The Substitute Wife's Sweet Escape

also the one event Donovan never missed. Except for this year. He was still o

riarch of the Blackwood clan, demanded the momen

smoothly, the words tasting like ash in my mouth. I was still per

b dropped. A junior cousin, scrolling on her

od! Look

ndalous article. Photos of Donovan and Chloe kissing on the deck of the yacht,

o me. I could feel their judgment, their pity, their

aceful!" he roared. His face was purple with rage, but his

the dining room into his study, the do

ches from mine. "You couldn't keep your husba

l him," I said,

, and you will restore the family's honor. Or you will face the consequences." He pointed to a

f nature, driven by his obsession with Chloe. I had no pow

endure. To take the punishment

y voice still calm. "So I w

sbelief, then narrowed

ng a fact,"

lip to keep from crying out. Another blow, and another. The pain was immense, but my mind wa

e before I collapsed, the world diss

st thing I saw was Donovan's face, etched w

. "Grandfather's assistant c

ished," I

d, a hint of frustration in his v

sy," I said, my voice laced with a weariness that went bo

humiliation, and now this. The narrative he had built in his head-the story of the pathetic, lovesick wife-was

hair by my bed while a doctor he'd summoned tended to the welts on my bac

nufactured emergencies. I was alone again, my body aching but

coffee Donovan liked-a force of habit I was eager to break. T

lackwood's wife. Look at her clothes. S

ed. "If I were married to a billion

e, and turned to leave. A hand on

about?" he aske

ged me out of the cafe and int

aid, his voice tight with anger. "You

ed. He paid with a black credit card, the transaction swift and impersonal. He never gave me an allowance, never gave

h shopping bags filled with clothes I didn't

and pain. She looked at Donovan, then at me, then tu

didn't h

ve bags tumbling to the paveme

y chest. I stood there for a moment, surrounded by t

ted. A screech o

ite overhead had broken loose. It came crash