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The Vampire Lord's Substitute Bride

Chapter 3

Word Count: 832 | Released on: 21/09/2026

Sterli

bottom of my suitcase and found

ed. The dress was heavy with hand-sewn pearls. The tag still

eaumont, and his side had paid for the dress the way they paid for everything that touched the engagement. Then Chlo

my hand on

r, and the receipt was in the lining, and a bought dress can be returned. I did the math in my head twice before I

was at the table, running a chamois cloth down the length of a hunt

level. "I need to go int

p from the blade to the bag

't need. I'm t

e seconds. Then he slid

t's

n the windshield. We parked across from Elysian, t

I said, and

wil

through the glass doors, and w

er, looking at her nails. Her eyes went over my boots

I hel

on the glass. "I'd

ls caught the light from the chandeli

t of the lining. "Purchased under the Beaumont est

is on the

erling." She leaned on the counter. "Engaged to the Beaumont

equins covered their mouth

worn. The tags are on i

slid the receipt back across the

r is two

cold. I can offer

credit. I wa

it the first time. "Or leave the gown, and head office insp

eight

the pr

it doesn

e in touch ab

ehind her hand. The other o

nough for the room. "She wants her money ba

s cl

mannequins. "And who bought it for you? You

t on the counter

n," I said to

use

line saying I brought the gown and the

omething crossed he

n't do

t whoeve

e she could answer. It came out l

me in w

stopped. All

ck shirt and worn denim he had left the cab

ack a step before

nsteady. "We don't allow - if you're here for your wife

Chapter End

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The Vampire Lord's Substitute Bride

Shi Liu Modern

“Thirty thousand dollars. That was the price of my mother's life, and the price the Sterlings put on me. My sister was promised to a man the whole town called a monster - a brute they'd banished to the woods. She refused to marry him. I took her place. One year in his house, and my mother's surgery would be paid. I signed my sister's name and moved into a cabin with no heat and no lights, married to a man who watched me like I was a ledger he was reading. Then the deadline came and the money didn't. I went back for it, and my sister laughed and told me she'd spent all thirty thousand on a membership to a private club. Her mother stood in the doorway with her coffee and said nothing while they shut the door on me. I had nothing left but the box my husband had put in my hands that morning. Inside it was jewelry three hundred years old. Julian Beaumont told me his family had almost nothing left. He told me I was the lady of his house. He never told me what he was. That he doesn't eat, doesn't sleep, doesn't breathe. That he can hear every mind in this valley - every thought, every lie, every secret, all of it at once, all the time - except mine. He has a year to find out why. I have a year to decide if I want him to.”