Her Substitute Groom

Connor POV

‘What should I do, Connor? Carl… Hollywood Lake’ I drove recklessly on the road as Claire’s voice kept ringing in my head. Many thoughts came conflicting in my mind, asking myself if something happened to her there. Did Carl do something bad to her? I asked myself, but even though he has hurt me, I know Claire would be the last person he would ever think of harming. Yes, that is how much he loves her.

The drive to the lake took pretty much time before I arrived, and I felt relieved when I saw Claire running toward me. Her hair was disheveled, and she looked frightened that for a moment, I asked myself what the hell was happening.

“What happened, Claire?” I asked her.

“Carl… I think he jumped inside the lake. He… he… he is in the lake,” her voice quivered, and her hand trembled as she pointed it toward the lake, and I sighed.

“Calm down, Claire…”

“How can you tell me to calm down? You need to call people to come and rescue him. Please, we can’t do this. Can you call people, please?” She cried, holding my hand. She looked so frightened like she has never been before, so I was left with the only option of calling the nearest police station.

“What did they say? Are they coming to rescue him?” She asked, and I nodded my head.

“Calm down, Claire. He’s going to be rescued if he’s really in there,” I assured her. For a moment, I felt a sting in my heart and a part of me wanted him to be rescued. I thought having him dead will take my anger toward him away, but at this point, I was praying and hoping nothing happened to him. I just wished nothing happened to him.

“Why are they taking so long? You need to go in there and save him, Connor. You need to do it, please,” tears streamed down her cheeks as she held my hands, pleading with me, and without thinking twice, I gave him my phone and rushed toward the lake. I never imagined that I’d be in this situation where I would be risking my life to save that bastard’s, but I didn’t even regret doing it.

I dived into the lake since I was very familiar with swimming. I searched every nook and cranny of the lake, hoping to find him, but there was no sign of him anywhere. I was already running out of Oxygen after being under the water for so long, so I swam to the surface to catch my breath, and I realized that the cops and some swimmers were already heading toward the lake to come search for him. Together, we did the searching, and unfortunately, there wasn’t any sign of him. As much as I wanted to say that he might not have come here, my mind changed immediately when the cops showed me a pair of shoes I knew to belong to Carl which was found at the lake bank along with other things like his phone and the plaster that was used to cover his eyes. My eyes dropped at the sight of it, and I knew that the unimaginable has happened. Something that she never has happened.

By the time I got out of the lake, Chase, Khan, and Janice were already waiting outside, waiting in anticipation for us to say that we found him, but sadly, none of that was going to happen.

“Where is he? Where is Carl?” Claire asked desperately as she hurried up to me, and I sighed, dropping on the ground, the things the police gave to me earlier. Her face dropped as she stared at those things on the ground.

“Wh… what does this mean, Connor? It’s not what I’m thinking, right?” She raised her gaze to look at me with that look on her face that told me clearly that she didn’t want to hear the negative truth, but my reply soon threw her off and she staggered back.

“Wh… what did you say? What do you mean you can’t find him?” She blinked her eyes rapidly, glancing at the lake and back at me.

“You need to calm down, Claire…”

“Don’t fucking tell me to calm down! Our brother is missing… Carl is missing and don’t even know where the fuck he is. Are you still telling me to calm down?” She yelled at Chase, and he stepped away from her.

“Claire…”

“You need to find him, please. He must be there in the lake. He is fucking there… He needs to be saved, ok?” She held my shoulders, looking into my eyes with a pleading expression on her face.

“Please… You need to save him,” again, she pleaded with me, and I sighed briefly.

She was still crying when the cops and the swimmers came to join us with a gloomy expression on.

“I’m sorry, Miss. But we couldn’t find him. The lake is deep and we couldn’t search for the depth of it. It’s dangerous going to the depth, and nobody can make it there even with oxygen…”

“Just do your job… Fucking do your job! My brother is there… He needs to be saved. He is in the depth of the water,” she broke down in tears, falling to her knees.

“Please save him… Please,” she pleaded with them, but there was nothing they could do, so they left.

“Claire, you need to pull yourself together, please,” I tried to help her up, but she yanked my hand off and stared at the lake. She looked like a hopeless girl that has just lost everything. I thought we all hated Carl, but turned out the thought of him dying was terrifying. Is he really gone? Is Carl really gone for real? I asked myself, and the thought of it was creepy and terrifying. I realized that I didn’t want him dead, I just wanted him here with me so we could argue things out and keep hating each other. I thought it’d be satisfying for him to die, but I was mistaken.

“It was my fault… I told him to disappear,” Claire cried out, and my heart sank. She shouldn’t have said those words to him knowing he would take his life at the mention of it as long as it’s from Claire. He would lay down his life to protect Claire, and one thing he couldn’t stand all these years was having her hating him. He has always been fine to be hated by me and Chase, he never tried to make up with us when we didn’t give him the chance to, but he kept trying to get close to Claire. That is how much he has always loved her.

“I killed Carl… I pushed him to commit suicide,” her lips quivered, and her hands trembled as she stared at them.

“He’s not dead, right? Carl is going to come back, right?” She raised her gaze and asked me, but I threw my gaze away…