The Substitute Bride of the Scarred Billionaire Heir

Chapter 2

Word Count: 884 | Released on: Today at 17:38

f glass doors into a private aft salon aboard the Seraphina. The warmth of the climate-controlled

nded in a heap on the cream

her eyes burning with a cold

ver case and lit it with an elegant flick of a gold lighter. She exhaled a

invoice from the hospital. Alaina's eyes scanned the numbers, her breath catchin

said, her voice casual, as if discussing the weather. "Without m

f rage and utter helplessness. She knew Sheila wasn

ng it in a crystal ashtray on the lacquered table. "But th

eement between the Snyder family and the Carlisles, on

mors that surrounded him were terrifying. A tragic accident five years ago had supposedly left him horr

tone dripping with mock sympathy, "how coul

s pampered stepsister, who had never once b

o place, cold and sharp. "So, I'll take h

in, cruel curve of

leave her with no family, no support, no options. Turn

ords tasting like ash. "I won't mar

ply took out her phone, dialed

alon. "Mrs. Snyder? This is Nurse Evans from the hosp

life support," Sheila sai

lert-screamed from the phone's speaker. A sound effect, Alaina k

or the phone, her fingers s

g satisfaction. She looked at Alaina, whose face

torn from the deepest par

lisle woke slowly to the muted roll of the Atlantic beneath him. His head throbbed, a dull, per

woman. A stranger. He couldn't recall her face, but he remembered her scent. A unique,

t there was a small, dark stain on the pristine wh

landed on something gleami

isitely carved jade pendant, cool to the touch. An

trace of her warmth,

ng PTSD and a brutal insomnia that no medication could touch. Last

had been a balm to his tormented soul. She

ing white. A possessive, almost desperate look entered h

ng. "Use every resource we have. Find the own

Chapter End

Claim Your Bonus at the APP

Open

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.”