Contract Marriage: The Replacement Groom novel Chapter 173

173 blackmailed into engagement 

Celestine knew that Rex was blackmailing her. She swallowed and thought she should accept the ring but after she leaves, she can take it off, so she stretched out her hand. O 

Rex smiled and put the ring on her ring finger. He looked at her straight fingers and smiled before kissing them. “You have fine fingers, Celeste.” He raised his gaze to look at her face, she was pulling a long face which made Rex chuckle. “I know what you are thinking. Don’t make the mistake of taking off our engagement ring, Celeste. I’ll be mad and you won’t like it.” He beamed. 

Celestine felt like crying. She has never regretted anything in her life like she regretted coming here last night. She would always come to Rex’s house when she’s in Country M. He even gave her a room here but nothing like this had ever happened before. 

Rex had always treated her with respect and care. Although he never hid how he really felt about her, still, he had never crossed the line. So, what changed now? 

She can’t deny the fact that she enjoyed the wonderful s3x last night. Indeed, Rex was the best man she had ever tasted and she wants more of him but still, this is just wrong no matter the angle she looked at it from. 

First of all, Maverick might not show any emotion when he finds out, but there’s no denying that he might feel awkward. Secondly, Jeslyn! 

Jeslyn still doesn’t know that she, Rex, and Maverick are friends. Even when she arrived at the lab for the bone marrow test yesterday, Jeslyn was nowhere to be found, which meant that Mav must have taken her into their room. When Jeslyn came for the bone marrow test, Celestine was inside Matt’s office. So, both of them didn’t meet. 

If Jeslyn was to find out the music coaching was opened solely because of her, how would she feel? 

Their relationship and friendship will become awkward from now on. Why isn’t Rex trying to understand that?! 

Celestine looked at Rex with helplessness in her eyes. This child, she had watched him grow and she took care of him all the steps of the way. She even helped him change his diaper three times. 7 

Everyone in their circle nicknamed her Rex’s mother due to how well she paid attention to him and cared for him. Even Maverick sometimes called her that. 

What if Rex loved her because he saw her as a mother figure in his life? He respected her a lot back in the days and even stopped his bad habits whenever Mav and the others made a joke, threatening to tell Rex’s ‘mother‘ what he did wrong. (2) 

Like a time Rex got into a brawl in middle school. When the information got to Maverick, all he told Rex was; “Your mom will be disappointed” and Rex never got into a fight until he left high school. 

Celestine happened to be walking towards them when she heard it and couldn’t help but laugh, so ever since then, she categorized her love for Rex to be how a mother felt for their children until it got out of control a few years ago. 

The love grew so much that she almost couldn’t control herself anymore, so for that, she relocated to Country Y, hoping that would be helpful but it got worse. Not seeing Rex daily, not hearing his 

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cheerful voice, and watching him make a fool of himself all formed into one big ball of depression that hit her so hard and even affected her music. 

Unknowingly, she drifted from her cheerful music to depressed music. It got worse when she got married. She thought it would be helpful but it wasn’t. Her husband wanted fame and she needed him to get Rex off her system but it didn’t work. 

Just after a year of marriage, her husband that wouldn’t dare to look at her twice started to misbehave and in the end, he got another girl pregnant, which resulted in their divorce. Even though she knew that someone was behind it all, her husband still took the blame and told the world he was the scumbag. 

All these while, she thought it was Rex but now that he denied it, then who got involved with her marriage? 

Celestine brushed the question to the back of her mind Immediately Rex came into her line of view. He was leaning in for a kiss. 

“R- Rex, no, no- aaah…”