DOOMED BRIDE: Mafia CEO's Surrogate

MADILYN'S POV

A curse is never celebrated. After being locked up for three years, I should have known there was a catch when my mother suddenly came to visit me with a smile on her face.

***

“You have a visitor,” the nurse announced cheerfully.

I had never thought I would hear that ever in my lifetime. I stared at her with disbelief clearly written on my face.

“What?” I muttered, the words barely leaving my lips when the door opened.

Two females and a male walked in almost immediately, and I raised my brows in confusion. She was really serious when she said I had visitors.

For three years, I had been locked up in this mental hospital by my own parents, completely forgotten and abandoned to die.

I wasn't crazy. Or maybe I was…

They all thought I was crazy when I told my brother he was going to die from a car crash that morning while we were all eating breakfast.

I could still remember how they stared at me with bewilderment, their eyes filled with terror as they watched me gruesomely explain every detail of how he was going to die.

Marilyn, my twin sister, was cursing and crying. Mom was dumbstruck and terrified. My brother was freaking out and almost choked on his food. Dad slammed his fist so hard on the dinner table that his drink spilled.

His eyes were reddened with anger as he demanded that I apologize to Rowan and sent me upstairs afterward.

But that wasn't where the real problem began. It only began when Rowan died the next day, exactly how I predicted. I was accused by every one of them of killing my own brother.

If only they had listened to me.

If only he hadn't left the house when I begged him not to, things would have been different.

He would probably still be alive, and I wouldn't be out here in a mental home, locked away from the world and hated by my family.

The doctor came into my room together with Mom and Dad. Mom had a wide smile on her face as she walked towards me and pulled me into a hug.

I stood still, unable to comprehend what was going on.

Three years, they forced me to live in here and made me wonder if I was really sane or just crazy like everyone else thought.

No visits. No calls. Nothing. And now what? A hug?

After three years of constant torture and isolation?

I twisted out of her grip and took a step back. My gaze moved from Mom's smiling face, which I didn't trust to be real, to Dad's calm and unreadable expression.

I could barely even recognize them anymore.

How could they have done that to me? Why?

That was the only question in my head.

The reasons why they had finally come back for me scared me more than anything else.

“Give us some space,” Dad ordered.

He didn't even bother putting on a fake act of missing me like Mom was trying so hard to do.

The same woman who hit me hard across the face when Rowan died and called me crazy.

The same woman who advised Dad to keep me in here so I could be ‘corrected’ and become sane again.

The same woman I watched on the news, faking tears while she announced that I was dead to everyone.

This same woman pulled me into a hug like I was important?

Bullshit!

“We will finalize the arrangements for her to leave with you today,” the doctor answered, and Dad nodded.

The nurse gave me a small smile and left together with the doctor.

Immediately they left, Mom's smile disappeared like her cheeks suddenly ached from all the fake smiling.

I scoffed as she took a step away from me.

“Three years, and you all finally decided to visit me?” I muttered. My voice sounded forced as I tried so hard not to show any form of weakness.

“Did you do it?” Dad asked, his eyes fixed on me, and I frowned.

“What are you talking about?” I asked, genuinely confused.

Mom scoffed as she pulled me closer. Not to a hug. Nope, that was never going to happen.

Instead, she yanked my hair and pulled me towards her. I winced in pain as she stared at me with fire in her eyes.

“Where is she? Huh?” she yelled, her voice laced with rage.

I was a fool for almost believing them coming back here was going to be any good or that maybe, for once in my life, I had finally found a little favor in their eyes.

“I don't know what you are talking about. I swear,” I begged, the tears streaming down my eyes no matter how hard I tried to fight them.

She hissed loudly and pushed me, letting go of the handful of hair she had in her grip. My butt hit the cold tiles roughly, i groaned in pain as my tears fell harder and I sobbed.

Dad stood there watching everything, his expression stern and emotionless.

I used to be his favorite daughter, but now he could stand and watch me be humiliated and maltreated by absolutely anyone.

“She did it. I'm sure she did,” Mom cried, her eyes shiny with unshed tears as she hugged Dad and began to cry.

What the fuck was going on?

I had been locked up in this room. The white walls of the psychiatric hospital concealed me like I was some sort of danger.

Forced to tell myself that I was crazy.

Forced to sit for hours in an examination ward every day.

Forced to pop different pills.

Day after day, month after month, and year after year, I had slowly begun to forget about how sane I was and began to believe that I was really crazy.

I had no idea what I did, but I knew my routine for the past three years had never allowed me to leave this hospital or do anything else.

“You put a curse on your brother…”

“I never cursed Rowan! I loved him, and I tried to save him, but you all thought I was crazy! You, every one of you, killed him!” I yelled, my heart racing so fast like I had run a marathon.

Father stared at me like I was worse than he had imagined.

Never had I yelled or spoken back, but trust me, it had been three years in a mental home, and I was no different from crazy.

“I thought locking you away here would correct everything. But you still got your sister kidnapped?”

I did what?

Marilyn was kidnapped? Why?!

And what was he talking about?

Why would I kidnap my own twin sister?

How the heck was I supposed to do that when I was locked up in here?

“Why did you do it?” he asked again, and I scoffed.

They would have never come here if she had never gone missing.

I would continue to be locked up here for the rest of my life if Marilyn hadn't disappeared.

“I have been in this prison you both created for me for three years, but you think I kidnapped your daughter?”

“You might have put a curse on her because you're jealous,” Mom accused, clearly irritated.

“If I was ever jealous of my twin sister, don't you think you both are responsible for that?”

“One twin is crazy and a witch that puts curses on the people she loves, and the other is the perfect twin?” I added bitterly.

They were both silent for a moment before Dad finally broke the silence.

“You will be taking her place. The wedding is tomorrow, and we can't call it off.”

I chuckled softly, unsure of what the heck was going on.

“The wedding? Whose place?”

“Your sister is getting married tomorrow. She has been missing for two days now. We can't take chances. You will replace her.”

“I would? Have you forgotten I'm supposed to be dead? You both told the world that I was dead.”

“You are going to remain dead. You look exactly like your sister… A little makeover would do, and you would be Marilyn in no time.”

Mom was the one to answer this time.

And I'm the one who is crazy and locked up in a mental home?

What nonsense were they spilling? I was dumbfounded.

My twin sister was missing, and then they thought making me the substitute bride was the best option?

Shouldn't they try to find her?

Why the heck were they even hiding it from the groom?

Where the heck was this crazy idea coming from?

“I’m not getting married in place of Marilyn,” I answered firmly.

“You aren't in a position to choose. You are getting married tomorrow, and that is final!”