The Secret Billionaire and His Substitute Bride

Chapter 2: Welcome To Hell (Part 2)

"Paul, we’re over," I choked out, my voice laced with disgust. "I have no interest in catching an STD from you or that pathetic, parasitic whore."

I slammed Jade’s bedroom door so hard the hallway walls shook. Before I could make it three steps toward the attic stairs, Jane and Jack burst out of the master suite.

"What on God's green earth is happening here?" Jane shrieked, her face contorting in rage. "Why are you slamming doors in my house, you ungrateful little b***h?"

"Why don't you ask your w***e of a daughter?" I snapped back.

The slap came so fast my head cracked to the side, white heat exploding across my cheek. Before I could recover, Jane lunged forward, locking her manicured fingers into my hair and yanking my head back until my scalp burned.

"I am going to teach you some manners, Calista!" she spat, her breath foul against my face. "After everything we’ve done for you, you stand in my hallway and disrespect us?"

Jack shoved past us, kicking Jade’s bedroom door wide open. "Jade! What in God's name are you doing?" his voice boomed down the corridor, filled with a panic I had never heard from him before. "You are supposed to get married in two days! Did you completely forget about the binding arrangement with the Chase family?"

Jade was cowering on the edge of her mattress, wrapped in a sheet. The moment Jack glared at her, she instantly turned on the waterworks, fat tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Daddy, please!" she sobbed, putting on her best helpless-victim routine. "I love Paul! He promised he was going to marry me—he comes from an incredible family! Please don't force me to marry the illegitimate, nobody son of Adam Chase!"

Paul, scrambling to haul his trousers up over his hips, threw his hands out toward me. "I’m not marrying Jade! I love Cali!" He took a frantic step toward the doorway, his eyes pleading. "Cali, please, this isn't what it looks like! Just let me explain!"

A harsh, bitter laugh tore from my throat, even as Jane tightened her grip on my hair. "Oh, let me guess, Paul. You slipped on a banana peel, lost your pants, and accidentally slid straight into the widest hole in the tri-state area? Save it. You don't know what love is. You two vile, shallow sociopaths deserve each other."

Slap.

Jane cracked her palm across my other cheek, but the physical pain barely registered. The numbness was setting in.

I glared past my tormentor and locked eyes with my step-sister. "God, Jade, are you really that desperate to be me? You’ve stolen my clothes, my drawings, and my life, and now you’re begging for my scraps!"

"As if!" Jade sneered, dropping the tearful act the second my eyes met hers. "It's not my fault your boyfriend preferred a woman with actual class over a pathetic, dirty house maid."

Jack took a heavy step toward Jade, his face flushed dark red. I had never seen the man look so furious; his precious financial lifeline was slipping through his fingers. Seeing her golden child in danger, Jane instantly let go of my hair and threw herself in front of Jack defensively.

"Jack, honey, calm down!" Jane coaxed, her voice dropping into a desperate purr. "You can't be mad at Jade. Paul comes from massive money—his father controls half the fashion houses in the state! He’s a far better match for our family than some bastard child!"

"No, Jane, you don't understand!" Jack yelled, rubbing his temples frantically. "My stores are closing! We need the cash injection your old friend promised before she died! Ethan Chase may be illegitimate, but he still carries the Chase family name, and the legally binding contract was signed years ago with her estate lawyer! They already advanced us half the settlement money—money we’ve already spent!"

Jade sat up straight, taking a deep breath before unleashing her final nuclear option. "I'm pregnant!" she yelled into the chaotic hallway.

A suffocating silence fell over the corridor. Paul looked like he was about to vomit on the Persian rug. Jack’s fist clenched so hard his knuckles turned white, but Jane’s eyes flickered with a sudden, dark brilliance. I could practically see the gears turning in her twisted mind.

"We can still fix this," Jane whispered, a slow, predatory smile creeping onto her face as she turned her head to look at me. "Jack... why don't we just swap the girls? The Chase boy doesn't run in our social circles. He’s never met Jade. Calista is legally a Larson—Adam Chase’s lawyers won't care which daughter signs the license as long as the contract is fulfilled."

My blood ran cold. "Are you insane?" I spat, taking a step back. "You didn't raise me. You abused me, starved me, and locked me in an attic! I owe you nothing!"

"We adopted you! We gave you a roof over your head!" Jane yelled, stepping closer, her voice dripping with narcissistic delusion. "You are so ungrateful, Calista!"

I turned on my heel to walk away from the madness, done listening to her fabrications.

"Calista," Jane’s voice cut through the air, dropping into a low, sinister cadence that froze me in my tracks. "I will pay you. Isn't that old butler of yours dying in a charity hospital as we speak?"

I stopped dead. Every muscle in my body coiled tight. Edward was currently lying in a sub-par city ward, awaiting a hip replacement before he could even be placed on the liver transplant list. His initial surgeries and care would cost well over a hundred thousand dollars—money I didn't have.

I turned back to face her, keeping my expression entirely stone-cold. "I don't trust a single word out of your mouth, Jane. If you want me to marry a complete stranger to save your family from bankruptcy, I want seventy thousand dollars transferred to my account right now, and another seventy thousand the morning after the wedding."

Jane looked as if she had swallowed glass. "Seventy thousand dollars? We don't have that kind of liquid cash sitting around! That’s why we agreed to this arrangement in the first place!" she whined, trying to sound pitiable.

"I don't care," I said flatly. "Transfer seventy thousand into my account right now, or I walk out that front door and call the Chase family's legal team myself."

Jane glared at me with pure, unadulterated hatred. She turned to Jack, her voice shaking with rage. "Darling... call the bank. Transfer the money."

Ten agonising minutes passed in heavy silence as Jack made the call. Then, my phone buzzed in my back pocket. I pulled it out and looked at the screen. A push notification from my banking app illuminated the dark hallway: Direct Deposit Confirmed: $70,000.00.

"Fine," I said, locking my phone. "We have a deal. But I better see the remaining seventy thousand the moment I sign that marriage certificate. You have two weeks after the ceremony, or I tell Ethan Chase exactly who he married."

"Unbelievable!" Jade shrieked from the bed, throwing her hands up. "Mom, why are you giving her money? She’s our maid! She owes us!"

"Jade, shut up!" Jane snapped sharply, finally cracking under the stress. "If you had kept your legs closed, we wouldn't be handing seventy thousand dollars to a bastard orphan!"

I didn't wait to hear the rest of their screaming match. I retreated to my attic room, locked the heavy wooden deadbolt, and immediately pulled up my phone. Working quickly, I transferred every single cent of the seventy thousand dollars into a secret secondary bank account I had opened years ago under a different mailing address—one Jane knew nothing about.

Sitting on the edge of my saggy mattress, the reality of what I had just done washed over me like a tidal wave.

I was selling myself into a blind marriage to save Edward’s life. I knew almost nothing about Ethan Chase, other than the whispers: he was twenty-seven, the black-sheep illegitimate son of a wealthy corporate tycoon, and a jobless wanderer who took odd freelancing gigs to get by. Now, I was legally bound to become his wife.

Then I thought of Paul—his touch, his hollow promises of a future, his betrayal right down the hall. My chest heaved, and the dam broke. I buried my face in my thin pillow and cried until my eyes were swollen shut.

The next morning, I woke up early, pulled on a pair of oversized sunglasses to hide my blotchy face, and snuck out of the mansion before the house woke up. I walked six blocks to a local corner shop where the owner let me store my cheap electric bike, unlocked it, and rode straight to the hospital financial office.

I paid for Edward’s upcoming hip surgery in full, secured three months of private room care in advance, and locked in his procedure for two weeks from now. For the first time in years, I felt a tiny fraction of the crushing weight lift off my chest.

With twenty-four hours left before the wedding, I didn't return to the Larson house. I rented a cheap, run-down motel room on the edge of town, finding a quiet bench in a nearby park to sit and breathe the fresh air.

One day of freedom left. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, telling myself that whatever Ethan Chase turned out to be, he couldn't possibly be worse than the monsters who raised me.