Paper Promise: The Substitute Bride - Chapter 14: Chapter 14

“Divorce is out of the question.”
James’ words hurt my heart.
I gripped the steering wheel until my fingers hurt. The soft rumble of the engine was the only sound apart from our breathing. Outside, raindrops began to fall against the windshield, blurring the road in front of me.
“For God’s sake, James!” My voice came out shaky, but I didn’t back down. “You don’t love me. You’ve never loved me. Why do you insist on keeping me in this miserable marriage?”
James adjusted the cuff of his silk shirt - a gesture that preceded his more calculated cruelties.
“Because your father owes me.” His voice dropped an octave, almost to a whisper. “And I intend to collect every cent.”
His expensive perfume - sandalwood and something bitter I could never identify - seemed to suffocate the space between us. I drove down Third Avenue, the traffic lights reflecting off his face like bloodstains.
“My dad’s broke!” I tried not to sound too desperate, but failed. “He’s lost everything - his money, his property. No bank would even consider lending to him.”
James turned to me. The movement was slow, deliberate. His blue eyes, always cold, now shone with something dangerous. His pupils dilated and a bitter smile crept across his thin lips. It wasn’t the social smile he displayed at high society dinners, but the one I had learned to fear.
“Who says I’m talking about money, Laura?” His index finger tapped rhythmically against the leather of the seat. “No fortune in the world could pay for what your father took from me.”
A shiver ran up my spine. I felt the metallic taste of fear in my mouth.
“What are you talking about?” My voice was only a whisper.
James looked out of the window. For a moment, his reflection in the glass showed something that looked almost like... pain? But then his face hardened again.
“Stop the car.”
“But... we’re not there yet.”
The words escaped me like a weak plea. My eyes flicked to the GPS - it was still two kilometers to the office.
“Stop the car, Laura. Now. That wasn’t a request, it was an order.”
A knot formed in my stomach, a feeling of freefall. The lights of the deserted street seemed distorted through the windshield. My hands, suddenly damp, slipped on the steering wheel. I felt cold sweat run down my back as I slowed down. My heart hammered against my ribs as if it wanted to escape.
I hadn’t even had time to park the car and James was already pulling on the handle. He unfastened his seatbelt with a sudden movement and opened the door before the vehicle had even come to a complete stop.
“I’ll walk. And don’t expect me for dinner.” He protruded outwards, adjusting the jacket on his shoulders. His eyes, when they met mine for the last time, were empty of any warmth.
The dry sound of the door closing reverberated like a gunshot in the silence of the deserted street.
I watched through the rearview mirror as his silhouette moved away. His steps were firm and heavy on the wet asphalt - neither too fast to denote flight, nor slow enough to suggest hesitation. Perfect control, as always.
The metamorphosis was instantaneous. One moment, he was the polished James - distant but courteous. The next second, the mask fell away and the real James appeared, the one who shouted and ordered, who manipulated and punished. Two men inhabiting the same flawless skin.
I switched off the engine with trembling fingers. The silence weighed on me like a tombstone. I remained motionless and the first tears came hot, sliding down my cheeks before I could contain them.
I felt completely pathetic. The disposable wife. The sister’s substitute. The voluntary prisoner of a marriage that was just an instrument of revenge against my father.
At lunchtime, Alice was waiting for me at our usual table, the one by the window overlooking the hydrangea garden.
When she saw me crossing the room, she stood up. Her face - always so expressive - couldn’t hide her shock when she noticed my swollen eyes, despite the carefully applied make-up.
“My dear...” The word came out with a worried sigh.
She wrapped me in a powerful hug, one of those that seems to heal from the inside, even if only temporarily.
“Laura, you look terrible,” she said, pulling away to examine me better, her hands still holding my shoulders. There was a frankness in Alice that I always valued, even when it hurt.
We sat down, and the server approached with that smile of recognition reserved for regular customers. I ordered a salad that I knew I wouldn’t be able to eat. Alice did the same, adding an order of chamomile tea “for the nerves”, as she put it, with a meaningful look at me.
As the server walked away, I let my head drop slightly. The disciplined movement Catherine demanded at home - back straight, chin up, “a Reynolds doesn’t bow” - faded like smoke.
“My marriage is awful,” I admitted, my voice almost a whisper. Tears threatened to fall again, but I held them back. “Everyone in that house seems to hate me. But James...” I swallowed. “James hates me with all his might, and I don’t even know why.”
The rain was getting lighter and outside, an elderly couple were walking hand in hand through the covered garden. The normality of the outside world seemed an affront to my distorted reality.
Alice covered my hand with hers. Her fingers were warm, alive.
“I’m so sorry for you. I really am.”
“He made me marry him just to torture me.” The words came out before I could filter them, a confession I had never made out loud. “It’s like every day is a new form of punishment for a crime I didn’t even commit.”
Alice sighed, and I could see the worry on her face.
“I thought everything would get easier with time,” she admitted, pushing a lock of hair away from her face. “I thought maybe... he’d see what a wonderful person you are.”
In her gaze, I saw the same question that haunted me every night: how had I allowed my life to turn into this elegant captivity?
“It’s gotten worse over time. There are so many women and there’s also an ex-girlfriend... who passed away, and he has a room that’s her sanctuary.”
“How awful.”
“I want to get a divorce.”
“Laura, I’ve been thinking, why did James want to marry Molly? They didn’t know each other personally and his sister ran away; she’s a self-interested woman, who would never run away from a rich husband.”
“I could never understand it. My father announced that the wedding between Molly and James would take place in a week. She pretended to agree, but ran away the day before. And then I married him instead... And the Reynolds family didn’t even care.”
“Laura, there’s something very strange about this story, and I’m going to help you find out what it is.”