All Chapters of The Stand-In Game: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

Even after four years of marriage, my husband, Andrew Connolly, who lived with prosopagnosia, still couldn't recognize me. Yet he was able to pick his first love, Ivy Miller, out of a crowd at a single glance.As I stepped into Connolly Group, two bodyguards moved in and barred my path. Thinking I was some deranged troublemaker, they started hurling insults.I told them again and again that I was Andrew's wife, but they refused to believe me. Even the crowd on the sidelines jeered at me.I saw my reflection in the mirror. I stood in a hospital gown with tangled hair, a bluish pallor, bloodshot eyes, and lips cracked from dehydration. I looked haggard and bedraggled.When I received the photo of Andrew and Ivy kissing, my composure gave way. Hungry for answers, I rang him repeatedly and fired off messages, but he stayed silent.With no better choice left, I had come to Connolly Group to look for him.Noting my silence and my refusal to leave, the bodyguards clamped my shoulders an

Andrew looked mildly surprised, lowering his voice as if a gentler tone could smooth things over. "You begged for this marriage shamelessly. You'll never walk away from me, so quit the theatrics."My gaze flickered, and a bitter smile tugged at my lips.I had traded my dignity and pride for his last name, and all it bought me was pain. He treated my love as a given, ignoring me whenever it suited him.Tears stung my eyes, and my voice came out rough. "But I'm not the one you love. So why won't you divorce me?"Andrew avoided my eyes, said nothing, and then stormed out. He moved so fast that he failed to notice a Suissan pocket watch slip from his jacket.I picked it up and snapped it open. Inside the lid, tucked into a narrow slot, was a four-inch photo.The woman in the picture was Ivy, and she wore the same dress I had been putting on every day so Andrew would recognize me. That was the moment it all clicked.No wonder he insisted I wear that dress, because it was the only way

At Andrew's order, the bodyguards advanced toward me. He didn't recognize me, and neither did anyone around him.We had lived almost like a secret marriage for years, and he never once named me in public, so almost no one knew what I looked like. Naturally, the bodyguards took me for the villain.Fists and boots rained down, each blow driving a white-hot blade of pain through my body. The agony swallowed everything else, and a bloodcurdling scream tore out of me, my voice ringing through the empty warehouse.Even so, not one person spared me a shred of mercy. Blow after blow, I became nothing but a mangled, blood-smeared heap, until the agony burned itself down to numbness.I had no idea how long it went on. The bodyguards didn't stop until I was barely breathing.In that moment, Andrew stared at me like I was his mortal enemy, as if I had committed the unforgivable. He raised his boot and ground its heavy leather sole across my face.He warned me, his voice as cold as steel. "Th

After Andrew finished reading the letter, he was taken aback. The words "crash" and "15" dragged him back to that sketch, stirring his doubts all over again. Accepting my divorce became even harder.Maybe our marriage started under parental pressure, but he had gotten used to having me around over the years. I had kept his days neat and orderly, after all.He wouldn't have hurt me if not for Ivy. She had saved him, and the feelings tied to a first love were different.Andrew refused the divorce and sent the lawyer away. As the filing was already in, our split turned into a full-blown legal fight. Meanwhile, I was still nowhere to be found.Two months later, he finally panicked. Ivy waited at home for him every day, yet it all felt different, like something essential was missing.Over time, Andrew grew short-tempered and stopped being kind to Ivy. He woke from nightmares every night, reliving the car crash.Again and again, my face broke through his dreams, overlapping with Ivy's

I fell silent, genuinely stunned. Four years had passed, and only now did Andrew's condition finally lift. Still, it was far too late to mean anything.Years ago, I kept urging Andrew to see a doctor, but he would brush it off every time. He called it embarrassing and refused to go.I wondered how he had been cured, but it wasn't my business anymore. I stepped around him to leave. He slid into my path, blocking my way, his face a tangle of emotions.After a few seconds, Andrew steeled himself and finally said it outright. "I'm sorry, Sophie. I hurt you for four years. You were my wife, but I kept treating you like a stranger and even hurt you."I looked into everything before I came here and learned the truth. I'm ashamed to face you, but I can't let you go. I've realized that you're the one I love, not Ivy."When I married you, I foolishly tried to make you her stand-in, but it turns out she was the one standing in for you. Ridiculous of me, right? Does love that comes this late