Substitute Face Slapping Short Stories & Novels

One day, CEO Cecilia Bennett brings her "one true love", Elliot Lawson, home. I'm in the kitchen, spatula in hand, wondering if I need to make a few extra dishes for her guest. But before I can ask, Elliot points at me, looking utterly betrayed. "I knew it! Everything those romance novels said was true! The second I left the country, you found yourself a replacement and brought him home!" What? A replacement? That's news to me. No one has ever told me I was supposed to be one.

My husband, Matthew Lorenzo, dies unexpectedly. Soon after, my in-laws come to me with an outrageous suggestion. "Why not let Matthew’s twin brother take you in and look after you? After all, your child needs a father." My sister-in-law, Felicia Dare, furiously calls me a shameless woman. I turn to look at Matthew's brother, Michael Lorenzo. It's like staring at Matthew's face all over again. The grief hits me hard. Just as I'm about to talk my in-laws out of this ridiculous idea, I overhear a conversation behind the door between them and "Michael". "Michael was the one who died. Why did you lie and let everyone think it was you?" Matthew sighs. "The one I love is Felicia. Faking my death was the only way I could be with her openly. And as for this nonsense about taking Luna in and looking after her—drop it. "As for Luna, I gave her a child and a respectable marriage. I don't owe her anything." I turn around and see my daughter standing there with her eyes red. She asks, "Mommy, does Daddy not want us anymore?" I kneel down, gather her into my arms, and hold back the ache in my chest. "Sweetheart, your uncle just wants to protect the person he loves. We shouldn't disturb him; it's time we start our new life."

I have been married to Andrew Connolly for four years, but whenever his gaze meets mine, there is no recognition at all. Even my voice doesn't register. He remembers everyone around him, yet the one person he never remembers is that I am his wife. If I put on a hat, he asks who I am. When I tie my hair up, he assumes I am a new hire at his company. To help him remember, I repeat the same outfit, the same makeup, the same hairstyle. Still, despite my daily presence, he treats me like a stranger. I tell myself Andrew is simply buried in work, that the neglect is accidental, right up until a concert night. I watch him cut through the crowd and embrace his first love, whom he has not seen in years. When the stage suddenly collapses, I seize his arm and beg, "Honey, please save me." Andrew shoves me away, his voice flat and cold. "You're not my wife. My wife is at home." I am crushed beneath the falling debris. Choking on blood, I can only watch as Andrew rescues his first love and walks away. That is when I realize it's not that he can't remember me, he just doesn't love me. The bodyguards drag me out of the wreckage. Later, I spend a month confined to bed with serious injuries. While I am in the hospital, I get a photo of Andrew kissing his first love. The blows land one after another and mercilessly jerk me awake. I am done with love, and I am done with him!

I'm the De Luca family's dirty little secret, their bastard daughter. And I was stupid enough to fall for Marco Moretti, the heir to our rivals. On our wedding day, my sister, Isabella, drugged me. When I woke up, she was wearing my dress. Standing at the altar. Becoming his wife. Heartbroken, I ran to a bar to drown my sorrow. And that’s where I discovered I was pregnant. Marco held me, crying. He swore he loved me, only me. He promised he’d divorce Isabella as soon as our child was born. But on the day I gave birth, Isabella murdered us both. Me and my baby. That’s when I finally understood. Marco would always choose a true-blooded princess of the Cosa Nostra. And me? The bastard? I was just a loose end. A problem to be erased. Then I opened my eyes. I was back. Back on the day she drugged me. Their wedding day. This time, I'm not marrying the heir. I'm marrying the Don. But first... I'm going to ruin this wedding.

My neighbor's daughter is sick, and my mother forces me to donate a kidney to her. I've been malnourished since childhood—just drawing blood is enough to cost me my life. However, my mother says, "What does your death matter to me? Rhea is my actual daughter!" Only then do I learn that my mother switched me and our wealthy next-door neighbor's daughter at birth! I glance at my neighbor's daughter, but she's calm and unaffected. I watch as my mother signs the consent form for the operation. My father ties me to the operating table, and my brother performs the surgery. I have no strength to retaliate, so I make one last request—a DNA test with my mother. She agrees—she wants me to stop holding out hope. Later, I forget everything after the surgery, but she breaks down.

On my wedding day, my sworn enemy, Kieran Steel, slams his foot on the gas and rams his car straight into my wedding car. If he can't have me, then he'd rather die with me. He ends up gravely injured, while I lose my memory. He limps over to me and pulls me into his arms. His face is alight with joy as he tells me he's the man I love. After tying the knot, Kieran cherishes and keeps me hidden away like his most prized treasure for five whole years until he finally grows tired of me. A young woman named Talulah Clive shows up at our friends' gathering. Both her appearance and personality are identical to the old me. With a cheeky grin, she insists we play "Never Have I Ever". "I've been with my boss. He even stole his wife's wedding ring and gave it to me. That's not all…" Her smile turns brazen and taunting. "I'm four months pregnant with his child. You lose, Kendall! So, as punishment, Mr. Steel belongs to me for the next six months, okay? He promised he'd be there for me when I bring our baby into the world." Everyone present holds their breath, not daring to make a sound. Kieran's the only one whose dark gaze shifts back and forth between Talulah and me. After a long while, he parts his lips, yet I can't be bothered to hear what he has to say. "Sure. He's all yours!" His expression changes drastically. He has no idea that I've regained my memories. Before he enters the picture, my lover's a man named Jasper Slate. He's drop-dead gorgeous, crazy as hell, and never lets a single slight go unpunished. And I'm cut from the same cloth. With that, Kieran's so done.

When I'm at the hospital for a prenatal checkup, I find out that the husband of the woman sitting beside me is Rupert Hensley, a renowned businessman. It's such a coincidence. Rupert is my husband, too. As we chat, I learn that her husband isn't with her because he's out of town for a meeting. This is even more coincidental—my husband is also out of town for a meeting. After a long silence, I decide to get an abortion instead of going for my prenatal checkup. It's only when I later ask for a divorce that I remember he and I never registered our marriage in the first place.

My husband, Julian Sutton, is busy with work on the day of my prenatal checkup. His childhood sweetheart, Vera Levine, with whom he's been amorous for years, offers to drive me. On the way there, she suddenly swerves and rams into the back of a truck. The car is flattened. Julian is a doctor in the emergency room, but I don't call him. Instead, I dial 911 and wait for assistance. Why? I called him in my past life, and he took me to the hospital. Our child was saved, but Vera died due to significant blood loss. Julian claimed not to blame me and even arranged for me to stay in a private hospital ward. But on the day I was discharged, he dragged me to Vera's grave and stabbed me. I lost the child and was on the verge of death as I stared into his bloodshot eyes. They were filled with unbridled hatred as he snarled, "Vera wouldn't have died if you hadn't grabbed the wheel! Don't think I'll believe you just because you're acting innocent! An eye for an eye—I want you to die for her, but only after experiencing the pain she felt in a hundredfold!" He twisted the blade and stabbed me repeatedly. My blood splattered on Vera's gravestone, dying it red. When I open my eyes again, I find that I've been taken back to the scene of the accident.

Jeannie Gray kicks me to the ground. I get on my feet, dust off the shoeprint she left on my pants, and smile as I straighten her shoe, which crookedly dangles from her foot. At that moment, my phone buzzes with a message informing me that Jeannie's older brother has wired my five-million-dollar severance pay into my account. I get on a flight and flee overnight, posting a link on Facebook Marketplace with the caption, "Hiring emotional support companion for S-tier psychotic female CEO from Elmsdale. Includes onboarding training. Pays 200,000 a month." Not three minutes later, young men in college looking for a shortcut to success flood the comment section with biddings. Two years later, I'm sprawled over a cot in a massage parlor. The masseuse, Rory Jacobs, has just begun kneading the knots in my lower back when someone kicks the lounge door open. As the door rattles against its frame, Jeannie storms in and pulls me into a tight embrace. Her voice is hoarse and shaking, and I feel hot tears falling on my neck. "Please come back. Gray Corporation is yours, and so am I!"

"Jamie, I've decided. I'm ready to join you at Hillridge as your exclusive screenwriter. I'll be there by the end of this month!" Melanie huddled in a quiet corner on the set as she made the call, a pregnancy test report clutched in her hand. She tried to shake off the chill from the freezing weather, but her hands and feet still felt painfully cold. Jamie's voice at the end of the line was a deep and pleasant baritone. "Your talent has long deserved a bigger stage. For eight years, you've turned me down nearly a hundred times for Ken's sake. Are you ready to leave him this time?" "Yes. I'm leaving him for good!" She clenched the pregnancy test report, her lips a bitter smile.

All because she looked a little like the city's most privileged young socialite. Someone photographed my sister in private and put the pictures up for bidding at an auction. The heiress sat there with a smile on her mouth and raised her paddle, and she meant every bit of the harm in it. "I'll outbid them all. "Whatever anyone bids, I'll add a dollar. "No reason in particular. Just so the men here get an eyeful." The room cheered. "When do we ever get a treat like this? Trust Miss Aldrich to spend freely." "Lydia always acted so pure and untouchable. Turns out she likes posing for pictures like these." My sister lost every hope she had and drowned herself in the river while the talk was still going. When they pulled her out, she was still gripping seventy thousand dollars. It was everything she'd saved in three years of college. The photographs sold for seventy thousand and one. Thirty years later, I was invited to an auction. A few rows back, a girl on her phone, her voice spoiled and sharp. "Logan Pierce actually took pictures of me when I wasn't looking. "Mom, those cannot get out. They can't." The woman on the other end sounded much older now, but the certainty in her hadn't changed at all. "Don't worry. However much it costs, I'll buy them." I sat still for a second. Then I raised my hand. "I'll outbid them all."

I've made outstanding contributions to the family business, but our rivals retaliate against me, leaving me seriously injured and unconscious. Donald Quinton, my brother, pays a fortune to place me in the best rehabilitation center. He says the family power struggle isn't over yet and offers to manage company affairs for me in the meantime. I readily agree to it. But soon, I find myself watching a grand celebration hosted by the Quinton family on the TV at the rehabilitation center. Donald, who is supposedly handling the company's affairs for me, stands under the spotlight in the suit I once had tailored. He holds the record of achievements I worked so hard to earn and kneels before my fiancée, Isabella Smith. "Everything I've done for the Quinton family shows how much I love you. Will you marry me, Isabella?" Isabella's face flushes deeply. She reaches out her hand as the crowd erupts in cheers. I stare at that face on the screen—a face identical to my own—and a chill runs through my entire body.

When our two packs were at war, I secretly injected myself with the deadly Silverthorn Toxin to save my Alpha mate. But when he woke, Fenris hailed another she-wolf, Vanessa, as his savior, and condemned me as his enemy. "Freya, you are here to repay a blood debt. Your Silver Crest pack owes me the lives of my entire pack." He obliterated the last remnants of my family in this city. He imprisoned me on his private territory, tormenting me daily, his Alpha presence a constant, crushing weight. He dressed Vanessa in the Luna's gown and announced that she was carrying his child. And to everyone else, I was nothing more than a canary in his gilded cage. The tearing agony of our rejected mate bond was more lethal than any torture. He gripped my jaw, forcing me to watch as the landmarks my family had built were torn down, one by one. "Did you really think one mating ceremony could wash away the ocean of blood between us?" he sneered, his eyes devoid of any warmth. "You slaughtered my people. Do you think sending just one of you could ever atone for that sin?" Every time I tried to end my own life, he would dig up the bones of one of my kin from their graves and grind them to dust right in front of me. "I told you, you don't get to die without my permission." I stopped struggling. Let him hate me. After all, I only had three days left until the Silverthorn Toxin in my veins ran its course.

Felix Sterling had a thing for women who reminded him of his first love. I happened to look about eighty percent like the woman he had lost. Because of that, he spoiled me rotten and turned me into a spoiled, arrogant woman who got whatever she wanted. Whenever some foolish woman dared to provoke me, I would track down her home, even at three in the morning, and slap her dozens of times. Felix never said a harsh word to me. He simply cleaned up the messes I left behind. That was until a woman who looked even more like his first love appeared. Her name was Vivian Hart. The moment she saw me, she dropped to her knees. With tears in her eyes, she pleaded, “I heard you’re really good at hitting people. I’m afraid of pain. Please don’t hit me, okay?” Felix chuckled behind her and pulled her to her feet. Then he stood in front of me and told her, word for word, “Starting today, I’ll teach you how to get whatever you want. “You can keep tabs on people. You can hit other women.” He glanced casually at me and pointed in my direction. “Everything she used to do, you can do too. “You can completely overshadow her.” He stared into my eyes, as if trying to find some other emotion there. Instead, I suddenly laughed. What Felix Sterling didn’t know was that I had a thing for replacements too. He was the first replacement I had ever chosen. And just now, I had decided it was time to find the next one.

The richest woman in all of Jezelworth, Abby Davidson, was determined to marry my brother, Wallace Bourn. Everyone called Abby the "Black Widow", a cold-hearted woman who would do anything to get what she wanted. Anyone who married her was doomed to meet a tragic end. Wallace turned pale with fear, but I pulled him aside and said quietly, "I'll marry her in your place. But you have to stay in the countryside and guard my father's safe under his grave for three years. You can't open it before then." He thought the safe held a massive fortune. Grinning like a fool, he agreed without hesitation. Watching his greedy face, I couldn't help but laugh coldly inside. He'd better be ready for this. I couldn't wait to see if he could manage the "surprise" he'd find inside!

After being married to Nathan Baldwin for five years, news of him making a home for a young woman in a hotel gets out. The whole world knows of her existence. He doesn't want her to be known as a mistress, so he comes to me with a divorce agreement. "Mr. Price helped me in the past. He asked me to take care of Jenny before his death. I can't not do anything now that everyone thinks she's a homewrecker." I'm not surprised—Jenny Price has always been his first choice for the past five years. When Nathan came to me about this in my past life, I broke down and had a screaming match with him. I refused to get a divorce. Even after I became severely depressed, he doggedly believed I was merely putting on an act because Jenny said I didn't look like I was sick. He thought I was pulling tricks to avoid the divorce and lured me into a trap. He made it seem like I was the one having an extramarital affair. Then, he took me to court to have the divorce enforced. Only then did I understand that I would never compare to the debt he thought he owed Jenny's father. I took my life in a moment of despair. When I open my eyes again, I don't hesitate to sign the divorce agreement.

On New Year's Eve, Facebook blew up. The reason was that Bennett Miles, the golden boy of Crestmoor’s elite, posted an update. In the photo, a shy young woman hid her face as she leaned against his shoulder while he grinned. His eyes were full of affection and mischief. His caption read, "What do I do? Looks like I'm officially taken." Friends in his circle flooded the comment section with congratulations. The real frenzy began when Bennett announced that the first 10,000 followers to like, share, and comment on the post would each receive a gold bar. The internet went wild with envy and curiosity. Everyone scrambled to find out more about the woman in the picture. Then, someone claiming to have inside information started a livestream. "Stop guessing. Her name is Kara Sierra. You know Sierra Hall at Crestmoor College? That building was named after her! "Two years ago, she had kidney failure. Bennett personally donated one of his own kidneys to save her!"

After seven years of playing the stand-in in an innocent, poor student and rich heir romance, I get fired. After our intimate moment, Jacob Lloyd leans back against the headboard. "Sasha's back in the country. She's not thrilled about us, so go find yourself a boyfriend." "Okay," I say. I pack my bags and leave Jindale without looking back. Five years later, my husband comes home to honor his ancestors, and I arrive ahead of him with our kid. Right outside the hotel, I run straight into Jacob and Sasha Reid. They're throwing an engagement party. Jacob spots the child by my side. Stunned for a second, he lets a wave of suppressed ecstasy wash over his face. "It's been five years… Look at how big our kid is. "Sasha can't have children for medical reasons anyway. Bring the kid back to the family, and I'll give you a place to stay." As I look at his triumphant face, I feel nothing but disgust. Five years ago, he threw me out so Sasha wouldn't misunderstand, and now he wants me back. It's too bad for him. I'm already married, and the kid isn't his.

To rebel against my family's arranged marriage, I run away from home. Six months later, I decide to return to university and continue my studies, only to be told by a professor that Adam Richmond enrolled six months ago. Not only that, but he and my fiancée have apparently become the campus' picture-perfect couple. I go to confront him, but the woman claiming to be Adam's fiancée drives me away. "You beggar and fraud, how dare you call yourself Mr. Richmond? Besides, I am Erica Wright, the eldest daughter of the Wright family. How could I not recognize my own fiancé?" I stare at the woman before me, unable to hide my doubts. I've never met her, yet I've always heard that the eldest daughter of the Wright family is supposed to be gentle and poised. Could this proud, overbearing woman really be my fiancée?

The day before my stomach cancer surgery, I receive news that my brother, Darnell Huff, has been kidnapped. The kidnappers demand a ransom of 500 thousand dollars. They threaten to dismember him and feed him to the dogs if I don't pay. Remembering how he once risked his life to save me from human traffickers, I ignore my doctor's warnings and cancel the surgery. Clutching the money, I rush to the entrance of an abandoned factory. But before I can go inside, I hear a conversation coming from within. "Even if you like Amber as your sister, she's still the fake heiress. Erin is your real sister. She just came back, and you're deceiving her so callously. Isn't this a bit much?" Darnell spins a lighter in his hand. His eyes are dark and full of disdain. He says, "She made Amber feel insecure. Amber is the most important person to our family. Even if she isn't biologically related to us, she'll always be the only sister I acknowledge." The other voice interjects, "Then why did you save Erin in the first place? You gave her hope only to disappoint her. She's been going to the hospital constantly lately. Aren't you worried that—" "Enough!" Darnell cuts him off without hesitation. "She survived more than ten years living a hard life in the countryside. She's tough as nails. What could possibly happen to her? Even if she's not well, she won't die from it. "I only brought her back to fulfill our parents' dying wish. Once Amber calms down, I'll give Erin some money and send her back to the countryside. Whether she lives or dies after that has nothing to do with me." Every word pierces me like a knife. So the kidnapping is nothing but a lie. Darnell only brought me back because of our parents' last wish. But what he doesn't know is that I have given up my only chance of survival to come and save him...