The Substitute Wife Escapes Her Gilded Cage

v

de it to t

the main highway. The darkness took me there, and I woke up back in the whi

wn cheap suit, folding in on himself like wet cardboard. He had brought a bag of toile

said, his gaze fixed on the floo

my father, a low-level soldier in the D'Angelo

My voice was a scrape o

band for the nurses, adjusting my pillows, pouring my water

is watch, checking his phone. He was a body occupyi

en he reached for my hand, I pulled it under the sheet. It was a

fuzzy, but my hearing was razor sharp. I h

ns on my legs screamed, a hot, tearing sensatio

of the corridor. He was hunched over, his b

silver pocket watch. Old, tarnished, complet

he photos I burned. Izzy holdin

te, it felt like I was watching him stroke a lover's skin. His knuckles turn

it b

rame. She looked franti

e hissed, grabbing his arm. "It's

n at her, and the raw, bleeding ago

," he whispered, his voice cracking, "I'm going

idn't pull away. Instead, she leaned in

voice low and lethal. "I have a duty. You

he door, my breath h

gave out. I lay there, staring at the ceilin

n to change the IV bag.

n't he? The husba

. You know the stories. Ten years ago, he nearly abdicated his position for the c

happ

rown. He went mad. They say he only married this one because she has t

gh

right. I wasn't fighting for my marriage. I was fighting