Chapter 243 - A Las Vegas Wedding (7)

17 March, Las Vegas, United States, around 10am.

Lexi and Matthew wandered into the reception area to wait for everyone else as they were going through the check-out process. While Chester and Phillip were remaining due to business commitments, they were all heading back on the one private flight. Lexi watched Dominic looking out the window watching people go by, before calling out "Dominic come back here please."

With that Dominic made his way back to Lexi and Matthew.

As he arrived, there was a voice behind saying "Is your mummy being mean Dominic?"

"Uncle Andrew…"

"Andrew Yao," came Lexi's firm interruption. "He knows he should be with us. Just you wait until you have children, and I will start telling them you are mean when you tell them to behave as expected."

"Stop being mean to Uncle Andrew, Mummy. He looks tired. As does Aunt Sally."

Lexi looked at the two of them, and noticed Dominic was right. Andrew and Sally looked tired. Kneeling down, Lexi looked at them again and said to Dominic "You are right. Uncle Andrew and Aunt Sally must have partied on with Uncles Paul, Steven, John and everyone else."

"But Mummy I thought the party after Uncle Chester and Phillip's wedding ended when you and Daddy Matthew came back to our room."

Matthew looked at the Andrew and Sally and looked down at Sally's hands. Nestled against her engagement ring, was a plain gold band. Andrew had his hands in the pocket of his pants, making it impossible for him to see. But this was Las Vegas. If they had taken the simple steps that Phillip and Chester had done before leaving home, it was easy to marry overseas in a ceremony that would be recognised as a legally valid marriage at home. He wondered, had they slipped away from everyone else sometime during the night and gotten married?

Lexi responded to Dominic "Dominic, some of the a.d.u.l.ts, which I guess include your Uncle Andrew and Aunt Sally went to another place, for a.d.u.l.ts only, to continue celebrating Uncle Chester and Phillip's wedding. We did not want to do that, so we came back to the room."

"But we could have had more fun with everyone," whined Dominic.

Lexi frustrated, said "Dominic, you do not get to do what you want. Sleep is as important. You can do all those silly things, when you are an a.d.u.l.t, not before. And more importantly I do not appreciate that tone."

Seeing Dominic starting to get angry, Matthew bent down and swung him into his arms before saying "Dominic, staying up late is not always good, and a.d.u.l.ts forget that fact. You need to behave, or you will not get to do the things that you want to when we get home. What have your mummy and I told you?"

"Actions have consequences, Daddy Matthew. But I was only asking a question."

"That was not a question young man, that was getting upset that you felt left out. Now apologise to your mummy for you attitude."

A subdued Dominic, when Matthew put him down walked over to Lexi and said, "Sorry Mummy."

As Dominic stood quietly beside Lexi Matthew turned to Andrew and now observed that his hands were out of his pockets, but he was quickly putting them in again. In those few seconds, he observed a thin gold band on his hand. That confirmed it. Andrew and Sally had slipped away sometime during the night, after they left the reception and got married. He just hoped they had done the right thing.

Looking at Andrew and Sally, but noticing out of the corner of his eye that Paul, Steven and John had walked in, Matthew said "So, you two slipped away from everyone who was partying on last night and headed to a wedding chapel. You should have said something to your sister, Andrew as we will not hear the end of it, and why in the world would you want your wedding anniversary to be at the same time as Chester and Phillip. I would have thought a time that was your own is what you would want."

Matthew observed John was not concerned, so that told him he knew about this. At the same time he could feel Paul's shock.

"How in the world…?"

"I observe, and you two make it obvious with wedding bands."

"Damn it Andrew Yao," yelled Lexi. "You deprived me of the opportunity to be sister of the groom, and design the wedding dress. You…"

"Calm down Lexi," responded Andrew. "We will still have a formal ceremony back home. But at the same time, we decided we could not wait the time Sally's parents are talking about for a formal ceremony to be arranged. Twelve to eighteen months, no way. We figured, we would have a simply ceremony for ourselves here while letting them still have the formal ceremony, which now will be a blessing service at home."

"Yet you did not think it important enough to tell me, your baby sister."

"Nor did I tell our brother or my brothers-in-law. Plus, you and Matthew have Dominic with you, so you need to stay. Stop…"

Steven, sensing Paul's frustration and desire to react quietly but loud enough so everyone could hear "Settle down. You forget I told you Andrew was her choice. Now let go and do what we know you will do. Respect her commitment and keep your friendsh.i.p.s."

Paul paused. He so wanted to say something, but that would ruin friendsh.i.p.s he wanted and needed. But that did not mean that he would not deal with Andrew. He had no right to take Sally for him. The only thing was, he would have to act in such a way to ensure when he acted, he would come in to play the hero and get Sally.

Walking over, Paul gave Sally a kiss on the cheek and shook Andrew's hand while congratulating them. When Steven did the same, he walked back to Paul, and quietly said "Forget about it, Paul. He is her choice. Leave them be and realise that there will be the perfect woman who will view you as the centre of your world. Sally has only seen you as a bit player in her life. But I can tell you now, you try to undermine their marriage, I will not care about our friendship or my job. That is one line you would not normally cross, and if you do it crosses my bottom line."

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