The Billionaire’s Substitute Bride

CHAPTER TWO

ELLE

I turned to look at her in shock. “ Sera. You made me so worried.” Dan Carlton said before engulfing me in a hug.

I stood frozen. Leah’s face was all I needed to see before I wrapped my arms around him. She cleared her throat as we broke our hug.

“Leah.” He turned to acknowledge her all while his arms were around my shoulders. I could feel sweat forming under my blouse. What do I even do? I don’t know this man. I don’t know Sera. I don’t know myself.

“Yes, Daniel. I was just dropping Sera off.” She said while her eyes were so scrunched up from her fake smile that it looked like they were going to disappear.

“ You knew where she was this whole time?” Dan didn’t wait for her response before turning fully to face me.” Where were you Sera? I had everyone looking.”

I stared back at his green eyes not knowing what to say. I decided I had to at least try to form words. “ Well, I um..” I stopped to clear my throat but Leah beat me to it.

She reached for Dan’s arm casually. “ You know how much Sera respects you. She was tempted to relapse and couldn’t bring herself to tell you.” She directed her smile to me as she cupped my face in fake affection. “ She came to me and we had it all sorted. She’s here now. Safe. And that’s all that matters.” She finished.

I must commend her for her Oscar winning performance. I lost count of how many times she belittled and called Dan a coward, while she prepared me to look like Sera. Now she acted like she was the most loving mother-in-law ever.

Dan stared at me, worry etched all over his face. I kind of felt bad for him. Having his feelings being played with like this.

“ Thank you Leah. Truly.”

“ Thanks Mom. It would have been an awful four days if I didn’t have you by my side.” Leah told me Sera had relapsed four days ago when she came to visit her at home. And she was rushed to the rehab center immediately.

She responded with a smile. “ I’ll be leaving you lovebirds now. Please take good care of her, Daniel.” For some reason I wanted to cry out to her to stay back and that I couldn’t go through with this. Every time Dan looked at me, I started to question why I ever thought I could pull off being a fake blonde, trophy wife.

“ I had the workers at home immediately reach out to me if you ever came home.” Dan said as he held on to my hands.” I rushed home from work as soon as I heard you were back.” Dan and I were in the dining room. He refused to let me out of his sight since I ‘returned’.

“You’re unusually quiet.” He pointed out. “By now, you would have said something like" You're so spineless that you can’t even do without me for a few days.” He continued amusingly.

I stared at him expecting him to say he was joking. I started to wonder if Sera truly spoke to him that way. “ That is a very cruel thing to say.” I said in a serious tone and laughed nervously, almost immediately, to mask my tone. After I realized I am Sera. And that’s what I’m likely to say.

“ Sera, are you sure you’re okay? Really?” I nodded and managed a smile in response.

“I know we’re not the best couple but we’re pretty up there as well.” He joked. “ I hope you’re not having second thoughts about the wedding.” His tone was more serious now.

“What? No!” I said quickly after Leah’s voice popped into my head for a second. “ I’m just..” I sighed before continuing. “I’m just taking it all in, this has nothing to do with the wedding which I’m still very much interested in.”

He nodded and smiled. “Your dress for the anniversary came in a few days ago.” He said casually while getting up from the dining chair. I subtly searched my memory to see if Leah mentioned anything about it but I came up blank. Dan was gone before I could find out anything.

I returned to Sera’s—my room— and looked around cluelessly. When I went into her walk-in closet, I was glad I could finally put all my experience working at a fashion store to use, as I could tell immediately that all those clothes were high end designers. I expected nothing less. My eyes caught on to a dress bag that looked out of my place.

I figured it was the dress Dan was talking about. I studied the dress bag and saw it was from a very known high end designer. I gasped when I saw the heavily stoned sky blue dress. There was a card addressed to Sera.

“Great.” I said sarcastically. The card thanked Sera for patronizing the brand and giving them the privilege to be able to craft the ‘masterpiece’ she would be wearing to the anniversary of Dan Carlton’s company.