MY STEP SISTER'S MARRIAGE: I AM HER SUBSTITUTE のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 1 - チャプター 10

I stood in the middle of the backyard behind the clinic, the soft country breeze caressing my face. The fields around me seemed to stretch on forever, blanketed in a soft golden glow of the setting sun. Peaceful. Quiet. On the surface.I knew better than to trust that peace. This was never home; this was exile. It always did that, washed over me like a wave, when I was by myself.The day my father passed away was the day my world stopped. I was his princess, his little Alice. He always said my mother left her strength behind in me when she passed away. He raised me to be strong, kind, and positive. I clung to those values because I thought they were enough to keep us together, to keep us safe. But when his car slid off the icy road, and his heart stopped beating, it all unraveled. My stepmother, Victoria, wore black to his funeral, but there was no hint of grief in her eyes. While I cried for the last of my kin, she stood beside me, gazing down at me as though I were some pest

I didn't win. I’d fought. Screamed. Begged. Victoria forced me to marry Ryan anyway. At my own wedding, my stepsister Clara was the only one smiling. Her eyes glittered. Satisfaction. A family-only ceremony—stepmother, sister, Ryan’s bodyguard, and best friend. His family? Didn’t even bother to show up. The priest was too afraid to speak during the vow process, Ryan refused to say his vow, he didn't bother trying to show that he felt something. I was the only one saying my vows and happy that maybe he is going to be different. Now, I sat on the edge of the bed. Our bed. My fingers twisted the hem of my dress. Wringing the delicate lace until it crumpled. My skin felt tight. Breath shallow. Ryan undressed. Methodical. Each piece of clothing he removed felt like a countdown. His bare torso caught the dim light. Lean. Sharp. The dark chocolate scent of him filled the room. I tried to make myself small. Invisible. But my eyes couldn't leave his body, scanning every edge of his perf

pain.It was all that Alice could feel. A dull, numbing ache that ran through her body, dragging her limbs down, fogging her mind. She wanted to open her eyes, to see her child, but her body refused to listen.Something was wrong.She had been pushing, her screams echoing in the delivery room, when the doctor—the doctor she trusted to bring her babies into the world—had given her an injection."It's just to make the pain go away," the doctor had said. But instead of relief, Alice felt herself weakening, her eyelids becoming heavier.The sounds around her receded, but she could still hear it.The initial cry.Her infant's cry.Tears spilled over the edges of her shut eyes as she strained out a whisper. "M-My baby… Let me… hold my baby."A frigid voice answered. "We have to wash the child first, Mrs. Bennett. Rest now."Lies.Alice wanted to scream, to fight, but her body was lead. She could still feel everything—the pain in her stomach, the emptiness where life had been a moment before.

Five years laterThe private jet touched down with a subtle jolt, tires kissing the tarmac of the airport runway. My daughter quickly took the toys the air hostess gave her to stop her from crying.I thought she was brave when I told her that we were going back to my country—my origin, that was taken from me.I never wanted to bring her back but he told me to. That it was time for me to pay back in hundred folds and more. Alice Morgan stepped off the plane, my heels clicking sharply against the polished steel steps. The wind tousled my sleek dark hair, but I didn’t flinch. I stood tall, the tailored black pantsuit hugging my frame with an elegance that screamed power. My eyes, sharper now, scanned the skyline of the city I once fled from.A city that stole everything.A city I'd return to—with fire in my veins.Ready to burn anyone that stood in my way.My right hand reached down gently to the small hand clinging to my leg. A five-year-old girl looked up at me with big, curious eyes.

The night air clung to me, thick and electric, as I stepped out of the car. I straightened my shoulders, smoothing my hand over the curve of my deep red gown. The velvet caught the light of the golden chandeliers pouring from the grand entrance of the Bennett Empire’s headquarters. Inside, music throbbed like a heartbeat. The world I once belonged to was gathering inside that ballroom—laughing, scheming, parading their perfect, poisonous lives. And I had returned for them. Five years had hardened me into someone they wouldn’t recognize. I wasn’t the trembling girl they banished. I wasn’t the wife they discarded. I wasn’t the sister they betrayed. I was something else now. Something sharper. Something they couldn’t destroy. The valet didn’t recognize me, which was exactly how I wanted it. He bowed politely, handing me my ticket without a second glance. I climbed the steps one slow, deliberate movement at a time, heels clicking like gunshots against the marble. The door