Chapter 8

~ LENA ~

On our wedding night, every inch of your body will be mine to explore...

The words haunted me.

They followed me into bed at night, dominating my thoughts as I lay awake beneath the sheets, unable to sleep. When I tried to silence them, they only grew louder in the darkness, replaying themselves again and again in Nathan’s low, intimate voice.

They echoed in the shower the next morning too, as hot water streamed down my skin and I scrubbed myself harder than necessary, as though I could wash away the lingering memory of his touch…his kisses…the way my body had shamelessly responded to him so eagerly.

Even at breakfast, seated at the small kitchen table, staring down at the plate of fries I’d barely touched, I kept repeating the same lie to myself.

It’s okay. You’ve got this, Lena. Everything will be fine. It will all work out in the long run.

Eventually, exhausted from pretending, I pushed the plate away.

Who was I kidding?

There were far too many ways this could go wrong.

It wasn’t just the wedding that terrified me. It was life after the wedding. It was the way my body had betrayed me with Nathan. The way his kisses hadn’t filled me with fear…rather, I’d longed for them.

That was the most frightening part of all.

For now, Nathan believed I was Kimberly. When he looked at me, he saw the woman he loved. The woman he intended to marry in days.

But what would happen if the real Kimberly suddenly reappeared?

“She won’t,” Julian kept reassuring me.

He said it again when he arrived at the house shortly after. His tone was calm, almost bored, as if I were worrying over something insignificant.

“Trust me,” he said. “Kimberly won’t be a problem. I’ve already taken care of her.”

“How?” I asked. I needed to know.

He hesitated briefly before answering, like a man deciding how much truth was necessary.

“Okay. Fine. To put your mind at ease, I made her an offer—one she couldn’t refuse.”

I stared at him. “By offer, you mean money.”

“Yes. It’s the only language she understands.”

Of course. The same language he’d used with me. The only difference was that I had a sister who needed saving. What did Kimberly have? A shameless obsession with money? A heart that cared for no one but herself? Or was it simply greed?

Perhaps Nathan had never been anything more to her than a cash machine. Maybe she’d found someone better. Someone wealthier. Someone who made marrying Nathan seem unappealing.

It would certainly explain why she’d walk away weeks before saying I do.

“For the sake of our arrangement,” Julian continued, “I paid her to stay away. Far away. She’s in Paris at the moment.”

Paris.

The word settled the uneasiness in my chest.

“So, you can relax. She’s not coming back anytime soon.”

I exhaled slowly. Knowing Kimberly was out of the picture eased one fear. But it only made room for another.

Nathan.

Yesterday, there had been moments when I’d feared he suspected something was off. Thankfully, somehow, I’d been able to convince him otherwise.

But for how long?

Nathan wasn’t foolish. He was observant. Intelligent. He would start to notice things eventually.

“You’re doing great, Lena,” Julian said, as if reading my thoughts. “Nathan came back earlier than we anticipated, I know. And I’m sorry about that—I had no idea he was returning. He didn’t inform anyone. I guess he was just eager to see Kim…to make sure everything is alright and that she isn’t changing her mind about the wedding.”

My stomach twisted.

“But you handled it perfectly,” he went on. “From everything he told me this morning, you did even better than the real Kim would.”

“Better?” I blinked.

“Yeah. He couldn’t stop talking about the lunch you prepared. Those steak bites…the mashed potatoes… He said it was the best he’s ever had. He was quite impressed.”

Something warm and unsettling bloomed in my heart at the praise. It worried me.

“There’s something else,” Julian added, glancing quickly at his watch. “You need to come with me now.”

I frowned. “Where to?”

“Nathan’s mansion,” he explained. “Kimberly has an appointment with the wedding planner scheduled for this morning. She wants to go over some last-minute checks with you. I’ll drop you off before heading to the office.”

“Wait, you’re not staying?”

He smiled at my obvious panic. “Relax. Dahlia will be with you.”

“But—”

“I can’t stay. I have an important meeting to attend with Nathan by eleven. We have to hurry. He’s already waiting for me at the office.”

I didn’t have the luxury of refusing, so I simply nodded.

Inside, I changed quickly, slipping into a cream Victoria Beckham midi dress that hugged my body in a very flattering way. It made me feel bolder.

I didn’t have to think too hard before making the choice. Instincts told me it was exactly what Kimberly would wear for a lunch outing, or the meeting with the wedding planner.

I touched up my makeup, ran a comb through my hair and stepped back to survey the result before the mirror.

The woman staring back at me looked like she belonged in Nathan Blackwood’s world.

Satisfied, I grabbed my bag, took one steadying breath then stepped out to meet Julian who was already waiting in the car.

I was nervous. Julian sensed it almost immediately. As he drove through the city traffic, he kept up light conversation, clearly trying to distract me and get me to relax.

It worked. But just for a while. As the city gradually thinned out and the noise faded into something quieter, my apprehension returned realizing where we were. Riverdale—the neighborhood where Nathan lived.

Now it was my turn to try to distract myself before the anxiety got the best out of me.

I turned to Julian, asking him something I’d been curious about, something that had been nagging at me ever since we met.

“Julian… Can I ask you something?”

“Sure. Go ahead,” he replied easily. His eyes were fixed on the tree-lined street he was driving through. His grip on the steering wheel was relaxed, his tone casual.

How he could be so relaxed given the circumstance was totally beyond me.

“How—” I hesitated. “How did you find me?”

“Private investigator,” he said simply.

“And…was this the plan all along? I mean… How could you have been so sure you would find someone like me? Someone identical to Kim?”

He sighed. “Getting a substitute for Kim wasn’t the initial plan. At first all I wanted after she disappeared was to find her, convince her to come back. But when she made it clear she wasn’t interested anymore, desperation kicked in. I started looking for…alternatives on how to fix the problem. As fate would have it, that same day I came across your picture on social media. At first, I thought it was Kim. But when I saw your name, it hit me that you were two different people.”

“That’s when you came up with the idea.”

He glanced at me for a second, enough time for me to see the firm sincerity in his eyes. “I’ll do anything to protect Nathan…and the company.”

I studied him quietly, his words lingering in my mind. Julian was the kind of man who didn’t hesitate when it came to family. He was fiercely loyal to Nathan. He was his right hand, his shield.

I recognized that kind of loyalty. It was the same thing that had dragged me into this. The same reason I was sitting in this car, pretending to be someone else, risking everything.

I turned my gaze back to the road as the car slowed and Julian turned into a wide driveway. Black wrought-iron gates opened automatically as we approached. Behind them, Nathan’s home stood impressively like something out of a magazine.

It wasn’t ostentatious, but it was huge, bigger than the other houses we’d passed by. A mansion with pale stone walls, tall arched windows and a sweeping balcony above the entrance. Everything about it whispered old money.

The driveway curved upward, lined with stone and manicured greenery. It felt like we were stepping into a fortified palace. Security cameras peeked from their discrete corners. Guards were stationed near the perimeter, their presence not obvious but unmistakable if you looked closely.

My stomach squeezed with more anxiety as I stepped down from the car, but I forced myself to appear calm and confident. I forced myself not to stare, to act natural, like Kimberly who’d been here countless times would.

Something, perhaps the feeling of being watched, drew my eyes to the balcony above.

A woman stood there. She was old, maybe in her late fifties, looking elegant in pearls and a turquoise blue dress. She stood perfectly still, looking down at us—at me.

She didn’t smile, didn’t wave. Her face was composed, her expression neutral. But her eyes… They were sharp, assessing and…cold. Cold in a way that seeped beneath my skin and made me very uneasy.

Who was she? I wondered. Certainly not Nathan’s mother. Julian had informed me she died while Nathan was a young boy.

Whoever she was, one thing was clear though. I definitely wasn't welcome here.