Bound By Lies: The Substitute Wife

Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows of the top-floor office, New York's skyline stretched across the horizon beneath the fading dusk. Julian Montgomery IV stood before the glass, his gaze fixed on the distance without truly seeing the city below. The sound of rain hammering against the car windows still seemed to echo in his ears. What replayed endlessly in his mind was the rain-blurred window and the pair of eyes beyond it, filled with fear and a desperate plea for help.

"Find her."

Julian's voice was calm to the point of coldness as he turned to look at Drew Prince, who had remained silently standing beside the desk.

"The woman from the parking lot last night. Pull every surveillance recording you can find. I want to know who she is."

Drew's expression did not change in the slightest.

"Sir, most of the outdoor cameras at St. Mary's Hospital malfunctioned during the storm. The footage we've managed to recover is extremely limited, and so far we haven't found any images capable of identifying her."

Silence settled over the office once again.

Julian's jaw tightened slightly as his fingers tapped unconsciously against the desk.

He had to find her.

The intensity of that determination felt almost absurd, even to himself.

Yet the rainy night, those eyes, and that inexplicable sense of familiarity continued to linger stubbornly in the depths of his mind.

Ever since that woman disappeared, he had spent five full years searching for her, only to find nothing. Then, when the girl appeared last night, that instinctive certainty struck him again—

She was the one.

The woman who had once saved him and who was supposed to have become his wife.

The thought settled heavily in his chest like a stone before he forcibly pushed it aside.

Because there were more urgent matters demanding his attention.

His grandmother, Catherine Montgomery, was currently attempting to push forward an alliance between the Montgomery Family and the Beaumont Family. The intended bride was the family's recently recovered heiress—Ava Caldwell.

"Have the rumors spread yet?"

Julian returned to his seat behind the desk and shifted his attention to the computer screen in front of him.

Drew nodded.

"Yes, sir. Wall Street and the upper social circles have already begun discussing your situation. The rumors regarding your disfigurement after the accident and your loss of male function have spread even more effectively than expected. Miss Caldwell and the Beaumont Family should already be aware of them."

A smile devoid of warmth touched Julian's lips.

He had released those rumors himself.

If he could not refuse the marriage, then he would make the other side walk away first.

After all, no young heir born into one of the world's wealthiest families and blessed with every possible choice would willingly marry a monster rumored to be disfigured, violent, reclusive, and even incapable of functioning as a man.

As long as Ava Caldwell broke off the engagement herself, this absurd transaction would come to an end naturally.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, Chloe Hayes was being slowly consumed by an entirely different kind of fear.

Everything that had happened on that rainy night weighed on her heart like a stone, while the recent changes in her body were turning that unease into a suffocating possibility.

She instinctively placed a hand over her lower abdomen as another wave of nausea rose inside her.

This was already the third time today.

And the hospital's cheap and terrible food clearly could not explain it.

What if she was really pregnant?

The thought alone sent a chill through her entire body.

At that moment, Ava Caldwell appeared at the end of the hospital corridor and hurried toward her, her eyes red and her expression almost perfectly crafted, as though she had just emerged from a breakdown.

"They won't let me back out." Ava grabbed Chloe's hands tightly, her palms cold and damp. "The wedding is already set. The Montgomery Family isn't giving me any chance to refuse."

"Chloe, you're the only person I can turn to." She lowered her voice as though sharing a secret that no one else could hear. "And it's even worse than I imagined."

Chloe froze slightly.

Ava took a deep breath.

"The rumors are true. They say Julian Montgomery was severely disfigured, never appears in public, has a violent and cruel personality, and even lost his ability to function as a man because of the accident."

She paused.

"So he won't touch you."

The air suddenly fell silent.

Those words lingered in Chloe's mind long after they were spoken.

He won't touch you.

She hadn't even realized that she had quietly let out a breath of relief.

The fear that had weighed on her chest for so long had finally developed the smallest crack.

Ava immediately noticed the hesitation in Chloe's eyes and pressed forward without delay.

"Please, Chloe. Just a few months."

"It's only a marriage on paper. You'll be safe, and Martha will receive the best treatment possible. No matter how much it costs, no one will ever force you to make impossible choices again."

Martha.

The name struck the most vulnerable part of her with effortless precision.

Martha's worsening condition, the mounting hospital bills, Felicity's threats, and the friendship and trust Ava had given her over the years all merged together into a weight she could no longer escape, slowly crushing the last of her resistance.

After a long silence, Chloe finally lowered her head.

"Okay."

"I'll do it."

The moment the decision left her lips, all she felt was bitterness spreading through her mouth, as though she had swallowed a handful of ashes.

Once the agreement was made, everything moved with dizzying speed.

There was no wedding.

No vows.

No flowers or guests.

A few days later, a discreet black sedan delivered her to the massive iron gates of Montgomery Estate. The gates slowly opened outward, revealing a seemingly endless driveway and a vast manor hidden deep within the woods.

An elderly butler with silver hair and a stern expression was already waiting for her.

"Welcome home, Mrs. Montgomery."

Mr. Finch bowed slightly, his tone impeccable and restrained.

For a moment, Chloe felt dizzy.

Mrs. Montgomery.

The title struck her like a hammer.

It was as though the moment she stepped into this place, Chloe Hayes had ceased to exist.

In her place stood someone else entirely.

She was led through halls so quiet they felt almost abandoned before finally stopping in front of a master suite larger than her entire apartment.

The room was decorated in shades of silver and cream white, luxurious and exquisite enough to belong in the pages of a high-end interior design magazine.

Yet there was no warmth in it.

It felt more like a museum exhibit than a home.

"Mr. Montgomery won't be returning tonight," Mr. Finch said from the doorway. "Your time is entirely your own."

With that, he quietly departed.

The heavy doors slowly closed behind him, leaving her alone in the enormous room.

The silence was suffocating.

Chloe walked to the full-length mirror and stared at her reflection.

The woman staring back felt like a stranger.

Everything around her served as a constant reminder that this life was never meant to belong to her.

Slowly, she opened her bag.

Her gaze settled on the small white box inside.

It was something she had bought from a pharmacy before arriving at the estate.

A pregnancy test.

Chloe picked up the box and walked into the marble bathroom. Her fingers trembled with nerves so badly that it took several seconds just to tear open the packaging.

What she didn't know was that hidden among the elaborate carvings in the corner of the bedroom, a tiny red light was blinking almost imperceptibly.

At that very moment, in the estate's security monitoring center on the opposite side of the property, Julian sat in front of a wall of screens.

Originally, he had merely wanted to see for himself what kind of woman would willingly marry the monster the world believed him to be simply for money.

Then, in the next second, he saw what she pulled from her bag.

A pregnancy test.

The air seemed to freeze.

Julian slowly narrowed his eyes.

For an instant, his blood ran cold.

Then it boiled.

Fury surged through his veins and burned its way toward his mind.

A complete stranger who had married into the Montgomery Family for money was now planning to bring another man's child into his family and give it the Montgomery name.

How greedy.

How insulting.

Julian shot to his feet so abruptly that the chair scraped harshly across the floor.

The next moment, he turned and strode out of the surveillance room, heading straight toward the main residence.

He was going to end this ridiculous farce himself.