THE ANTIDOTE

The whole place darkened with the guests still seated, watching Ashley and Noah’s every move. Noah stood in the middle of the hall with Ashley.

"Music," he said, and a romantic song started being played in the background. I can’t dance in this dress." Ashley said to him as he carried her hand and placed it on his shoulder.

"I know, but I can do a little adjustment to your dress." He squatted in front of her, pulling a small pair of scissors from his back pocket and resting his hand on her dress's puff.

"You are full of surprises." She muttered and watched as he made a small cut on her knee region with the scissor and ripped off the puff of her wedding dress, making it easy for her to move freely.

He rose to his feet, kicking away the pieces of clothing, and started dancing with Ashley, who was glaring at him throughout the dance. He spun her around, smiling, as she was dancing aggressively with him, stepping on his feet, but he was enjoying the pain.

The staff of the hall started removing all the chairs in the hall. They brought in two tables and started putting food and drinks on them. They were trying to create a party atmosphere as the DJ changed the music, making Ashley and Noah stop dancing.

All the guests just stood around eating and chatting, including Calvin and Emily. "Now hand over the antidote." Ashley declared. Someone tapped her on the shoulder; she turned back to see Jake standing behind her.

"What do you…" She couldn’t finish her speech when he placed a marriage certificate in her face; her eyes widened as she saw that it already had her signature. "What’s the meaning of this, Jake?" She asked, attempting to take the certificate from him when he put it behind him while smiling at her.

"Jake? Is that supposed to be your name?" Noah cut in, looking at Jake. "Of course, not boss; I don’t know why she is calling me that." Jake said. Ashley noticed that his voice had changed into a deep and husky one, deeper than before. "Boss? You're now addressing him as boss? What’s going on? I don’t understand." Ashley spoke up as Dave approached them.

"Let me make it easy for you to understand." Jake said and placed his hand on his neck, pulling the skin off his neck and removing his face and hair with it, revealing a man in his late thirties who had scars on his face. She recognized him as a strong bodyguard of Noah, whom she hated a lot. Her brain exploded on the spot while the bodyguard handed the certificate to Noah. "You did a great job." Noah said, gazing at the certificate.

"I…I knew it! I knew you couldn’t be the Jake I knew; I always suspected you, but I didn’t have evidence to support my claims." Ashley said. "Now that you know I am not your Jake, what are you going to do, uh?" He asked raising a voice. She pursed her lips and attacked him, grabbing a handful of his shirt. "Where is the real Jake!" She snapped. He lifted his hand in the air, looking down at her; he was a little taller than her. "What did you do to him!" she inquired. "Nothing, honey, we just locked him up in a garage. My bodyguard has been a great help to me…he was the one that was telling me all your secrets," Noah said, making Ashley let go of the bodyguard and stare at him with her mouth slightly open in shock.

"He is the one that found out what you wanted to do to the doctor’s body, and we used it to our advantage; he is also the one that changed the evidence that you found yesterday and destroyed it." Noah said.

"You!" Ashley yelled and gave him a resounding slap across the face.

"You have crossed the line! How can you hurt people because of the games you are playing? Now that I am married to you, save my father’s life, and bring Jake back now!" She declared, giving him a death glare, which he returned with his fists clenched.

"You don’t tell me what to do, bitch!" He cursed. "Miss Ashley, is that you?" She heard a voice and turned to see that it was Xander, who had cut through the crowd to get to them.

"What the hell are you doing here?" she asked him. "I um, came because I would like to accept your offer." Xander replied with all eyes on him.

"I didn’t give you a choice, did I? I gave you twenty-four hours to come to me, and you blew it up. Do you think I will accept you now? Now I won't, and I will continue making your life a living hell until you go down on your knees and beg me to use you!" she snapped at him. Xander swallowed his pride and slowly went down on both knees in front of her.

"…Who is this dude?" Noah asked her.

Xander stared at Ashley with pleading eyes and placed his hands together. "Please take me, use me, do whatever you want to me; I need you." Xander pleaded, putting his head down, embarrassed of himself.

Those words sounded good to Ashley’s ear; she felt on top of the world, but she didn’t want to accept him without making him regret not calling her that night.

"Do you think if you go down on your knees, I am going to accept you? Nah, you will have to prove it to me." she said. Xander slowly lifted his head, unable to hide his anger anymore.

"Haven’t you had enough already?!? Because of you, I lost my dream job, and I am here begging you like a beggar to accept me, and you are giving me attitude? Fuck you!" Xander snapped, awaking the beast inside Ashley.

"I thought you needed me. You have the audacity to say those words to me. I will make you eat them!" She threatened moving closer to him when her phone started ringing; she growled and stared at Dave.

"Who is calling?" She asked.

"Your father’s butler." he replied bluntly. She quickly took the phone from him with her hands trembling. "Hello." She muttered.

"Put Noah on the phone." The butler declared.