Love Of Substitute

Marrying My Runaway Groom's Powerful Father

Temple Madison

I was sitting in the Presidential Suite of The Pierre, wearing a Vera Wang gown worth more than most people earn in a decade. It was supposed to be the wedding of the century, the final move to merge two of Manhattan's most powerful empires. Then my phone buzzed. It was an Instagram Story from my fiancé, Jameson. He was at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris with a caption that read: "Fuck the chains. Chasing freedom." He hadn't just gotten cold feet; he had abandoned me at the altar to run across the world. My father didn't come in to comfort me. He burst through the door roaring about a lost acquisition deal, telling me the Holland Group would strip our family for parts if the ceremony didn't happen by noon. My stepmother wailed about us becoming the laughingstock of the Upper East Side. The Holland PR director even suggested I fake a "panic attack" to make myself look weak and sympathetic to save their stock price. Then Jameson’s sleazy cousin, Pierce, walked in with a lopsided grin, offering to "step in" and marry me just to get his hands on my assets. I looked at them and realized I wasn't a daughter or a bride to anyone in that room. I was a failed asset, a bouncing check, a girl whose own father told her to go to Paris and "beg" the man who had just publicly humiliated her. The girl who wanted to be loved died in that mirror. I realized that if I was going to be sold to save a merger, I was going to sell myself to the one who actually controlled the money. I marched past my parents and walked straight into the VIP holding room. I looked the most powerful man in the room—Jameson’s cold, ruthless uncle, Fletcher Holland—dead in the eye and threw the iPad on the table. "Jameson is gone," I said, my voice as hard as stone. "Marry me instead."

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Every woman was looking forward to marrying her beloved man.

So was I.

I married a man who I had a crush on for twelve years, in the name of my sister, Caroline Archer...

Although Caroline and I looked identical on the surface, I had been sent to an orphanage because of the negligence on the hospital's side as soon as I was born.

It was not until three years ago that I came back to Archer Family.

I, a wild girl, didn't fit the grand Archer Family. However, without parents by my side since I was a child, I was extremely discreet, hoping that I could get along with others of this family as well as winning the favor of my parents.

Consequently, when both my parents and Caroline had begged me to marry Patrick Cowell on behalf of Caroline the day before yesterday, I had consented immediately without deliberation.

On the one hand, it was because I loved Patrick Cowell. On the other hand, it was the first time that I felt that my family needed me. And I didn't want them to be disappointed.

It was already 12 p.m. Patrick left in a hurry after the wedding ceremony without even giving me any explanation.

Looking at the diamond ring in my hand, I felt inexplicably bitter in secret.

There came the sound of the engine of a car being powered off from downstairs, indicating that Patrick was back. I walked to the front of a mirror, tidied up my hair in a hurry, and walked out of the bedroom nervously.

Then I went downstairs.

Taking out a pair of slippers from the shoe cabinet, I waited for him at the door.

Seeing Patrick come in, I put on a happy smile the way a wife should do, put the slippers beside his feet, and called, "Honey, you're back..."

Before I could finish my words, I smelled alcohol in the air, which was mixed with a strong perfume...

I couldn't help but feel a twinge of pain in my nose.

As for where he had gone tonight...

The answer couldn't be more evident.

Even so, I knew what my task was, which was that I got married on behalf of my sister. And the relationship between me and Patrick had something to do with the cooperation between the Archer Family and the Cowell Family."

Thinking of this, I still tried to smile despite the disappointment in my heart.

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