All Chapters of REBIRTH OF THE SUBSTITUTE BRIDE : Chapter 1 - Chapter 7

CHAPTER 2Under the icy, suffocating weight of his gaze, my throat seized. The crumpled paper lay between us like a bomb, and as Kade stood over me waiting for an answer, my mind flashed back to the last forty eight hours, when my actual nightmare started.It was a morning that had started like any other, with a family that saw me as nothing more than a rock, a literal rock.It was dark in the morning— as usual— when I woke up.My life had a pattern, wake up by 4 AM, prepare breakfast for my rich family, who could employ a million chefs, but choose not to because, why would there? when their daughter can do all that.I was used to it, enjoyed it even. It had become part of me now.By six o’clock, the table was set like a buffet. I stood back, hands folded, waiting for them to wake up and head down as usual.Mother was the first to appear, gliding in wearing a champagne silk robe that shimmered under the chandelier light. She paused at her plate, then looked at me with that familiar c

CHAPTER 4Kade's face darkened. He stalked toward the bed, tossing the certificate onto the mattress between us. “You tried? I was drunk, and you let me fuck you while pretending to be someone else?” His voice rose, raw with fury. “This was a business arrangement. A clean merger with the Hale family. Bella Hale was the agreed name. And now I wake up married to… whoever the hell you are?”Shame burned through me, hot and suffocating. I could still feel the ghost of his hands on my body, the way he had groaned another woman’s name while inside me. “They didn’t give me a choice,” I said, forcing the words out. “The company was collapsing. They said Bella was too young, too delicate. They made me—”“Bullshit.” He laughed, but there was no humor in it—only cold rage. “You expect me to believe you were forced? You stood there in that dress, signed the papers, spread your legs for me, and now you’re claiming victim? This was a calculated switch. A gold-digging move to trap me into marriage.”

CHAPTER 6I pressed a hand to my still-flat stomach, tears slipping silently down my cheeks. This baby hadn’t asked for any of this, hadn’t asked to be conceived on a night of drunken mistake and whispered wrong names. They hadn’t asked for a mother who was little more than a ghost in her husband’s mansion or a father who looked at her with nothing but contempt.But he or she was mine.For the first time in months, something fierce and protective ignited in my chest. I wouldn’t let them grow up in this cold, loveless house. I wouldn’t let them be raised as pawns or spares. But before I could make any real plans, I had to do one thing: I had to tell Kade.He deserved to know, even if he hated me. Even if he would see the child as another complication in his perfect business arrangement.I spent the rest of that afternoon pacing my small room, practicing the words in the mirror until my voice stopped shaking. “Kade, I’m pregnant. It’s yours. I’m not asking for anything from you, but y