A Replacement Bride

"What can I do? There is no point in you begging me for mercy. Katherine is Mr. Town's guest so even

if you find her an annoyance, you shouldn't have blatantly spoken so rudely to her. You've even

clashed so badly with her, so how on earth could she possibly forgive you that easily? Even if you go

down on your knees to plead for mercy, there is no chance I will be able to let you stay on. Otherwise,

Lab 7 might run into trouble. Hurry up and gather your belongings then leave the place."

After Howard said that, he no longer bothered himself with Rita and turned around to leave.

Meanwhile, Rita was left in a daze and she stood rooted there, as though her world had come

crumbling down.

…

Once Katherine threw herself into work, she would end up fixated to the point of giving up food and

sleep.

If it wasn't because of Howard's worry that Marcus would blame him for Katherine collapsing in his

laboratory, he would not have been so diligent in reminding Katherine regularly to take her meals.

Without Howard's constant reminders, it was very likely that Katherine would have forgotten to eat and

drink.

Over the next few days, she didn't step out of the laboratory at all as she repeatedly ran tests on the

unique antidote.

Five days later, she finally succeeded in producing an antidote.

In the afternoon, Marcus rushed over excitedly when he heard the news. He looked at the antidote in

Katherine's hands as if it was a precious treasure.

"Miss Cornell, is this antidote effective? If you're sure that everything is fine, I'll hand it over to

Professor Walt's staff and get them to mass-produce it as soon as possible.

Katherine nodded in response.

"This antidote here is way more effective at penetrating the target and it can enter deep into the body to

fight against the venom produced within the infected person's body. Once the venom is cleared from

the human body, we can then proceed with the next step of handling things. By then, the man-faced

curse will no longer be able to use the human body as a host, and we will be able to achieve the goal of

inactivating the curse."

Marcus did not fully comprehend her explanation, but he knew that he should trust her. As such, he

nodded earnestly and turned around to hand it over to Howard.

Howard, on the other hand, knew not to ask unnecessary questions and agreed to the job without any

comments.

At that moment, Marcus felt a huge relief at having resolved this troubling matter. He glanced worriedly

at Katherine, who looked quite unwell, and he suggested on his own accord, "Miss Cornell, I'll send you

back to the Fraser Residence right now. You must have gone without sleep for the past few nights, so

go back and have a good rest."

However, Katherine shook her head. "I don't want to go to the Fraser Residence. You can send me to

any hotel that's nearby."

Subsequently, she added, "Don't inform Joaquin yet that I've already left the laboratory. I'll head back to

the Fraser Residence after I'm fully rested."

Katherine had been without sleep for several nights now and after looking at herself in the mirror in the

toilet earlier on, she noticed that her eye bags were massive and looked very haggard.

She knew that Joaquin would worry if he saw her in this state.

"Well…" Marcus hesitated upon hearing that but in the end, he chose to respect her wishes. He

immediately sent her to a five-star hotel in Kyoland and chose the presidential suite.

"Miss Cornell, get some rest and give me a call once you wake up. I'll leave some men here to guard

the place and they can send you directly to the Fraser Residence after that."

Katherine expressed her gratitude and then quickly took a hot shower. After showering, she fell asleep

immediately upon getting into bed.

She was exhausted mentally and physically, so she remained in deep slumber for quite some time.

It was the afternoon of the following day when she finally awoke.

The glaring sunlight streamed through the French windows and filled the entire room. There was some

movement of Katherine's eyelids, but she didn't open her eyes. She lifted a hand to cover her eyes as

she took some time to come to her senses.

At that moment, she heard a voice by her side and she immediately jumped up in fright.

"Are you awake? Are you feeling better?"

She was momentarily stunned and instantly opened her eyes wide to glance in that direction. Just then,

a handsome face appeared right in front of her eyes.

She saw that Joaquin had somehow arrived without her realizing it and was currently lying next to her.

He appeared to have just woken up and had a slightly drowsy look in his eyes.

"W-Why are you here?"

Katherine expressed her surprise and instinctively wanted to shift backward. At that moment, she

realized that his arms were wrapped around her waist.

Joaquin sensed that she wanted to retreat, so he lifted his eyebrows and tightened his grip to hug her

tightly.

Their bodies were pressed against each other and it was only then that Katherine realized he was

actually bare-chested without any shirt on. Her face instantly blushed.

"You…" She opened her mouth and for a moment, her eyes wandered because she didn't know where

to look. Surprisingly, she seemed quite ill at ease.

Meanwhile, Joaquin was tickled by her awkward expression as he smiled in response. Subsequently,

he inched closer and accosted her on the lips while she was preoccupied.

"I arrived yesterday. I've been waiting for you for five days and it's been such a long wait. However, not

only did you keep the news of you leaving the laboratory from me, but you even made Marcus keep me

in the dark! That's so mean of you."

Katherine was speechless when she heard that. Faced with his accusations, she grimaced slightly. "I

find the Fraser Residence too rowdy, so I came to a hotel to get some rest first."