pregnant with him when she snuck onto a fishing boat with his father and three older sisters. Unfortunately, his father died at sea from hunger and dehydration when he selflessly left all the food and clean water for his wife and children," Jackson explained.

"Kevin never got to meet his father, but his mother and three older sisters loved him dearly. When he became an a.d.u.l.t, he felt the need to repay them and become the man of the house by supporting them financially and providing them with luxuries that they never had. But, his mother and three sisters had always gotten by with just enough and never complained about wanting more. He was the one that gave himself invisible pressure."

"It was this pressure that caused him to turn towards gambling. I first met Kevin in Marseille. He was being beaten up in an alley for not paying his gambling debts and the gangsters were threatening to take one of his sisters for payment. Seeing that he was also Asian in a foreign country, I felt bad for him, so I helped him pay off the debt. He was beaten up so badly that his nose was broken and he lost a few teeth. Even though I didn't know him at the time, I couldn't just leave him there," Jackson said.

"No wonder Kevin has such bad teeth," Halia scrunched up her nose when she remembered Kevin's teeth. Not only were they crooked, they were also very dirty. But, she sympathized with him a little after hearing his story.

At that moment, the two photographers looked at their cameras and yelled, "That's perfect! We captured some great shots. The two of you are naturals."

Halia glanced at the photographers in surprise. When did they even start shooting? She didn't even look at the camera and smile...