Paper Promise: The Substitute Bride - Chapter 11: Chapter 11

I returned to the party, and the feeling was that my soul had been ripped from my body.
I deeply despised the Reynolds’ insatiable greed and my father’s blatant hypocrisy. Molly, wiser than me, had escaped to Paris when she had the chance.
“Keep smiling,” my mother-in-law whispered in my ear.
Her expensive perfume invaded my nostrils.
“I’m exhausted,” I confessed, unable to disguise the heaviness in my voice.
“Did something happen to make you so exhausted?” she asked, her tone a mixture of curiosity and suspicion.
For a moment, I considered revealing everything. I wanted to scream that I was forced to marry a man I didn’t know and who despised me, and that he brought his mistresses into our house without any shame. I wanted to shout that a young woman wanted to take her own life in the garden of this mansion, but I couldn’t do that, I was a Reynolds now. So I swallowed my indignation and forced an empty smile.
“Nothing happened. I’m just not used to parties as big as this,” I explained.
Catherine looked at me suspiciously.
“So smile before...”
“Laura, come! We need one more person,” Margareth called from across the room, temporarily saving me from that veiled interrogation.
“Excuse me.”
I went into the adjoining room, where I found Margareth wrapped in her boyfriend’s arms. There was a third man completing the group, all with cards in their hands and concentrated expressions.
“What are you playing?” I asked, looking at the cards laid out on the polished mahogany table.
“Poker,” replied Margareth, without taking her eyes off her game. “You know how to play, don’t you?”
I hated gambling. My father lost my mother’s entire fortune in casinos and betting tables.
“My father taught me,” I confirmed, remembering the debt collectors breaking into our house and taking my mother’s jewelry.
She pointed to the empty chair. I felt the weight of the guests’ gazes on me. I knew it was a trap, but I didn’t know how to get out of it.
“Ten thousand each round,” announced the third man, whose name I still didn’t know, as he shuffled the cards with impressive dexterity.
“Are you betting money?” I asked, surprised at the exorbitant amount. “I thought you played for fun.”
“It makes it more exciting, and you’re married to one of the richest men in the country, so money is no object,” Margareth replied with a mischievous little smile.
Her eyes sparkled with a perverse satisfaction.
She knew perfectly well that I didn’t have any money, a detail that clearly gave her pleasure. Yet another humiliation designed to remind me of my position in that family.
“It’s just...” I hesitated, looking for words to explain my financial situation without exposing myself completely.
Before I could complete the sentence, James’ secretary appeared at the door, accompanied by a few more elegantly dressed people. The atmosphere in the room changed instantly with her presence. She was also laughing at the situation.
“Ten thousand dollars is too little,” said a deep voice among the newcomers. “We always play for higher stakes.”
Margareth turned her piercing gaze on me, her lips tightening in an expression of defiance.
“Aren’t you going to sit down?” she asked with false sweetness, knowing full well the dead end I was in.
“I’ll play in her place,” someone intervened unexpectedly, saving me from imminent humiliation.
Margareth looked at me with a falsely disappointed expression.
“Oh, that’s a shame,” she muttered, her tone revealing the opposite.
“I’m going to play with my wife,” James announced unexpectedly, resting his heavy hand on my shoulder. The warmth of his touch contrasted with the coldness between us.
“James,” I whispered in surprise.
The image of Annie crying desperately remained vivid in my memory, like a painful photograph that refused to fade.
“Come on, Laura,” he called to me in a voice so sweet and affectionate that, for a brief, insane moment, I almost believed he might actually like me. Almost.
I sat down next to him, aware that all eyes were on us, watching every gesture, every reaction, like vultures waiting for any sign of weakness.
“We’re going to bet fifty thousand,” James declared confidently, his voice brimming with confidence. “My beautiful wife will bring me luck.”
While everyone around was smiling, I saw it as theater, a farce that James staged to perfection. He was the caring husband, but I knew that behind that smile there was only manipulation and deceit.
I felt his fingers gently pushing my hair away from my face and I froze instantly. My heart raced disconcertingly, and I couldn’t understand the reason for this sudden reaction. Was it hatred? Fear? Or something more complex that I refused to name?
James puffed out his chest and showed his hand.
“My cards aren’t good.”
“A good move,” Margaret said. “But now it’s my turn.”
James leaned slightly towards me, his perfume invading my senses and numbing me for a few seconds.
“My dear, it’s your turn to play,” he whispered close to my ear, just so I could hear.
With slightly trembling hands, I threw the card on the table.
A momentary silence hung in the air, followed by exclamations of surprise.
“We won! I told you’d bring me luck,” James announced, enveloping me in an unexpected hug with calculated enthusiasm.
Margareth let out a forced laugh.
“What beginner’s luck!”
“Or maybe it’s just love,” someone commented, provoking murmurs of agreement.
James took advantage of the moment to place a gentle kiss on my forehead, a gesture so convincing that even I, for a brief moment, almost believed in its sincerity.
“You owe me fifty thousand dollars each; you can pay it to my lovely wife. I’m sure she’ll put it to good use.”
James took my hand and planted a kiss. It was so unexpected that I couldn’t react.
“You two make such a perfect couple,” sighed James’ secretary, with a fake smile.
While everyone around us watched with expressions of admiration and envy, I maintained my artificial smile, aware of the cruel irony of the spectacle. They saw passion where there was only an elaborate farce, and I, trapped in my role in this staging, wondered how many other masks James wore when he wasn’t in the spotlight.