The Substitute Bride of the Scarred Billionaire Heir

Author: Cassandra

Chapter 1

Word Count: 1054 | Released on: Today at 17:38

hing Alaina Romero registered. The second was the

eiling above was a dizzying curve of polished teak and brass fittings, nothing like the plain whi

er lips, raw and sharp in the silent room. Dark, purplish marks bloomed acr

ver a chair. Her own dress lay in a heap by the bed, a long tear running up the side of the delicate fabric. Th

the Seraphina, her stepmother Sheila pressing a drink into her hand with a smile that had looked almost kind, a

rned in her stomach.

st. Her knees buckled the moment her feet touched the plush carpet. She clu

and angry, from outside the cabin door.

BAM

brated throu

t, her voice a hoarse whis

hirp, followed by the metallic snap of

fury. Behind him, her boyfriend, Eugene Miles, stared at her, hi

y weren

bin of the Seraphina, their cameras held high. The world explo

an I thought possible!" Dennis's roar w

, something filthy. The love and warmth she'd seen in his ey

marks on her skin, the single sheet she clutched to her che

king the room spin. "It's not what it looks like! I

e up, and the slap echoed in the room, a sharp, brutal sound that s

is voice low and venomo

nfusion, cold and final. "Alaina, we're done. I ca

and walked away, disappearing into the cr

ke it was being ripped from her chest, torn into a thousand pieces. She looked at he

us indignation. "I have no such daughter. From this day forw

cking shutters. They

ng but a borrowed, oversized crew bathrobe. Her feet were ba

ssantly in her hand. A stream of notifications. Texts filled

here. The comments section was a cesspool of slut-shaming and vitriol. In the space of

phina was still cutting through the dark Atlantic, miles from shore, its lights bl

ay expanse. It looked like an escape. A f

r face. One step. Then another. The rail at the edge of t

mb over the rail, a hand clamped d

around, her heart lea

ace was a perfect picture of concern, but her eye

voice was smooth as silk. "Did you really think dying wou

o Alaina's heart. Her mother. The one person she had

old water below and the colder

Chapter End

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The Substitute Bride of the Scarred Billionaire Heir

Cassandra Romance

“I woke up naked in a stranger's bed aboard the Seraphina, a luxury yacht drifting across the Atlantic. My head was splitting. My dress was torn on the floor. Bruises bloomed across my skin like proof of a crime I couldn't remember committing. Before I could even scream, the cabin door burst open. My father stood there with my boyfriend behind him, leading a swarm of reporters with flashing cameras. "I have no such daughter. From this day forward, Alaina Romero has nothing to do with the Snyder family." My father disowned me in front of the world. My boyfriend looked at me like I was filth and ended everything without asking a single question. I had been drugged, framed, and destroyed in one night. When I tried to throw myself into the Atlantic, my stepmother stopped me. Not because she cared. She needed me alive long enough to take her precious daughter's place in an arranged marriage. If I refused, she would cut off my dying mother's life support. That was how I became the bride of Dereck Carlisle, the billionaire heir everyone whispered about but no one dared to face. They said he was disfigured. Violent. Half-mad. A monster locked away inside his family's grand estate. He hated me before we even met. His family treated me like a stain on their name. The servants mocked me. His relatives tried to humiliate me. Someone even tried to scald me with boiling tea. I had lost my family, my reputation, my education, and my future. They thought I would break. But then I saw the monster no one else saw clearly. Dereck Carlisle, shaking in the dark, trapped inside the agony of severe PTSD. I didn't run. I threw him the handmade herbal sachet my mother taught me to make, and for the first time in years, his demons went quiet. They locked me in a cage and called me a pawn. Fine. I would survive their cage. Then I would make every last one of them regret underestimating me.”