STIGMA

Married To My Ex-Fiancé's Silent Uncle

Ming Yue

Twenty minutes before the "Wedding of the Century" at The Plaza, I stood outside the Presidential Suite in a fifty-thousand-dollar Vera Wang gown. I was the girl from a West Virginia trailer park about to marry Hugh Maxwell, the golden heir to a billion-dollar defense empire. I pushed the door open only to find Hugh pinned against the bed with my own stepsister, Floy. She was wearing my bridal diamond necklace, and the sounds of their laughter scraped against my eardrums like sandpaper. I didn't scream; I listened as Hugh grunted that once the wedding was over and the trust fund unlocked, he'd dump "that hillbilly trash" on a bus back to the mountains. They weren't just cheating; they were planning to steal my family's land deeds and leave me with nothing. When I set off the sprinklers and exposed their naked bodies to the paparazzi, the Maxwell family didn't apologize. They called me a "greedy peasant" and threatened to ruin my life unless I signed a new deal to save their crashing stock. I realized then that I was never a bride to them. I was a transaction, a rounding error in a ledger to be used and discarded. They thought my poverty made me weak and my silence made me a victim. "If we don't have a marriage certificate by midnight, the bank freezes thirty percent of our liquidity," their lawyer warned. So, I gave them exactly what they wanted. I used a loophole in their hundred-year-old family covenant and married the only other direct heir available. I didn't marry Hugh. I walked into the ICU and married his uncle, Fleet Maxwell-the legendary war hero who had been in a vegetative state for months. Now, I am the matriarch of the Maxwell dynasty. I've suspended Hugh's executive powers, exiled my mother-in-law to the Swiss Alps, and taken control of the family vault. They think I'm just a gold-digger waiting for a "corpse" to die so I can collect a fifty-million-dollar widow's payout. But last night, as I lay beside my comatose husband, the man they called a vegetable gripped my hand back.

Modern Scheming Contract marriage Billionaires CEO Flash Marriage Revenge Age Gap

Download the Book on the App

It was Linda Ye's wedding night.

She was sitting shyly on the big bed in the SN Mansion, the mansion of the Bo family, clenching her hands. She had just taken a shower, and was wearing only an expensive silk nightdress. It was obvious from her demeanor that she was extremely nervous.

The man she had married was Cecil Bo, whom she had secretly loved for ten years.

He was the famous business mogul who headed the Bo Group.

Right now, their wedding ceremony was the talk of the town in Los City.

Linda was the only one who knew that it was not as beautiful and perfect as it seemed to be.

The truth was, she was not the woman that Cecil wanted; she was just a substitute for the original bride. While pretending to be someone else, she had exchanged wedding rings with him on the altar, as witnessed by countless celebrities.

Of course, she had been more than willing to do it.

At this moment, footsteps could be heard from the hallway, seemingly advancing towards the bedroom. When Linda heard the sound, she clenched her fists more tightly, digging her nails into her palms. She was so anxious that she didn't even feel the pain.

Her husband appeared at the door.

He staggered towards her unsteadily, as if he had drunk too much.

As he approached her, the smell of alcohol mixed with his scent overflowed her nose, awakening her senses.

Linda held her breath in anticipation of what was about to come.

With a goofy smile at the corners of his mouth, Cecil raised her chin with his long finger and said, "Leona, we're married."

Leona Ye was Linda's younger twin sister.

She had run away from home three days ago, leaving only a note in her bedroom that read, "Dad, Mom, I'm sorry! I can't marry Cecil."

Needless to say, their parents hadn't expected her to make such a fuss just three days before her wedding. Not knowing what to do or who to turn to, they were on pins and needles. Moreover, angering the Bo family was the last thing that they wanted to do. Afraid that the Bo family would get wind of the news, the Ye family had sent people to look for Leona in secret.

At this critical moment, Linda had stepped up and volunteered to marry Cecil on behalf of Leona to deal with this situation quietly.

Read Now