Bound By Lies: The Substitute Wife

“Where the hell have you been, Chloe?” The moment the call connected, Felicity's sharp, angry voice pierced through her eardrums. “I've been calling you for a whole hour. What about the money? Did you get it?”

When Chloe was five years old, her mother died. Her father brought his mistress and illegitimate daughter—Felicity—back home and threw Chloe and her grandmother, Martha, out of the house. Since then, Chloe had grown up relying on Martha and living by her side.

Chloe shuddered and instinctively lowered her voice, as though afraid of disturbing the unconscious man beside her. “Felicity, please, not right now. Something happened. I need a little more time.”

There was a second of silence on the other end before a cold laugh, utterly devoid of warmth, came through the phone.

“Time?” Felicity's voice dropped lower, turning dangerous and venomous. “The hospital won't accept ‘give me a little more time’ as an excuse. And your grandmother doesn't have time to sit around while you figure things out.”

She paused, as if savoring the feeling of the blade sinking into flesh.

“I swear, Chloe, if I don't see that money in my account before midnight, I'll personally go to the hospital and unplug the machines keeping her alive.” She let out a soft laugh. “Then we'll see exactly how much time she has left.”

Chloe's breathing caught. The hand gripping her phone began to tremble uncontrollably, her knuckles turning white from the force of her grip.

Felicity always knew exactly what Chloe cared about most, and she never hesitated to drive the knife in before slowly twisting it.

The freezing rain swallowed her whole in an instant. She stumbled toward her old Honda, whose engine coughed several times like a sick old man before finally starting with obvious reluctance. As she drove out of the parking lot, the Rolls-Royce silently slipped into the night as well, heading in the exact opposite direction. Its black body was quickly consumed by the curtain of rain, as though it had never existed at all.

The stranger, that brief refuge that had felt almost unreal, disappeared from her world along with it.

Chloe tightened her grip on the steering wheel as a sharp, unfamiliar pain suddenly pierced her chest.

She had no energy left to think about it.

After returning to the cramped little apartment, Martha's illness, the hospital bills, and Felicity's threats weighed on her chest like three massive stones, making even breathing difficult. She barely slept that night. By the time the horizon turned gray with dawn, an impulse she couldn't even explain to herself drove her back to St. Mary's Hospital.

She parked in the lot and instinctively glanced toward the spot where the Rolls-Royce had been parked the night before.

There was nothing there.

Only rain-washed pavement and unrelated cars coming and going remained, as though everything that had happened the previous night had been nothing more than a hallucination born from exhaustion and fear.

Just as she turned to leave, her phone suddenly rang. The caller ID read: Intensive Care Unit — Nurse Adams.

“Chloe, you need to come here immediately.” The nurse's voice was noticeably urgent. “It's Martha. Her condition suddenly worsened.”

It felt as though the world lost all sound in that instant. All she could hear was the roar of blood rushing through her ears.

Chloe rushed into the hospital building and sprinted down the long corridors, her heart slamming violently against her ribs until she could barely breathe. When she burst into the ICU, the first thing she saw was the jagged line on the monitor spiking wildly and the numbers steadily dropping.

Martha lay in the hospital bed with an ashen face, her breathing shallow and rapid, as though it might stop at any moment. Chloe's legs gave out beneath her and she collapsed to her knees beside the bed. Grabbing the blanket, she buried her face in it, and a sob she had held back with every ounce of strength finally broke free from her throat.

Just as despair was about to consume her completely, her phone suddenly vibrated.

Caller ID — Ava Caldwell.

Chloe's best friend since childhood. Her closest friend, without question.

“Chloe! Oh my God, I just heard about Martha.” Ava's hurried voice came through the phone. “Wait for me. I'm coming right now.”

Thirty minutes later, Ava hurried into the waiting area.

She was wearing a beautifully tailored designer trench coat, the soft and expensive fabric standing in stark contrast to the hospital's worn and gloomy surroundings, as though she belonged to an entirely different world. She didn't hug Chloe, nor did she offer words of comfort.

Instead, she shoved a folded piece of paper directly into her hand.

Chloe looked down.

It was a check.

Written clearly in the amount field was a figure that made her mind go blank for a moment—

Five hundred thousand dollars.

“Ava...” She could barely find her voice. “That's so much money... Where did you get it?”

Ava smiled, excitement and pride barely concealed beneath the expression. She quickly pulled Chloe to the end of the corridor and lowered her voice only after making sure no one was nearby.

“You probably won't believe this, but... they found me.” She paused, as though waiting for the news to sink in.

“My biological family.” Ava looked at her and said each word carefully. “I'm the long-lost daughter of the Beaumont Family.”

Chloe froze.

The overwhelming grief and exhaustion left her with no room to question the improbability of it all. She could only stare blankly at her friend. After a long moment, she finally managed a genuine smile.

“Ava, that's wonderful.”

But in the very next second, the smile disappeared from Ava's face, replaced by carefully controlled pain and struggle.

“That's exactly the problem.” She grabbed Chloe's arm, her fingertips turning pale from the force of her grip. “This money comes with a price.”

Chloe vaguely realized what was coming.

Ava took a deep breath. “They arranged a marriage for me. The groom is from the Montgomery Family.”

Chloe stared at her blankly, her mind clearly struggling to keep up with the speed of events.

“I can't marry him.” Ava's voice began to shake. “I'm in love with someone else. If I refuse the marriage, they'll freeze my accounts and take back everything they've given me.”

The air suddenly grew heavy.

Then, at last, Ava revealed her true purpose.

“I need you to marry him in my place.”

Chloe was certain she had misheard.

“What?”

“It's only temporary,” Ava said quickly. “He's in very poor health and almost never appears in public. He's a complete recluse. No one will realize you're not me. Just give me some time to deal with things at home. Once everything is settled, I'll come back and take over, and you'll be free again.”

Chloe shook her head almost immediately.

“No. This is ridiculous.”

Marry someone in another person's place? Pretend to be the heir of a wealthy family?

This wasn't merely madness.

It was insanity.

But Ava had clearly anticipated her reaction. She pushed the check back into Chloe's hand, her perfectly manicured nails digging deeply into her palm.

“Chloe, this is the only way to save Martha.”

Her voice softened, carrying an urgency that bordered on pleading.

“It's only temporary.”

“Please.”

“This is the only way.”

The check rested quietly in her palm, yet it felt so hot she could barely hold onto it.

Five hundred thousand dollars.

The number stared back at her like an inescapable gaze, because it was enough to keep Martha alive through the next stage of treatment.