Jessica sent Summer an emoticon of a cold face. “I’m serious since you’re single now.”
It suddenly reminded her about the marriage certificate, which contained only the names of Leonardo and Vicky.
She had not seen their certificate of marriage since she married Leonardo, so they both did not know whose names were on it until Adams gave the copy to Vicky.
Vicky now looked like the victim. It did not matter how promiscuous she was in her personal life was, so long as she was legally Leonardo’s wife, Summer would be the mistress if she stayed with him.
Jessica suddenly realized that she had probably said something wrong. She tried to explain, “No, I mean…”
“I’m fine.” Summer comforted Jessica.
After they hung up, Summer searched for Leonardo. He did not go to work today; he needed to fix the problem concerning Summer.
The first day, it was news about Carl’s coming out. The second day, it was about two A-listers announcing their relationship. Today was the third day. The prior two events were explosive enough to divert the netizens’ attention away. There was almost no one talking about Summer anymore, and the celebs who made it to the trending topic list were all under Tip Top Entertainment.
Summer knew very well that Leonardo was behind all of it. Public discussion had been suppressed, but the certificate of marriage was yet to be fixed.
Vicky was no better during the past few days, though. Alexander had confined her to the house, not allowing her to go out or see Adams.
Alexander was an austere man who knew Vicky’s character well. If he let Vicky out at this juncture, she would definitely shoot her mouth off in front of the media.
All he wanted now was peace for the Jarretts, not wanting to upset the Emerson family again.
…
Leonardo’s study was not locked, it was not even shut. Summer gave it a slight push, and it opened. Before she went in, she could hear Leonardo hollering angrily inside.
“Do you really think I don’t know you were involved in my mother’s death? What dirty thing have you done that you want to kiss up to Alexander? Now you even want to have a hand in my certificate of marriage?”
Only the light from a small table lamp illuminated the room. Leonardo was standing in the shadows, his voice piercing cold.
As though he had a gut feeling, he looked at the door and saw Summer’s slender body at the doorway. He paused before hanging up the phone.
“I just wanted to ask about the certificate of marriage,” she said while she walked in.
“Don’t worry about it.” He calmed down, his voice gentler now.
“I want to know how things are going now.” Things seemed a little complicated—for her, at least.
She knew she liked Leonardo, but after she found out that they did not even have a certificate of marriage, she became deluded and felt inexplicably relieved.
Without a certificate, they were not husband and wife in the eyes of the law. If she suddenly felt like leaving him someday, she could just go free.
Leonardo was an unfathomable, dangerous man. Since the day she chose to be with him, she already realized that she was like a moth drawn to a flame. All of a sudden, she had a way to escape him.
Leonardo stared at her, his gaze growing intense. She was supposed to stare back at him, but she felt guilty as if Leonardo had discovered what was in her head.
“It’s fine if you don’t want to talk about it.” She avoided his gaze.
“We’ll fix this together. We’ll have a wedding.”
His sedated voice drifted in the dim room and into her ears, but it did not dissipate. His voice was pounding her eardrums repeatedly. Have a wedding?
Summer’s mouth was slightly open, and there was a glazed look in her eyes. “What?” she asked.
“We haven’t held our wedding yet. In the meantime, you might want to think about where we’re going to spend our honeymoon. It can be local or abroad.”
It sounded like he had already decided, and she had no right to reject.
However, Summer said, “That won’t be necessary. Let’s see how things go.”
Leonardo could sense that she was in no mood for this. They were not in a bitter fight or hurting each other, but he could feel that she was no longer as enthusiastic as before.
Summer could see his face darkening.
…
With no need to go to the office or anywhere else, Summer focused on writing her screenplays those few days.
Leonardo left home early in the morning the next day, and she did not ask where he was going.
After working on a script for a long while, she got tired and went downstairs to pour herself a glass of water.
She then turned on the TV and sat down on the sofa. The first thing she saw on TV was Vicky being interviewed by journalists.
Vicky looked tired. Her face was pale like she had just recovered from a major illness. She was still full of beans two days ago.
“I was the one who took a picture of the marriage certificate and posted it online.
“I just want to join the entertainment world. I want to be famous.
“The certificate of marriage is fake.
“Summer is Leonardo’s legally married wife. I made it up just to get publicity…”
When Vicky said that, her face was expressionless like a talking robot.
One journalist posed a blunt question, “Could you tell us, Ms. Vicky, what made you come forward and admit to forging the certificate of marriage? Did someone force you to do it?”
Vicky’s eyes were wide open as she yelled, “No! I forged the certificate of marriage, and I took the photos! Summer is my sister. I shouldn’t have done that! It’s my fault!”
The journalists subsequently followed up with more questions, but Summer could not care less now. Her full attention was on Vicky.
As much as she knew Vicky, she did not believe at all that Vicky had repented. Leonardo must have had a hand in the press conference. She just had not figured out what Leonardo had done to frighten Vicky so much.
She switched to a few other channels and found that every channel was airing the same interview. She got bored and decided to watch an old movie through VOD (video-on-demand).
Halfway through the movie, Leonardo came home. He walked straight up to her, drew her bangs to both sides, and kissed her.
Summer instinctively turned her head away. He halted for a second but still came down with his kisses.
“We’ll go for your wedding dress fittings tomorrow.” His voice was unusually gentle as he drew her into his arms.
“I’m busy. I haven’t finished my script yet.” She tilted her head away resentfully.
“You can do that after the dress fittings.”
“No, I need to keep the flow of my inspiration uninterrupted.”
His face fell all of a sudden. He clutched her jaw, forcing the words through his teeth as if his patience had reached its limit. “Summer, I dare you to reject me again.”