Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Substitute Bride Saga: Kabanata 21 - Kabanata 30

The weeks passed in pretty much the same fashion, with Carol’s daily routine being sleeping and eating. However, this time around, Carol saw even less of her supposed husband than she had seen before. Sebastian went out before she woke up and most of the time, came back after she had gone to bed. Even on days when he came back before she went to bed, he greeted her as though they were strangers before disappearing into his study, not to be seen again till the next time she happened to come across him.As for Carol, she spent her days sitting in her room and painting. Painting was one of her greatest passions and now that she had more than enough time on her hands to spare, she sought out a shop where art materials were sold and bought numerous art supplies from the money Sebastian had given her. She still hadn’t bothered herself to read the contract or find out what it was about, as she did not care the least about it. After all, her so-called husband did his best to avoid her in

There was no way to pretend that she had not been crying so Carol did not even bother to do so. She sniffed, wiped the remaining tears off her cheeks, and then smiled shakily at him.“Good afternoon, Mr. James. What on earth are you doing here? I didn’t know that you were coming here. It’s a pleasure to see you.” Carol said, trying to hate the man, but finding that she could not really summon the energy to do so. It wasn’t his fault that her father had a gambling problem.“I can’t say the same about you, my dear.”“Huh?”“I surely did not expect to see you crying. What on earth is the problem? Is my dear nephew not treating you well?”“Oh no. It’s not that. Sebastian’s nice.”“So what then is the problem?” He asked, gesturing at her to make room for him on the bench on which she sat. Carol quickly did so, wishing she could get away. What on earth did she have to say with Mr. James? She barely had anything to say to Sebastian, whom she lived with as it was.“It’s

The copy of the contract which her mother had sent over to her after the marriage along with some important documents that her mother had taken from Carol’s former house was kept in a big envelope in a drawer of a table in Carol’s room. After taking her bath, wearing her nightie, and doing a few other things, she brought out the envelope, sat on the bed, and removed the contract from it. All this while, she had put off reading it because she was not sure that she wanted to know what was inside it, but now, she needed to know. At first glance, the contract was just a bunch of legal jargon which Carol did not understand, neither was she willing to go through the trouble of deciphering what they meant. She was wondering whether to call her mother to explain it for her when she happened to come across the part of it that stated what was expected of her. 

The next morning, which was a Sunday morning, Carol woke up late, and by the time that she got downstairs, Mr. James and Sebastian were just settling down to breakfast. Carol was surprised to see that Sebastian was still around, but did not show her surprise. She greeted both men, who answered her greeting cordially and then settled down to dinner. They were all silent for a while as everyone ate their food. Surprisingly, Sebastian finished his food first. Mr. James did not seem to be very hungry this morning and only picked at his food.“I’ll be going back home today.” Mr. James announced to the table at large.“Oh so soon? We had thought that you will stay with us for some time.” Carol lied, playing the perfect wife to her adopted father-in-law. In truth, she could not wait for the man to leave. He seemed to be monitoring her every move and with him out of the way she would be able to breathe.“Yes, my dear. I only came to do something in town briefly yesterday and now that it is don

Victoria Daniels plopped herself down on a seat in the bar, full of rage and righteous indignation. This was the third bar she was visiting just this evening. The other two had thrown her out because she was drinking too much.  “They are damn bloody fools.” Victoria thought to herself angrily. She was not even all that drunk. No, her anger was keeping her mostly sober, much as she did not want to be sober. She had messed up big time, and her self-righteous bitch of a sister was to blame for it all. Victoria could not believe how she had allowed Carol to trick her the way she had. By now, she would have been living the big life that her sister was living by being the wife of a billionaire and having servants and different exotic cars to use at her convenience. But no, she was broke and stuck here in this