Substitute Bride: Dumped by My Husband, Adored by a Billionaire

"Harvey, make her stop!" Nancy wailed, stumbling backward.

She grabbed her chest, her face twisting in sudden agony.

"What are you doing?" I asked, freezing in place.

"She warned me!" Nancy sobbed, pointing a trembling finger at me. "In the restroom. She cornered me!"

"I have not left this room since you arrived."

Nancy shook her head wildly. "You ripped my mother's necklace right off my neck. You said if I didn't stay away from him, you would ruin me."

"That is an absolute lie." I turned to my husband. "Harvey, tell her she is lying."

Harvey’s jaw set into a hard line. "Where is the necklace, Nancy?"

"She took it," Nancy cried.

Eleanor marched forward, her heels tapping sharply against the marble. "Check her bag."

Maria, the head maid, reached for my silver clutch.

I yanked my arm away. "Do not touch my property."

"If you have nothing to hide, open the bag," Richard, my father-in-law, demanded. He stepped out from the crowd, his heavy gaze pinning me down. "We do not harbor thieves, Jessica."

I shoved the clutch into Maria's hands. "Open it. Prove her wrong."

Maria unclasped the lock. She reached inside, her fingers pulling out a tangled mess of gold chain and pearls.

Gasps echoed through the parlor.

My stomach plummeted. "I did not put that in there."

Harvey snatched the broken jewelry from the maid. He held it up, his eyes burning with disgust. "Are you insane?"

"She planted it!" I shouted, gesturing at Nancy. "She bumped into me when she hugged you!"

"Why would I break my dead mother's jewelry?" Nancy whimpered, burying her face in Harvey's shoulder.

Eleanor wrapped her arms around Nancy's waist. "Shh, darling. It is over." She shot me a venomous glare. "Apologize to her right now."

"I will not apologize for a crime I didn't commit."

Richard slammed his cane against the floor. "You lack the basic grace of a Crawford. You are behaving like a jealous, spiteful child."

"Look at her face, Harvey," I begged, stepping closer to him. "She is playing a game."

Harvey held his hand up, stopping me. "Go home. You have embarrassed me enough for one night."

They stood in a tight circle. Harvey, his parents, and Nancy. A united front.

I was a trespasser in their perfect picture.

I spun around and walked out of the parlor.

The grand hallway felt like a freezer. I wrapped my arms around my waist, heading for the side exit to wait for my driver.

Low voices drifted from the cracked door of Richard's private study.

"She humiliated our entire family," Eleanor snapped.

I stopped, pressing my shoulder against the cold wall.

"Jessica was completely out of line," Richard agreed. "She has no control over her emotions."

"If Nancy had not suddenly moved to Paris three years ago," Eleanor sighed, "the woman standing beside him tonight would have been her. It should have been her."

Silence stretched through the narrow gap in the doorway.

My nails dug into my palms. Tell them they are wrong, Harvey. Tell them you chose me.

"Do not bring up the past," Harvey muttered.

My chest caved in.

No anger. No defense. Just a tired request to ignore the truth.

He didn't love me. I was just a placeholder. A convenient distraction to pass the time until his real love returned.

I took a cab back to our penthouse.

The massive apartment felt like a tomb. I walked straight into Harvey's home office.

I needed to know how deep the lie went.

I yanked open the bottom drawer of his heavy oak desk. A dusty, leather-bound photo album sat wedged beneath a stack of old tax returns.

I pulled it out and flipped the thick cover open.

Dozens of pictures stared back at me. Harvey and Nancy at a summer house. Harvey and Nancy at a university gala. Harvey pressing a kiss to Nancy's cheek.

I turned the page, and my blood ran ice cold.

A solo shot of Nancy at nineteen.

She wore a simple white sundress. Her dark hair hung straight down her back, parted exactly down the middle.

I looked down at my own reflection in the dark windowpane. I wore a white, A-line gown.

I reached up and touched my hair. Long, dark, parted exactly down the middle.

"Keep it long, Jess," Harvey had told me on our first anniversary, swatting away a pair of scissors. "It looks better that way."

"I love you in white," he had insisted before our engagement party. "Buy more white dresses. It suits you."

I picked up the album, flipping through the remaining pages with shaking hands. Nancy wearing a silver teardrop pendant. Nancy holding a bouquet of white lilies.

I walked over to the vanity in the corner. I picked up the expensive bottle of floral perfume Harvey bought me every Christmas.

I looked closely at the label. Then I looked at the photo of Nancy's dressing table in the album.

The exact same bottle sat on her mirror tray.

The album slipped from my fingers. It hit the hardwood floor with a heavy thud.

I wasn't a placeholder.

I was a replica. A cheap, customized doll he dressed up to look like the woman he actually wanted.

The front door clicked open.

Footsteps echoed in the foyer. Two sets.

"Harvey, I cannot sleep in the guest room," Nancy's fragile voice whined. "I had a nightmare."

Why was she here? He brought her to our home?

I stepped out of the office, hiding in the shadows of the long hallway.

They stood outside the master guest suite. Nancy wore a thin silk robe, clutching the fabric tight against her chest.

"It was just a bad dream, Nance," Harvey said, his tone softer than I had heard it in months.

"The thunder scared me," she whispered, looking up at him through thick lashes. "Can you stay with me? Just until I fall asleep?"

"Jessica is probably awake," he murmured, glancing toward our closed bedroom door at the far end of the hall.

"Please," she begged, trailing a finger down his wrist.

Harvey didn't pull away. He pushed the guest room door open and guided her inside.

He didn't pull the door shut. A sliver of warm yellow light spilled out into the dark corridor.

I crept forward, my bare feet making no sound on the floorboards.

I stopped just outside the narrow gap.

Nancy sat on the edge of the mattress. Harvey stood between her knees, his hands resting gently on her shoulders.

"You are safe now," Harvey said, his voice dropping to a low, intimate register.

"I missed you so much," Nancy whispered, leaning her head against his stomach.

Harvey stroked her dark hair, his fingers tangling in the strands.

"I have been waiting for you to come back all these years," he said.